We left Cipete (our house) at 6:05 am.
Samson kept jumping in and out of the car and
Angel hid under the wooden sofa at the
pendopo.(kind of terrace)
Kakung (grandpa) came to say goodbye.
Pak (mister) Hadi was our driver and he needed to refill
the gas tank.
There was a Starbucks at the rest area and we
ordered by drive-thru - a macchiato, a scone
and some muffins.
Ibu(mother) was in a particularly good mood and I told
them, “Save the good mood for later”. Efficient.
Our first stop was Jatiluhur Dam. The project
to build the dam was initiated by Ir. H. Djuanda
in 1957. He was the first person to borrow
funds from another country, in this case
With French and Italian collaboration, it took
2500 workers ten years to complete it, not
without accidents.
3
We noticed a railway coming out of the tunnel
and were told that it was used to transport the
building materials.
On 26 August 1967 President Suharto declared it ready
for operation.
The reservoir, which comes from the Citarum
River, covers 88,000 hectares and relocated 12
villages.
On the other side of the dam is Kali Malang
River, which leads to
Terrorists should just blow up the dam if they
want to flood
easily because the security was shit.
We went through the tunnel going through the
dam to the place where the water falls from 80
meters and moves the turbines which powers
the generator.
This dam gives power throughout Java and
water for
4
The dam consists of peat moss, clay and rocks
so it won’t break if there’s an earthquake.
I got most of this information from listening to
the guide talking to Ibu and asking my parents
what he said. I didn’t know how to say what I
wanted to ask and he didn’t seem to like me.
We made our way up to the top of the dam,
having to pay again, plus bribe money.
The structure where the water goes in is 114
meters from the top.
Oliver (our German cousin) went to see what the high-pitched
squeaks came from and saw tails. He assumed
they were rats. I saw a wing and thought they
were bats.
People commit suicide here and some are told
by ‘dark forces’ to jump. Mba (nickname for my sister) made fun of this
and got ketindihan.(sleep paralysis, I think)
Malabar Tea Plantation was the next stop, but
lunch was first.
We went on the wrong path and stopped at
Shine Café when we found our way. The food
5
was crap and was even worse with the flies
joining us.
Fortunately the tea plantation made us forget
that bad experience. It was built and owned by
Karel Albert Rudolf Bosscha (1865-1928), a
Dutchman who came to
was finished in 1896.
We looked at his old house which was well-
maintained and still habitable and visited his
grave where there was a gigantic tree.
The plantation is 14,000 hectares wide. Bosscha
was also known for building an observatory in
Lembang, which had the biggest lens in its time
(1923-1926),
and Gedung Merdeka (freedom building) in
used for the first Asia-Africa conference in
1955.
We stayed the night at Hotel Kampung Sumber
Alam in Cipanas, Garut. I got an excruciating
massage for Rp 125,000, which I’m sure I’ll
feel in the morning. The staff was polite and
helpful.
6
Day 2
Garut - Wonosobo
We got back on the road at 8:21 am. We went
through Tasikmalaya to Ciamis. The driver
took the road to Pangandaran, which we were
not going to, near Ciamis.
There was a landslide on the main road and we
had to go through the city where we lost our
way. That set us back 15 minutes.
We had lunch at Restaurant Taman Pring Sewu
which boasted good food and perfect service
with their advertisements which appeared on
the road over 100 kilo meters.
False advertising and Ayah marah-marah, (dad got mad)
which made it seem like a bad experience.
I hope not all our lunches are like this and the
previous one. I wasn’t satisfied.
The towns we passed - Purwokerto, Ajibarang
and Purbalingga - had town squares called
alun-alun which had enormous banyan trees
that turns on Ibu.
7
The roads in those cities were wide and fairly
clean.
We skipped Batu (stone) Raden, a mountain resort, to
keep on schedule we didn’t stop at a place of
interest for 373 km from Garut to Wonosobo
and that made me bored and restless.
Tonight we stay at Gallery Hotel Kresna. It was
Dutch owned and was called Grand Hotel
Dieng, Hotel Merdeka, Centra Hotel and,
finally, Kresna.
They kept the original tiles and the steel plated
ceiling for the dining hall.
It is an antique hotel, nice for lovers of culture
and history.
