Saturday, February 11, 2017

The Trip to West Java

Hello guys, I'm back. How was your Chinese New Year? I survived it, thank God :) A few days before I went home, I actually fell rather sick and had to see the doctor. There was some weird conversation I had with the doc, all because I asked him a question that took him aback. I made him laugh though and he gave me antibiotics so all's good. The day after Chinese New Year, me and mom and the aunt who usually travels with us made our way to Lembang, a town near Bandung. Honestly I was really not keen on doing this because I know the trip will be tiring and we always have to start before sunrise :( but my auntie wanted to go and mom was in and she told me I'd be bored at home, so I went too. The driver was Ferry, a guy that my aunt has been using pretty frequently now to make out of town trip.

It was actually a pretty fast drive to Bandung and we made our first stop to Farmhouse Lembang. This is a rather weird place for me, because I was thinking what its purpose is. Then I realized it's something that perhaps wouldn't work 1-2 decades ago. This is to cater to the narcissistic social media loving people who like to post pictures online. The place has nicely decorated spots where you can take pictures. You can even rent out a Dutch costume and take pictures all around the place which my mom and aunt did. I did not because I look awful in pictures and that's why I rarely take pictures of myself. This annoys my mom. Every time I send her pictures from my trips, she complains that it's always of buildings and sceneries. There was quite a queue for the Dutch costume. My mom and aunt were after this group of ladies who were all in red. They seemed to have a guy to take their pictures and since they all looked so cheerful and I was bored waiting for mom and aunt, I just stood next to their guy and took their pictures :D
Mom and aunt got a blue skirts and I ended up as their photographer as they wandered around taking pictures. I was most amused with the big hoop skirt. They actually had 1 hour to use the costume, but I think they lasted only around half an hour. They got bored themselves. I'm not posting their pictures here because I don't even put my own pictures since I don't think it's a good idea so I'm not going to subject them to online visibility too :P Anyways, with the entrance ticket you get free milk. They have a small zoo, the favorite one seemed to be the sheep. Other than that, they sell some snacks which we didn't buy any. It is really nicely decorated and I do love some of the art pieces adoring walls and such.

Next stop was De'Ranch Lembang. It's a place with horses. Somehow ticket price also includes milk here, but the milk didn't taste as nice as Farmhouse so I only took a sip. De'Ranch Lembang has a western cowboy Indian theme to it. There are horses. People can pay to ride the horse or pony with cowboy and Indian accessories. What's with the costume? Well you need to look good for your social media pictures right? We didn't ride the horse, I guess to the disappointment of Ferry. Honestly I was quite interested, but since mom and aunt didn't want to, I felt weird doing it alone, so I didn't. We then just walked to see the non-working horses closer.
The place also has some games for the kids, like trampolines and zorb balls in a very small pool. We spent some time watching these kids. Next stop was Taman Begonia Lembang which is this garden full of flowers and also people. It's not very big and since it's quite crowded, I didn't really take a lot of picture here, except for the ones that my mom asked. Again I can see its appeal for people who like to post pictures on social media. We didn't spend much time here and then we made our way to a place which I couldn't remember the name. It's like an adventure kinda place. There are small cabins among the trees and also tents if you prefer camping. At this age, this doesn't interest me because I need more comfort, but I can imagine it being fun to do when you're younger on a school trip. Other activities include flying fox zipline and also strawberry picking. However when we were there, there's no strawberry to be picked. There were some deers though. They're quite pretty. I forget what sounds they made, but at that time I remember thinking that deer made funny sound.
We kinda went through these places pretty fast that we managed to make it to Tangkuban Perahu too. However it was raining when we were there and it became really cold so we just did a quick look of the crater. I remember that on our last visit without this aunt years ago, we actually had quite a nice hike into the other smaller crater, but we didn't do it this time because it was raining and my aunt has quite a bad knee.
That was day one. Day two was only spent in one place and that's Kawah Putih. It's a long drive, but it really made this trip worthwhile for me. Kawah Putih literally means white crater, it's this crater filled with bluish water. It feels more like a lake actually. When we were there it was very misty that I couldn't see how big the crater was. It made for a very ethereal scene. A little later on the fog kinda went away for a while that I could see that the crater is not actually very big. The water itself was not hot, only slightly warm. It's really beautiful and I love it because I've never seen anything like this before. Mom and aunt have been here a few times, but this was my first time. Facility wise, there's still a lot of work needed to be done in the area, toilet being the most important.
After that we made our way home. For pictures from this trip, you can go here. I only took my ixus and I'm not that satisfied with some of the pictures especially the ones in Kawah Putih. Love the place, but it's a really long drive to get there. On other news from home. Not much. Somehow this time around, almost everyday I would be going out with mom, like to relative house and such. We took busway a lot. Mom didn't have to pay because she's a senior citizen and I was actually quite amazed at this. It feels like the first time the Government is giving us something. It feels like progress. Seriously in this coming Jakarta governor election, I hope people will be open minded enough to vote for our current governor. He's doing good work. Seeing all the demonstration saying that people should vote for a Muslim leader is so disheartening and it's bad for all Indonesians who are not a Muslim. It's like we don't matter, it's like we're not counted, and it's like we're not worthy of the country where we were born and raised and also contribute for. All these demonstrations no matter how they package it and say it as a peaceful protest and such is at its core is intolerance and racism. I always think that when you think that you are better than everyone else because every one else is of a different religion or race, well that's the very definition of being racist.

