Rindu Semalam di Ubud, Bali

Bukan tulisan romantis.

Ransel dengan berat lebih dari 7 kg menggantung pasrah memberati punggung saya. Penuh peluh, saya berjalan mengantar rombongan tour menuju penginapan di Ubud untuk check in. hari sudah gelap,gerimis mulai merintik, sedangkan badan saya sudah cukup lelah untuk menempuh jarak lebih jauh lagi karena telah berjalan ke sana ke mari seharian. Suasana gelap membuat saya kesulitan menemukan penginapan yang saya tuju.

Setelah setengah jam berlalu, satu tugas selesai, peserta tour telah masuk kamar masing-masing. Walaupun begitu, tanggung jawab saya belum selesai. Masih ada tetek bengek dengan makan malam. Saat semua terselesaikan, akhirnya saya mendapati sepotong surga yang berbentuk kasur karena seolah tak ada yang lebih melegakan selain melihat kamar tidur.

Saat itu, berkali-kali saya menerima sumpah serapah kawan TL. Betapa tidak, sehari semalam badan saya belum terguyur air dan sabun, keringat berkucuran dan saya yakin daki-daki yang menempel di tubuh saya makin menebal. Tapi bau badan saya mungkin tidak seberapa dibanding dengan sepatu yang seharian saya kenakan, kini beraroma tidak lebih enak dari rendaman pakaian kotor sebulan. Baunya pun seakan melekat pada kaki. Kalau bisa, saya copot dan buang kaki saya itu, dan menggantinya dengan yang baru karena baunya tak karuan, membuat mual. Hehe.

Sudah, air hangat mengguyur badan saya. Berlama-lama saya di dalam kamar mandi meluruhkan daki dan bau tak sedap. Tak ada lagi caci maki dari mereka. Kini, waktunya kopi, pikir kami, untuk sedikit relaksasi, walaupun terlalu larut.

Kami berjalan keluar dari gang sempit. Sunyi. Senyap. Yang ada hanya aroma dupa dan sesekali gonggongan anjing peliharaan setempat. Sepanjang gang, kanan kiri hanyalah penginapan khas bangunan Bali dengan arca-arca di pintu masuk mungil yang hanya dapat dilewati satu atau dua orang saja, café dan warung kopi kecil atau sekedar persewaan motor, dan beberapa kios spa dan pijat tradisional lengkap dengan tempayan berisikan air dan bunga kamboja yang ditata dengan cantik. Bunga-bunga kamboja bertebaran di jalanan, mungkin jatuh dari canang, tempat sesaji, atau dari pohonnya yang tumbuh di sepanjang jalan. Benar-benar tidak saya perhatikan sebelumnya saat saya mencari penginapan tadi.

Keluar dari gang, tak kami temui satupun coffee shop yang masih buka. Hanya ada swalayan 24 jam. Dan di situlah kami akhirnya berhenti dan menikmati kopi instan yang dingin sembari bercakap dengan seseorang local.

Makin larut. Kami putuskan segera kembali ke penginapan. Saya tidak merasa terlalu lelah saat berjalan, karena dua kawan saya ini begitu menyenangkan dengan lelucon mereka. Pun dengan suasana malam yang tenang dan syahdu. Saya mengakhiri malam yang terlalu singkat dengan menghirup dalam-dalam bunga kamboja yang saya ambil dari jalanan. Sungguh. Wangi. Khas. Ini Bali.

Dini hari yang dingin mengistirahatkan badan kami hingga pagi hari.

Alarm hp sudah melolong berkali-kali. Di luar kicau burung mulai riuh. Pagi yang terlalu memburu dengan tugas dan tanggung jawab lagi.

Tak sempat saya menikmati waktu santai di Ubud. Mungkin sekedar merasakan suasana pagi di balkon penginapan, merendam kaki di kolam renang, berjalan-jalan melihat persawahan hijau di bawah langit biru, duduk berlama-lama di coffee shop sambil memandangi lalu lalang kendaraan dan mendengarkan musik akustiknya saat malam hari, mengambil bunga kamboja dan menyelipkan di rambut dan bergaya layaknya perempuan-perempuan cantik.

Biar, ini terlalu berlebihan, because I’ve already missed Bali.

Can I ask for one more Ubud with the details i wanted, please?!

Stealing Wonder from Getting Lost

“Not all who wander are lost”. Kutipan dari J.R.R. Toelkien, penulis The Lord of The Ring, yang sering saya dengarkan dan saya baca ini tiba-tiba terngiang-ngiang di telinga begitu perjalanan saya waktu itu di Kinabalu seolah tak berujung. Saya tepuk jidat. Kalimat itu seolah tak berlaku untuk saya saat itu. Saya benar-benar tersesat di negeri orang. Sungguh, tidak ada kesengajaan dari saya untuk menyesatkan diri, terlebih di tempat yang asing.

