Given it was my second week in-country, the
logistics were a bit daunting to pull together. But, the first weekend R&R
mission turned out to be a huge success. The story actually starts back in
Canada where I was put onto a group of expats from Jakarta, who go by the
handle Java Lava (www.javalava.org), and organize hiking trips all over
Indonesia. Looking at their calendar of events, I knew I would be in Indonesia
for this weekend, but just barely having arrived 2 weeks ago, it was an
interesting feat to pull it all together. Things like “how do I get there?”,
and “what do I need?”, and “where can I get hiking snacks?” were all
intimidating tasks.
But alas, I arranged for a car and driver
to get me there (everyone has a driver here), found snacks, and assembled the
gear I thought I might need for a tropical weekend of hiking. Pretty much the
same as hiking in Canada, only WAY sweatier (5 litres of water/person minimum).
The base for the weekend was the Ocean Queen Resort, a fantastic mid-range “resort”
on the ocean, owned by the leader of the crew, and complete with surf, poolside
lounge chairs, cold beer, and palm trees. What else do you need?
Getting there though is an “interesting”
scenario. The general area, known as Pelabuhan Ratu (or Queen’s Port), is on
the southwest coast of the Island of Java. By Canadian standards, the 90 kms or
so from Bogor is a stone’s throw away, hardly worth a moment’s consideration
(i.e., leave any time, see ya there in an hour). But here in west Java, home to
30+ million Indonesians, and a road infrastructure that, in all likelihood, was
never “designed”, but more probably is a system of foot trails from past
centuries that were simply paved (that’s my theory anyway), things are
different. On a good day, the trip takes 3 to 4 hours. On a bad day, well,
more. From Jarkata, where the group is from, we’re talking 6 or 7+ hours if you
leave at the “wrong” time.
Traffic (timing thereof) is everything
here. Jarkarta was voted by whoever measures these things, as officially having
the worse traffic issues on the planet. As such, it was an all-consuming topic
of the après-drive beers around the poolside rattan. “What time did you leave?
4!! Are you crazy? OMG, you’re just asking for it.” Once arrived (took us 4.5
hrs), that cold beer could not come fast enough. The next morning I considered
myself lucky when I learned that half the group didn’t arrive until after
midnight (they left Jakarta after work, silly bules).
After a 5 am breakfast of nasi goreng
(fried rice, Indonesia’s national dish) – 5 am to beat the heat, and besides,
everyone is wide awake from the Call to Prayer (that’s a whole other blog); fried
rice, because that’s what breakfast is in Indo – we shuttled out to the end of
the road. The hike, a 9-hr traverse across a roadless, and therefore
undeveloped, stretch of coastline took us to another road for pick-up
(remember, everyone has drivers so shuttling and getting picked up is easy). Good
set-up.
The hike was a fantastic opportunity to see
some of Java’s undeveloped beaches and coastline – obviously what all of Java
was like before 140 million people decided to call it home. From all accounts,
I was seeing something special, and definitely undeserving of my scant 2 weeks
in-country. It’s one of those places where people could live their whole lives
nearby and never get to (because you have to walk there).
Starting at dawn we hit the coast just as
the sun was making an appearance over the Indian Ocean. It was a quintessential
rural beach scene complete with villagers attending to boats and fishing gear
in the early morning sun. Nice way to start. The route, led by our local guide
equipped with the standard steel-shanked flip-flops and machete, was
brilliantly varied and strung together a series of isolated beaches that could
have been anyone’s paradise for the rest of their lives. While palm-lined beaches
are always alluring, especially to us tropical-starved Canadians, and usually
steal the headlines, many of the highlights of the day came from cutting up and
over headlands that brought us through rice patties and rubber trees, right out
of Apocalypse Now. 
At one point, it was very cool to be
following a trail used by rubber tappers. Akin to a trap line in Canada, the
trail snaked through the forest with every rubber tree along the way marked by
the distinctive rubber tapper’s spiral incision, ever so gently encouraging the
latex (i.e., sap) onto an ingeniously placed leaf-funnel and downwards into a
half coconut shell where the latex collects, ready for pickup. The
rubber-tappers’ day shelters scattered throughout the forest were an amazing glimpse
into their lives.
Rice paddies never fail to impress either,
and we hit lots of them. Kind of the classic Southeast Asia scene that just
completes “being there”. In Java, like the rest of Indonesia, rice is
ubiquitous as air and water. Given the perfect growing medium of warm temps
24/7 year-round, lots of sunshine mixed with heavy rain, and soil born from
volcanic ash, it’s no surprise that Indonesia is one of the top three rice
producers in the world. The incredible fertility of the soil also explains how
Indonesia can sustainably feed one of the highest population densities on
earth.
It was a surprisingly hot, sweaty, rigorous
day (I drank all 5 litres, plus the fresh coconut water at the end that the
local “coconut guy” chopped out of a palm tree), not a drop of rain, and the
poolside Bintangs were about as good as it gets. The
Sunday morning coffee and swim in the ocean before heading back to the big
smoke was perfect. The Indian Ocean has to be the warmest water on the planet. Hmmm,
I could live here. Oh wait, I do! J
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