{"id":7082,"date":"1997-06-15T13:16:06","date_gmt":"1997-06-15T13:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalwanderings.co.uk\/new\/?p=7082"},"modified":"2023-10-24T13:53:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T13:53:23","slug":"explorations-in-west-java","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalwanderings.co.uk\/new\/1997\/06\/15\/explorations-in-west-java\/","title":{"rendered":"Explorations in West Java"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was going to call this page Sunda as Sundanese is a very common adjective for all things around Bandung: Sundanese people<\/a>, Sundanese food<\/a>, Sundanese language<\/a> but the place is never referred to as Sunda. Odd. Anyway, here are a few motorbike and bicycle trips I did while living in Bandung. They were mainly to the East and South of Bandung towards the south coast of Java, the heartland of “Sunda”.<\/p>\n

I’d arrived in Indonesia in March 1997 looking for a job at a language school. It was the wrong time as it was at Idul Fitri, and the schools told me to come back in a month. So I headed off to Sulawesi<\/a>. Returning to Bandung I managed to get some teaching hours first at TBI (The British Institute) and then secured a part-time contract with EEP (Executive English Programs). I also moved out of the Hotel Sahara and on 27 April moved into a house in Dago (99 Jalan Cisitu Indah VI) with my American friend Jim.<\/p>\n

After settling in I went on my first adventure into the Sundanese heartlands:<\/p>\n

14 June 1997 Bike ride to the Papandyan Volcano<\/p>\n

My diary is fairly light on details but I guess the first few hours would have been cycling through the congested city of Bandung southwards. Looking on Google maps it looks built up all the way to the small town of Majalaya, presumably over twenty years ago it wasn’t quite so bad as these photos taken along the road indicate.<\/p>\n

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I think the photo below is of Mount Cikuray, the biggest in the area at 2821m.<\/p>\n

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My diary says after Majalaya the road got very steep very quickly and quite soon I actually got off and put the bike on top of a minibus and got a ride to Kamojang. It’s a geothermal area with steam literally shooting into the air at various places. There is also a plant there which uses the hot steam to generate electricity.<\/p>\n