Orchid Forest Cikole For A Day

HI THERE, GOOD PEOPLE!

Ok look, I'm so sorry I haven't posted anything because of my lack of writing. My fault, I know! It seemed I made myself not to write for this couple of months because I have just graduated and I need to start thinking clearly about my life, hehehe. It's been great, though. I have done more new things in my life, I'll let you know as soon as possible in my next posts. 

I honestly started my 2019 very nicely, it was gathering with my family. There was my aunt's family as well. We gathered and talked about basically everything. It was pretty fun knowing that I still have people who I love and care about. Long story short, my aunt's family and I gathered on last January and we decided to go to a new place in Bandung. We thought it would be great if we went to a place that had a great nature and landscape there. My mom recommended Lembang. But you know... it's Lembang, traffic's everywhere and what kind of place that has a great nature and landscape? I mean, I've been to Lembang most of the time and I got bored easily, to be honest. I need something new, new place new concepts. After searching for some time, we decided to go to Orchid Forest in Cikole, Lembang. 

Orchid Forest is a place which has a lot of great spots to just relax. I think it is pretty new, it has been opened for a year or so. The location is not too far from the city of Lembang. You can use the same route of going to Tangkuban Perahu, but it's much closer. It took only 10-15 minutes from Lembang's traditional market, but when it's traffic badly, you could buy some snacks first then enjoy 30-60 minutes of the trip, LOL. You will see the sign of "Cikole" writing on the right side, and you have to turn left to go into the Orchid Forest. From that intersection. it'll take 3-5 minutes to take you into the main gate where you can buy tickets there. The tickets are pretty cheap (for me), it's Rp 35.000,- per person and it'll be charged if you go with any transportations, I forget the price - sorry. 

I went there with my family at the beginning of January and it's in the middle of the afternoon. That day was a bit cloudy but the weather was amazingly fresh. I was such a proud citizen when I visited Orchid Forest because the place was clean and neat in some ways. The pavings looked neat and they let the trees and plants be there just the way they were before. Well, it's a forest, shouldn't it be like that anyway? 

The place looked really nice and calming. It has a lot of designed-plantations and walking paths for visitors. It has a lot of spots for visitors to take some pictures, also some installations that were located in those spots. Unfortunately, most of the Indonesian citizens are not ready for this kind of beautiful place, Some of the installations were broken because of the people who ruined them. It's really sad to see them broken. The plantations were still pretty neat and amazing - and I hope the people who run this place still taking care of the Orchid Forest. But overall, I like going to Orchid Forest, it's relaxing for people, especially city-based people who always feel busy and experience pollution from they start working until they go home. Orchid Forest collaborates with Wonderful Indonesia, so people should visit here. I recommend you guys to visit, it's pleasing for your eyes and of course, your lungs! Hahaha. It's refreshing! For you, 'netizens', please visit this place without breaking it gradually and make this place always clean - I beg you. It's nature, you should be aware of taking care of it. 

This is my cousin, Rany.

This is my mom, she looked lovely that day with the scarf.

All photos were taken by Yashica fx super 2000 and film Fuji Superia 200 and Fuji 800.

Papandayan For The First Time

Hi!

Last week I was able to go to Papandayan Mountain, finally! It's been years I'd been wanted to go there. And, there's one of my friend asked me and the other two friends to go to Papandayan. So, we agreed to go! I only prepared a full package of clothing (to change in case it'd be raining), medicines, food to be cooked on the overnight spot, water bottle (duh!), essentials like headlamp; pocket knife; thick jacket (it'd be super cold at night!); and climbing shoes. My friend said we needed buff to cover our nose to smell the sulfur. 

Papandayan Mountain is located in Garut, West Java. It's not that far if you departure from Bandung. It is a stratovolcano and it contains so much sulfur and there are some active fumarole. We started to drive (by my car) at 10.00 AM and arrived in Cisurupan, Garut at 2.00 PM. To make it faster, we used the highway road. The traffic's fine, we enjoyed our little road trip. 

We used the highway in Cilenyi Highway Road. The picture was only a half-frame because the rest was burned.

I call them Oces, Danu, and Niti - my companions for this Papandayan trip!

We were there for only two days, from Saturday to Sunday. When we got there, it was... crowded enough. It's a shame though, because we all wanted to have good times in Papandayan without a lot of people around us, he he. We took our carriers out and we bought rice and went to pray first. Before we started to climb, we had to sign ourselves up in security's post to make sure everyone who wants to climb will be back safely. All we needed to do was filling the form about ourselves.

We started to climb at 3.00 PM. The track was pretty good.