Day 3
Wonosobo - Solo
This is supposed to be a diary not a report. I’ll
add in the history and statistics of the places of
interests later. There’s not a day when I don’t
feel tired, but I want to get through this. I’d like
to see cities cleaner and nicer than
assuming that the roads we passed through
8
were wide because there weren’t as many
people living there than in
We went to Dieng Plateau and saw our first
candi. (temple) We saw Candi Arjuna. They calculated
that there were about 200 temples in Dieng,
which were built during the eighth until the
twelfth century; now, only eight still stand.
The plateau was formed by magma that erupted
from Gunung Perahu many-many years ago.
The name Dieng comes from the term dihyang,
which means the place where the spirits of our
ancestors live.
They say the temples in Dieng are the most
attractive because they are in a plateau and on a
high elevation.
The temples here were used to worship the
Hindu god Shiva.
The guide says that Hindu civilization in Java
started here, 2,093 meters above the sea, with
the Sanjaya Dynasty.
9
When they came, the plateau was mostly
swampland. They used tunnels to dry out the
water. As the Hindu people were pushed further
east, the water came back in. Then the Dutch
came and maintained it.
Many people meditate here because of its
mystical aura there.
From July to August the temperature drops to
zero degrees Celsius and even minus two
degrees once.
There is much volcanic activity in Dieng and
there are as many craters.
The Dutch analyzed the geothermal prospective
for this place and UNESCO confirmed that it
has the best prospective in
In 1994 they drilled 1500 meters deep. They
drilled before, but weren’t as serious as the one
in 1994.
The power plant called GEO DIPA was built
between 1995 and 1998. Its capacity is 60
megawatts.
10
Ibu stopped at the office to introduce herself to
the manager of the plant, her client.
We wanted to go to Kebun The(tea plantation) Tambi, but it
was too expensive and took too long.
There was a problem with a satpam (sec. guard) who was
too lazy to open another gate so we could get in
easier. Mba reported him.
We ate at Kresna, ordering our food while on
the way there.
At Magelang we visited the place where
General de Kock of Dutch army ambushed
Pangeran Diponegoro when they called him to
negotiate.
They kept the seating arrangements the way
they were and P. Diponegoro’s seat was put in a
display case. The Prince was 180-190 cm tall.
I remembered seeing deer the last time I was
here. They were hiding when we came. We saw
one in clear view and a few rustling in the
bushes.
11
We couldn’t see Gunung (mountain) Merapi at Ketep pass
as it was covered by fog.
Ayah got mad at the driver for taking the long
way, going through Salatiga. Ayah himself
wasn’t clear in giving directions. Nobody likes
hearing Ayah angry. I asked Ibu to tell him that.
That night at
a five-star hotel.
Day 4
Solo - Blitar
river called Bengawan Solo that goes through
the city.
We visited Istana (palace) Mangkunegaran, which was
poorly maintained. The palace covers 10
hectares. Its pendopo, which is the largest in
The Mangkunegaran now is the ninth one. It
was the second one who built the palace. Some
of the people from the royal family still live
here. We were shown the collections of gifts
from other nations and horse carriages.
12
There was an ivory carving from Karang Asem
in
The royal family has normal jobs, their royal
status is just a symbol.
Personally, I like Keraton Kasunanan more, it
had trees and was more beautiful.
We went to Roemahkoe, a bed and breakfast
hotel, to look around and see the kampong(village)
batik.
We saw how they make batik and I asked the
steps of making batik, which I’ll read more
into.
Then we had some drinks and left for Grojogan
Sewu, which we skipped because of rain and a
long walk.
On the way to Telaga Sarangan, the sloping
road was covered by dense fog.
It was creepy like Silent Hill, the movie and
game, but fun.
I scared Mba when I mentioned that.
13
The car brakes also got very hot and were
smoking.
We ate at a red restaurant at the lake.
There were speedboats, duckboats, horses and
rabbit satays. (skewered meat)
We passed through a village called Plaosan,
which is where Kakung was trained to be a spy.
We saw many sugar cane fields on the tree-
lined road to Blitar, the hometown of Soekarno,
the first President of Indonesia.
We arrived at Hotel Tugu Srilestari. Soekarno
used to stay here whenever he went home and
we saw his room.
I saw Miss Indonesia 2007 that night and rooted
for the girl who won - Jawa Barat.
Day 5
Blitar -
This hotel had the biggest bathroom of all the
hotels I’ve been to on this trip.
14
Next on the itinerary was Bung Karno’s grave.
There were also a museum and library there.
We saw the first Indonesian flag, which was
knit by Ibu (Misses) Fatmawati, Soekarno’s wife, and
the suitcase that Soekarno always brought when
he was arrested.
