chemical-x: Travel

Monday, May 26, 2008

Not Too Wild This Time

"No one ever said: the Great Indoors” was found at a spread of Hummer H3 ad. Flipping through some more pages of Bestlife (May 2008), you will find: “There’s only one way to find out if your vaccinations really work” from Range Rover. Both of them showed their mighty trucks being harassed by the wilderness. One was parked in a sunny ditch at the foot of San Juan Mountains, Colorado, and the harsh Tibetan Plateau pampered the other one. Then I remembered someone had promised me to take me out to experience nature first hand.

“But I don’t do camping!” I said back then. “If I need any emergency midnite ice cream and extra pillow, there would be no room service button to press!” I defended myself violently.

Gayle, my mate of honor, whom I later found out that he really swept the forest floor like a gale, replied “First we do trekking. But to motivate you, there shall be something nice at the end of the road. Let’s unveil short waterfalls trips first.”

“But we’re still not going camping right?”

“No, we are going to just enjoy the view and return the same day.”

“Phewww”

When we finally reached the area, I was somehow shocked by how pristine the landscape was. The entire small mountain was blocked for strictly eco-tourism. It was called the Cigampea at Gunung Bunder (Mt. Round) just half an hour higher than the city of Bogor, West Java. Inside the protected park you will find six or even seven different waterfalls, camping grounds, pine forest in sulfuric meadows (aptly named Kawah Ratu, the Queen’s Crater).

With only about 500 m hike, it wasn’t difficult to find Curug Ngumpet (Hiding Waterfall). We needed to go around a wet cliff before hearing the water splashing on the ground beneath it. This ticked the Indiana Jones spirit inside me, that I thought I never had (true that I believed only the spirits of Halston and Gianni who would guide me through my darkest nights).

It was somehow secluded, a perfectly romantic spot, with sunbeams falling on the perfect clearances. Too bad some group of photographers and love birds were there earlier than us. Ahh, the fresh air (and the wild snake which just crossed our path). Yikes!

The second waterfall was the mother load, Curug Cigampea. It was almost 300 m tall. Sidetracking to a smaller waterfall on its right side, it was as if you’d get two waterfalls at the price of one.

Secretly, I thanked the local government for putting on paved walkways to ease our 1 km descend to reach the falls. It was tiring but then again it was safe as they had railings and flat stairs to welcome your journey. But yes it was awe-inspiring when finally you reached the bottom of that hill. One would feel nothing but so small against this natural setting.

Curug Cigampea was crowded as it was the end of the high-school final tests season. Ahh, another fresh vantage point. I had never realized that even the locals nowadays already ditched GT Mans and Riders (famous local underwear brands) for the trendier distro produced boxers (but briefs are sexier when wet!!).

Then Dr. Doolittle seemed to possess my Gayle for a while, as he was able to feed the monkeys by hand. I will never forget how he would gaze at the dominant male as if calling it to get closer. And when it arrived, they were as if talking in another language. The dominant male looked tamed before him. But still, just as a precaution, I never had the intention to get anywhere near them on that stream.

I sat there for a while. Just replenishing the good energy that I needed to refuel for my sanity. The mist was indeed mysterious. But Cigampea seemed to welcome us in its cradle. It wasn’t scary but Cigampea wanted to be handled with respect.

Warning Sign on the spot:
1. Please leave before 4.00 PM
2. Leave immediately when it started to rain
3. The same goes for landing mist
4. Keep clean and take care of your garbage

After a while, Vanindya was tired as hell. We didn’t want to imagine the ascend to the area where we came from. Huffing and puffing like some fish out of the water, we finally made it back. Only to be treated by the most glorious welcome: A group of bare-chested army cadets running in unison down the mountain road.

“Mama, mama can you see…”

Can’t wait for another trip,

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Unique List

“Sir do you have any cigarette that you would like to declare?” Thanks to Mrs. Hera’s two boxes of church merchandise, all of our baggage had to pass the x-ray tube at the arrival hall. The exit gate to freedom was just about 5 meters away from where we stood. I said, “No”. “But in the scanner I saw you have several packs of cigarettes”. Oops. “Oh, I thought the cigarettes that I needed to declare were the ones that are still freshly packed in the carton?” “When was the last time you were here Sir?” the officer on duty asked gently. “Five years ago”, I replied. “Well, maybe that time you got lucky Sir, because any cigarette must pay cigarette duty upon entering this country. I won’t report you this time since you didn’t understand my question in the first place. But let me tell you this, if you failed to report and we caught you next time, the fine will be $2,000.00 per pack of cigarette. I don’t think you would enjoy that…”

Of course I wouldn’t enjoy that. Then she directed me towards the tax office at the airport. In which there I needed to pay the duty for the 5 packs of Dunhill’s that I brought from home. “The total is $35.00”, the lady said in a slight Indian accent. Inside I was yelling, “What the fuck? Back home that amount would grant me almost 3 cartons of these babies!” Paid my duties and left.

