Bahasa Indonesia Narrative
27-Jun-2004 --
After visiting confluence 7°S 109°E, Riswandi and I headed west to try and bag one more confluence during the weekend. We drove towards Bandung on the main highway. Our map showed a road connecting Kadipaten directly to Wado, but when we asked for directions at a gas station, we were told that this road is very bad and that it would be faster to go through Sumedang. This is what we did. Traveling in Indonesia takes time and patience, even on the best roads, but we were not in a hurry.
We eventually reached Bluburlimbangan, the town on the map closest to our destination. It is located about 6 kilometers south of the CP. We left the main road and headed in a north-easterly direction on a small paved road. We first reached a small village, about 2 kilometers south of the CP, and drove around, on a very narrow bumpy street, to see if we could get any closer, but without success. Since it was already too late to start walking, we decided to continue on the local road, just in case it might wind around and get closer to the CP on the east or north side. We indeed managed to get as close as about 1.8 kilometers, in a village called Jeungjing. We decided that we would start from there on Sunday morning, and headed towards Bandung where we would spend the night.
It took us a while to find a reasonably priced hotel, but we eventually settled for hotel Bumi Asih, a charming (albeit somewhat noisy) old-fashioned hotel. We had a dinner of Nasi Tutug, a local dish, at a nearby Sundanese restaurant.
Sunday morning, we left the hotel at 6:30 and reached our starting point two hours later. We first started walking through beautiful terraced rice paddies. Walking was easy while following contour lines, but the arrow started pointing uphill, at right angles to the contour lines. So we started climbing, which is a lot more demanding. About 20 minutes into the walk, I checked the backpack and realized I had left the camera and spare batteries in the car. I ran back to get them, finding a short cut in the process, and was back with Riswandi 30 minutes later.
Once we neared the top of the mountain, the scenery changed. No more rice paddies but only cassava (singkong) plantations. It seems that cassava does not require irrigation and can be grown anywhere. These small fields were often overgrown with brambles: my calves and ankles still bear the marks. After reaching the top, we went straight down on the other side on a very steep slope. We eventually came to a large bamboo grove and continued downhill until we reached the CP. GPS reception was a bit weak because of the tree cover and we never managed to get all zeroes, but we got pretty close.
From where we were, we could hear motorcyle noises not far away. We probably could have continued walking down and reached the first village we had checked, on the south side, very easily. Unfortunately, our car was on the other side, so we had to walk back the way we came, which meant starting with a very steep climb.
We eventually got to the car. Nearby, a group of villagers were working together, framing the roof of a new house (photo). This communal work is part of Indonesian village life and is referred to as "gotong royong." I was almost noon when we reached the car.
Riswandi knows the Bandung area fairly well, having spent several years there and graduating from the famous Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). He was concerned that traffic on the main road back to Bandung would get very bad later in the afternoon, especially on Sunday, so we headed back right away.
In Bandung, we first went to the railway station to see about getting a ticket back to Jakarta. I had not made any bookings and Sunday afternoons are usually very crowded. Luckily, within five minutes I could buy a ticket from a scalper (calo) and got on the 14:25 train. While Riswandi was driving back to Cirebon an a busy road, I was relaxing in the train, enjoying the very beautiful scenery.
Recommendations for future visits:
It is probably a lot easier to reach the CP from the south. This would avoid climbing to the top of a hill, just to go back down on the other side. Another option would be to begin as we did, from the east side, but to stay on contour lines and walk around the hill, rather than over it.
LM
Bahasa Indonesia Narrative
27-Jun-2004 --
Lokasi:
Desa Jeungjing
Kecamatan Selaawi
Kabupaten Garut Jawa Barat.
Perburuan lokasi koordinat dimulai dari Kota Cirebon pukul 11:30, berangkat menuju arah Bandung. Istirahat sebentar di warung nasi sederhana untuk menyantap hidangan khas sunda yang kemudian diteruskan perjalanan menuju lokasi koordinat. Perjalanan sempat terhenti akibat adanya kesalahan arah perjalanan. Jarak terdekat menuju daerah Wado seharusnya dapat ditempuh melalui jalan menuju arah Selatan jalan utama (Jalan Negara) Cirebon-Bandung di daerah Tomo dekat Kadipaten (belokan persis di sebelah pom bensin). Dikarenakan jalan rusak maka kita mengubah rencana menuju Wado melewati Kota Sumedang ke Arah Selatan. Waktu menunjukkan pukul 14:30 di kota Sumedang. Tiba di daerah Kecamatan Selaawi sekitar pukul 16:00. Karena tidak memungkinkan untuk terus melakukan “perburuan” ke desa Jeungjing maka kita memutuskan untuk hanya mensurvey point maksimum terdekat ke lokasi koordinat.
Titik maksimum terdekat adalah 1.8 km yang terletak di jalan Desa Jeungjing. Setelah Kami yakin bahwa itulah yang terdekat setelah sebelumnya seudah masuk ke desa lain dengan jalan yang berliku-liku dan sempit, akhirnya kita memutuskan untuk menginap di Bandung.
Tiba di Bandung Kota Kembang atau terkenal dengan sebutan Paris Van Java kira-kira pukul 19:00. Beberapa hotel kami singgahi untuk mencari tempat yang tenang untuk beristirahat. Hotel di kota bandung cukup mahal harganya, berhubung kita hanya numpang tidur saja maka diplihlah Hotel Bumi Asih yang berlokasi persis di belakang gedung Sate (Kantor Gubernur Jawa Barat). Tak lupa sebelum tidur kita makan malam di restaurant Sunda dekat hotel dengan menu yang belum pernah dicoba “Nasi Tutug”.
Keesokan harinya, kita berangkat pagi-pagi pukum 06:30 setelah menyantap sarapan pagi nasi goreng di hotel. Tiba di Desa Jeungjing pukul 08:30 setelah di tengah jalan berhenti sebentar untuk mengisi perbekalan dan bahan bakar. Perburuan dimulai dengan mendaki sawah, peternakan ayam, menyeberangi sungai dan sampai ke Bukit yang pertama. Sebelum mendaki laki ke puncak bukit, Pak Laurent teringat akan batterai yang harus diganti, tidak ada masalah dengan batteri ternyata ada masalah lain yang lebih besar yaitu kamera yang tertinggal di mobil. Pak Laurent terlihat sangat kecewa karena terlupa memasukkannya ke dalam ransel. Akhirnya kita memutuskan untuk salah satu kembali ke mobil untuk mengambil kamera di mobil. Akibat kejadian itu perjalananan terhenti ½ jam.
Setelah Pak Laurent kembali membawa kamera, kami melanjutkan menaiki bukit kemudian turun bukit beberatus meter, akhirnya lokasi perburuan di dapat.
Lokasi koordinat terletak pada punggungan bukit, terdapat cukup banyak pohon bambu dan jenis pohon berduri kecil-kecil yang terkadang menyerang kami waktu menuju lokasi ini. Setelah mengambil gambar dan beristirahat sebentar maka kami memutuskan untuk kembali ke mobil yang diparkir di jalan Desa Jeungjing, sesampainya di jalan tersebut kami sempat berfoto-foto dengan penduduk setempat yang sedang membangun rumah. Sebelum meninggalkan lokasi, Pak Laurent mengecek statistik perjalanan, memakan waktu 3.5 jam ke lokasi koordinat. Kami harus mengejar waktu karena jalan daerah Kabupaten Selaawi ke Bandung pada hari Sabtu Minggu biasanya macet.
Ris