Rainy Rafting
@Pangalengan, Bandung—Indonesia
A few days ago, I met a friend of mine, Silvia—her name is pronounced just like my late sister's—who just came back from her study in England for holidays here and she asked me to go out on a rafting trip this Saturday. I had never gone to one before, so spontaneously I said I was interested although it sounded a bit scary at first since I'm not a good swimmer; but hey, at least I can swim for life lol.
I was so excited for my first ever wild adventure. I packed my backpack on Friday night and left for Bandung the next day at 6:00 AM using X-trans travel shuttle along with Silvia and her friend. As usual, I slept all the way there hehehe.. We arrived in Cihampelas two and a half hours later where a rent car had waited for us. Actually, it was my second visit to Bandung. Previously, I took the train to get there for business trip, so the only wayI could really enjoy sightseeing was from my seat by looking outside the train window T.T
Malabar Tea Estate
On the way to Situ Cileunca, our driver took the wrong turn so luckily we got lost in Malabar Tea Estate. I said it was lucky cause the place was really beautiful and breathtaking. I had never looked so happy getting lost before lol. However, it took us more than an hour to get back to the right path which means we had to cancel our visit to Ciwidey White Crater. I was a bit disappointed since I really looked forward to go there as well. Ah, some other time, perhaps.
Anyway, I goggled the tea estate and here's what I found: The history of Malabar dates back to the 1890 when the culture of Dutch began to flow into the highland of Pangalengan which is known as the Swiss of Indonesia. The name of Malabar is believed to be from Arabian words, meaning "Mal-" for money, and "Abar" for a well or source. The Malabar Tea Estate was established in 1896 and Karel Albert Rudolf Bosscha was the plantation’s first manager. Later on, he was the General Manager to all tea estates in the Pangalengan region and he loved his life there. He died on November 26, 1928, buried among his tea bushes in Malabar as he had requested. His simple tomb is still there, unspoiled.
Airris Adventure—Situ Cileunca, Palayangan River
After getting lost for hours, we finally met our guide from Airris Adventure. Since we hadn't had a breakfast, we decided to stop by at a street vendor who made this delicious chicken porridge. Across the street, there's a meatball stall where my two friends bought these giant meatballs. I'm telling you, they were as big as tennis balls! They must have tasted good, but unfortunately, I don't like meatballs made from red meat.
With our full stomach, we headed to Situ Cileunca for rafting practice first such as responding quickly to guide's commands, paddling, and of course, life saving. Then, we did the real thing on Palayangan River. We had two instructors/guides on board to balance our boat since there were only three of us. The whole rafting ride was awesomely fun, especially under the pouring rain. And yes, we're so addicted that we wanted more lol.
Eventually, we ended up taking one more lap just to meet our satisfaction. The best part was, Airris gave us a discount for it! We didn't wanna miss a thing, so we spent more time at the mid-river meeting point for a little swimming and relaxing. Unfortunately, my phone camera was broken after it got wet during the ride so I couldn't take anymore pictures for the rest of our trip T.T
A few days ago, I met a friend of mine, Silvia—her name is pronounced just like my late sister's—who just came back from her study in England for holidays here and she asked me to go out on a rafting trip this Saturday. I had never gone to one before, so spontaneously I said I was interested although it sounded a bit scary at first since I'm not a good swimmer; but hey, at least I can swim for life lol. I was so excited for my first ever wild adventure. I packed my backpack on Friday night and left for Bandung the next day at 6:00 AM using X-trans travel shuttle along with Silvia and her friend. As usual, I slept all the way there hehehe.. We arrived in Cihampelas two and a half hours later where a rent car had waited for us. Actually, it was my second visit to Bandung. Previously, I took the train to get there for business trip, so the only wayI could really enjoy sightseeing was from my seat by looking outside the train window T.T
Malabar Tea Estate
On the way to Situ Cileunca, our driver took the wrong turn so luckily we got lost in Malabar Tea Estate. I said it was lucky cause the place was really beautiful and breathtaking. I had never looked so happy getting lost before lol. However, it took us more than an hour to get back to the right path which means we had to cancel our visit to Ciwidey White Crater. I was a bit disappointed since I really looked forward to go there as well. Ah, some other time, perhaps.
Anyway, I goggled the tea estate and here's what I found: The history of Malabar dates back to the 1890 when the culture of Dutch began to flow into the highland of Pangalengan which is known as the Swiss of Indonesia. The name of Malabar is believed to be from Arabian words, meaning "Mal-" for money, and "Abar" for a well or source. The Malabar Tea Estate was established in 1896 and Karel Albert Rudolf Bosscha was the plantation’s first manager. Later on, he was the General Manager to all tea estates in the Pangalengan region and he loved his life there. He died on November 26, 1928, buried among his tea bushes in Malabar as he had requested. His simple tomb is still there, unspoiled.
Airris Adventure—Situ Cileunca, Palayangan River
After getting lost for hours, we finally met our guide from Airris Adventure. Since we hadn't had a breakfast, we decided to stop by at a street vendor who made this delicious chicken porridge. Across the street, there's a meatball stall where my two friends bought these giant meatballs. I'm telling you, they were as big as tennis balls! They must have tasted good, but unfortunately, I don't like meatballs made from red meat.
With our full stomach, we headed to Situ Cileunca for rafting practice first such as responding quickly to guide's commands, paddling, and of course, life saving. Then, we did the real thing on Palayangan River. We had two instructors/guides on board to balance our boat since there were only three of us. The whole rafting ride was awesomely fun, especially under the pouring rain. And yes, we're so addicted that we wanted more lol.
Eventually, we ended up taking one more lap just to meet our satisfaction. The best part was, Airris gave us a discount for it! We didn't wanna miss a thing, so we spent more time at the mid-river meeting point for a little swimming and relaxing. Unfortunately, my phone camera was broken after it got wet during the ride so I couldn't take anymore pictures for the rest of our trip T.T
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