De Ranch

This weekend I was lucky enough to get a chance to get out of the city. We headed to Bandung (another big city) to go horseback riding. 7 of us went and we managed to rent a car and driver, and pay for gas for a total of $10 each. The trip was squished, but we made the best of it.

It wasn’t at all what I expected, but it was still a good experience and I’m totally glad I went. I expected an actual ranch with lots of wide open space outside of the city, but it turned out the ranch was a small piece of land in the city, with a bunch of tourists and Indonesians. There were pony rides, wall climbing, and an archery area. 4 of us decided to head on the hour long horse ride, and the other 3 wanted to do the 2 hour tour. They only had 4 horses available for the tours so we had to take turns on the horses. The 1 hour group headed out first. The guides taught me how to hold on to the reigns, how to lean depending on how we were moving, and how to kick the horse so it would trot. The few commons words we could say were “come on!” “trot” and “sini” (which means here) which he used to motion where to put my hands and legs. Other than that we had no language in common.

The 3 teachers on the horses

The guides took us through the village and the whole time we were being yelled after by cute kids and old men. “Hello Miss!” I felt like a celebrity the whole time, which is starting to become a common feeling here. At one point a van driver held out his blackberry to get a photo of us. I wonder how many random facebook walls I’m posted on: “Look at these crazy Boleh!”

natural right?

Once we got back it was the other groups turn and we sat down to enjoy some “brownies and ice cream” which was really chocolate bread with ice cream and warmed up chocolate sauce. I tried to enjoy it, even though the “brownie” part was gross. Then we walked around to try and find something to do, but we were mostly just bored. 

Exploring

Dustin noticed a ton of people taking pictures, and he decided to take his own pictures as well. What ensued was pictures with trash cans, the bathroom sign, and pictures of him sniffing flowers. We played some games involving singing, and tried to take some naps on the table. When the other group finally got back we grabbed a quick bite to eat and hit the road in hopes of beating the traffic. 

one of the "we are really bored" pictures

Everyone was super tired, so we all attempted to sleep, but to be completely honest no one could get comfortable enough. Thus I listened to my iPod and tried to relax. Once we were back in the city we had a rough time getting home. The trip from Badung to Jakarta only took 3 hours, but the trip to our house while in Jakarta took 2.5 hours. I was so frustrated and homesick by the time we got home, but I forced myself to shower and head to bed without allowing myself to cry.

The next morning I woke up and headed to car free morning. They shut down a few of the main roads to all cars, and a lot of people gather to run and bike on the street. It was a nice change of pace, but even at 6:00am I was sweating like crazy. At about 8:00 we headed to get some breakfast. I couldn’t believe how early it was.