There were lots of pictures of Soekarno and
other important people.
At the gravesite, we came across Opa’s (Dutch for grandpa) secreta-
ry when he was in Polkam - Mbak Nina. We
took a picture and exchanged phone numbers.
With my intellectual curiosity, I assaulted the
museum and library staff with this question:
who appointed Soekarno to be president? Well
I asked Ayah actually.
They assumed it was BPUPKI (Badan Penyeli-
dik Usaha-usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan
dekaan
record. (the people who organized preparation for independence)
I didn’t really care if they had it or not and I
wasn’t intending on stupefying them with my
15
question. It was just a thought that crossed my
mind.
It felt nice to know these facts: Soekarno’s
mom Ibu Ida Nyoman Rai, from
that he was going to be President and the
Japanese helped
independence.
They’re the ones who founded PPKI; they
called it Dokoritzu Junbi Cosukai.
proclaimed itself to be independent on 17
August 1945.
The legal recognition of independence happen-
ed in 1949 after fighting the British and the
Dutch. It was at this time that the bloody battles
occurred.
We explored another candi, this time Candi
Penataran.. It was found by the Dutch in 1815,
but the people recognized it in 1850. It has
three yards and is the biggest temple complex
in Jawa Timur.
From the carvings on the stone, they found that
they began building it in 1197 and finished in
16
1415. The carvings on the stone tell the legend
of Ramayana and Krisnayana.
There was a pool that had water from a natural
spring. There were some fish, huge catfish and
a crab in it. They say if you bathe in it jadi
‘awet muda’. (live longer)
The sun was beating down on us at 11 am.
We saw a tree that had a fruit called maja,
which was ‘pahit’ (bitter) and found out that it was
where the name Majapahit came from.
Ollie was always hounded by girls during this
trip, I saw a girl shaking hands with him from
the top of a candi.
Speaking of Ollie, he’s sick and it’s getting
worse. I hope I don’t catch it.
Ibu is intentionally bikin aku kaget, (shocking me) poking me
in the back, it happened four times now, and
they call me insensitive. (my brain was fucked up then)
We ate at Tugu Hotel in
collection of artifacts and pictures from various
cultures. The place was kept dark, maybe to
17
save power. It was quite scary, but that made
me want to go in.
We visited the devastation in Sidoarjo where an
oil and gas company, Lapindo, drilled reckless-
ly and caused hot mud to erupt, relocating four
villages and causing trillions of Rupiah worth
of damage.
Some people have died because of the noxious
fumes that spew out. This has been going on for
over a year. Some of the mud have already
dried and are cracked.
We only went close to the dried mud that
swallowed a whole housing complex and avoid-
ed the mud that was still bubbling.
A new dam was built near the bubbling mud.
Ibu was scared.
Some of the villagers who lost their jobs be-
came guides for people who wanted to see this
and the villagers ask people who came through
for money. We hired one and got through
easily.
18
I felt the sadness, thinking of the people who
lost their homes.
Then we stopped at
staying in Hotel Majapahit, once called Hotel
Oranje. This hotel is known to be haunted. It
also used to be a hospital.
After proklamasi, (proclamation) the blue strip of a Dutch flag
was ripped here and became an Indonesian flag.
It happened on a tower adjacent to the hotel.
The current hotel retained all the original
structures, the bathroom the doors and very
little of it was new.
I wanted Japanese food for dinner, Ollie and
Mba were sick, especially Mba, as she was
vomiting. I went with Ayah, searching for a
Japanese restaurant. We found one at Grand
Hyatt, Kazihashi and I had a bento.
We explored
the monument of a shark fighting a crocodile,
which people infer is where the name
comes from.
19
Day 6
We arrived at the midpoint of our trip and are
now heading west. We started the day late since
some of us were sick.
When I went to breakfast, my parents weren’t
there yet. I assumed they were exploring the
hotel. I ate anyway and they came later.
We asked a taxi to lead us to House of
Sampoerna, a museum about the cigarette
company and also a production line of the
cigarettes.
Mba had breakfast first.
Heni was our guide. She told us there were 500
workers rolling, cutting and packing cigarettes
in each of the six buildings. The workers can
pack 2000 packs per work day (six to four), cut
15,000 cigarettes and roll up 5000. All the
workers were women, the ones we saw at least.
Sampoerna had a scholarship program and they
help improve the quality of schools around
20
The founder of Sampoerna was Liem Seeng
Tee. He came to
1898 from a Chinese village called Anxi.