Outside, Mum had a similar experience trying to clear the two boxes of merchandises that Mrs. Hera back home asked us to deliver to her sister. “Crazy, I had to pay $50.00 for those plastic-ky whatever merchandise that would cost less than this tax duty in Mangga Dua!” But then of course, the boxes weren’t for her church or her congregation, so right on she said, “By the way, you owe me $50.00 to clear these boxes darling” telling Mrs. Hera’s sister in a heavy Javanese accent after a brief air-kisses.

The first hour that we landed in this fine city and we were sorta fined already.

I wasn’t lying to the customs officer about haven’t been to Singapore for 5 years. For me the city was sorta boring back then. Didn't have any reason to return. Especially now that you might be able to find most things you would drool over at home in Jakarta anyway. From incredible restaurants (both local and foreign origin), eclectic music and book shops, art & sound happenings, latest Hollywood blockbusters, great local brands to exclusive shopping boutiques, including those obscure brands of fashion items, perfumes and even funky underwear are becoming widely available in Jakarta and most of the Indonesian big cities. And I was only there for part business trip and part family outing, so I wasn’t in the mood for any touristy objects.

But then again there are some experiences that you couldn’t find anywhere else but over there.

My Top 10 Uniquely Singapore entries would be:

1. Leg cramps. After gliding gracefully in the exhibition halls during the Gourmet Summit week, plus walking through endless streets, I started to miss my ride. Anything. Cars, cabs, ojek, bajaj, becak, bemo, andong, metromini, mikrolet, busway. I missed riding something that wouldn’t involve any work on my leg muscles.

2. Singapore Flyer. One of the most boring ride I’ve ever been trapped into. And I was the one who suggested this touristy ride to begin with. Thirty minutes of lame waiting inside a capsule overlooking the contrast between total darkness and the twilights of the city. Thank God I didn’t need to pee as well at the moment. Too bad though, the Beijing Wheel upon the opening of the Olympics will soon dwarf this mega structure. Seemed that the achievement on making it bigger than the London Eye only lasted for a while. Hey, at least I didn’t have to walk

3. Fantastic shopping. True that Ikea and Muji hadn’t yet penetrate the Indonesian market so far. But shoes, Singapore has a lot of great shoes and sneakers begging me to bring home (Onitsuka, I love you). I might actually be able to get them somewhere back home, but heck I was in a holiday mode.

4. Extremely long queue for taxi after 5 PM anywhere in the CBD. Why didn’t these people just use the MRT instead. After some tiring all day long meetings, this princess didn’t enjoy waiting for another bit. Maybe we shall introduce the thousands of Blue Birds, Express, Dian and the gang, complete with old or new tariffs to Singapore.

5. Bell boys. We were pretty cheap in renting a flat on the 45th fl. around Tj. Pagar area. So after the fourth day it became clear that we were going to have a problem getting our ever expanding belongings down to street level. Furthermore, the street level of the building consisted of chic local boutiques and offices, thus adding the embarrassments of having to tow our own boxes and baggage.

6. Specialty Food. Sometimes I seemed to be confused whether I was in Japan or Singapore at that moment. So many new specialty Japanese cuisine seemed to spring up all over the island. Tried the katsu place and the curry place. Wonderful dishes, wonderful service. Even the humble Burger King, would give me some of the ultimate pleasures of chowing down their Chicken Tender. A juicy bun filled with the moistest grilled chicken you’ll ever find in any fast food track.

7. Cuter Guys. Thank God that they had changed the way they dressed within these years. I didn’t enjoy the Chinese harajuku look back then, but the stylishly simple Hong Kong style was in town. But overall, the last time I checked, they were still pretty far from the husky studs of Tokyo and Osaka.

8. Flip flops. Some of us would get thrown out from luxury shopping malls by our own friends for dressing in the wrong code back home. But it was refreshing how the Singaporeans respect the freedom to breath, for our toes at the least.

9. Nice tires. Even the shaggiest car would have some extra cool wheels for show and tell in Singapore. I envied anyone who’d fine any PCD 108-four hole type wheels to fit into their Fords and Jags. Nicely dressed-up Toyota Rush were everywhere. Back home, some people might laugh: Why would you dress up a not so expensive car with some extremely nice wheels? While that wouldn’t even trick the small torque of the miniscule 1.5 lt. engine. With the hefty price tags on automobile tax in Singapore suddenly the high price of cool wheels doesn’t seem to be a big problem for the owners to pimp their rides.

10. GST Refund that would automatically pay your overweight charges. The airline gave us a maximum of 80 kg of total baggage, and ours were like 125 kg. And we still got change from the GST tax refund after paying the extra weight. Great.

Caressing new shoes,