Hidden gem | taken by me

You have no idea how happy i am to write another journey stories after this long break.

I made up this trip a week ago , with my travel - mate , called him Rey, my High school buddy, and just a short vacation to Purwakarta, a not-far city from Jakarta.

In short , what we'd like to do is basically an one day hike to Mt.Lembu and visit the dam , Jatiluhur but our itinerary got missed due to the weather so we only did the hike and its totally exhausting yet  the struggled one.

Well, for this trip i used Traveloka for the very first time to book my hotel ( not that fancy one tho) for both of us. I found no issue as a newbie so far since im clueless with this kinda app.







We were using a local train start from Tanjung Priuk station and around 2,5 hours to reach Purwakarta. Fyi, to reach the Tj Priok station, you could take the commuter line from Bogor to Jakarta Kota station and continue (without tapping out) to St Tj Priuk. To keep things in mind, the train schedule from Jakarta Kota to Priok not as regular as commuter line, the very latest schedule
around 5pm .  Better check out on schedule below mate!

source : Google

If i could rate about how good the St Tj Priok at that time, i will give 7 for the whole aspects. It basically an old station that re-opened again for public. Im not sure to reach the station by other transportation (e.g Trans J or Angkot) but if the schedule suits you, my best recomendation is to use the commuter train.

The ticket counter was opened around 2.30pm and luckily Rey has already bought me the tickets. No more drama in long queue hehe.

Our train came right around 4pm and we begun to stay on board even we still waiting around 15min until departure schedule.

And we are heading to Purwakartaa yoow~

Most of the passangers is a worker or people that work in Jakarta but lives around Cikampek, that's tough tho' , consider myself as a worker and complaining all the time for a not far length between my home and office. You lack of gratitude Clau!

R was a really nice person, i mean its our very first time meet up - since a few months ago, and thats a lot of things i dont know about his life and vice versa. So we have a lot of topics to discuss and im sure our trip wont bored as i thought firstly.

We arrived around 7pm in Purwakarta and soon i contact our rental for motorbike , i made an appointment to deliver the bike into the train station so me and Rey could reach our hotel by our own bike (too lazy to take any Angkot at night). What a well prepared journey Clau, he said (you have no idea how i plan my trip to Bali when i was 19 dude)

For our rental, i got the very reliable and responsive rental bike , named Eli Rental, find their web - online reservation right here .
And after we got our bike, we finally strolling the city and find our hotel , Indah Hotel, which placed in Jalan Basuki Rahmat, one of the main road for Pantura routes.
You shall not worry about distrubing honks and crowd, because the gate entrance is quite far from your room.
It has a very wide parking lots, and a very quite ambience. Besides it wasnt looks creepy at all.
But apologize my post , because i couldnt provide any detail about their facilities or rooms, literally i just use this place for sleep-and bath place, not a stay-cation or common holiday.

Arrived at 8pm, we cleaned ourselves and cant wait to hunt some good food in town. Well a good news is in front of the hotel, you could find a gas station and Alfamart (to be notice : its not 24h), so a lil bit life saver huh?

Our dinner that night were  nasi kucing foodstall - im missing this food sooo much, and calling back Jogja memories!
The funniest at this part when R spent almost 20k and 10k for myself, which is too expensive for nasi kucing foodstall LOL
Oh how i missed originally nasi kucing Jogja ~

Time showed that  we still have a night hours to spent  and wont go back too early (infact we are going to hike tomorrow), then we decide to have some coffee or tea at Stasiun Kopi - coffeshop.
Its near the train station - so yes its all about the place.
And why we choose this one : because its the only place that opened on weekday until 12am.

Thank God , there's not much people that night, we choose to sit outdoor since its a good night with moon above.
I ordered a chamomile tea and R a hot chocolate with a fried crisp banana.

For Godsake i was really tired as hell, so near 11pm i yawned for hundreds times and its a silent warning to come back and sleep. We ended our first and last night right after we stop at nearest convenience store to shop our breakfast and mineral water.

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Alarm rang around 5am, we just sleep for 5 hours and must get ready to chase our itinerary. Not much times to spent for us that morning, so after we are done brush our teeth, we are set up our maps get ready to Mt Lembu.


