History
Tucked beneath the stately palms and colonial villas of Ijen Boulevard lies a rare relic of Dutch heritage: an underground bunker built during the colonial era (around 1940). This structure is believed to have served as a bomb shelter, radio station or emergency hideout for Dutch officials residing in the elite neighborhood known as Bouwplan V, an urban development spearheaded by architect Herman Thomas Karsten.
The bunker features six rooms constructed with reinforced concrete walls, heavy steel doors and a one meter thick ceiling. This robust design suggests it was intended to withstand military threats and provide a secure refuge in times of unrest. For decades, the structure was buried and forgotten, hidden beneath the changing layers of Malang's modern development.
Today
In 2025, the bunker was rediscovered and carefully excavated by Harris and Dewi Utari, who have since transformed it into a cafe. The structure, layout and materials were preserved wherever possible, allowing visitors to experience the bunker in its original shape.
The cafe is more than just a place to enjoy a drink or bite; it is a nice blend of heritage preservation and urban storytelling. The cool underground chambers are a part of Malang's cultural heritage zone and help to tell the story of the city's colonial past.
Instructions
How to claim this cache:
- Make your way to the little side street of Ijen Boulevard where the bunker is located.
- Go left towards the green building.
- Once in front of the cafe, go right for about 10 meters.
- Then go down the stairs to your left, towards the bunker area.
- Check out the old photo from the 1940's with the marked bunker location.
- Search for the cache in this area.
- After finding the cache, feel free to enter the bunker through the small tunnel and have a look around this historic place!
Hint: Behind green
The making of
We all know the exciting feeling of exploring a new spot, a location on earth that you have never visited before. You open the geocaching map to see what treasures are hidden at this new place and let the icons guide your path. But sometimes you are confronted with an empty map, no geocaching at all to be done here. It's still fun to explore, but a little less so if we're being honest.
I was having that same feeling when I had a free afternoon for myself in Malang during our holiday in Indonesia. So I thought, what's the next best thing to finding a cache? Well, hiding one of course! So I searched for a nice place with some history in the city, which could also offer a cache guardian to take care of it after I placed it. I quickly found a great match with the bunker. I messaged Harris, the owner, who was immediately enthousiastic about the idea!
I bought some log books and pens and made my way to the bunker, where I met Harris in person. He gave me a tour of the bunker and we found a good hiding spot together. With the help of Google Translate, I was able to explain geocaching to him and manage expectations about being a cache guardian. We hope future finders will enjoy this interesting heritage location and be even more excited to explore Malang, seeing at least one green dot on their map to claim, happy caching!