Within six months of arriving in
father died and he was adopted by a family in
Bojonegoro.
LST became independent at the age of eleven.
He worked non-stop for eighteen months at the
train tracks selling food to passengers until he
had enough money to buy a second-hand
bicycle to start a mobile business.
At sixteen he met the woman who would be his
wife - Siem Tjiang Nio.
Their business started as a small stall selling
various foodstuffs and cigarettes. Then LST
used a broken factory and Sampoerna grew.
Today Sampoerna is owned by Phillip Morris
and its president is the fourth generation.
It is the fifth largest cigarette maker in the
world.
Some of the family live here at the factory
complex.
21
All of Sampoerna’s cigarettes have cloves in
them.
I had little interest of the information above,
since I don’t support smoking, but anything that
gives legal employment is good.
We had lunch at the café and I felt nauseous.
We had a long distance to cover from
to Kudus.
We had the rare opportunity to drive along the
north coast; we had the
For a long time we saw nothing but the back of
trucks in front of us and a few truck accidents
that caused a jam.
I was getting restless, six and a half hours in the
car, going crazy, bitchy and rude.
We slept at Griptha Hotel in Kudus.
Tomorrow was Ayah’s birthday and we intend
be on time for him.
22
Day 7
Kudus -
Our hopes came true on Ayah’s birthday as we
left the hotel exactly at eight.
I knew I was going to get sick since I slept
without a blanket last night.
We saw Mesjid (mosque) Menara, which held the resting
place of one of the Walisongo, Sunan Kudus.
They were the ones who introduced Islam to
Jawa. The graveyard also had the graves of
princes and heroes. It had a serene aura, despite
the many pilgrims paying homage.
I shalat (Prayed) at the mosque.
My theme song for this trip was “Another
Chance” by Utada Hikaru, since her album First
Love kept playing and it wouldn’t get out of my
head.
We went up to Jepara and learned all about R.
A. Kartini. She fought for women’s freedom
and education. Women during her time in the
late 19
th
century could only do housework and
make handcrafts. They weren’t allowed to do
23
anything important. She was jealous of, but
loved her brother Sosrokartono who went to
She had many Dutch friends and wrote them
letters, with her skillful writing, expressing her
ideas for women in
friends was the director of education, Mr. J.H.
Abendanon. So you can imagine the extent of
her influence.
Kartini did so much in the short time that she
lived, dying not even in her thirties.
We saw the Kabupaten, where she lived.
There were two cages in the front yard, one had
macaques and the other had peacocks and
chickens.
On the way back, we passed by the place where
they kept Kartini’s umbilical cord in Mayong,
also her birthplace. (Didn’t actually stop though)
We went back to Kudus and stopped by Tuya
Troso, kampung tenun ikat. (weaving village) My parents bought
a framed mirror.
24
Then we looked around at Mesjid Agung in
Demak. The mosque was built in 1479 AD and
the original structure still stands.
It was hot. It was noon. I wasn’t feeling well
and the people there shoving books into my
hands and asking for money later didn’t help at
all. Heh, nothing is free.
I was feeling too sick to care and didn’t get
much written down about this place.
On the way to
churning and all I thought about was holding it
in.
I let it all out at Hotel Ciputra Semarang where
the staff congratulated Ayah for his birthday.
I had diarrhea with a congested nose and stayed
in the room.
We watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
before sleeping.
25
Day 8
I caught Hikki’s Flavor of Life video being
played on MTV. Nice and fresh way to start the
day.
At breakfast Ayah and Ollie were ga-ga over
Angelina what’s-her-last-name, a female mem-
ber of DPR or something.
We went to Lawang Sewu. Ayah, Ollie and
Mba looked around while I went to the hotel
with Ibu for my unpredictable diarrhea.
Next was the Sam Poo Kong temple or
klenteng, which was dedicated to Zheng He, the
Chinese explorer, who did accomplish more
than those European ones. He helped settle
wars in
rebellion somewhere else.
I felt lousy and didn’t bother to take notes. I
don’t think I even brought my book.
Had lunch at RM Puas.
26
We saw various priceless batiks on display at
the Museum Batik in Pekalongan. Some had a
mixture of styles from three countries. The
museum was pretty new.
Then Ibu and Ayah spent a while choosing a
batik at Oei Soey Tjoen.
That was the last stop until the next hotel in
Kuningan.