So, maps said its only take around 1h before we completely loss or take many stops along the ride, and we , as expect to be back at least 12pm due to our hotel check out session.

R make sure that we would be on schedule but i doubt myself for hiking. Let's see then lol

If i could describe how the view along the road is mostly buses for Lintas Pantura (a common road to cross the Java from west to east) and not much. But near the location, view was changed to be a very green forest with ups and down. Roller coaster driving mode activated!

Mt Lembu is actually in a same way if you are heading to Badega Mt Parang, its side to side , so it could be done in a day.

Arriving at the starting point and paid the tickets ( IDR 10k - local , 5k for parking) we could start the hike!

You shall not worry if you forgot bring some water , cause the local provide some foodstall there and some at up above.
To be notice, if you hike in weekday makesure to bring all you need from village to avoid if there is no foodstall open.

From blog i read, it should be takes around 1,5h to hike slowly so 3 hours to goin back and forth.
But if its about me to do hike , i ensure you i need 30min extra to take breath and photos - and R has deal with this hahah.

Hiking buddy | taken by me

It's a really good windy morning except for the sky sometimes cloudy or bright but rain isn't come yet.

We stop by at some point to take photos since its a really clear sky and i won't skip this for sure.

Literally, this spot is sacred and used to some people for praying. So there are many unknown tombs during your hike like two or three, and better to keep respect for local beliefs and manners.

The track reminds me of Semeru, from Pos 1 to Pos 2, sometimes there are fallen tree trunks, not much for "tanjakan" , just a well-made soil step, but my prediction will be slippery as hell if the rain comes.

Hills side by side | taken by me

And before you summit, you going to walkin in a mountain ridge which just has a small track - fit just two persons and the rest is some bushes after that a mountain cliff will be welcoming you once you fell.

In short, i was facing the summit with an empty ground, surround with giant rocks until you can't really see the view down the hill. BUT the signboard is welcoming us and ensuring that we are made the summit. What the heck dude..

All i was wondering there is must be another spot to take the view like all in Instagram has.

And we find the way!

Like one km from the top of the mountain, walking down and you see the last food stall and a traditional rest-spot made from bamboo and MONKEYS.

Please be aware of their existence and it's a LOT. Also, they will steal your food or even your coffee when you are sleeping.

Once we arrive the rain came. And there is a group of five also with us and probably stay overnight from the previous day.

R who afraid of monkeys and has a traumatic experience with them is sit quietly and playing his gadget to drive away his nerve.

I was like starving, almost freezing with my wet clothes, and have nothing to eat. The perfect combination to die in altitude.

Waiting for almost an hour for the rain stopped, and finally, we found what we expect!

Still cloudy

Took the photo around, we decided to go down in a very tight schedule due our check out time, its still raining tho', but we just go.

To be honest, the struggling moment begins we are facing a very slippery 'turunan' and silly things happened when two of us slipped and sliding down the way near the mountain ridge - which is mean once we out of the track, we may fight in Heaven blaming each other.

Full of dirt and bruised, we not even wash just ride our bike back to the hotel as soon as we could.

Not much after we arrive, clean ourselves and check out , driving straight to the station to travel back home.

I thought Purwakarta just a city passing by if we are doing an overland tour to the East but it took more than a night to see the whole city at its best. Will come in better weather for sure!



Costing :

KA Walahar and  Cilamaya   : IDR 12.000 (one way @ IDR 6000)
Rent bike                                : IDR 80.000 (share cost IDR 40 each)
Hostel                                     : IDR 209.000/night/room (++ breakfast for two , rate as per this post launched)
Entrance fee to Mt Lembu     : IDR 10.000/person
Ticket parking                       : IDR 5.000/bike
Etc (meals,gasoline,so on)     :  IDR 120.000/person (myself)

Estimated total cost : IDR 289.000

Info that might be useful for you :

Train schedule Tj Priok - Purwakarta (PP)

And i just knew the fact you could travel to Bandung with very budgeted for train if you are using this route and continue to another train (will try ofc)




Love,

C