Java Episode 3: Over the Pancake Pass
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Friday 29 January 2010 Bandung Indonesia
To get from Bogor to Bandung you have several choices; miss the scenic Pancake
Pass by flying or taking the train or take a slow public bus or a much more
expensive private car. We splurged and hired Selfi’s brother Ahmad and his wife
Ipah to drive us in their Air Conditioned Toyota SUV. That way we could also
visit the Gunung Mas Tea Plantation on the way.
We were warned not to go on a weekend when the single lane road winding up
and down the mountains gets clogged with local visitors. Friday was almost as
bad. Getting out of Bogor was slow. The thousands of Colt minibuses cause most
of the traffic in this city of 2 million. We looked forward to getting into the
countryside but we had to first get past the scores of resorts and tourist
attractions, the weekend destination for Bogor residents. Finally we spotted the
tea plantations. They hills were carpeted with lush green bushes as far as you
could see. The Gunung Mas (little mountain) welcomes visitors to their tea
processing plant and plantation. You can stay overnight at their resort but we
just wanted to visit their factory. It was similar to ones we had visited in
Malaysia and India but interesting all the same. This time we had to don
worker’s coats and caps to get into the area where the fresh tea is air dried.
Green tea and Black tea are processed on alternate days. Black tea, with an
extra fermentation process, was processed the day we visited. We did sample some
of the tea in one of their small restaurants and of course I couldn’t resist
buying some of the tea to take back to Canada with me.
The view from the pass with green fields and high mountains all around was
worth the trip. I was only sorry there was no place to turn off on the narrow
road to take photos of a group of women picking tea from the bushes right next
to the road.
The end of the trip was to culminate with a concert at Traditional Bamboo
Instrument complex on the outskirts of Bandung. We thought we had missed our
opportunity when the traffic became unbearable the closer to the city we got. We
got to Saung Angklung almost an hour late. We got out to wander through their
shop.
We heard some music nearby and realized the show was still in progress. A
line of young children in traditional costume was waiting to enter an
amphitheater. We took a place on the back wall of the amphitheater and were
charmed by the performance of the children. Each child was holding from one to
three bamboo pipe instruments which when shaken produce a sound. One small child
was a crowd favourite. She danced and shook her instrument with great aplomb. At
the end of the number the MC asked the girl her name and she told the audience
she was 3 years old!
The children came back and distributed a bamboo instrument to each member of
the audience. Each instrument consisted of two bamboo pipes of differing
lengths, held in a triangle shaped frame. The MC, an attractive young woman,
gave us lessons in how to hold and shake the instruments. She pointed out that
each instrument had a number, corresponding to a note on the 8 note scale. We
practiced playing up and down the scale by listening for our number and then
watching for the correct hand sign. Next we graduated to simple folk songs, both
western and Indonesian. The culmination was playing several of the notes
together. Maybe the audience could provide the whole show next time!
By the time the show was over it was time for dinner. Ahmad and Ipah took us
to a traditional Indonesian restaurant where we chose our dishes and had them
severed to us with a portion of rice wrapped in a banana leaf. The Indonesian
way is to eat solely with your right hand without utensils. Ahmad gave us
instructions and we did our best but we were rather awkward. We will take a fork
and spoon anytime.
It was dark when we got to our guesthouse. Despite a nice interior and common
rooms the rooms were not up to even our simple standards. The best thing about
it was its proximity to the train station. We decided to skip Bandung and
proceed to Yogyakarta, the Cultural Capital of Indonesia.