Saturday, 21st of April 2012 was the day
when the three of us, myself and my wife to be, were riding the 2 months old pulsar
220 and my twin brother with his 8 years old Suzuki Thunder went to a tiring
and full of surprises short touring through the Gunung Halimun-Salak National
Park or Taman Nasional Gunung Halimun-Salak (TNGHS).
I wanted to go there because i wanted to
see with the beautiful view of the national park of course and the canopy trail
it offered, plus the TNGHS was not too far from Jakarta. So, i conducted a
simple research to obtain more information about the TNGHS and the route and i
found that we can reach Bogor from the TNGHS without need to go back to jalan
Sukabumi Raya. So the planned route was start from Ciputat—Parung—Bogor—Ciawi—jalan
Sukabumi Raya—Parungkuda—Kabandungan (where the TNGHS office is—and find the
road that will take us to Bogor later—parung—ciputat.
So on Saturday morning at 6am we set off from ciputat
and we didn’t forget to buy bottles of water and gasoline in the gas station
near the starting point. We rode until some place near Ciawi to had our
breakfast and we choose chicken porridge or bubur ayam as the menu.
Right after we took some rest and finished
our breakfast we continue our riding for about one hour to get to the
Parungkuda intersection where the big rusty billboard showing the direction of
the TNGHS located.
The road went uphill from this intersection
right after we crossed the railway near the Parungkuda railway station. We kept
following the road and sometimes asked the local people where the TNGHS office
was. The road was pretty steep and narrow with some potholes so we needed to
becareful because there were many other vehicles on that not so wide road, most
of them were local people on their motorcycle and angkot (some kind of public
transportation using small cars).
My twin brother’s motorcycle needed to be
refilled so we made a stop again in a quite big gas station but they only had
premium not the high octane gasoline like pertamax or pertamax plus. We had
some rest again because the local people said that the TNGHS office was still
quite far.
The road was getting worse although the
view was getting better. The road we took suddenly reached a tea plantation and
we stopped for a while to take some pictures, then we continued our trip for a
while and yes, we reached the TNGHS office, but we couldn’t see any sign of life. It was closed, although we
can clearly see a sign there that the visitor should report here at the office
before visiting the national park.
Disappointed? yes. We
were so disappointed until we forget to take some pictures. But i remembered
that besides this TNGHS office, there was still one more objects that we could
visit, it is some kind of research center in Cikaniki where the canopy trail
located. The research center located about 15 km from the TNGHS office so i
thought that we could go there easily. But i was wrong, this 15 km to the
research center would lead us to unforgettable trip through forest and
beautiful tea plantation.
The 15 km full of mud, puddle
and rough rocky roads to the research center was just the beginning, because
there were still many surprises and tensions after we left the research center.
We made a stop at the
research center because we want to try the canopy trail it offered plus we need
to find a place to pray because it wa s about 2 or 3 pm already. No so many people
were at the research center, only a few cars and some people who stayed at the
research center`s guesthouse for the weekend. No officers or person in charge
available, so we decided to continue our trip. One of the guests said that we
might find more people not too far away at the some office or camping ground (I
forgot the exact name of the place he reffered to). 
Then we kept on going
slowly, through the mud+rock+water road through the forest and suddenly,
without prior notice, we arrived at the top of the mountain and the forest
disappeared changed with the beautiful tea plantation scenery, but still with
the rocky road. We could see the road much better now because there were no
tree branches and leaves blocking the sun like when we were inside the forest.
We were really amazed by the scenery but still the desire to find nice and
smooth asphalt road wes bigger than that, so right after we took some pictures,
we continued our trip. Then we found an intersection.
An intersection and a
rusty sign board showed only two directions from three different roads ahead.
One of the roads to the left led to the camping ground and certain office
building and it was only couple of hundred meters away and the road in the
center led to the certain curug or waterfall (and again i forgot the name).
There was no sign or direction to Bogor, where we want to go.
So, We diceded to go to
the left because it was shorter and we might find someone to be asked. Yes, it
was only couple of hundred meters away but the road was so steep and the rocks
were biger than before. Right after some thrilling ride through the rock road,
we arrived a t the local people’s house yard and asked an old lady which one of
those roads up there that could take us to Leuwiliang, Bogor. She replied our question
with er local language, Sundanese and we could not understand a single word.
Then suddenly, a glimmer of hope appeared when i saw a younger man was doing
some house renovation inside the house and i asked him. Yes, he spoke
Indonesian fluently and he told us to take the uphill road in the center, which
led to the Curug that i forgot the name.
Then, after saying
thankyou, we countinued our trip through the rocky road again and took the
uphill road the man told us. The view was still the same tea plantation, with
rocky road but the weather was different, the dark cloud hanging in the sky and
the thunder could not stop rumbling.
We kept riding through
the tea plantation and passed some motorcycles, two tea plantation security
office and one car. “Well, at least there are still some people passing this
road, so we are not alone”. Those were the words i kept saying to myself to
calm me down.
After the second the tea
plantation security office, the view was still the same, the dark clods were
getting darker, the tea plantation and rocky road which sometimes i though that
impossible to ride my Pulsar through it and at the same time i rode through it.
A few kilometers ahead, there was no more tea plantation and changed by a
thicker forest than before so we needed to turn our lights on, but still with
the same steep rocky road.
We were so surprised
because we never thought that right after the tea plantation we would find
smoother road or even a village and no more forest along the way, well, we were
wrong and we had no choice except to get through it because we know that we
could reach Bogor through this road (Because we have asked so many people and
all of them said that we could get to Bogor thorugh this road, although all of
them said that it was too far).
Well, we needed to be
more careful because it was 4 or 5 pm already and the rain started to come, we
rode in silent and no taking photographs since the tea plantation because we
were too scared maybe, and did not want to waste more time to stop and to take pictures.
After an hour or more
riding the motorcycle, we suddenly found something that we were really want for
about more than 6 hours, an asphalt road..oh, what a relieve. Well, it was not
a smooth asphalt, it was full of potholes but yes, it was a lot better than the
rocky, bumpy, slippery full of mud road. We stopped for a while to take a
picture and wore our rain gear and continued our journey through the potholed road and we reached a village
somewhere near Bogor.
We asked the direction to
the city of Bogor and rode our motorcycle non-stop through the Leuwiliang then,
the city of Bogor, Parung and safely landed at Ciputat around 9 PM...