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Published: November 2nd 2007
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Traffic Jam!
fishing boats at Pangandaran harbour At the unsavoury hour of 6am, I boarded a minibus to the coastal town of Pangandaran (try saying that after a few beers). On the way I observed the Indonesian technique of overtaking. First, you pull out and start pipping your horn whilst going for the overtake. Even if a car is coming the other way, or you are approaching a corner, you still make the attempt. Because if it becomes apparent that you are not going to make it, there are two options
1. Step hard on the brakes and fall back into place, and attempt the overtake again later
2. Continue, despite the fact that a car is going to hit you head on.
Option 2 is a popular one, and might seem suicidal, but Indonesian Overtaking Techniques account for this. The pipping of the horn lets the car in front know that you are overtaking. If a collision is imminent, the car then knows to brake, to allow you to nip past. The oncoming car will also slow down for you, to avoid a head-on crash. In England, the oncoming car would also brake, but this would be accompanied by flashing of lights, blasting of horns,
Full Moon Party?
Nope. This is the ridiculously crowded beach at Pangandaran. This was taken at dusk, after most of the people had left! waving of fists and general cursing at the "bloody nutter" overtaking. But here, the sudden braking of cars to allow an overtake is a courtesy, and a common technique. Makes for a hair-raising experience though!
When I reached Pangandaran seven hours later, the place was brimming with Indonesian holiday makers, because it was still the celebrations following Ramadan. I checked out the beach, and it was packed, almost standing room only. Whenever a heatwave hits Great Britain, you see photos on the front page of the tabloids proclaiming "HEATWAVE!" in large letters, and a photo of an English beach crammed with an impossible number of people sunbathing. It was like that. Wall-to-wall people. But the sand wasn't golden, it was volcanic and black. This sounds exotic, but in reality it looks like soil, and gives the impression of a huge ploughed field by the sea. And, lovely people they may be, but the Indonesians had no respect for the beach. There was rubbish littered all over the place. I left in disgust, and headed to a National Park just outside town. This was also packed with local tourists and was just as bad for the rubbish. There were tame
fresh from the sea
despite the dirty looking counter and boxes, this was the freshest fish you could possibly find! Delicious baboons everywhere, hunting through bags for any disgarded morsels. I saw one baboon find a mini-carton of juice, half full. It scampered off, holding the carton and sucking the juice through the straw!
I had met two Swiss guys on the bus that morning (Simon and Greg) and we went for dinner that night. Pangandaran is famous for seafood, and so we asked the locals for the best place to eat. It was a basic, canteen style place , no frills and full of locals. We asked for the menu and the woman said "no menu", and pointed to a row of plastic tubs. They were full of ice topped with the freshest prawns, squid and fish. You pick your own! To share, we ordered a large fish called Tongal Kue, and half a kilo of prawns. The fish came out filleted and grilled, and the prawns were deveined, deshelled and served in a spicy chilli sauce. This was, without a doubt, the BEST seafood I have ever eaten. Local knowledge rules! The restaurant was so good, I briefly considered changing my blogging name to "Prawn Cheeks" in it's honour.
The next day we did a tour with
aftermath of the tsunami
the line of palm trees marks the end of the tsunami's path of destruction a local guy from the hotel called Bill. He was so warm and friendly that by the end of the day I christened him "Uncle Bill". (although I don't think you can really "christen" Muslims). On the way to our first sight, he told us tales of a tsunami which had hit Pangandaran last year. It had been a whopper and had wiped out half the town. The place i was staying at was called "Mini Tiga Homestay 3". It had already been rebuilt twice. On the day of the tsunami, Uncle Bill had been sitting on the beach, watching a friend surfing. He noticed a swell on the horizon, which grew in size as it came closer. It was a uniform wave, stretching as far as the eye could see in both directions. Then the water started draining out to sea, leaving a bare seabed where there had been water moments before. He shouted a warning to his friend, then ran to his motorbike on the road. He kickstarted it, and gunned the engine, riding for his life. Now, do you know about the mechanics of a tsunami? An event such as an earthquake causes an underwater landslide, and
traditional boat
the outrigger style of boat which is used throughout Java a large body of water is pushed away. The shockwave of water is not visible at this point because the "wave" stretches from the surface to the bottom of the ocean. As the depth of the ocean becomes less (ie closer to shore), the water rises up in the form of a wave. Water is pulled back to form the wave, and entire harbours can be drained to the bare seabed to fuel the incoming wave. At it's peak, a tsunami can reach speeds of over 700kph. Whereas Uncle Bill's scooter can reach a maximum speed of 80kph. This particular tsunami wave wreaked incredible destruction on the shoreline, and caught up with Uncle Bill, knocking him off his bike and tumbling him over and over. Luckily most of the power of the wave had been diminished by a number of buildings and trees which hadn't managed to get out of the way in time. He escaped with various cuts and bruises. Lucky! And his friend, the surfer? He was even luckier. He was found clinging to the top of a palm tree, hundreds of metres from the sea. As we drove along the outskirts of Pangandaran, we could see evidence
The Green Canyon
the name needs no explanation of the damage. There was a 400m zone of bare sand, earth and rubble. Then suddenly there was a perfect line of palm trees, which was obviously the point where the wave lost it's destructive energy. Scary stuff!
On our tour with Uncle Bill, we visited a beautiful canyon reached by boat, with gorgeous emerald green water. It was called The Green Canyon. A lot of thought had clearly gone into naming this. We spent hours climbing upstream over rocks and waterfalls to get away from the vast crowds of locals who were splashing around in the main lagoon area. But it was an amazing place. Next we visited a secluded, non-touristy place where we dived off the top of a small waterfall. This was the warm-up for a more scary jump, which was in a cave with a tree branch growing out of the side near the entrance. The idea was to climb about 10 metres up rocks, roots and branches, then edge out onto the branch and jump off. You have to jump from the middle of the branch, to ensure you hit water which doesn't have rocks concealed underneath. But to reach the middle of the
splashing around
climbing upstream was a challenge! branch, you had to do a tight-rope style walk. I have jumped out of planes and done 200m bungees, but somehow this was more scary than those! Wet feet on a slippery branch, no safety ropes and a long way down... I was tempted to bottle it, but a girl had done it before me, and also I have not backed down from any scary stuff before, and wasn't going to start now. My heart was pounding as I edged carefully along the branch. I made it to the middle, and counted to three. One, two, three.... jump! I waved my arms a little bit, but I was still on the branch. I couldn't bring myself to jump off. I tried again. One, two, three.... jump! I'm still on this branch. What was going on? I went through the "one, two, three" routine a few more times, but was still on this damn branch. Right, THIS time I thought. I HAVE to do it. I just shouted ONE!!!! and jumped off, screaming all the way down before splashing into the cool water. What a rush! And what a fuss at jumping off. I must be getting old ;-)
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pPamela
Pamela Joy Fuge
Pangandaran Beach
Really enjoyed reading about Pangandaran. I visited there in September 2000. Agree about the food- just fabulous. Thanks for the update about the tsunami. I post on many Indonesian forums and will put up the link to your blog. Pictures of Green Canyon brought back lots of memories. I, too had a swim, but did not jump bravely like you did. Pamela.