My plan for the day was to head to the Volcano Tangkuban Perahu. This is an active volcano, which last erupted in the last few years. The grab car picked me up, and we made good time (despite a slight detour of getting lost - I suspect the Grab drivers here are not good at reading maps!), and I helped the driver out by paying the car parking fees. He had to stop for fuel and didn't have enough cash, asking me for the money. He had thought I was going to be paying him cash at the end of the journey, though I had paid using GrabPay which was giving me good discounts, which meant it was extra money on top. I didn't mind though, since the fare was already so cheap!
There was no reception at the volcano, so I didn't have an option to order a grab back, resulting in me deciding that I would walk down the road to the bottom of the volcano for my return journey.
At the view point on the crater rim, I met a local Warung owner who wanted to practice English with me. He advised me that he had learned English just from the tourists who came.
I walked around the crater rim and felt that the volcano really looked a bit like a quarry. I decided to go further, and was stopped by a trinket seller trying to sell me stuff. I explained I didn't want to buy anything, ad went on my way, but he then chased me and told me that I had to pay for a guide to go to the other part of the volcano.
Given that he had already tried to sell me stuff I didn't want, I didn't believe him, and said I was just going to walk to the springs area and back, which he confirmed didn't need a guide.
The walk took me in to some jungle area, and then I reached a section that was sealed off, with big warning signs about poison gas, so I decided not to proceed any further. On my way back, two girls stopped me and said "Do you speak English?" .. I confirmed I did, and they were very happy to have found someone that they could talk with . They were from Kuching in Sarawat (East Malaysia, Borneo). They had paid for a driver, and he was waiting at the car park. We discussed whether or not we had paid to go to the active part of the volcano, which neither of us had, and agreed that it seemed very expensive. Part of the problem was that the price for tourists was 10x the price for locals!
I shared their car back to Lembang, as the hostel had recommended a chicken place to eat at, so we went there, and told the driver that he could finish his job at this point, as we now had plans to also go to the floating market afterwards.
We managed to find Ayam Goreng Brebes restaurant, and ordered some great fried chicken and rice. There were also some sweet sticks and other things, which the staff had advised us were 4000 IDR each, though we mistook the advice for it being 4000 IDR for the whole plate, so took them all!
We then walked to the floating market, which was a great place to explore, with Japanese stalls and all kinds of things to tempt us in to purchasing, all i na setting on water. We chatted about anime and enjoyed the scenery, before heading to the top of the market where there were some colourful houses that we could also explore.
After it started to get darker we headed back to the main road and ordered a Grab with my phone, getting my discount. For some reason I had managed to earn a 20,000 discount for 20 Grab journeys, which was proving to be very helpful for cheap transport!
A young boy was learning how to direct traffic for tips while we waited, which was entertaining to see, nce his apparently random waving of arms didn't seem to be really helping the traffic but he was getting money for it anyway!
The Grab taxi took us to the girls' hotel, and we arranged to meet up the following morning to go to Tebing Keraton, a spot to go before sunrise to be above the clouds with a view.
I took a grab bike back to the hostel, and that was a mini adventure in itself, as the guy got lost multiple times and went the longest possible route! Fortunately for me, the Grab system means I get a fixed price for the journey, so the distance didn't really make a difference. I did however mark him 3/5 stars, and was promptly advised that the driver would be disciplined. That didn't make me feel too good, but it was already done.