Volcanoes and Stuff

Mt. Tangkuban Perahu

This morning, Ronnie’s associate Pak Dwi picked us up and drove us about an hour north of Bandung to Mt. Tangkuban Perahu, Bandung's most famous tourist volcano. As such, it is a tourist trap as well. I had barely gotten out of the car before I learned not to make eye contact with the vendors who were hawking their wares. They push them in front of you and if you look at them say “you buy?” or if you don’t look “maybe later?” I got the feeling these are the only words they know in English. Which is fine, because I certainly don't know their language either!

Pak Dwi and Ronnie

We walked along the rim area which was also outlined with vendors and artisans selling everything from powdered sulfur in reused water bottles to handmade instruments. The volcano itself was an awesome sight. After that, we drove a short distance to Kowah Domas Crater where we descended a well-worn trail that I can only describe as equatorial; however it was never so dense that we could not see the sky. We navigated over roots and rocks for 1.7 miles until we reached the crater’s hot springs. Parts of the springs are so hot that people were actually boiling eggs in them. Sulfur and boiled eggs - what a combo! Other parts were just perfect for a good hot foot soak, which we all did.

Kowah Domas Crater

From there he took us to Sari Ater Hot Springs Resort  – not exactly our cup of tea but I guess it was interesting to see the Indonesian version of a water park. After walking around there for an hour or so, we drove past tea plantations and pineapple stands before heading back to Bandung. We asked Dwi to drop us off at Paris Van Java mall, as we were both so hungry and thirsty. We try to be sensitive to the fact that our host is fasting, but after 6.5 hours with only a few "sneaked" sips of water from my purse, we were both ready for some R&R.

water boiling up from ground

After a late lunch, we went to a pharmacy (apotik) to get Ronnie an antihistamine. There were no products we were familiar with. After trying awhile to read labels, I attempted to communicate with the lady behind the counter who of course spoke no English. I found myself doing “charades” for blowing nose, sore throat, sneezing, etc. That went on for quite a long time while she pulled out various drugs from behind the counter in response to my “symptoms”. 

ahhh...my aching feet!!

While it is nice (in theory) to be able to buy medications without an RX, it is also a little scary to take something that you have NO IDEA what it is except for your own ability to “act out” your symptoms to a person behind the counter! Btw, I have no idea if she had any pharmaceutical training or was just a sales clerk?? After probably 20 minutes or so of Ronnie trying to read ingredient labels and me acting out his symptoms, another customer who could speak a little bit of English kindly came to our rescue. From what I could understand, the clerk was trying to give us what (hopefully) was an antihistamine and an antibiotic. We bought the antihistamine (?) and he seems no worse off after taking one.

view from my foot soak

We had some difficulty in getting a cab, so we ended up hopping on one angkot, then another. Those are a pretty scary ride from several standpoints, 1) you want to be sure you are going where you intend to go, 2) you don’t want to get your pockets picked and 3) you don’t want to end up crammed together like a pack of sardines, as is what often happens as people continue to pile in. After getting off the second one, we ended up walking the last 1.5 mile (uphill) home. 

 

there are lots of pineapple stands like this

Actually, our apartment was reserved for this weekend (and another in September) before we signed our contract. So we are stuck for 2 nights in a small room across the alley that is attached to our landlady's house. Whatever, my feet were killing me by the time we got back! (Ronnie estimated we had walked about 6 miles in all.) Today is Idul Fitri, the biggest holiday of the Muslim year. With no AC, our room was filled with the noise of prayers in Arabic over loud speakers (Allah is great, there is no god but Allah), fireworks and dogs barking. Oh, and did I mention that our landlady’s garage light shone down into our bedroom windows too?  We went to sleep thanking God for a bed, ear plugs and extra pillows to cover our heads.

tea plantation