From Bogor
to Bandung:
I took the
bus from the bus terminal in Bogor to Bandung (50,000 Rupiah). It took about 3
hours and went via Jakarta (not like I thought via Puncak Pass). Though the
highway between Bogor/Jakarta/Bekasi was extremely packed, it arrived more or
less on time.
Bandung
After I
checked in I jumped into my bathing shorts and took a swim in the hotel pool. I
realized that I made a good deal with the hotel for about 30€ a night since it
was really good (Jayakarta Suites). I met Tom from the UK who lives in Bandung
and told me it became his home. He teaches English and has been living in
Bandung for almost 7 year now. My first impression of the city was horrible.
Traffic comparable or even worse than in Jakarta and I couldn’t really discover
the cities charme. Sometimes you got that. I decided to tick off the tourist
spots and leave the town the next day.
Since I
read about it a couple of times now I decided to rent a driver for a day
(700,000 Rupiah). It was not a good choice, though the driver was very nice he
barely spoke English (which means he didn’t speak English at all). I imagined I
could just use the map and tell him where to go but this turned out to be
unmanageable, so he took me to Tangkuban Prahu and the Sari Ater Hot Spring
Resort in Ciater. Furthermore I took some pictures at a nearby stereotype tea
plantation. Since it was very foggy in the beginning and turned into a real
thunder storm at afternoon...
Tangkuban
Prahu:
If you ask
me, don’t go there. Don’t get me wrong, the view to the big crater (there are
five in total) is amazing and it is a strange feeling to like down an active
and steaming crater. It simply to commercialized. There are hundreds of
merchants and hundreds of small booths selling all sort of junk. You are glad
if you find a minute for your own to take pictures. In my opinion they should
change this as soon as possible.
Sari Ater
Hot Spring Resort:
I had the
wonderful hot spring and river I once visited in Krabi (Thailand) in mind when
I came here. Sari Ater is different. The river runs through what I would call
an attraction park. On both sides of the river you find little shelters or huts
to protect you from the rain while you put your legs into the hot water. For me
it was far too commercialized to get a relaxing feeling. On top of that it turned
out that I hit the wrong time frame of the day since just a couple of minutes
later a heavy thunderstorm set in. I took shelter in the central food curt and
talked with Dede, an English teacher from Bekasi. For his students I was an
attraction and they could train their English skills.
From
Bandung to Yogyakarta:
First I
planned to take the night train from Bandung to Yogyakarta. It turned out to be
quite tricky to book in advance. Usually you can buy the ticket in a standard
24/7 shop on the road (like Alfaria or Indomarket), but there seemed to be
something wrong with the booking system, most likely network problems). Second
option is to buy the ticket at the train station itself, but this is only
possible one hour ahead which leaves a big risk that the train is fully booked.
I checked Seat61.com for alternatives and tried to do the booking myself online
but the site showed the night train as fully booked. I decided for Option B and
took the night bus.
It is
amazing how you can underestimate the size of a city you only know from the
travel guide and Google Maps. For Bandung this was the case. The city is
extremely big and the traffic appeared to be even worse than in Jakarta. The
first two hours the night bus took to get out of the city. The total distance
is 400 kilometers from Bandung to Yogyakarta and it takes about 12 hours. After
6 hours we stopped at Datuk Frima, somewhere between Tasikmalaya and Banjar.
This is about 1/3 of the way. For the rest 2/3 the ride takes another 6 hours.
To be honest, this ride was an adventure. The drivers deserve my full respect. The
composure of darkness, risky overtaking maneuvers and the road conditions
catered for a very bad sleep… Most likely I will never take such a ride again
and stick to Option A, the night train. By the way, be prepared for all sorts
of merchants entering the bus at various stops in Bandung itself (trying to
sell food and all sort of junk).
Once I
arrived in Yogyakarta I stopped by a 24/7 McDonalds to book a hotel in Jogja
(short for Yogyakarta). When I arrived at 07:00 in the morning they already had a
room available and I could get some sleep.
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