Stay in Jakarta, want to do a little hike, but do not have much time? No worries, let me introduce you to one of popular not-too-far and not-too-high hiking destinations nearby Jakarta, Mount Munara or locals refer it as Gunung Munara. 

Green scenery from Mount Munara.
In 2015, my growing interest in hiking had brought an idea to hike a little mountain not far away from my home, Mount Munara. It stands less than 1,000 masl so that some people consider it as a hill and not a mountain. However, the site is well known as Gunung Munara (Mount Munara) instead of Bukit Munara (Munara Hill). 

For people who live around Jakarta, Tangerang, Depok, or Bogor this hiking trail can easily be reached through the main road across Parung and Ciseeng. I went there with my friends by motorcycle. Actually none of us knew the exact location of the mountain at that time. We only followed direction from some blog posts we found and heavily relied on Google Maps navigation.

It was a hot sunny day back then. The street was decent, yet it was kinda awful when we passed the traditional market that made our bikes stucked for a while.  The street was also full of dust. Some large trucks passed us several times and blew more dusts to our face. Thankfully, we were wearing mask.

When the mountain got closer, the street became dustier than ever. We saw some hills there but not sure which one was Mount Munara. The direction to the entrance was not clear that we had to ask for directions from some locals several times.

The entrance of Mount Munara was not visible from the main road. We had to go through a small pathway until we reached the parking lot and the entrance with ticket box. The area was hidden behind local houses. Some of the houses provided food corner, souvenir shop, and public toilet (just what we really needed after a long journey).

As I entered, I felt a mystical sensation as I saw a sign that it was a keramat site which mean mystical or related to something spiritual and supranatural. Yet, I try to thing positively that we should not overthink about that since our intention was to enjoy nature and experience hiking. 

After parked our vehicles and paid entrance fee, we walked the trail which guided us to the top of mountain. We crossed a small river through a traditional bamboo bridge. Many visitors had arrived earlier I guessed, judging from many vehicles parked and groups of people I met along the way. It was surprising since it was not even a special holiday, only an ordinary weekend. It seemed that a TV show called My Trip My Adventure (MTMA) encouraged young generation to do more outdoor activities as many hikers were wearing merchandise, especially t-shirt related to MTMA. Souvenir shops near the entrance were also selling it.

As a beginner, I started the hike confidently. Nevertheless, about few minutes later, my friends seemed to lost breath. We relaxed for a while to enjoy the view. I did not expect that this place had such a beautiful scenery. It made me realize that we did not need to go far away to enjoy nature. We just need take care of the nature around us and make it more enjoyable. Speaking of that, I thought some people did not really want to take care of it by wasting some trash along the route.  Typical of irresponsible people in Indonesia. I just hope they would change their mind soon and the management of Mount Munara could clean up the place from all the garbage periodically.

Enjoy the beautiful view in the middle of the trail.
Before continue our journey of course, we stopped a while to take some selfies. We found big rocks that form a cave-like shelter. It was only less than 30 minutes till we reached the peak from there. Our hike continued, we saw a group of people camped near the peak. The highest point of the mountain was above a huge rock with a narrow peak so we had to climb there using a rope. It was kind of challenging for us and dangerous since many people already sat on there. We were afraid there was no enough space for us and it might put us in danger. We chose to climb another rock covered by a huge tree that sheltered us from the hot sunlight. It was a good choice after all and another group also followed us. The rock had wider space. We could relax and enjoy the view comfortably. The breeze cooled us down and made us feel sleepy. That was the climax of my not-too-far and not-too-high hiking experience.

The peak is above this rock, the left one.
After all, this mountain is recommended for those who want to experience hiking but do not have much time because the hike can be done as a half-day trip. It is also recommended for the first timer to test their strength before climbing a real mountain. If you could easily climb Mount Munara, it is time to aim for higher mountain then. Good luck!

View from the mountain peak.