But you know... I didn't try to have any exercises before, so it was really TIRING I swore! God, all those climbs, especially when there were stairs! But, I finally made it, we made it halfway. I saw a fumarole between the cliffs. It was awesome to see it by my own eyes. I'd never seen an active sulfur smoke came out from the surface. We met a guard in the middle post and there were two tracks to go to the top. The guard explained those two tracks, the advantages and disadvantages. He recommended us to continue through the second track, the easier one. We took them because it's getting late already.

He's Danu, the one that asked me and my friends to go here - Papandayan Mt.

We continued to walk and climb. It was tough, as I said I didn't have any exercises before going here. It's 5.00 PM and we found a spot that was near to public toilet and some traditional stalls, it was in Gubber Hood Climbing Post. As we had arrived, the moment was sunset. It was really calming and the wind didn't try so hard to touch the trees. It was all meant to be just like that and I was grateful for it.

She's Niti, my cousin.

We looked for a comfortable spot and luckily we found one near the edge. Oh, I need to tell you something. I actually use a new rangefinder camera! He he he. It was Seagull DF-300X for body and Minolta for the lens. I was super excited because this trip was the first time I used the camera. I also used the new film, My Heart 200! As you saw before, the first seven photos were using My Heart film. It was only 16 frames but the color was pretty good, I felt like using Fujifilm Superia 200 but with stronger tones. While using this new camera, I tried to capture good moments and gestures when we arrived on the spot to stay. But, there's something wrong - the winding lever and the shutter release button were both stuck. I assumed that it happened because of the cold temperature, I don't know. Sometimes they were stuck, sometimes they worked, but mostly after the sunset moment they were stuck so I was a little bit sad.

We built a tent and turned out it was quick enough for us to build it. Last time I built in Ranca Upas, it took about an hour because none of my friends was good enough to build a tent, haha! After we had built the tent, we prepared ourselves to cook for dinner, except for Danu - he prepared the bonfire. In front of the tent, we tried to bring the topics for killing time while we were cooking dinner and making bonfire. It was very valuable and positive for me personally to talk with your good friends through the night and we unconsciously started to have this bond with each other that we can't explain it.

We waited a little longer to see the stars at night but I think the nature didn't make us to watch the stars. At around 11.00 PM the sky's still cloudy and we could barely see the stars, so we decided to sleep to save more energy for tomorrow's sunrise.

We woke up at 5.00 AM and we put the tent facing the east. So, when we got out from the tent, we were welcomed by the very strong orange line from the skies. It was very beautiful. I really wanted to take this sunrise moment, but my button camera didn't work. It's still fine because I can still experience the atmosphere, the color of the sun, and how nature was connected by the sunlight.

It's from Niti's camera, she's using Canon Prima Zoom 76 and film Kodak 200. 

After experiencing the sunrise and seeing it beautifully for about an hour, we had gone back to our tent and prepared for our breakfast. We had breakfast, but we felt like we didn't like the food... so we didn't finish it all, sorry. After that, we packed our things to go back to the base camp. We would go through Edelweiss field and dead forest of Papandayan (Hutan Mati). We started to walk at 10.00 AM. I did take some pictures from my phone when we arrived at Edelweiss field. It was very spacious and the sun's really friendly that day. We arrived at Hutan Mati and it was just... beautiful! How can I say something beautiful without the word beautiful? Err.., perhaps exquisite. :) We spent time at Hutan Mati for an hour, then we got back to the base camp or the parking lot.

This was captured by my iPhone 6s, Edelweiss field.

We got into Hutan Mati.

As we were arriving to the parking lot at around 1.00 PM, Danu soon went to security's post to report our return. Then, went home safely. It's really sad to go back to reality... to be honest. We were stupid not to take lunch first, the traffic's very bad and we had to wait our lunch until we headed back to Bandung at 5.00 PM. When we got back to Bandung, we chose Iga Dullers for our hunger's revenge and our not-so-good food when we were in Papandayan, lol.

The two well-spent days are over, but I am very glad to be a part of this little spontaneous trip. People are sometimes saturated with their lives in the city, big city. People have their own problems and sometimes they need to get away from their busy-rush activities and look further to what the world actually has for us, one of them is to see its nature. It doesn't mean you run from your reality, but it means you appreciate yourself as a human and you maybe need to recharge your battery by doing this. After doing this trip, I feel like I have recharged myself and it's relieving for me.

So, here's to people who love to keep silent for awhile and remember what you have been through after all this time, a song to remind us that we are all worth to stay alive. :)

And remember, we are always finding our own light in our own time. It's always beautiful when the time has come to you, you just have to seek more to find it, in your own way. :)

All photos (except the ones that from Niti's camera and my phone) were taken by Seagull DF-300X with Minolta Lens and films: My Heart 200, Ektar 100, and Portra 160.

