Sundanese Sound Sight Sense Short Stay

Updated: July 30, 2022 – Sundanese Sound Sight Sense Short Stay

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes

Coffee Sense

Hakim stands in the shade at the front of his kitchen, a sparkle in his eye and a week’s growth of beard on his cheeks. With care, he pours the warm water of 129 degrees Fahrenheit onto the V60 coffee filter.

‘Hope you will like this Mount Halu Coffee,’ says the host as he serves it with the chemex coffee set.

‘Damn good.’

Hakim prepares another morning beverage for me, reaching out for the bilberry tea leaves and continues his tea brewing process, and he smiles as Viana, his wife busy stir frying beef with the local onion and yellow pepper.

Beautiful and Serene Sense

A stroll around the traditional Sundanese art gallery-turned-resident vicinity in Jatinangor district—It’s unimaginable not to be propelled back in time. Likewise, Saung Aksara means a place where all the stories are treasured here. So I actually slow down, and take time to stop, absorb and reflect on the surroundings. Sunlight sparks through cracks in the gable canopy, but the woven bamboo wall still gives the house the most authentic Sundanese look with its short stilts—beautiful and serene. Certainly it is as if the classic house is on a frequency of its own, set apart from the busy, war torn, pandemic, world of internet and all the high techno gadgets that fill our daily lives. So why would we want to immerse ourselves in the things that we can’t control?

Captivating Saung Aksara

Firstly, Saung Aksara is a new discovery in a far-flung hinterland in West Java. Since the conventional hotel in the city is a kind of boring for me—quietude, simplicity and a sense of things used to be important to me.

Therefore, I want something close to nature, lush, slow, wild beauty, forest-scented sensuality, and this takes me awhile to search on the google map, as it is not available on any booking platform. Once the center of the tobacco plantation, Jatinangor is now one of the education center of West Java, filled mostly with students, that is hardly care whether the tourists come.  

(Address: Jl. Cikuda Jl. Lb. Jati No.7, Cileles, Jatinangor, Kabupaten Sumedang, Jawa Barat 45363, Indonesia)

You can have a look at the Google Map Review.

Flashback

Fast backward a little, all set, I’m ready to go. I kissed my sleeping wife goodbye and wheeled my luggage to the doorway. Just as the elevator doors open, an incoming text at 3.33 on Monday morning? So I took a deep breath and step in. ‘Doc, I am positive Covid. Sorry, we can’t meet up.’

Uh-oh. The tornado alarm has sounded. Another positive case, knowing I’m prepare to face whatever kind of race today throws my way. Switching plan and deciding need to be oozing out of your pores right now. On the road, I need to leave room for the unexpected. All these are just temporary setbacks. Instead of having plans in Tasikmalaya, I have changed plan to Bandung instead.

Teras Sentani Went Viral

At the time, I thought it was the worst day of my life. If I had not been informed, I wouldn’t be where I am that week—met up with the most beautiful and friendly couple on planet earth during my Sundanese Sound Sight Sense Short Stay.

I even get to visit the most happening café and it is going viral on TikTok (@terassentani.id) at the moment. It’s about a 2-hour drive from Saung Aksara. For a newcomer like me, it is a Wow moment for me, because is the Indonesia’s most subculture with its own coffee, its own language, its own cultural orientation and its own folklore.

Behind the Teras Sentani café lies the picturesque paddy field, complement beautifully with the Ciherang River and Malabar Mountains. A place that is still a mystery of peacefulness and belief is where I arrived four hours ago. I wish I could meditate immediately if people don’t find me weird doing that, but we had a long chat in a lesehan (Sundanese Traditional Dine Style) as if we have not seen each other for years. This week, I was searching for qualities I associated with highlands and with mountain breeze—a barefoot tranquility in Bandung.

Final Thoughts

When I am on the road, traveling somehow forces me to pay attention by looking more closely, listen more clearly, taste more carefully and further experience my journey. All these widen and extend the purpose and depth of my travel because I always observe and absorb.

As a traveler, I have to put in a conscious and consistent effort to identify all those hidden gems, as all these opportunities won’t just fall into your lap. Because of that, I have certainly accumulated an uncommon wealth of travelling experience. What a wonderful Sundanese Sound Sight Sense Short Stay.

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1. The Spectacular Lake Toba

2. The Cosy Cottage in Bandung

3. Aceh The New Dawn

4. Vertical Climb at Gunung Parang

5. The Beginning of my UK Property Journey

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