Green Canyon : Indonesia's Treasure.

Ep.20

Green Canyon, Pangandaran, Indonesia.

2-4^th June 2011

“Knowing others is intelligence, knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, while mastering yourself is true power.” – Anonymous.

Me awed by nature

 A little flashback to where it was just days before I started my cabin crew life. When my final project was 99.9% done and my brother has confirmed his departure to pursue his career in Sydney, Australia. He texted me, asked me whether I’m interested to join for a little adventure trip to the Green Canyon, Pangandaran Beach, West Java, Indonesia. Guess what’s on my mind? I thought it is a good vacation trip just before we go separately to pursue our next phase of life (try to be a melancholic). So we agreed to go on a trip, which consist of my big brother, his girlfriend and me. And we will reach Green Canyon on a road trip. By car and a map in hand.

say hi to the group

Batukaras beach

Pangandaran beach is located in the direction of south from Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, where I was born and spent my first 22 years on earth. We departed from my house at 8-9 pm. in order to avoid the traffic. My brother was driving, we went to a mini market and ATM to draw some money and keep ourselves well fed during the road trip. Ah! I haven’t mention how long the trip gonna take. Green Canyon is 14-16 hours driving distance from Jakarta (on a normal rate). Drive drive drive, speed speed speed. We chat, we laugh at someone or something we saw on the street or even at the person that showed us directions (bad examples). We stopped once at the gas station to refuel the car and empty our bowel and bladder.  And at my brother driving ability, we arrived at Pangandaran beach at around 6-7 am in the morning. What would we do next? Of course try to find a place to stay. We drove over to the direction of Batu Karas and we passed by the Green Canyon. It was still closed and it will be open at noon time.

Green Canyon Entrance

Green Canyon is actually a natural tourist attraction (that I usually mixed up with Grand Canyon in US) located in the Kertayasa Village, Ciamis, West Java, approximately 31 km from Pangandaran. The Green Canyon name was introduced by tourists from France. The color of the river water that greenness possibly became this place reason was acknowledged as Green Canyon. Whereas the name before, Cukang Taneuh meant land bridge because of the existence of bridge in a wide manner 3 meters and long reached 40 meters that connected between the Kertayasa Village and the Batukaras Village. We looked for a room in Batukaras Village, there are a lot of inns and hostel or guesthouse that were rented for a very affordable price. We chose one that look pleasant and decent and for a double bed room with sharing bathroom, we were charged for Rp. 315,000 per night. The inn was really nice, with its pool and only several rooms. My brother decided to take a nap for a while (he surely need some after long driving session), while me and his girlfriend decided to stroll around the area to find something (read: nice view to take a picture with). We bought ourselves Es Kelapa Muda in a stall near Batukaras beach and we hit the beach as well.

my silhouette

The view there was beyond my expectation. The only sentence I always repeat in my head is “wow, thank you for keeping me alive to see this kind of view by my own bare eyes”. It was sort of indescribable feeling that you cant even put into words. Nature is something you can’t compare with anything that made by human. Ah! I forgot to introduce my brother and his girlfriend. My brother is Andrew and his girlfriend is Evi. So Ci Evi and I were having our own private photo session in the beach. We were too excited until we do not realize that the waves of the sea swept our sandals from the shore, until she realized that one of her sandals was floating in the background of my picture. It took a great effort from us to find our own pair of sandals. I even had a thought to buy a new one. But in the end we found it anyway.

Posing before we start!

yummy seafood lunch!

We went back to the inn and ready to go to Green Canyon adventure. But, before that, we have to refuel ourselves with a good lunch. We went to Kang Ayi restaurant where seafood (of course!) became the commodity of the menu variations. The funny thing is, due to many foreigners come and visit this area, they felt obliged to translate the menu into English and the translation is, what to say, direct translation from Indonesian to English, which successfully made us laugh throughout our lunch. As far as I remembered, we ordered gurame goreng kering, cumi goreng tepung, another fish menu, cah kangkung and rice. It costs us around Rp. 250,000 for the whole big lunch. After we had our lunch, we went directly to the Green Canyon. 

grab the rocks

There was a long queue already and we managed to buy ourselves a ticket. From the ticketing booth we can already see the mouth of Cijulang River that became the aim of being the tunnel resembled the cave that was under land bridge that was known with the Green Canyon Cave. To reach this cave, tourists must follow the Cijulang River used the boat that was mentioned as “Ketinting” (the ticket we bought is to ride this thing). This boat can be only occupied by 5 passengers. There were only three of us and then there is a mother with an infant that separated from their family coz their boat doesn’t enough. We agreed to let her join our boat, anyway, we try to help a family to enjoy their trip as well here. The rental price of the boat or “Ketinting” is Rp 125,000. – per boat. Time that was needed to carry out the trip that was begun from the Ciseureuh quay towards the cave approximately 30 minutes. The water condition is not so good at that time due to rainfalls during the past few days (it rather became “brown” canyon instead of “green”).

you'll see this along the cave wall

the other view that awed me.