Kota Kinabalu, 27 Januari 2013

Riuh rendah di luar hostel pukul 5 pagi membangunkan saya. Hari masih gelap, sinar matahari belum memaksa menerobos melalui kisi-kisi jendela. Saya sedikit menyibak gorden jendela, mengintip, penjual di Kota Kinabalu (KK)  mulai membuka dan menata lapak jualan mereka. Ada pasar Minggu. Saya dan dua travel mate bergegas berkemas dan check out, berjalan melalui hiruk pikuk pasar menuju pangkalan bus untuk menuju kawasan Gunung Kinabalu di Kundasang. 

bus menuju Pasar Kundasang

Seat di minibus sudah didapat, kami duduk manis sambil menikmati pemandangan bukit dan lembah sepanjang perjalanan dari KK menuju Kundasang selama dua jam. Kami turun di Pekan (pasar) Kundasang. Berbekal peta dari google, saatnya kami mencari hotel Seri Kinabalu Resort yang sudah dipesan melalui website.

Sekitar Pekan Kundasang

Tak perlu naik kendaraan umum lagi, karena letaknya di peta hanya sekitar satu kilometer ke arah barat dari Pekan Kundasang. “Ah, itu kecil buat kita”, pikir kami. Satu kilometer dari pasar sudah tertempuh. Seharusnya hotel sudah dekat, tapi tak nampak sedikitpun tanda-tanda adanya hotel. Tidak. Dua kilometer. Kami tanya penduduk yang terlihat di sekitar, tak ada yang tahu hotel tersebut. “Lho, masak google salah sih?” kami mulai meragukan keberadaan hotel dan google. 

Km 1

Km 2 yang katanya mirip Swiss, iya ga sih?

Kami berjalan kaki di jalanan yang menanjak, matahari semakin menantang di atas kepala dan begitu menyengat, udara kian panas hingga kami harus melepas jaket yang menempel di badan sedari berangkat tadi. Cukup aneh memang, karena Kundasang merupakan kawasan pegunungan, tapi temperatur tinggi. Sepertinya sudah tiga kilometer. Kami tersesat. 

Perjalanan yang semula kami nikmati, kini mulai kami keluhi. Tak banyak lalu lalang kendaraan. Tapi kami coba acungkan jempol pada setiap mobil yang melewati, tak satupun berhenti dan memberikan tumpangan. Keringat mulai benar-benar membasahi kaos, seperti orang habis tersiram air. Berkali-kali kami mengelap dahi yang berpeluh. Tak ada tempat teduh, kanan kiri rumput gajah. Haus, namun bekal air minum tersisa sedikit. Aduh, sial!

Di ujung tikungan, ada sebuah bangunan kecil. Kami putuskan untuk beristirahat sejenak di situ. Warung! Syukurlah, batin saya. Yes, makan! Energi kami mulai menipis. Sambil melahap mie instan layaknya gelandangan, kami ngobrol dengan penjaga warung yang juga sekaligus petani kubis. Kami juga ditemani seorang laki-laki, sebut saja Mas Bambang, yang ternyata orang Magetan. Jauh-jauh hingga ke Kinabalu, ketemu orang Jawa. Kami menyimaknya berkisah tentang perantauannya yang berat.

A meal and a view

Hingga akhirnya penat telah luruh, giliran kami bercerita tentang ketersesatan kami. Mas Bambang lalu menelpon temannya untuk meminta tolong mengantar kami. Sambil menunggu dan meneruskan bercengkerama di tepian jalan, kami memandangi jalan yang telah kami lewati. “Seperti di Swiss!” kata dua teman saya yang pernah berkelana ke Eropa. Rumput gajah di kanan kiri jalan yang tanpa pepohonan terlihat bak padang yang membentang. Indah. “Wow!” saya hanya mampu berseru. 

Km 3, kilometer terakhir saat kami menyerah.

Di kala menunggu

Akhirnya, teman Mas Bambang datang, kami pun segera berpamitan, berterima kasih terhadap bantuannya dan masuk ke mobil untuk diantar kembali ke Pekan Kundasang dan mencari petunjuk di mana keberadaan hotel yang misterius tadi. Walaupun teman Mas Bambang pun tak pernah mendengar hotel yang kita tuju, tapi dia bersedia mengantar kami bertanya sana-sini. Dan, akhirnya, kami mendapat jawaban. Lalu dimana? Entah siapa yang memasang gambar hotel di google diletakkan di arah barat Pekan Kundasang. Itu salah! Menjerumuskan! Letaknya satu kilo di arah utara Pekan Kundasang. Ah! Kami sempat memaki-maki sendiri, tapi tak tahu siapa yang harus dimaki, entah manajemen hotel, entah google, entah staff IT hotel atau staff website reservasi itu.

