SANGHYANG KENIT 18 NOVEMBER 2023

 

SANGHYANG KENIT 18 November 2023

It’s November again, and also rainy season, usually I don’t do any trips during rainy season, but this trip is different, you have to do it in rainy season, the water level will rise and it will save your butt from bumping to the rocks in the river.

As usual I join Xplorer, we departed early morning from Jakarta, it takes 3-4 hours to reach the location, it’s located in the Saguling Hydropower, West Bandung. Go to Saguling Hydropower and find the signage to Sanghyang Kenit (if you lost, ask the locals). In that area, you will find Sanghyang Heuleut parking sign, this is another tourist site, although the name is similar, but both areas are not connected, keep moving forward. Btw, I haven’t visited Sanghyang Heuleut, the guide said it is more suitable for hiking, maybe one day I will go there.

We arrived before 9 am, there were less people that came here although it was on Saturday, beside our group and the local guides, there were less than 20 visitors. There are 2 main activities, first is exploring the cave, distance 600 m, the second is river tubing, distance 4 km. If you come in draught season, the level of water is too shallow, you can only 1-2km river tubing. So better come in rainy season.

         

The view around the cave entrance and me.

The cave is easy to explore, most of the path is dry, some area has lower ceiling, need to duck, the highest water level is 50 cm. It took us one hour to explore it including taking pictures in the cave. The guide provided us with helmet and life vest, but no headlamp. It’s better to bring your own headlamp or torch.

                     

Our Team

             

The cave has a few entrances, all of them are connected with the river. 

After one hour exploring the cave, we met another side of the river, turn left and the river will lead us back to the first entrance.

   

Having fun, while following the flow. Our team was making the formation.

                   

The river is shallow, only some area is deeper. Uh, my butt hit the rock 😆

(right pic).

After playing in the river, we hiked back to the cave entrance 

(distance 100-200m).

    

And challenged ourselves to jump from the cliff (height 4-5 m). Quite scary but good for cardiac exercise. This challenge had made me drank the river water, fortunately no diarrhea.

After all the activities in the morning, we took a break and had lunch. At 1 pm, we continued to Citarum River by truck (15 minutes ride).

             

River tubing preparation (left pic). An uncomplete warning signage “For anyone who is doing activity and hear a siren sound or warning from loudspeaker, should leave the Citarum River because… thank you.” (left pic). What a warning!

We spent about 2 hours for river tubing activity. We sat on the buoy and let it flow along the Citarum River (made me sleepy), all the buoys were tied with rope in one line. During this trip, we would experience a whirlpool and stopped at a village beside the river. Due to the bad roads, people in this village traverse by small boat. Unfortunately, not many pics in this activity.

                    

Me, floating on the buoy. On the background you can see the bridge, it is used for rope jumping activity, you can check the activity in my blog (canyoneering) for the price and contact person. https://marl-x-journey.blogspot.com/2022/05/canyoneering-cikondang-waterfall.html

             

We ended the river tubing activity here, nice view and nice goat 

(but too thin to be eaten).

We rode the truck back to Sanghyang Kenit, the riding was quite long, 40 minutes, enough time to make me caught cold, I guess I am too old now 😅. In Shanghyang Kenit, there are toilets and food stalls, don’t worry, you won’t starve as long as you bring money. After cleaning and eating, we headed back to  Jakarta. 

             

Our ride from Citarum River back to Sanghyang Kenit (left pic). This is how they carry the buoys and the crews sat below them, very creative actually (right pic).

That's how we ended our trip in Sanghyang Kenit, overall it's a nice and fun activities for a day and also the place is not too far from Jakarta. Got many nice pics, adrenaline experience, a bruise on my butt cheek and a cold. If you want to have fun, relax and moderate activity, I suggest you to try Sanghyang Kenit trip, it offers a nice view, fun and suitable for family trip.

The entrance fee for local is 8k, foreigner is 25k. Exploring the cave is 150k River tubing is 150k (local and foreigner have the same price) at least 10 people, if less than 10 people, you can contact Mr Dodi +62859110073518 for the price (Instagram sang_hyang_kenit).

Special thanks to Mr Dadan as our guide and Mr Ciko as the photographer to capture the moment in this trip and Joni as our tour leader from Xplorer. 

Sanghyang Kenit and surroundings

In this area, beside Sanghyang Kenit, there are Sanghyang Heuleut, Sanghyang Tikoro and Sanghyang Poek. Sanghyang Kenit, Sanghyang Tikoro and Sanghyang Poek located at the same area, in one cave with different entrances. While Sanghyang Heuleut is located in different area but still in the same city.

Sang is a holy name or the name for first people (who isolating himself), Hyang is the place for praying or isolating. Kenit is a belt from root or tree bark. Kenit also means a circle, because a belt creates a circle. The circles also related to the shape inside the cave, it creates circles and the water in the cave also create whirlpool which makes a circle shape. All relate to circle and it is part of life. 

Tikoro means throat, the shape of the cave looks like a throat. This is the entrance of Sanghyang Tikoro (upper pic). Poek means short and dark, the cave is short and very dark. Heuleut means narrow.

So Sanghyang was someone who isolated himself in a certain place, such as Kenit, Poek, Tikoro and Heuleut. Sanghyang Kenit means an ascetic who isolated in Kenit, Sanghyang Poek means an ascetic who isolated in Poek and so on.

Saguling Hydropower and Saguling reservoir.

For Saguling name, it comes from Tangkuban Perahu Legend, it’s the story about a man whose named was Sangkuring, he failed to fulfill the requirement that given by the woman that he wanted to marry. She asked him to build a big boat in a night, and he couldn’t finish it on time, because he failed, he was angry and kicked the boat and it rolled, in one roll it turned into a mountain called Tangkuban Perahu. For more detail of the legend you can check https://www.cnnindonesia.com/edukasi/20230516111450-569-950159/cerita-sangkuriang-dalam-bahasa-inggris-dan-terjemahannya

Saguling is “satu guling” means one roll, so in one roll, Tangkuban Perahu Mountain was created. Saguling reservoir was built in 2018, and started to operate in 2019. After Saguling reservoir was built, the water level in Sanghyang Kenit becomes lower and save to hike. In the rainy season, the water level will only raise a little bit.

You can see the yellow color on the rocks, that was the water level before Saguling reservoir was built.

And this is the end of the introduction of Sanghyang Kenit trip, thanks for reading, I hope it can give a little information for people who wants to try it, see you again, bye.