Chugging along in nostalgic tour of teak forest

By Tjahjono EP and Sumanto

CEPU, Central Java (JP): The old locomotive moved on, its roar breaking the tranquility of a teak forest in Cepu.

A number of Caucasians sat in the railway coach pulled by a 1928 German locomotive made by Berliner Maschinenbau.

The steam locomotive usually covers a distance of only 35 kilometers, taking tourists into the teak forest or simply allowing them to experience the 1940s-era coach.

It's a packaged tour but one can wander off almost anytime. Passengers are free to ask the engineer to stop anywhere they choose; brake operators are provided specifically for this service. The four-hour tour passes the subdistricts of Ledok, Kendilan, Pasar Sore, and others in the Cepu Forest district.

The organizer of this Antique Steam Locomotive Teak Plantation Tour is state-owned forestry company Perum Perhutani Cepu.

The teak forest in Cepu, now measuring some 132 hectares, has been cultivated since 1874. A railway line was not established until 1915 and trains were first used to carry timber.

Beginning in 1976, the trains mostly carried official domestic and foreign guests interested in the management of the internationally certified forest. The tour began in 1991.

"Tourists on board a slowly-moving train will be able to watch the teak plantation management process, from seedling and felling all the way down to timber processing," said Sisworo, a public relations staff member here. The train runs at an average of only 15 km to 20 km per hour, pedestrian enough to enjoy the scenery.

Passing Lot 92, for example, and there is a 15-meter high teak tree, with a diameter of 2.40 m, looming among the rest of the foliage. "You would never guess that this tree is 144 years old," Sisworo said.

The train tour is also an attempt to showcase a properly managed teak forest.

"These foreign tourists will tell the international community that allegations about how we managed our tropical forests is wrong," Sisoworo said.

Besides the guide, tourists are accompanied by the brake operators, the locomotive engineer and a locomotive fireman.

Farmers tending their cows and goats close to the railway line are always an exotic spectacle to the tourists. Some ask the engineer to stop so they can visit the villages. They walk around examining the rice pestles, rice granaries and observing villagers' activities.

The nostalgia is particularly significant to former Dutch colonial administration employees, most of whom are over 60.

"Right here, in this teak forest, they can find the atmosphere they knew well during the colonial period," said Wahono, the coordinator of the railway workshop.

But the tour package does not seem to attract as many domestic tourists, with the exception of researchers from various universities in Indonesia.

Visitors number an average of 3,000 tourists, including 16 groups of foreigners, a month.

Most foreigners are from Holland, Germany and England.

European tourists usually learned about the tour package from Dutch travel agencies, which often include this tour package in their promotion.

One Dutch tourist was greatly moved when he revisited the old railway workshop. It turned out he stayed in the area in the 1930s and worked at the workshop.

He told staffers that the workshop building was exactly as he knew it 60 years ago. It brought memories flooding back. All his Indonesian friends had died.

The workshop is where the old train is repaired and where spare parts are made. By necessity they must be made by workshop workers themselves because they are no longer produced.

Apart from seekers of nostalgia, many visitors simply enjoy the train ride through the peaceful forest. In 1994, for example, a group of members of a European association of locomotive engineers, came especially to see the train. Here again the tour is flexible.

"If tourists are train lovers, the train will take them over a longer distance," Sisworo said.

Train lovers usually prefer to see a train in its actual condition and like to ride in an open coach. Some of them even prefer a timber-transporting flatcar. Foreigners also find the train ride quite cheap: US$56 per person with a minimum number of 15 tour participants.

Unfortunately, since riots broke out and ravaged a number of towns in Java, the number of tourists visiting the teak plantation has dropped sharply. About 80 percent of planned visits have been canceled. For the time being, the old train simply waits at the station, which is getting more and more quiet with each passing day.

But a facsimile message from England has just arrived: "I hope the situation will be back to normal soon. I promise to come to see your old locomotive."