Taking the high road on a bicycle trip out and about<\/p>\n
By Mehru Jaffer<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A BMW is fine but if you asked Vaughn Ball he
\nwould probably say a bicycle was better, if not the best way to
\nexplore rural pleasures. An expatriate geologist living in
\nJakarta, Vaughn prefers to spend much of his leisure time
\ncruising along kampung trails on a bicycle and discovering what
\npeople do in remote areas of this island.<\/p>\n
After a 45-minute drive south of Jakarta, he parks his car and
\npedals off along a one of a number of bicycle trails beginning
\nnear the headwaters of the Cileungsi, Ciherang and Cikeruh
\nrivers.<\/p>\n
Thereafter there is nothing but a cool breeze to keep him
\ncompany through miles of rubber and tea plantations. Waterfalls
\nare spotted often, and along the way there is the continuous
\nappearance and disappearance of river and rice valleys along
\nfriendly kampungs.<\/p>\n
When he pauses for a little rest, he spends time picking up
\ntricks from Sundanese villagers around the Sentul area on how to
\nbeat opponents in the board game Dam Das. He was attracted to the
\ngame after he came across numerous informal boards scratched in
\nthe soil, carved in planks of wood, scratched with chalk on rock
\nor cement slabs and played with pieces that were usually no more
\nthan pebbles. Once he started to play the game, Vaughn found Dam
\nDas to be a type of Chinese checkers.<\/p>\n
He has discovered that the most beautiful section of the trail
\nin this area is the Cibodas Passage, where he can inspect a small
\nhydroelectric generator and visit a Singkong factory, though he
\nprefers to peddle quickly across Kampung Ayam before the horde of
\nchickens slaughtered there keeps him from wanting to see one ever
\nagain.<\/p>\n
During his many trips to the area, he has made friends with
\npeople in villages tucked faraway in fairyland landscapes where
\noften the most important economic activity remains collecting
\npebbles from the river, and where children play all day long on
\nlogs drifting on the water. He has basked in other simple
\npleasures as well, like watching women wash clothes in the lap of
\nmajestic mountains.<\/p>\n
It was in the late 1980s that some avid mountain bikers
\ndiscovered a random maze of trails heading toward Bogor from
\nJakarta, kicking off a golden age of exploration up and down the
\nCikeas River from its source to confluence. By 1991 the mountain
\nbike fad had hit Jakarta in earnest, with clubs and giant rallies
\nbecoming popular.<\/p>\n
Enthusiasts not only explored new bicycle trails through mud,
\nheat and rain, but also mapped the paths they discovered. One
\nbiker, Geoff Bennet, put down all of his experiences in The
\nJakarta Hike and Bike Trail Guide, which came out in 1998. A
\nCanadian geophysicist, Geoff arrived in Jakarta in 1984 to become
\nan active leader in the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. An energetic
\nhiker, biker, climber, canoeist and naturalist, he left Indonesia
\nrecently, but only after introducing many adults and young people
\nhere to the joys of being outdoors.<\/p>\n
On one trip, Ken Pattern, the Canadian artist with a special
\ntalent for lithography, accompanied Geoff through the
\ncountryside, mainly to see the \"disappearing\" bamboo footbridges.
\nAfter the success of his Disappearing Jakarta series, in which he
\ncontrasted the old with the new, he was inspired to make a
\ntriptych of the bamboo bridges he came across during his bicycle
\nrides. He titled one of them Ibu Seen Walking over the Ema Ami
\nBridge, named after the Sundanese woman who maintained the
\nbridge, and allowed Geoff to use it on the front cover of his
\nbook.<\/p>\n
The same bridge is lovingly called Arch Tree by countless
\nbikers and joggers who find it a thrilling experience to cross
\nit. Of the 40 or so bridges across the muddy brown turns and
\ntwists of Cikeas River, fewer than half are still made out of
\nnatural materials.<\/p>\n
\"Several are already swept away by floods and replaced by
\nsoulless spans of concrete and steel,\" regrets Geoff, who feels
\nthat each of the traditional bridges has its own unique
\npersonality, some being little more than rickety strips of bamboo
\nand wire, while others are intricate, charming and sturdy arches
\nairily suspended from one leafy bank to the other. Some of these
\nbridges command a breathtaking view of Cikeas River, and from
\nthem many have happily watched the world float by. It will be a
\nsad day if these wonders are allowed to disappear or are
\nreplaced.<\/p>\n
Accompanying the book is a very useful map called Bridges Over
\nthe River Cikeas, with names whimsically invented by mountain
\nbikers during more than a decade of exploration. The bridges
\ninclude Underwear and Madison County. The first bridge which
\nGeoff stumbled across back in 1988 was found to belong to a
\nsharp-tongued Ibu Imas, who is said to beckon to the bikers from
\nher \"house of ill repute\" on the east bank<\/p>\n
It seems the best bicycle routes follow dirt footpaths,
\nespecially those worn smooth by motorbikes, connecting one
\nkampung to another. As a beginner, it is safest to take the route
\nfrom the Sentul Selatan exit, which meanders through five
\nkilometers of well-paved roads and another five kilometers to get
\nto the top of Bojongkoneng hill.<\/p>\n
However, whatever route is chosen it better be chosen soon,
\nbefore the trails are swallowed up by yet another one of the
\nhousing complexes which are fast replacing the fields and flowers
\non the slopes of the Sundanese highlands.<\/p>",
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