My first venture out of the smog filled city was to the Puncak
(pronounced Poon-chak) region south of Jakarta. Puncak translates as
"summit" or "peak", but is used (as far as I can tell) to describe
just about all of the mountainy land to the South, whether it's
actually a peak or not.
Five NJIS teachers and I set out after school on Friday for the Westmore's weekend getaway house. (For those of You who don't know, Evi Westmore was a fellow class of '97 Skidmore graduate whose parents now live in Jakarta.) The house was wonderful. It's up on a hill, surrounded by tea plantations, and although it's not too big and there wasn't hot water, it was wonderfully relaxing. A large porch, many comfy chairs, and the fresh air made sure of that.
Friday night we just chilled in the cabin with Evi and her mom, ate some Chinese food, played Scrabble, and slept. Saturday, 4 of the teachers, Evi, and I hopped into the school van which we rented (250,000 Rupiah = US$80 for two days, including driver) and drove to the trail head of a hike through a rain forest. We only did the first leg (3.7 km) of the hike up to some awesome waterfalls. After hanging out at the falls for an hour or so, we climbed down the mountain and went back to the Westmore's house. Later on that afternoon, 3 of us then walked through the nearby tea plantations for a bit. That night involved more Scrabble, chatter, reading, Mr. Westmore's arrival, food, and sleep. A very good day over all.
Sunday we woke up and sat around on the porch until noon or so. Even at 7 AM the sun was strong enough that people were getting burnt. I guess that's what being 7 degrees off the equator does to You.
While we sat on the porch and ate and read and talked, various people came up to the house and tried to sell us ceramics, cloth, blowguns, wooden boxes, and food. One guy came up with a few baskets of bananas, tomatoes, and other fruits. After Mrs. Westmore bought some tomatoes, the man started talking about how heavy his load was and he asked if I wanted to lift it. He claimed the load was 80 kilos (176 lbs.), but because I was able to actually lift the thing I don't think that was quite right. Must have been that heavy at the beginning of the day. Either way, it still was very heavy (I'd estimate 100 or 120 pounds) and I wouldn't want to have to walk around with it on my shoulder all day.
An hour after my weight lifting session we packed up the van and headed back to the crowded city of Jakarta.