Jamatra

On the 9th of February, 2019, about 4 AM. I, some of my friends, and our parents went to Lampung. We met up and got into the bus after all the participants have arrived. And thus, the journey to Lampung began.

First, I’m going to briefly talk about Lampung and its history so you have a better feel for it.

Lampung is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra. It has a short border with the province of Bengkulu to the northwest and a long border with the province of South Sumatra to the north. It is the home of the Lampung people, who speak their own language and possess their own written script. Its capital is Bandar Lampung.

Lampung is geologically unstable. On 10 May 2005, a very large earthquake struck the province. In 1883, the volcano of Krakatoa, located on an island in the Sunda Strait, separating the islands of Sumatra and Java, suffered one of the most violent volcanic eruptions in recorded history, with disastrous consequences for the area and elsewhere, including estimates of human fatalities in the tens of thousands, and worldwide temperature and other weather effects for years.

Lampung is a multi-ethnic province with three major ethnic groups, namely Javanese, Lampungese and Sundanese, where Lampungese are the native ethnicity in the province. The pluralistic society of Lampung uses various languages, including Indonesian, Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, Minangkabau, and Lampung.

We headed to Pelabuhan Merak (Merak Port) at Banten, which took two hours. Pelabuhan Merak is a port only used for ships headed to Pelabuhan Bakauheni and back.

After arriving at the port, we continued the journey by ship which took another two hours.

We arrived at Pelabuhan Bakauheni (Bakauheni Port) at four AM and continued the trip to Gua Maria La Verna (Mary’s Cave Of La Verna) located at Pringsewu, which took three hours road trip.

After we arrived at Gua Maria La Verna, we had lunch and changed clothes before walking the Way Of The Cross along with all the other participants.

Later on, after we finished walking the Way Of The Cross, we prayed at the Cave Of Mary before going to the holy water spring. The holy water spring is a water spring that has been blessed by the priest. The water from the spring “refills” on its own, and has never been dry since the days Indonesia was still colonized by the Dutch. The water is consumable.

Next, we got back to the bus and headed for the Yen-Yen Shop, which is a famous shop at Bandar Lampung, selling various traditional snacks such as Keripik Pisang Kepok (Banana Chips), Dodol (a sweet toffee which mainly consists of coconut milk, jaggery, and rice flour), Pempek, (a savory Indonesian fishcake, made of fish and tapioca. Pempek is served with a rich sweet and sour sauce) Keripik Nangka (Jackfruit Chips), and many others.

We didn’t stay there for long, though, because we were extremely behind schedule; thereafter we went to the homestay.

The trip to the homestay was just exhausting, tedious, uninteresting, boring, endless, tiresome, annoying, unexciting, lifeless, and basically dull as dishwater. We were just fifty kilometers away from the destination at one point until the driver decided to take a wrong turn and be bullheaded, by not hearing our complaints and turning around. Instead, he went his own way, and the next thing you knew; we were one hundred kilometers further to the destination than before.

We arrived at the homestay, (which is in front of a swimming pool and water boom called Telaga Putri, which is a famous place for recreation at Central Lampung, if not the only recreation site there) at about eight PM when we could’ve arrived at six. We were all hungry and annoyed at the driver, but relieved at the same time once the realization of food and rest came to our minds.

Anyway.

We went to have dinner and a shower, before finally going to sleep. Rest.

Most of us woke up at about 4:30 AM by the sounds of a janitor cleaning the pools. We woke up and regained our consciousness.

All of the parents and some of the kids went to Church, while I and most of my friends went swimming. We went swimming from about five AM until somewhere near nine to ten AM.

The parents came and told us that we were about to depart, going to Way Kambas National Park. Therefore, we went to shower before packing our bags and having breakfast before leaving.

We went to Way Kambas National Park, which is a national park and an elephant training center covering 1,300 square kilometers of lowland rain forests and swamplands.

When we arrived there, we were told that there were no elephants there due to the crowd that was at that location. Some of the participants went back to the bus, while I and some of the others went to look around.

The situation at Way Kambas was actually quite concerning. The grass all around where we were was very dry. There were dead trees and dry leaves everywhere. The long dry season and global warming have really affected it.

After venturing around for some time, we saw a savannah. We walked there and saw an elephant chained to a tree stump. To the left of the elephant, there was a small hill. Me and three of my friends hiked the hill and saw a legion of elephants casually grazing. We sat on the hill for some time until a man told us to go back, for the elephants there are aggressive.

Going home was basically going through hell. The trip was all fine until we got near the port. There was congestion on the road, which took the bus eight hours to travel one kilometer and get on the ship. The reason for the extreme congestion is because there is a gathering of a community of bikers from all of Indonesia. Thus, all of us went through hell and misery.

We got on to the ship and set sail for Java. On the ship, we split into various small groups. I, three of my friends, and three parents went downstairs. Along the journey, I and my friends (surprisingly) didn’t sleep, probably because there was a television playing a movie near us.

When the ship was about to pull over, all of the participants of the trip got on to the bus; and quickly became dead to the world.

We finally arrived at five AM. We exchanged some conversations and got our bags, before bidding farewell and finally going home.