Getting to know a city thru running

December 04, 2014

Getting to know a city thru running

lush forest

one of many wooden bridges

I lived in bandung, west Java for 4 years during my college year and I loved it. In my opinion, It's more comfortable compare to Jakarta. Little did I know that what I thought I knew about this town barely even scratched the surface.

Before my visit, I asked trail runner indonesia group for routes. A kind man offered to take me trail running. I was stoked!

more wooden bridges

I emptied my morning schedule and got ready. In the car he mentioned that we would run to the top of a small mountain , called mount tangkuban perahu ( means upturned boat). The mountain has its own folk story behind it. Here's from wikipedia "The name translates roughly to "upturning of (a) boat" or "upturned boat" in Sundanese, referring to the local legend of its creation. The story tells of "Dayang Sumbi", a beauty who lived in West Java. She cast away her son "Sangkuriang" for disobedience, and in her sadness was granted the power of eternal youth by the gods. After many years in exile, Sangkuriang decided to return to his home, long after the two had forgotten and failed to recognize each other. Sangkuriang fell in love with Dayang Sumbi and planned to marry her, only for Dayang Sumbi to recognize his birthmark just as he was about to go hunting. In order to prevent the marriage from taking place, Dayang Sumbi asked Sangkuriang to build a dam on the river Citarum and to build a large boat to cross the river, both before the sunrise. Sangkuriang meditated and summoned mythical ogre-like creatures -buto ijo or green giant(s)- to do his bidding. Dayang Sumbi saw that the tasks were almost completed and called on her workers to spread red silk cloths east of the city, to give the impression of impending sunrise. Sangkuriang was fooled, and upon believing that he had failed, kicked the dam and the unfinished boat, resulting in severe flooding and the creation of Tangkuban Perahu from the hull of the boat."

more bridges

We started at the back of a residential area. 5 minutes into the run we started going thru thick bushes and passed couple waterfalls and wooden bridges. I was excited like a little kid. My guide was very patient waiting for me to take pictures. We kept running toward a huge area of tea plantation. I can't help but thinking why didn't I know about this area before!

The terrain got rougher, steeper, harder, and muddier. My white socks turned brown. I got scratch all over my legs and arms. But it was fun. It's not an easy run for me but i think this kind of terrain is very common in Indonesia.

It took us 4:44 min to get back to the car, and we run around 24km / 13.3 miles . By the time we drove off, the rain started pouring. A day well spent ..