An interesting phenomenon about living in Asia, where people
jump on planes like Canadians jump into pick-ups, is that you get jet burn-out.
For sure, flying around the planet is kind of fun, especially at first. But,
like almost everything, after the umpteenth time, it gets old, tedious, and
just plain stressful.
It’s not the actual “flying” per se obviously. It’s
everything that goes along with flying: getting to the airport, the stress of not missing your flight, packing properly so you get through check-in and
security, deciding what goes in the carry-on versus checked, are we going with
checked bags?, carry-on only?, where’s my passport?, oh no…do we need a visa
for this country?, where are we staying, is there a stopover, how long?…..endless
logistics. I long for the days of just throwing things in a duffle, which is
then tossed in the back of a truck, and off we go…we’ll get there when we get
there. That’s just a blurr now. In Indo, you don’t really drive anywhere,
especially if you don’t own a vehicle (which we don’t).
So, when yet another long weekend reared its head recently,
Amy and I decided to seek out a non-flying mission – indeed a challenge in this
jet-setting place. Is it even possible? Hmmm, let’s see: no planes, and really,
no cars. That leaves trains! And so it was, our first proper Indo train mission.
Truth be told, Indo has a very good train system – known as
“Kereta Api Indonesia”. Kereta api
means “train”, but literally means “car/wagon of fire”. Yikes! J Infinitely faster than
driving, and with a good network of rails, good schedules, cheap prices, and
very civilized seating arrangements, the train is an amazingly good option….provided
you actually want to stay in Indonesia, which, may not be what you want J
OK, so what exactly was the mission? We set our sights on
climbing a volcano about 3 hours, by train, from Jakarta known as Gunung
Ciremai – the biggest gunung in West Java at 3078 m. By all accounts, a pretty
stinking big hill! Our goal was a one-day, up-down mission, meaning starting
the climb in the early pre-dawn hours, making it to the top by midday, then
back down to the bottom before dark. To do that, we needed a travel day on
either side, plus somewhere to stay. Not by coincidence, a perfect long-weekend
schedule J
The main city closest to the bottom of the gunung, is a city
called Cirebon. Ok, phase one: train from Jakarta to Cirebon, 3 hrs, executive
class (of course), 30 bucks one-way, check. Amy’s internet sleuthing skills
found us yet again a fabulous resort-style hotel outside Cirebon, on the way to
the gunung, for the 2 nights. Accom, check. OK, nothing left but executing the
plan….which in Indo, could go anywhere, including completely sideways.
Day 1: It could have something to do with us actually
starting to figure out what makes Indo tick, but things pretty much went off
without a hitch. A GRAB ride (Indo’s version of UBER) to the Jakarta train
station, followed by a very civilized air-con 3-hour train ride brought us to
the Cirebon station, where upon, to our delight and amazement, our driver
arranged by the hotel was there to greet us, complete with a “Mrs Amy
Robillard” sign. By early afternoon we were poolside, enjoying a cold Bintang. Gotta
love that. Score one for the home team!
Day 2: crux day. Up at 3:30 am, and into the awaiting car
with driver we had arranged the night before. Just before stepping out of our
room, a guy with 2 breakfasts-to-go shows up. What the? OK, another round of
full points for the home team! Off to a good start.
It was a couple hours through the kampongs (Indo rural
villages) to get to the bottom of the gunung. We weren’t entirely sure what the
drill was to get to the trailhead. We had our driver ask a few people, et
voila, the car stopped, and the driver blurts out: “this is where you get ojek” .
An ojek is an Indonesian motorcycle taxi – basically a guy with a motorbike who
will take you somewhere for a bit of cash. And that they did! 3 bucks each to
the trailhead. OK, giddy up!
The trailhead, AKA Beskamp (you guessed it: basecamp), was a
gong show of every teenager within West Java seemingly having picked this long
weekend to climb Ciremai. All part of the fun! Took us the better part of an
hour to figure out that we needed to register at one place, pay our 5 bucks
entrance fee at another, get a somewhat hilarious “safety briefing” by a guy
all of about 17 years old at another place, then finally, yet another place to
actually give a guy our ticket and walk onto the trail. Ahhh Indo….where else can
you get this kind of service! J
So the trail and gunung itself is quite beautiful. At over
3000 m, the top is alpine (rock) with great views of West Java, and an impressively
circular crater. Top of the world, as the saying goes. It also definitely
reminded us that it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, at 3000 m,
things are chilly! Funny being in a place where it’s 32+ degrees, 100%
humidity, and oh ya, we forgot the down jackets! Amy was freezing J
Beautiful, yes. But: on this particular day, sharing a trail
with literally thousands of chain-smoking, noodle-eating teenagers was, well,
less than enjoyable. The worst part was the dust. It’s peak dry season in Indo,
and hasn’t rained in months…imagine stomping along a sidewalk that is ankle
deep in icing sugar (brown icing sugar). Now imagine thousands of people doing
it all around you in every direction . It was insane. It was literally a challenge
to breath, and even see. Less than enjoyable. Hot tip: do not climb Gunung
Ciremai on a long weekend!
Ah well, we survived: made it back to beskamp, threw our
water bottles on the pile (it is truly a disgrace how many plastic water
bottles are discarded every day in Indonesia), and jumped into the back of a
truck heading back down to the kampongs. Oh, first we had to receive our summit
certificate, and complimentary plate of nasi goring (fried rice) – must have
been what the 5 bucks entrance fee was about.
Day 3 was really what Amy came for. Coffee and a nice slow
breakfast, followed by a morning by the pool. The train ride back, including
our complimentary drive back to the train station, was equally seamless as our
ride in, and got us home to Bogor just in time for G&Ts on the front patio.
All in all, two thumbs up on our first Indo train mission!
