Indonesia IV: Expedition 2011 - Domas Crater And Visit The Tea Plantations
The next day we had scheduled a trip to Domas crater, a tea plantation and swimming in thermal water. Again we went on a journey along the endless rows of shops, restaurants and hotels, which in places has been intermittent but occasionally rice paddies.
Rice fields - Beauty and confidence
I find the rice fields as amazing creation of man, hoes and nature. It's actually a terrace with a dam, filled to a height of 10-20 cm water wearing rows of rice. Individual terraces are connected by an ingenious system of canals and channels through which water flows continuously. Cultivate mainly hoe, sometimes a mechanism for setting wading in the mud man. The tractor would get stuck into the mud, so it is unusable. And so the peasants wallowing in the mud with a hoe and patiently and conscientiously really cultivate their rice fields, their support, and the only certainty in this crazy world. As a reward, have some breakfast, lunch and dinner. Paddy is the biggest miracle there, created by human hands, for more than all the temples and monuments, of which there are numerous. Fields adorn the landscape.
Domas Crater with the smell of hell
Domas Crater is still somewhat active, emits sulfur on people. Perhaps it is not too happy recently pushed his stinking mud up on the hillside. If the natives were Christians they would know that underneath it is hell. Mohammedans but probably hell no odor of sulfur, and thus do not know. They know, however, that instead of hiking the crater with a car park is a paradise for souvenir merchants. There are at least a hundred, and many stalls. It is constantly attacking the feeling and tourist´s wallet. They are like flies, can´t drive off. Prices can be reduced by 70%, as we said Idong. And so we finally bought some souvenirs.
Challenging Life on a tea plantation
On the way down we stopped on tea plantation. The Dutch brought tea here, it was a profitable trade same as with spices, so it's implemented and tea are grown today. But I wouldn´t want to work on a tea plantation. To pick 50 kg of tea leaves per shift, which is the standard means tear least 50 thousand leaves if each weighs one gram and I would not like in the heat. 50 kg of leaves after processing changes to many servings of tea. As it happens, we saw in the tea processing factory that we visited. We have seen how the tea leaves become white tea, green and black one. But even there I would not want to work.
Even free is not worth it to try everything
At the end of the day we should have a bath in thermal water. But it turned out a tiny and not very inviting pool at the restaurant where we could swim for free when we then lunch. So we didn’t swim. We walked little bit through the resort, which the rest of Indonesia did not have much in common. Much in common with the landscape but had a restaurant - buffet or whatever it was on the road home. We had Java coffee and grilled corn with chilli spices and some members of the expedition also successfully used the local toilet. We sat there quite nicely, by Turkey way. Less pleasant was to return to Bantungu. Probably as a result of rain fell and the lights on the current traffic chaos, we remember with nostalgia. We finally got off the minibus and went through the last 200 m walk. So we saved about half an hour.
The day we finished by gala dinner, where Idong took us. It was in the restaurant on a hill above the town and Idong said that it is not his class, and he passed the restaurant, but he didn’t want to stay with us, and rather wait in the car. After all the day I was extremely hungry, so I swallowed a starter quickly. Then followed a sort of “between soup” and finally the main soup, both excellent and I both managed just a taste. When finally brought the cake yet, I considered it a bad joke. We boarded the van again and Idong drove us another hour back to the hotel.
Text/photo: Stanislav Lupták
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