Mbah & Atok go to… Malang, Indonesia - Coban Rondo & Alun Alun 6.4.2024


Mbah & Atok go to… Malang, Indonesia

Saturday 6 April 2024

This is Mbah’s and Atok’s temporary hijrah to Malang, Indonesia for one year, for Mbah to pursue her research at Universitas Brawijaya (UB). The original posting was published in Mbah’s Facebook on 6 April 2024 (with some editing and formatting modifications made to suit this blog’s style and format).


Coban Rondo & Alun Alun

When Indonesian are preparing for mudik, AK and I occupied ourselves with “Where to?” short trip. A loop trip in a day.

Many have been saying about Batu that has a few attractions - orchards, culture & education village, waterfalls, maze and a few more. Sounds like a good place to head to.

Prior to making the journey to Batu, we head to Alun Alun. We saw the word Alun Alun in almost every town, so we head to the one in Malang. It is right smack at the town centre, near to the district administrative office. From there, we head to Alun Alun Batu as our next destination. Upon reaching there, we made some conclusions about Alun Alun:

  • a recreational park with many huge trees (cooling effect) and a playground
  • a central location for easy access, town centre marker
  • a distinct landmark




But these are based on only two towns. More has yet to be visited.

While taking a breather at Alun Alun Batu, we talked about where next. At first it was the culture & education village but since the location is to the north of our loop, we decided against it. Coban Rondo was along the loop to Malang.

The tickets were IDR 85000 for two. These tickets would include access to the waterfall, a maze and archery. It’s a national park, well that’s what we thought. The route from the entrance to the waterfall were mostly uphill, lined with trees, beautiful trees. Not that many flowers but many different vegetations especially cattle fodder grass. These are purposely grown as cattle feed.

Upon reaching the destination, parked the mbike and showed our green tags to the person in charge. We thought that it was going to be a long hike but low and behold, there it was Coban Rondo waterfall. Majestic. The legend was that a royal newly wed (Radin Baron Kusuma & Dewi Anjar Wati) who went for a honeymoon to a waterfall just after selapanan (36 days) against the parents’ advices. Along the way, they met with Joko Lelono, who was attracted to Dewi's beauty and wanted her for his own. Baron’s advisor said that Dewi must be taken to a place with water, to save her. While Baron and Joko got into a fight, Dewi was made to wait for Baron at the waterfall, not knowing that both men had fallen down in the fight. Thus the name Coban Rondo (Waterfall Widow, Air Terjun Janda). 



Being a Pisces, experiencing the water is a must. Freezing cold but refreshing. Crystal clear. What an experience.


From Coban Rondo, it was downhill to the Maze. It was a mid size maze with enough turnings. We made a few bad choices and in the end cheated by following a young family to the centre, a fountain. Our first experience with a real maze at 56. Alhamdulillah. Otherwise it was only “Ma, your handbag is like a maze” (Afiq, can't remember the year).



We decided against being archers and headed back home. It has been a good loop. 

Morning kids.
Morning all.



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