Busy last few days in Indonesia!

Tea

We escaped the chaos of city life and took a long and bumpy road to the sleepy beach town of Pangandaran.  The ocean breeze felt fabulous and the streets seemed deserted in comparison to our last couple destinations. Colin caught a bit of a flu bug so I went exploring on my own to the National Park that borders the city.  Although I was without Colin I was by no means alone, I was chased by a small herd of deer and a monkey who didn’t appreciated the eye contact while I tried to take a picture but the most exciting part was I saw a Komodo Dragon!  I was too excited as I watched him cross the path to think to snap a photo so you’ll just have to take my word on this one. 

Feeling the time crunch with only a few days left in Indonesia we headed to the university city of Bandung.  The city itself has little to offer so we booked a day trip with a local guide, Matmun, into the countryside just south of the city.  We stopped in at a school where you would have thought we were royalty as we were taken from classroom to classroom full of screaming children who took our pictures with their cell phones. It took a good 20 minutes just to leave the building.

We continued through the countryside and had tea at a local villagers home, saw the workings of a small tofu making shop, learned how bamboo mats were made and picked some strawberries at one of the many ‘u-picks’ that are crowed with locals on the weekend.

Our final stop was in the mountains, all of which are carpeted in tea plantations.  We climbed to a small village that surrounds a natural hot spring that is believed to have powers to make you young again. With such fantastic powers just below our feet how could I say no to a mud mask with Matmun?!  As an afternoon shower came down we took shelter in the home of the village elder who is said to be a fortuneteller.  She was a sweet little lady who gave us a concoction of herbs to chew on (I only found out they were for chewing after I had already swallowed the wad she gave me, oops) and kept placing her hands on my belly telling me she hopes we have a baby soon because I’m getting old…so much for my mud mask. 

Returning to Bandung we felt we had a full and exciting day and headed to the hotel next door hoping to sneak in and use their internet quick before ducking out again.  When we got there, however, the hotel bar was observing earth hour (yay!) and we ended up getting interviewed by the staff, joining everyone on stage for a prayer, enjoyed free desserts and drinks and left with a bag full of all sorts of free lute, not to shabby.

On a slightly more serious note, we met Matmun the next day for what he called a “sentimental tour”.  During the Second World War Indonesia was occupied by Japan and thousands of Europeans living in Indonesia where placed in prisoner of war camps, the biggest of which was in Bandung, Tjihapit.  My paternal grandmother was a prisoner at this camp.  There is not much left to see of camp but we walked the streets that once marked its perimeter and visited some buildings that still stand. We were both really glad we did the tour and if anyone would like to know more about the camps this is a helpful website: http://www.boudewynvanoort.com

Tofu

R