Tiba kami di pekan, kami bertanya ongkos, ternyata sudah dibayar oleh Mas Bambang. Kami semakin merasa berhutang padanya. Dan sesungguhnya ketersesatan kami tidaklah buruk. Kami justru diminta untuk melihat pemandangan menakjubkan dan bertemu saudara dari Jawa. 

Saat tiba di hotel, walaupun penampakan dan fasilitasnya jauh dari ekspektasi, tapi sekitarnyalah yang memanjakan mata kami.

The hotel. Dinding penuh kotoran kelelawar dan kurang terawat dan tertata.

Yet, getting lost is not always bad, dude! See these!!

Puncak Gn. Kinabalu dilihat dari belakang hotel

Puncak Gn. Kinabalu dilihat dari samping kanan hotel

The taken care beauty

To Sumba, To Savanna

Rinduku pada Sumba adalah rindu padang-padang terbuka
Di mana matahari bagai bola api, cuaca kering dan ternak melenguh
Rinduku pada sumba adalah rindu seribu ekor kuda
Yang turun menggemuruh di kaki bukit-bukit yang jauh

My longing to Sumba is yearning for the wide open savanna
Where the sun is like a fireball, season dries and cattle moo
My longing to Sumba is yearning for horses of a thousand
Which rumbling down in the distant mound

I may not be able to translate the last stanza of Taufiq Ismail’s “Beri Daku Sumba” (Give me Sumba) into a perfect poetic and rhythmic stanza. The entire poem I found some times ago do really make me want to meet the nature and culture of Sumba, an island in the middle-south Indonesia, the province of East Nusa Tenggara.  

I can see myself sitting down on grass under a tree while looking at the vast savanna. I imagine it to be like English village prairie or New Zealand meadow wrapped by the heat of typical tropical weather of a country under the equator line.

I am pretty sure that there will also be dozens or even hundreds of horses herded by the locals. Hearing the galloping of their feet and watching them running and racing in the grassland ridden by their masters looking like cowboy may lure me to ride one of them. I want to walk among the shoot of the wild grass and savor the touch of the afternoon wind.

As horses have been parts of the Sumbanese everyday life overtime, until the tradition of “Pasola” to collide muscle and power upon the horse’s brisket with a stick or “sola” now being a folk games attraction which should not be missed for everyone visiting the island, including me.

I don’t exactly know since when I love prairie, pasture, grassland, meadow, lea, sward or whatsoever it is called and picture me laying down on it. But, hey! I do not wish for laying under the heat of the sun on it for sure.

Dream, i dream about Sumba. 

Karimunjawa Archipelago, Beyond the Average

It was 12.00 a.m. and the air begun to be colder, when people just fell asleep while I was riding my motorcycle from Solo headed toward Jepara with three other friends of mine. For the second time, I started my journey to Karimunjawa archipelago, geographically located more than 80 km north away from Jepara and culturally comprised of three different tribes; Java, Madura, and Bugis. Ferry Muria was the only transportation available in Jepara to crossover at the time which is not every day. Lucky us not to wait in a long queue to get the boat ticket. February was not crammed with people going to the island. It will be more crowded in the peak season from May to October which is also the best time to visit.

Six hours on the boat. The only amusement on board is television. Dolphins’ parade might also be seen in the middle of Java Sea, but it’s not always, only in June till August. To pay the exhaustion of the voyage, an ewer of fresh cold young coconut juice was served on the round table under terminalia cattapa in front of the homestay we lodged. Since we traveled on a shoestring, we set up in a homestay room which is far cheaper than in a hotel or resort. We only spent IDR 80.000 per room per night. It’s not quite solely, as it is a family’s house with shared bathroom. It is a clean and nice dwelling though.

 People say that the island is a perfect place to catch a wonderful scene of sunset. And they were right! We witnessed it from a small dock where many colorful fishermen’s fishing boats were attached to. We captured it. Not any stumbling block nor cross beam got in the way the sun to sleep under the horizon. Beautiful it was. The gold hour led to the blue one. The sky was amazing.

We took a walk during the first night in the island and stopped at an open place, quite a town’s square, not far from the dock. It is the busiest place at night. Local people build food stalls, sell local cuisine like bakso ikan ekor kuning (yellow tailed fish meatball), ikan bumbu srepeh (grilled spiced fish), pindang serani (kind of fish soup), clam satay and other grilled sea foods. The tourists flocked around to dine in crowd.