So anyways back to home. Ate quite a good variety but the more I got to eat things I haven't eaten for a long time, the more I think of other food that I didn't manage to eat. I also managed to go to the cinema with mom and my cousin's daughter. We watched Cek Toko Sebelah. It was funny but at the same time I also felt it's quite a long. There were parts that I would rather cut and then I would add story line for the many supporting casts who are really funny. Mom enjoyed it a lot. It was actually quite an effort to watch this. We went to Central Park because cousin's daughter said there's an evening showing there, but there wasn't. I actually was pretty calm upon finding this out that I surprised myself. My normal setting on this kind of situation would be madly fuming of the mistake. Mom was insistent on watching the movie that when we found out there's a showing in Citraland, we went there. I haven't been in Citraland for more than a decade I think, it's been a very long long long time. I didn't get to see it much because we went straight to the cinema which was really nice. We made it on time. I like how retro the cinema still keeps it. In Indonesia, some cinemas will have an announcement saying that the theatre is opened and you can get in. Very retro and I love how they're still doing this. After the movie we walked back to Central Park because my cousin's daughter left some stuff there. It was actually not a very long walk, around 15 minutes or so, but I can imagine people thinking that it's a very long walk. Indonesians don't walk a lot. We had dinner at Hoka Hoka Bento which I hadn't had in years. Unfortunately I had to be disappointed because they ran out of ekkado, good grief :( Then I went to Carrefour to get some things. I love how they do away with the carry on basket and instead they provide bigger basket with a handle that you can pull. For me it's like pulling a dog around :) Maybe Singapore's supermarkets can do the same? In addition to Indonesians not walking much, we also don't seem to like to carry heavy things. I have to say seeing Indonesians, many of us are quite snoobish and into materialistic things. It's about having the bags, jewelries, cars, and all other expensive things. Sometime when I see my relatives acting rich, I wonder if they look down at me for looking so plain. I'm really just not interested in playing that game. Another thing that I get from going home this time around is that how I don't struggle. Life is not that hard for me. I may not have a lot, but I have more than enough. So right now I feel like I have to say grace more and complain less. I don't know how long this will last, maybe a week, but I guess perhaps I can just keep reminding myself that there are people who struggle more than me, but don't get as much.

A few more things before I end this post. Watched Hacksaw Ridge before I went back home to Jakarta. I actually like it very much and it's so remarkable that it's based on a true story. The person the story is about, Desmond Doss, is such an admirable person. Then today I watched another Andrew Garfield's movie, Silence in which he played another person of faith. I decided to watch this because I also read the novel it's based on, Silence by Shūsaku Endō. The movie is pretty long and it may feel quite boring at times. If I recall correctly it stays quite true to the book except perhaps for the ending. I like the ending in the movie because for me it finally makes the story complete. The book was a heavy one to read. It is a difficult story to tell and I think the movie did a good job in showing that every decision seems like the wrong one. Well, that's about it peeps. I edited myself a lot in writing this post. There are more that were swirling in my head, but I think I got lazy so I didn't write them. As usual, I hope your days are glorious :) Ciao!

:) eKa @ 10:34:00 PM • 0 comments