Along the way to the cave, I kept repeating in my brain, how blessed I am to be able to see this wonderful place by my own bare eyes. Along the side of Cijulang River, we could enjoy the hill that was overgrown green bushy trees and the stone that decorated it. The trip will not bore because its picturesque and relaxed scenery enjoyed the river current. As soon as we arrived at the cave, “Ketinting” can’t go in furthermore due to the landscape and current. From this point on, the real adventure began. We hired a guide for three of us (the mom and the baby stays at the boat) for Rp.150,000. We have to wear the life jacket over our body but no helmet, no other whatsoever guards. The only thing protection that we got is the life jacket. How thrilling! And I love it! We climbed the rock, swam in the opposite direction of the current. Pulled ourselves by hanging on a rope to reach the other wall of the cave. Doing those things for about an hour made me used to it already. Andrew is a great climber, a true adventurer, I almost think that we don’t even need to pay for a guide, he could be one. The guide’s tasks that day is really light, he only has to guide me and ci Evi. Andrew can go on his own. We took a rest every time we reached a big rock, we let our breath taken from us by the view before our eyes. We took some picture (read: lots) here and there and everywhere to capture the view (lucky Andrew brought his waterproof pouch for the camera). In middle of the adventure, we arrived at a huge rock on the side of the cave. Our guide dared us to jump from that big rock. Conditions? To climb onto that rock, you should do some cave wall climbing, then I would rather say it was only 3-4 meter high, but if you jump to the wrong point, you’ll get yourselves caught in the current or hit onto the rocks. Our answer? Hell yeah to the dare!

me climbing the rocks.

Andrew took the first jump, then I did my jump, last but not least, ci Evi took her jump. All of us were success, no one hurt, just some scratch from the rock climbing session. Our guide dared us for the second time, would we go further to the end of the cave, see the waterfall and jump ourselves to what so called “body rafting”, which means, we let ourselves fall into the current and let the current bring us back to the entrance of the cave. What say we? YES please! The current is getting stronger as we swam towards the end of the cave. By the time we arrived at the waterfall, we catch ourselves some breath and JUMP! to the current. The current brought us back to the entrace of the cave where our “Ketinting” boat was waiting. It took us around 2.5 hours to reach the inner cave and it only took less that 15 minutes for the current to brought us back by the body rafting. We hop on our boat and sail back to Ciseureuh quay. Along the way, we chat with the lady on our boat, we said to her that we’re planned to have our dinner in Pangandaran fish market, and surprisingly, she said she knew how to get there and offered us to follow her car. Lucky! (I’m starting to think that I am a lucky person, ain’t I?) 

Seafood fiestaa

After we cleaned ourselves, my tummy indicates that it was the time to be refueled (water sport always drain your energy as twice). We follow the lady’s family car and arrived at Pangandaran fish market around 7 pm and it was truly a fish market. There, you can choose your fresh seafood, weight them, and tell the fishmonger to cook it any way you like. They only charged you the sauce. We ordered so many that actually I forgot. I’m sure it was 1 kg of squids, 1.5 kg of fish, 1 vegetable dish and rice. It was also only for Rp. 250.000 and we’re full! Finished? Not yet! As we arrived at the inn, we jump into the pool and swam for a while and took turn to take a bath. Right after the bath, we fell asleep like a pig! I even hit my head on the side table several times (we shared a double bed for the three of us).

our dinner.

The next morning, we woke up late and had our late brunch. A very standard breakfast one, fried rice. We settled the bill and we leave. I bid good bye and thank for all wonders that Green Canyon has given me. Made me think that I’m so damn blessed to have a chance to go there. This trip might be short, but the memories will stay for lifetime. And this one made me proud of Indonesia as well as encourage me to explore more about natural wander of Indonesia. Question is 5W 1H?

another pose on the rock!

End Note : we finally break down all the expenses of this trip between the three of us and Andrew protests on how we include our Es Kelapa Muda bill into the breakdown. He insist that he was the one slept back in the inn and didn’t enjoy any sip of it. HA-HA!

“No matter what type and how expensive your camera is, there is none like your own eyes.” – Me.