Pine forest

Day 71 – Pasar Kedu, Central Java, Indonesia

I was told that we were supposed to go to a waterfall this day, but communication obviously was a bit broken: when the other foreign guests got up, it was too late or the rental car wasn’t available, I’m not sure which.

We spent the day home, playing with the children, walking around, and so on.

There is no fridge or freezer here, so our hostess cooks in the morning and the food sits on the counter all day, waiting for us to get hungry. When it is improperly protected, ants get into it. It is not really appetizing.

We sit on the floor in the front room, or on crates outside. The young children mill around when we are out, asking “muter-muter”, to be spinned around. The play football in flip-flops, which to my eyes is an amazing feat.

Day 72 – Temanggung province, Indonesia

Today we were supposed to go to the school in the afternoon for the English class, but the teacher dropped by last night to say the children were preparing a celebration for Monday and wouldn’t have the class after all.

So we headed to the pine forest. I was expecting a nice walk in a forest, but apparently here a pine forest is an area with, of course, pine trees, but more than that, games, platforms to climb on, and a cafe. Our host drove us here, and basically spent his time talking with his friends here while we walked around or snacked with them.

Umbrellas decorated to look like cat heads show the way in. Many of the materials used to make the playground are recycled, from cut-out tyres to make swing seats to pipes to make ramps.

It is also a coffee exploitation, with sparse undergrowth making way for orderly rows of coffee trees just beyond the play areas. The pine sap is harvested, there are cuts in the trunk of the trees with collectors tied under them.

After the pine forest, we went… to another pine forest, breaking for lunch on the way. This one is higher up, on the early slopes of a mountain (which is probably an ancient volcano, we are in Central Java after all).

This time, no coffee trees in view, though I think they would probably just be a little farther. There was a zip-line without harness or break, and an archery area. One of the worker brought out two bows and a few arrows, and we tried to reach the target as much as possible. It was fun.

It was pleasant, there were more grassy areas, and obviously teenagers from around come here to hang out and drink local coffee.

After the second pine forest, we went to a coffee shop belonging to a coffee exploitation, then finally went home.

From the car throughout the day, we passed wonderful scenery. From endless tobacco fields with a mountain on the background to terraced rice paddies, from pine forests to colourful villages, and all with the special driving present in Asia: traffic lights are made to be loosely respected, the bigger has right-of-way on the smaller, and so on.

Almost everywhere, tobacco leaves are put to dry out in the sun on big frames, in villages, in fields, along the road.

My nose got unstuffed the night before, and I started really smelling how much Indonesian smoke. In houses, in cars, in coffee shops. As I can’t stand it, I regretfully announced to my hosts that I would be leaving.