I went to the train station early but I missed the train by 1 minute which meant I had to stay 5 hours for the next train. I couldn’t go anywhere because I was told the traffic is very bad and if I leave to another place I may not be able to come back on time. At the train station, I noticed the TV at the train station plays some religious songs and they use musical instrument like guitar, base, piano just like regular songs, which is different than the Middle East where religious songs use only a type of drum. This also reflects on Indonesia not to be very strict or more moderate when it comes to religion.
While on the train from Jakarta to Bandung, I was chatting with a friendly Indonesian girl her name Yulivia who works as a teacher for special needs students. Yulivia invited me to join her and her friends the next day to go to Tangkaban Perahu, it’s the mountain area just outside Bandung.
Next day I went to meet Yulivia and her friends, although it wasn’t easy getting there but I wanted to meet them and learn from them about Indonesia and its wonderful people. I met them and they were wonderful people just like everyone I met and meet every single day since I arrived in Indonesia. Unfortunately, language was a barrier, only one of her friends spoke English; they told me that they were shy to speak English.
Still I was very happy to have met them and I hope to come back again in Indonesia, speaking some Indonesian next time would help.
Along with Yulivia and her friends, we went to the Tangkaban Perahu. It’s very nice overlooking the city of Bandung, and it has an active volcano. I was expecting it will take us longer but we were done in a couple of hours while meant I could leave early to my next destination. I left Bandung on a bus to head to Jogjakarta and the trip was very long almost 11 hours but I slept most of it. Once good thing, the seats on the bus can become like a bed or an incliner chair.
