In a normal condition, I won't join Badui Dalam trip because the village doesn't have permanent bathroom. But since lately I'm not in a normal condition, I joined the trip. We were off from Outpack's basecamp at Warung Buncit around 10.30pm. There were 10 of us.
We arrived in Ciboleger village in the morning. The village is the last place that can be reached by vehicle. We met Badui Dalam villagers in a canteen which also provides four valuable permanent bathrooms.
It took us around four hours from Ciboleger to Badui Dalam vilage by walking. We can see lake, paddy/corn/else field, villagers working on the field along the trekking path. The view was so calming. It would have given more calming effect if we hadn't been fainting along the way. The tantalizing hills toward Badui Dalam village were challenging. Contradict with my other friends, I'd prefer the ascending than the descending part. The road is slippery and muddy. I also had this kind of road when trekking in Mount Halimun National Park. Same as the national park, I acrossed small river here. After getting refreshed by the cold river water, I was ready to get my feet dirty again due to the mud along the road.
Finally, we arrived at Badui Dalam village where there was no electricity, no furniture inside the house except for cooking appliance, no permanent bathroom only the river, nothing. There are some rules such as can't take pictures, can't use things with chemical content that can polute the river water, can't across the tribe chief's lawn, and else. Badui's people themselves are not allowed to travel by vehicles and their outfits color mostly are black and white. So they travel by foot, even when it takes days to go to a place. But, they have to be back in the village if there's a ceremony. We spend the afternoon by having conversation among us and with the villagers about their customs. The village is fill of nothing, very serene. But somehow that nothing has turned into something for me.
On our way back to Ciboleger village, we got three Badui Dalam's children companion: Narja (11 years), Kasnadi (7 years) and Nadi (3 years). Our way back took around five hours through the hills and river. I think I don't have to explain again about the ascending and descending parts.
Still, I really enjoyed the trekking time since I could have amusing conversation with those children. Amusing here means I spoke in Bahasa while they spoke in Sundanesse and we don't understand each other language. Running on some parts of the road, playing the grass with a stick, crossing the river, getting burn by the sunlight were great moments for me.
It was a great trip. It's too bad that up until now, foreigners are only allowed to enter/stay in the outer side of Badui Dalam village which located six hours by walking from the village.
This trip was organized by http://outpack.multiply.com/.
*All pictures here were taken outside Badui Dalam area.
September had passed without a trip. At first, I was planning for not having any trips until December due to some reasons. But I can't resist the temptation to have another challenging weekend trip out of town again. Beside, I started to get bored spending the weekend on the shopping mall and doing math. Math?? Yeaahh...that's another different story.
So, I joined my friends to go for cliff climbing and vertical caving at Siung cliff and Jomblang cave. The trip leader this time was Joko, Rita's friend who was introduced to me by Berly. Joko enforced us to practice wall climbing at Pasar Festival before the trip day. I only practiced one time and it was terrifyingly fun.
We left Jakarta on friday night by car: Joko, Rita, Rully, Deasy, Tiwi, Ahaw, Diah, Brian, Lucky and MG. Our driver was a great one who could drive in a constant rate no matter the road condition was. I wasn't able to sleep well that night. I was more interested trying to see what the driver saw in front.
We arrived in Yogyakarta in the morning. Having the morning shine while sitting in a car made me sleepy. I fell a sleep on our way from Yogya to Gunung Kidul area. I awake because there was an accident between motorcycles in front of us. Thankfully, no one had serious injury on the accident. We stopped for a moment. Some of us must go to the police office to be questioned about the accident.
Finally we arrived at Siung cliff around noon. I didn't do the climbing. Lucky tried to be a belayer while Minol did the first climbing. I was more interested exploring the beach & cliff and taking pictures. If my other friends scaled up the hill; MG, Rita and I did the otherwise: we went down to the beach through sharp rocks and plants (I didn't know the plants' name). Ery joined us as the afternoon was about to come. I was astonished to see the ocean from above the cliff. This is what I called unpredictable captivating sight. I joined climbing a cliff on the afternoon. This cliff can be scaled up without using ropes. Going up was relatively easy for me. Going down was my main problem. Seeing my pale face above, Tantowi offered ropes to Mr. Robert. But he said "no, she can do this". Arghhhhhh!! I could manage going down only with Mr. Robert's help guiding every step that I made.
We finished the climbing and photo sessions on the afternoon. Ipung, Hendrik, and X joined us. At night, Tantowi obligated all of us to practice SRT (Single Rope Technique) for rappeling and jugging. His voice explaining about something successfully made me fall asleep. It was the first time I slept in a sleeping bag. We're going for vertical caving at Jomblang cave tomorrow morning.
to be continued...
