Bandung

The road runs right to the crater rim, so the steaming floor is in view without a walk. A son who failed to marry his mother kicked his boat over, and the mountain took its name from that. When the gas thickens the road shuts, so check before setting off.

The water is acid enough that it shifts between white and jade as the light changes. The sulphur is thick, so the advice is against lingering and to come back up the slope if breathing tightens. It sits high and runs far cooler than Jakarta, so bring a layer.

Six ornaments like satay on a stick are threaded onto the roof spire, and that is the name. Work began in 1920 on this Dutch government building, and West Java still governs from it. A small museum occupies the back, and at set times they open the roof.

Art deco shopfronts from the 1920s still line both sides of this narrow paved street. At weekends the road closes at night and portrait painters set up on it.

The hall where twenty-nine Asian and African countries met in 1955 has been left as it was. The delegates' seats and the microphones of the day are still there, and entry is free but must be registered ahead. The avenue outside is named for the conference.

Sulphur water running off Tangkuban Perahu is caught in pools stepped down the slope. The top pool is hottest and each one below is cooler, so you choose a spot by putting a hand in first.

Tea planted in the Dutch period runs unbroken over these hills. Pickers go into the rows before dawn and fill their sacks through the morning. Mist often refuses to lift all morning, so most photographs come out soft.

Angklung, a shaken instrument cut from bamboo, is handed out to the audience one each. A conductor points at numbers and whoever holds that note shakes it, so first-timers end up playing. There is one show in the afternoon, and missing it means waiting a day.

Asking prices come down a long way, so walk two or three stalls and compare first. It is a market of cloth floor by floor, with more tailors the higher you go.

In the Dago forest a cave dug by the Japanese army and one used by the Dutch stand fifteen minutes apart. The Japanese one was cut by hand after 1942 and branches inside. No light reaches in, so a torch is rented at the gate. Settle the guide fee first.

A lake ringed by tea gardens in the Ciwidey highlands, along the road past the Rancabali estate. Rowing boats ferry visitors out to Batu Cinta, an islet tied to a legend of parted lovers reunited there. The altitude keeps the breeze cool even at noon.

A rock outcrop jutting over the forest north of Bandung; at sunrise, cloud pools in the valley beneath. Seeing that means setting off before 5am, and some take a motorbike taxi for the last climb. Signs everywhere warn people not to step past the railing.

Opened in 1929 near Gedung Sate, centred on Indonesia's volcanoes and earthquakes. School groups always cluster at the T-rex skeleton cast in the entrance hall and the Java Man skull models. An hour here explains a lot about a country full of volcanoes.

The central square was laid with artificial turf, and families sitting on it shoeless make Bandung's evening scene. The grand mosque on its west side has twin minarets with a viewing deck at the top. Shoes are not allowed on the turf.

A shopping street lined with jeans and clothing shops, with an elevated walkway built over the road in 2017. Food stalls gather on the walkway, so you snack as you stroll. At weekends cars from Jakarta clog the street.

Founded in 1923 on the Lembang hills, the oldest modern observatory in Indonesia. Its domed building, home to a large refracting telescope, sits among pines. As a research site it opens to visitors only on a fixed schedule that you sign up for ahead.

A forest meadow in the Ciwidey highlands where you can hand-feed carrots to deer inside a fenced area. The same field is a campground, packed with tents on weekend nights. Temperatures drop sharply after sundown, so bring warm layers.