There is something fascinating about getting lost in an uncharted area around your hometown. Almost as thrilling as traveling somewhere new, or going to the uni for the first time. It's adventure! We don't know what will happen, even though it's proli only a kilometer or so from your house. My hometown has a lot of small roads that leads to weird places. The small town itself is about 30 minutes to an hour from the city by car depends on what route you took. There's this one route that I considered 'scenic' because you'll encounter lakes and bamboo forest (sort of) and stuffs.
Anyway, last Wednesday is a combination of getting lost and walking down the memory lane at the same time. On April 2015, PT. KAI (the train manager company thing in Indonesia, lol) reopened an old route that's supposed to be operated in the 90s but stopped because of the monetary crisis in 1998. This railway is literally next door to the school I used to go to as a child, so I'm quite familiar with it. We even followed the railway to an abandoned train station once when I was in the fifth grade. Anyway, because the trains got popular (so popular that it is packed and scary most of time), the route is now on again, but only two stations are reactivated. The one on the very end of the line, called Nambo (NMO), and the one I visited in fifth grade, called Cibinong (CBN). There are two other train stations in this route but one has gone terribly ruined, and I didn't see the other one in our trip.
Yes, we (as in, Yunita, Gung, and I; always the trio) took the train to Nambo because we are curious about it.
But first, let's talk about the train station.
(Cibinong Train Station.)
Somehow, it looks smaller than I remember. Almost downright tiny; with no proper platform and seats. The building is quite pretty, though; unlike the modern silver-colored train stations nowadays. Some people said that this building resembles a villa; well, I can see why. To go here, you can take any public transportation that goes to or through Cibinong Bus Station. There's a small road across the bus station, next to Indomaret. The train station is not too far, proli 5 minutes of walking? It's on the right side of the road and if you do not know where it is, you'll proli miss it (just me and my bad sense of direction, most likely). There's an Alfamart next to it, as a pointer.
The platform is bizarre. The yellow line area is so wide, probably because it's made around the 90s and the train is not as slim as it is now? You can stand there and proli still be so far away from the train, because the rail is also a little bit far, so the gap between the platform and the train is larger. It's really funny-looking for me.
Anyway, the route to Nambo is proli also one of those route that I'll call scenic. It is really really pretty, because there's a lot to see, from mini-forest, to huge river, to the highway, to a prison, and a cement industry, lots of industrial building that looks like it's from zombie apocalypse movies, and mountains. If you ever took a train to Bandung from Jakarta, this is like that in ten minutes trip, probably.
In the end, it's nothing really extravagant; of course it's not the same as traveling abroad. But I'm very very happy and impressed with it. There's a lot of beautiful place that you can see everyday, it's proli only around 15 minutes from your home, if you have the will to explore it.
End note: Like every time Berliners hang out, we ended up with a 1.5 liter of soda and various snacks in front of the computer or the telly. It's almost like a tradition, and it's heartwarming that we still do that after all these years. Last Wednesday, we ended up playing the Sims 3; Yunita and I recreated Gung and this one girl that used to adore and like and love Gung so much (sadly it is not reciprocated) and try to make them be a couple in the Sims. I was like, "YASSS" the whole time and we laugh until I cry. 'Twas a good day.
Photos by me, taken with Jess' Minox Leica camera.
{ Find Jess here! }
Title from Wild Heart by Bleachers.