The Abandonment of Tenggarong City

Have you ever gone to Samarinda before?

Samarinda is located in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is very very humid and hot, to be honest. I recommend you to go there, to see all the beautiful sides, yet all the abandonment places there.

Actually, my mom and I decided to go to Samarinda to see a wedding whom my dad's friend invited us. That was the only reason we went to Samarinda. As day by day passing by there, we asked ourselves, "why did we waste so much time here (5 days) without seeing the city, sight seeing and having little tour about it?" So, that's why we started to plan spontaneously to have sight seeing around Samarinda the day right after we went to a wedding of my dad's friend's daughter.

The next day, we went to Tenggarong City. It is located not to far from Samarinda, it'll take about an hour to go there from Samarainda. I personally think that Tenggarong is a very lonely city, because there are less people and activities in this city. Local people said (I read some news also) there was a governor named Rita Widyasari. She was famous for her role as a good governor, but live luxuriously. She is now in jail because of her corruption case. Oh, Mrs. Rita, how could you take money from your own people?

We were happy, though, to see Mulawarman Museum. There were a lot of strong histories explained in this museum. 

The center room of Mulawarman Museum.

Closer look of local governor(s) of East Kalimantan.

After the visit of this museum, we went to Kumala Island which is located across Tenggarong City. It is a small island, built to be a tourism place for public. We had wanted to go to Kumala Island right after we prayed Duhur at 12:00 PM. But the sun directly stroke so harsh, so we decided to go to the island later (at about 3:00 PM). The weather at 3:00 PM was not so great, because it was raining hard earlier. Honestly, my impression to Kumala Island is very very disappointed. As a visitor, my expectation to a place for tourism was at least being maintained well. But this was... really shocking me. 

This place is the only thing that was good enough in this island.

There were flood everywhere in the island because of raining. There were children playing around the island with bikes. But there was FLOOD, come on. I expect that every place in the city should have at least a good irrigation. I saw with my own eyes that this island, and even this City of Tenggarong, have been ignored because of the case of Rita Widyasari. Again, I'm going to talk about Mrs. Rita Widyasari. She was one of the supervisor of this tourism place. She had a lot of great programs to improve Tenggarong City back then. But, news on the internet said that she took more than a hundred billions with two other suspects, along the way while she was building up Tenggarong City; starting from building schools, infrastructures, tourism places, and a lot more. She took the money from her own people. She took it when she impressed her people with her programs as a governor. That's basically ironic. Now, the city looks like a dead city with no improvement. I really don't like corrupt, and this case, with real evidence I saw (while I expected to have a great holiday), makes me both sad and angry. 

On the other day, we went spontaneously to Aji Imbut Stadium in Tenggarong too.

And, another disappointment I've got here in the stadium. The stadium is big: it has a very spacious parking lot, a great site to visit. But, again, it is being abandoned because there is no people who wants to take care of it! Oh my, I was upset seeing this. I mean, the government agreed to build something, and it was used once or twice, then what? Nothing happened again after that. The people agreed to the government decision on building this stadium. But, no one takes an act for this case. A building costs A LOT of money, effort, human resources, and of course giant equipment. The money comes from the people who live there and pay taxes. Don't they think that they deserve to have more than just some abandonment buildings? If you think about it, it has the other side to see. I know that making a good maintenance of a building or a public place needs a lot of money to pay human resources and more equipment. But, it's getting on my nerves, really. They should be more aware of what's happening in their own region, and I speak this to both the people and the government. 

I'm here just to say what I have read and have experienced. So, in my point of view, I'm blaming the corrupts who couldn't think clearly before they did something that was really horrible to imagine. Tenggarong City should be a worth city to live in again, without any corrupts inside of the government's organization structures. The people deserve it. I realize, as a true citizen of Indonesia, that I need to do something about it. Starting from little thing I should do, be more aware of my surroundings, whether it's my neighborhood, environment, region, or my people. We should at least BE AWARE. Being aware makes you want to do something, to care about what is happening in our country, our world. From caring, you will feel within your heart you have to do something about it, make a change, a good change. I don't quite understand politics, but I can tell, everybody can tell, that corruption is unacceptable in any kind of situation.

Before I end this post, let me show you some food I ate in East Kalimatan to make me (and you) feel better, lol.

Curry Martabak by the river. It was GOOD I can tell you.

This isn't Durian, it's Lai Fruit. The taste is great, Durian's still the winner, though.

All photos were taken by Yashica fx super 2000 and film Portra 160, except for the food pictures I took with my iPhone 6s.