Picture 1 : The view from Top
On a Saturday morning, we were waking up with very sleepy eyes. It was raining outside, cold enough to make us a little bit lazy to open our eyes. Inside of my room, I saw Anna, my new friend, still sleeping. She just arrived in Jakarta last night from Capetown, South Africe on 11 pm. After we got stuck in traffic jam we went to fill our bellies with some delicious food from Burger King. We just step in my house on 2 am. What a night we had and we where both very tired.
I was a little bit confuse whether I should wake her up. But the idea for a trip was already made since a few weeks ago. We wanted go to hike at an old-ancient mountain in South Bandung, Java, Indonesia. Not many people have ever heard and know about this mountain, so that was the adventure and challenge. My other friends who used to hike the mountains, also never hike this one before. For all of us, it was going to be a new experience. I’m so excited and quite nervous, whether I can make it to the top or not.
Picture 2 : Me and Anna
I tried to wake up Anna. She woke up immediately. After taking a quick shower and organizing some stuff in our bags, we went on to the Lebak Bulus Shelter. The place where we would meet up with the whole team. In total we where with 8 person. 6 guys and 2 women, me and Anna. We took the taxi from my house. It was raining very hard so I was not that sure if the public transportation was a good idea..
Anyway, we arrived in Lebak Bulus Shelter. It was quite a mess there. Because I was walking with a foreigner, or bule, as we usually call them. Those Shelter people tried to cheat on me and my friend. They asked us to pay for Rp. 1.000,-/person (1 cent dollar) for each person. Oh well, it’s not about the price, but it is the reason why they asked it.
Together we found the bus that we needed to take. We took the Primajasa bus to Leuwipanjang a shelter in Bandung. We paid for Rp. 50.000,-/person. An Air Conditioner Bus with nice seats. As usual on a long journey, the intention to go to the toilet will arise. I needed to take a pee, and fortunately the bus had a build in toilet. It was a funny experience peeing in this bus. At first it seems ok, but when the bus stops because of the traffic and then suddenly moves on it is very hard to keep your balance.
We went from Lebak Bulus from around 09.30 in the morning to Leuwipanjang where we arrived at 12.00. We where hungry and needed to eat something. There is a restaurant across the street. Nasi Ampera. It was the first experience for Anna to eat Indonesian food. I explain some food and soon she enjoyed her meal with Emping, Karedok and Grilled Fish. First we planned to go with the public transportation to reach the foot of the mountain. But after we talked with some people there, they suggest us to take a rental car. It costed us Rp. 200.000,- at first. Until the driver took us to the foot of the mountain as we agreed. But later on, we had to pay more for the drive because of the damaged road. and since we needed to look for the place the driver asked to pay Rp. 250.000,- which is still ok for the 8 of us. We made a note of his phone number and asked him to take us back again the next day, after we would climb down from the top of the mountain.
Picture 3 : Anna first time tried Indonesian foods
Rakutak mountain an ancient mountain but not that famous as Gede, Pangrango, Papandayan mountains. It is located in the south of Bandung. Even the locals do not all know about this place. The mountain has 3 tops, and the highest top is 1954 mbpl height. Because it is not so famous, the route to go to the top is still quite hard. Very slippery and quite dangerous. After arriving in Sukarame village, we started the journey at the bottom of the mountain. We started walking by some onion plantations and farms. After we just started we already felt tired because of the difficult route we had to walk.
Picture 4,5,6 : We hike across the onions plantations
We arrived on Sukarame village on 4 pm after crossing Majalaya and Pacet. After re-packing for a while at 5 pm, we continued our walk. Anna was afraid the evening hiking could cause us wounding ourselves.She’s afraid for the animals that could attack us. also the slippery and muddy ground can make us fall and break our bones. In the beginning of the walk I was so happy, so excited, then after it became dark I start to feel afraid and nervous. The sun went down and the darkness came. Thank God there is no rain at all. Maybe there was before cause the ground felt wet and slippery. It started to feel like a never ending journey.
It is like you fighting your own fears.
It is like you fighting your own worries.
It is like you fighting your own strength and try to rely on a higher power than yourself. I call Him, God. That moment, I really surrender for God help me and let me keep walking and walk no matter how far until we arrive on the top.
Picture 7 : Hiking on the evening, sun started to be setted out
I haven’t hiked so many mountains to speak wise about it. But as for me personally, I learned my lesson with this mountain. And I don’t mean how you need to adapt in a situation such as peeing in the jungle hahah but how to take one step at a time.
Picture 8 & 9 : Our team on the trip!
At 8 pm, we arrived on the Top #1. Minutes before we decide to stop, we thought that we can continue go to the Top #2. But thank God we didn’t do it the last night. In the morning, we all see the famous bridge from Top #1 to Top #2, a natural bridge, a narrow space to walk on with both left and right a huge and deep valley. Once we make a wrong step, we can fall down into the valley easily. But the thing is, we decide to make 2 tents on the Top #1. There’s no big space for us. Only for 2 tents and us to walk a little bit. We need to be careful, cause again the area is so limited.
Picture 10 : The mountain surround us on the morning
Picture 11 : It was beautiful morning indeed, even I still not yet wash my face, hahaha
In the morning I still cant open my eyes even when the guys are screaming “Sunrise, Sunrise” – then a little bit lazy cause I can’t get enough of sleep, I go out from the tent. OMG, the view is so nice! We can see half of Bandung city from our place. Not to mention about more beautiful mountains!
Picture 12 & 13 : Packed, Cleaning the area, ready to go down.
Going down is another story.
The ground was so slippery. There’s no rain at all, but I think because the grass is higher on the mountain the sunshine brought dew on the grass to make it slippery. So many times I fell down, and not only me, hahahaa… So bad that our friend, Ghepenk fell down so noisy together with his cariels, hahahaha.
Picture 14 : We are going down. The road is so slippery.
There comes one time in your life that you are very happy to see something. My moment was to see the onion plantations again. Which means that we where close enough to the place where we started.
Picture 15 : Tired but so happy
Picture 16 : View of the village waiting on us when we arrived down at the mountain.
On our way back to Jakarta we took lunch on Nasi Ampera again, we were mostly sleeping the whole journey. But we felt so tired and also happy.
We did it. We are conquer the mountain. Yayyyyy!!
Picture 16 : Hurraayyy, I did it!!
// Wrote by Dea Sihotang, from Indonesia
