Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
Monday, September 14, 2009
Today I was a bit bored and waiting for Yudi to get back to give me a lift to the bus stop to get to Bandung. When Yudi arrived I did go to Bandung, which took a couple of hours. From here I had to wait to get the night train to Yogyakarta. The overnight train was a nightmare I barely got any sleep as I was sitting next to somebody so I couldn't stretch out my legs out and sellers got on the train every hour, shouting out to try and sell food, which really pissed me off. Eventually after an 8hr journey I arrived in Yogyakarta at 4am. I went to the backpacker area and after searching for 25 minutes crashed at one of the hostels, a bit expensive, 70000 rupiah (still under a fiver though). My time in Cianjur was enjoyable, the people were so nice and welcoming, however I wished I cuold have visited the school more and my perception of volunteering was altered as we basically chatted with students for a few hours for those 2 days. but I suppose I did volunteer to do it out of my freetime. It was nice to talk to the teenagers and feel like a rockstar. I think maybe a couple of less days would have been perfect as the ricefields and tea plantations weren't my cup of tea (sorry about the pun!). If it was proper volunteering, where they were in dire need of help, short staffed etc I would have been compelled to stay longer, but it seems like they have westerners visit often and have good facilities and teachers. Overall though a great time was had.