Night is always be where the crowds meet their world. Yes, night when the electricity is available from six to six (from evening to morning). Town’s square, café, and souvenir shops are fully filled. The island is only a small town yet the number of travelers and backpackers of either domestic or foreign is increasing more and more since words which are easily retrieved in the virtual world take most roles in raising the island’s fame. The government and local are seemingly trying to improve the accommodation and transportation facilities. One more fast boat is added from Jepara to encounter the greater number of travelers. The airport is in progress for enlargement. Many new buildings are constructed for lodgings ranging from the economic class as where I lodged to the more luxurious ones. The rate of luxurious lodging varies from IDR 200,000 up to IDR 1,300,000 per night. A bank and an ATM are now open for public. Some internet cafés are provided, not many though. Besides, small stores and food stalls selling daily needs are currently easier to find in the roadside. Bicycles and motorbikes rentals grow like fungus.

Local people know their home better and we asked them where to hit the spot for sunrise. At 4.30 a.m., half awake, we headed to Nyamplung Ragas, eastern part of the island, 15 minutes by motorbike from the homestay. God granted an epic sunrise along with cold morning dew dripping from the grass. Surprisingly, a one meter long lizard crawled crossing the street on the way back to homestay. The island is said to be occupied also by deer, monkey and other reptiles like snakes.

Morning is time to start snorkeling activity and island hopping. But, wait. We were not going to hop on some small islands namely Tengah, Kecil, Menjangan Kecil, Menjangan Besar, Cemara Kecil, Cemara Besar, or even Geleang. We switched from the standard itinerary, turned our back on those islands, diverted the direction of the boat to east farther, to triangle-patterned islands of three; Genting, Sambangan and Seruni.

Two hours to the destination was lapsed by sailing passing some islands and shorelines in the main island, watching seagulls hunting fish for feast and enjoying the fresh ocean air and the blowing wind. I remembered we screamed for we were mesmerized looking this deserted place. We anchored the boat in the middle of these three islands where a long white sand bank is widely unfolded contrasted to the blue of the ocean and the sky. It is more like a tiny beach in the heart of the triangle-patterned islands. I sauntered along the sand bank and set my eyes on blue starfish lounging here and there. 

Genting Island is one of the five among the 27 islands in Karimunjawa archipelago which are inhabited. The residents are not so many compared to the main island. Neither are the tourists. Hence, we owned the crystal clear coast just then and played in the shoreline. It was pretty quiet so we really could hear the wave rippling kissing the sand.

Getting into the blue near Sambangan Island, we snorkeled on the incredibly clear visibility water. We wanted no more but an underwater picture perfect. Various characters, size and types of corals, reefs and fish schooling full of color spoiled our eyes. This underwater spectacle which grew without blemish on all over the sea floor seemed remain untouched. 

Splendor is not the only thing to be pictured. A glimpse of a swoop was caught on sight in the 7 meters deep sandy sea floor and ray fish swam across below us. Though panic attacked us, we tried to stay calm to avoid its reaction which can harm by its poisonous sting on its tail. Some things also ought to be taken into account that there some should-be-avoided sea creatures. Fire coral, stone fish, urchins and jellyfish are some of them.

Unnoticeably, noon came so soon. The sun was getting higher and fiercer. Our skin begun burnt and our belly be hungry. We lied on the floury white sand of Seruni Island under a pine tree while waiting for lunch. A lip smacking grilled fresh fish from the ocean dished with sweet and spicy soya sauce was perfect for saving our starving tummy. The remaining day was consumed for canoeing and snorkeling in the deep of Sambangan Island. It is as stunning as the previous site.

 The sun glided glamorously above the saffron skyline as the day turned into night and we navigated back to the main island. Night attraction in the island besides mingling in crowds is when we look up to the sky. It is where the constellations of stars and the Milky Way galaxy are brightly and clearly seen, the free and real planetarium with the limited lighting.

Snorkeling is indeed the main activity in the island. Yet, hills and forest are two things that should not be missed. We spent one more day trekking in these places. Nyamplungan hill is located ± 300 meters above sea level. It is a graveyard of Sunan Nyamplungan, one of the Islamic preachers from Java in the times of yore. The local respect it as a sacred place because most of them are Moslem. We met some visitors from several towns in Java such as Kudus, Demak, Pati coming to this site for praying. Small fount in the middle of the woody graveyard is believed for recovering diseases and bringing fortune. Above all this, the view is spectacular. We can see the land and small islands scattered from this hill. 

On the outskirts of the island, grow mangrove forest in a wide area. The officers of Karimunjawa National Marine Park take big roles not only in maintaining the forest but also in building the access for trekking activity for educational tour. The trek was constructed last year with 1 km long completed with shelters and information boards.

We had one last night to spend before we bid adieu to the island and had another 6 hours on the boat to Jepara. We needed something from here to be brought back to our hometown. Centered souvenir shops sell everything representing the island. Mention like T-shirts, bags, key chains, things decorated with sea stuffs, even preserved foods are available. Satisfied is not the suitable word to express for there are still unvisited small islands outside the main island. But for God’s sake, it’s a heavenly island!!

It was also posted on indonesia.travel