Perayaan Imlek di Jakarta

Berawal dari pesan yang diforward ke saya tentang perayaan imlek oleh PT KAI bagi pengguna commuter line, saya bbm kawan ngebolang Debby. Gayung bersambut, dan jadilah kami janjian di stasiun kota. 

Cukup lama juga menunggu bus trans jakarta tujuan ke Harmoni, karena tak kunjung datang akhirnya naiklah saya ke bus tujuan ancol lalu turun di jembatan merah dan disambung dengan bus arah pluit. Akhirnya sampai juga di halte Jakarta Kota, kami pun sarapan dulu, di jalan yang menghubungkan halte Kota dengan stasiun Kota. 

ornamen lampion berwarna merah menghias jalan penghubung halte dan stasiun Kota, menyambut imlek

 Setibanya di stasiun Kota, kami sempat bingung juga karena tidak ada tanda-tanda pertunjukan barongsai. Namun fotografer dan reporter sudah ada di sana, jadi syukurlah bukan hoax :) Setelah menunggu beberapa saat, akhirnya pertunjukkan barongsai yang dinanti dimulai juga. 

Belum puas melihat perayaan imlek, kami pun menuju ke petak sembilan. Petak sembilan Glodok yang merupakan kawasan pecinan di Jakarta. Konon kawasan ini sudah didiami kaum Tionghoa sejak zaman Belanda. Dari Stasiun Jakarta Kota kami menuju ke pasar Asemka lalu berjalan kaki menuju petak sembilan. Dalam perjalanan kami lewati kawasan pertokoan, ada toko obat China, makanan/ snack import dan juga pedagang kaki lima yang menjajakan barang khas imlek (angpao, baju, dsb). Dan akhirnya sampailah kami di klenteng 

Charm of Gunung Padang

perjalanan di bulan Februari 2014

Is the gunung Padang is the world oldest pyramid? The mystery intrigues me, then my friends and I decided to travel to Gunung Padang. We met at Kampung Rambutan bus station, then we find a bus to Garut (IDR 22.000). 

Unfortunately it was a bit late for us to start our travel, when we pass Puncak, the police enforced one way traffic system for vehicles from Jakarta heading to Puncak. As the result we should wait, and it make our trip become so long.. To kill the time and get off the boredom, we step out from the bus and take a sit on the grass near by the road. There are lot of food seller nearby that area, yeah some people try to earn money from this situation, and I bought siomay. After waiting more than an hours, we continue the trip. 

siomay, apologize for uploading the picture from internet

One of the passenger told us to stop at the intersection instead of the bus station. We followed her suggestion and waiting for Angkot (public car), it cost IDR3.000 to Warung Kondang. Then, we rent an angkot from Warung Kondang to Gunung Padang (IDR120.000) for 7 person. It's a bit difficult to go to Gunung Padang since there was no public transportation. We negotiate with the driver so we can make a stop at Lampegan Railway Station. We also make a stop in a small restaurant. 

Angkot that we rent

Lampegan Train Station is a disused train station that was built in 1882. Near by the station there was an oldest train tunnel. It has 415 meters long, pretty long and dark. 

Lampegan tunnel

inside of the tunnel, a bit spooky :p

Lampegan train station, it so peaceful

After enjoying that place for about 45 minutes, we continue our trip to Gunung Padang. We enjoy the beautiful scenery of tea plants along the way to the site. It was really refreshing, different from the scenery in Jakarta (of course...). Usually I always fall a sleep during the trip, but the beautiful scenery made me stay awake (not the way back).

Finally, we arrived the gate to Gunung Padang, the biggest megalithikum site. It is not to difficult to reach the top of Gunung Padang but very tiring. There was 378 stairs step upstairs. Technically there was five levels of terraces that divided into two main areas.   

  

Tiring faces