journey to Pangadaran, Jawa Barat

It was a simple journey.

We planned it differently and abruptly changed it in last minutes.

The travel we had was purely based on other people's experiences that we gained through internet and friends. No one in the group had ever went to Pangadaran.

The hotel was booked by phone. Transport to go there was not confirmed and we didnt even know which bus and how it looked like. Everything was a gamble to us.Hati lup-dup-lup-dup,tapi muka senyum jer ^______^.Yes.That was us.

Transportation from our place to the bus station only cost us Rp 4500( around rm2).

Waiting and finding the bus at the station was a challenge. We didnt know when it came, how it looked like and how many people were waiting for the same bus which apparently was a lot.It was a struggle to go in and get a seat. Konsep mereka,pat pat siku lipat.Siapa cepat dia dapat. Condition of the bus was poor. It was supposed to be an airconditioned bus but it was not. :(

Funny thing,they even used the bus to transport a motocycle.Imagined how the motocycle used up most of the back space.Some of the boys got cramped at the back.Luckily i was fast enough to get a front seat.Poor them. I thought, only train had a service like that. -_-"

Even funnier, the journey which was normally took 6 hours but when it came to our time, the road was packed with people who's going home for Aidiladha. The journey to reach Pangadaran took 12 hours of our life.As the bus fare was only Rp 65000( around rm22), we endure. Positive mind told us,this is how a backpacker should experienced. We bare in mind that we might ended up sleeping on a street or mosque too as the hotel was not confirmed yet.-_-

 This pakcik was conductor of the bus.Because the bus was fully seated, he sat on the bus stairs up until Pangadaran. See how hard people in here work only to get rezeki yang halal?!!:(

Semoga Allah murahkan rezeki pakcik ni =)

...................

We reached Pangadaran around 7. And frankly speaking, we didnt know how to get to our hotel.Yes we knew it was on Pantai Timur.But nobody knew which Barat and which Timur.The only guide we had was the sun and the beach. There were trishaws at the station but they asked for rp30,000 (+/- RM10). We refused as we knew it only cost Rp 15000 to get where we wanted to go.(hahaa.tengok betapa bersungguh  kami search internet.Harga beca pon kami tahu >_^)

We decided to just walk and ask the local people around. After an hour and a few phone calls, we reached our hotel. And it was not a hotel.It was a small motel called Pondok Morris. -__-"

But the accomodation was not as bad as it sounded. The motel was clean and cute.The owner, Bapak Morris was even cuter and very nice. As our group consist of 11 people,so  we rented 4 rooms. Each room can accomodate 3 people. They also served us breakfast. We paid Rp100,000-150,000 (Rm30-50) per night for a room. 150k divided by 3.Super cheap isn't it?Memang -_-

After get rested for a while, we started our plan. First place we went to is Cagar Alam. Cagar Alam was actually connected to another beach. The slight different was Cagar Alam is cleaner and it got white beachsand while the other one is black as Cagar Alam was protected and we had to pay to enter. Per people was only Rp7000( RM 2.30).

To get to the beach, we had to pass a spinney. As u all see,Subhanallah!! The scenery was very bright and beautiful. All the stress that we accumulate during clinical was gone as soon as we saw a cristal clear water in front of us.

The only thing that lacked was, there was no food sold there. We had to get back to the other side to buy food and bring it there. But as you know, foods attract animal. The monkeys start coming after a while.

In Cagar Alam they offered a boat-tour and snorkeling for the tourist. The snorkeling cost Rp30,000 (RM10) per people.But believe me, it wasn't worth the money. The water was clean and clear but abviously there was nothing to look at other than stones, mud and small fishes. You were just floating around and get pushed back to the offshore, ended up seeing other people's feet.HAHAHA!!

For the boat tour, the tour guide who was also the boatman brought us to five places. (we shouldnt called it 'place' as we only stayed on the boat and he pinpointed the places) .The only one i remember was Gua Kelamin which was used as a place to treat mad people during Japanese times.

This is not birds.They were bats. Forgot to tell, Cagar Alam got few caves but we didn't enter.

And deers were like cows and goats.We can find them everywhere along the streets. They didnt even afraid of human. -__-"

The next day, we went to Green Canyon. The canyon was so green as it was all mud under it. From the place we stayed to Green Canyon, we rented a small van for Rp 250,000(RM100). And paid another Rp150,000(RM50) per person for the body rafting.

Yes.That was the truck which brought us to the initial point for body rafting. It was freaking scary as we went up to a hill. Nobody moved a muscle.Nobody thought to take a picture of the situation since  everybody tried to stay where they sat and clenched the truck border.

This is us before we went up the hill.

The most hateful situation was when the instructor asked everybody to start jumping to get in the water. I didn't know how to swim.And even when u had a life jacket, u still submerged down under before u get afloat back up to the surface.

So as others happily jumped into the water, slowly I crept near the edge and get in the water.HAHAHA.

The scenery was amazing.I dont know how to describe it in one word. Only Subhanallah came out of my mouth. These are only a few pictures taken by the instructor while he get rested waiting for us to reach several points. If these were beautiful enough for u you to see, try imagine all the sceneries we saw while we lying face up on the water as we couldn't hold a camera to put it into picture. It was just saved as a memory. And hoping it lasted long enough for us to remember.

We got 900 photos.I cant upload everything here.So here the last picture from Pangadaran taken during our way back home. 

Another tips for backpackers, there were only two trips of bus from Pangadaran station.One at 6.30 am and the other one at 6.30 pm. Only few companies provided a bus from there and it was another struggle to get a seat. because we wanted to go and get back as a pack, we decided to wait until there was no more bus left for us. So we spent another night at Pangadaran and catch the bus on the next morning.

And that's how we ended our sweet escape and get back to the concrete jungle and struggle more..=)

p/s: All photos are not edited.