In this blessed month of Ramadan,
May Allah the Almighty shower his choicest blessings on all of us
May HE make our Iman stronger
May HE forgive all our sins and mistakes
May HE fulfill all our desires
May HE safeguard us from all calamities and troubles

Wish you a Happy and Blessed Ramadan Mubarak

A dearest friend of mine came today. She showed me the beauty of innocence, the power of hope, the delightfullness of loneliness. She brought up everything I tried to place deep in my heart.

That brought me to tears...

halimun national park

halimun national park

It is located in West Java, Indonesia. From Jakarta, it takes about 2,5 to 3 hours by car to parungkuda. After that, it takes about 1 hour 10 minutes to Kabandungan then another 1,5 hours to cikaniki research station by car. There is a guest house in Kabandungan forestry office and another one in cikaniki research station. Halimun national park is one of the biggest rain forests in java. 

 

Kabandungan guest house

We stayed overnight in kabandungan guest house. There's only one guest house in kabandungan forestry office. The guest house consists of 4 bedrooms, a dining room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. In each bedroom, there are 2 single beds, but guests can ask for 1 extra bed if it is needed.

The room rate is Rp. 125,000/night. Don't expect for breakfast because it doesn't include breakfast. Well, actually they don't provide the guests a breakfast. But you can cook, you can use the kitchen. It is equipped with utensils. This guest house is clean and quite cozy.

You can reach this guest house about 1 hour 10 minutes from parungkuda by car. It costs you Rp.12.000 if you take local transportation (colt).

Road to cikaniki research station

It took about 1,5 hours from kabandungan office/guest house to cikaniki research station by colt/car. The road is bumpy and rocky.

The trip to cikaniki was really tiring but when you got there….the tiredness disappeared! The air is fresher, cleaner, and colder than the air in kabandungan. The water is also colder. Everything is so fresh. Welcome to halimun national park. One of the biggest rain forests in java.

 
cikaniki research station

Cikaniki research station is a cozy, wooden place. It is one of JICA's grant programs. It's about 1,5 hours from kabandungan office by car. Or it's about 2 - 2,5 hours from parung kuda. We took local transportation (colt) and paid Rp.12,500 per person to kabandungan office.

We stayed overnight in kabandungan guest house. We went to cikaniki the next day by colt. We rented the colt for a day. It cost Rp 700.000. We could have stayed in cikaniki guest house actually, but it was already fully booked since 1,5 months ago. Therefore, we had to rent a colt from kabandungan to cikaniki.

This station is the gate for researchers, students, public to enter one of the richest rain forests in java. According to the staffs, there are macan tutul (panthera pardus) , oak java (hylobates moloch), elang java (spizaetus bartelsi), various species of birds and insects, and various species of orchids in this national park. And at night, we can see phosphorus fungus too.

cimacan waterfall

It is located in halimun national park area. 

It's about 10 meters high. 

We walked for about 15 minutes from cikaniki research station 

to see the waterfall 

(curug cimacan).  

It's so beautiful since 

it's in the middle of rain resort.

A few weeks ago, I attended a reunion. It was our first reunion after 16 years of graduation from senior high. It was attended only by… well….less than 20 persons, but was so special. The way we talked, chatted, and made fun to each other was just like the way we did when we were in high school. That amazes me.

Some of us have got married and some are still singles. We are now somebody elses’ dads, moms, aunties, and uncles. Time flies. It surely does. What amazes me more is we still notice our past sin, naughtiness, innocence…. We made lots of them, didn’t we? Some of us may hate the past, some may learn something from it…One thing for sure, we shared our past years ago. And that was the greatest one for me.

I was blessed to have you guys as friends back then, and am now….

i wonder where you are
i wonder what you do

are you somewhere feeling lonely? or
is someone loving you?