Bandung and an Apogee

On Yasmin's suggestion, we left Jakarta on Saturday and headed up into the mountains to Bandung, a relatively tiny village of 2.7 million. The train ride was beautiful as the engine climbed through countryside and towns and the sun dipped to the magic hour.

The countryside in Java, Indonesia.

Rice paddies, tiered for maximum yield.

A video of the view from the train.

At the train station we met Cha-Cha, a guide and hotel booker guy. He set us up with a room for the night near the station (@$5.50/night) gave us a great dinner suggestion and sold us on his tour the next day. Cha-Cha = Bandung for us.

Bandung's beautiful central mosque.

Sunday morning we got up early and did the following things:

1. Ram Fighting - we had to keep stopping to ask locals where the ram fight was going down, as police raids make the venue fluid until the event gets underway.

A ram, not fighting.

Two rams, fighting.


"Ohhh, so that's why they're called rams ... because of the ramming!"

2. Visited the rice fields - Cha-Cha showed us some great local flora and explained the harvest cycle and working life of a rice farmer.

3. Had a great Sundanese (the region of Java we were visiting) lunch in a beautiful bungalow. That's Cha-Cha next to Victor and Monica and Hans from Germany.


4. Hiked around on an active volcano.

Craters and sulfuric gas everywhere - like another planet. The volcano is called Papandayan.

Ummm...

Stinky.

Creepy yet fascinating.

At this place, a sulfuric lake created by a 2002 eruption, we reached an apogee of this trip. I think Indonesia is geographically the farthest away from home of the countries we'll be visiting, and I think from a philosophical perpsective Indonesia was out there more than the other places. Here at this place, a train ride from Jakarta, 2 hours drive from Bandung and a 2 kilometer hike up a smoking volcano, we were I think farthest from home. I wanted to commemorate that point, as the turn from this lake was the first step toward home, though four weeks still remain.