The road was terrible and trucks were slowing
us down.
That night we stayed at Tirta Sanita Resort and
Spa, which I’d say is the worst hotel we’ve
been to; not complaining though. We had a dip
in the hot tub at night when it was cold and
windy; not very smart of me.
Day 9
Kuningan -
In the morning we saw the house where
produced a cease fire treaty.
27
It was called Perundingan (discussion) Linggarjati, the name
of the place where it happened.
It was initiated by Sutan Syahir and Prof. Ir.
Schermerhorn at Syahir’s house.
The negotiations until the signing of the treaty,
which was in Istana Merdeka, took place from
14 September 1946 to 25 March 1947.
The mediator for the negotiations was the
Englishman Lord Killearn.
The transfer of sovereignty happened at Istana
Gambir on 27 December 1949.
The house was full of old pictures of the people
involved and what the scene was like.
Walking to the car, there were strong gusts of
wind.
We went to another museum in Sumedang
Museum Prabu Geusan Ulun, the last king of
the
and in it were various heirlooms, artifacts,
weapons, fossils, gamelan (music inst.) sets, horse-drawn
carts and other old stuff.
28
There were old banknotes from other countries,
which Ollie took much interest in.
Ayah found, in a corner, a collection of awards
belonging to Edy Soemadipradja, Oma’s (grandma) uncle.
I tried to care and record as much as I could
while feeling so faint.
After I decided I wrote and saw enough, I
waited in the car.
Pak Hadi wanted to know me better and asked
about my education. The only nice thing I have
to say about him is that he was strong enough to
endure Ayah’s rage without breaking down. Of
course I didn’t say that to him.
Then I had the best lunch on this crazy trip at a
restaurant with
sop buntut and pepes ati ampela. (lung, oxtail soup, liver)
There were a few landslides on the roads in
Sumedang and heavy-load trucks, that aren’t
allowed to use this mountain road, were
hampering us.
29
We saw a statue of Pangeran Kornel shaking
hands with Jenderal (general) H. W. Daendels.
Kornel, who was the grandchild of the last
Sumedang king, is famous for defying
Daendels who imposed forced labor on the
citizens.
We arrived at The Ardjuna Boutique Hotel and
Spa at around three.
Oom (uncle) Acun and his family were staying on the
same floor as our room was on and we were
going to have dinner with them. I stayed in the
room until dinner time, watching TV.
I met them at the lobby and played Eternity Memory of Lightwaves on the
Kawai piano. It felt so good.
We looked for a Japanese restaurant around
decided on The Sierra.
The menu had many different kinds of food and
I chose the wrong dish, just because it had
spinach in it. I ate Ibu and mba’s leftover udon.
30
It was unusually chilly, I realized, or maybe I
haven’t been to
Atun said it’s because of global warming.
Emir (their son), who only wore shorts and sandals, would
rather freeze than wear a pink sweater.
That was the last night of our 10-day trip.
Day 10
We said goodbye to the Acuns and went
shopping at the outlets.
I bought T-shirts, shorts and pants.
We shopped at three outlets - Uptown, Branded
Club and Cascades, where we had a snack.
We passed by the hospital where Ayah was
born: RS (hosptital) Boromeus and his elementary
school.
For lunch, we ate at Raja Sunda.
I felt crappy on the way home and wrote:
everything will be better when we get home.
31
When we got to
jams were on a different level than the ones in
the towns and cities we passed through. It was
unruly here. I found one reason why
such a mess.
The towns we passed through from Garut to
Wonosobo were clean and proper. This is
because the people living there are mostly or all
natives.
from all over the country.
These emigrants have no sense of responsibility
over the land they live in and, I learned from
Ibu, they don’t recognize the authorities here
and do as they please. Some capital.
We arrived home around five o’clock with the
meter on 2578 km and applauded the driver.
My parents exchanged apologies with him for
any wrongs done to each other.
We got everything out of the car.
32
Being stuck together in a mini-van for long
hours on the road really tests how much you
can endure other members of your family, a
driver you barely know and boredom.
Everyone, to some extent felt that.
I know I did the most, with those females
deliberately shocking me. This definitely added
to how draining this insane road trip was, but it
was worth everything and what a feat.
I now can say I know Java; well its culture,
history and landscape at least, but not its
wildlife.
I didn’t get to see much wildlife. All the good
reserves were further east and too far. Boo.
Maybe next time.
I apologize for missing any important things on
the places of interests because I was sick.
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