EF Pluit to Bandung Trip
Sunday, 15 November 2009 03:41
Every year EF Swara group provides a trip for all staff and teachers. After taking a vote it was decided EF Pluit’s trip this year would be to Bandung. The trip was held on Sunday the 25th April 2007. There were 25 people on the trip including the teachers: native speakers Andy the DOS, Thomas, Ian, Gareth, Justin, Margo, Cameron, Jason and his son, also non-native speakers Merry; Elivia; Herlina; Vera; Yuni; and Lidya, the CM; Viona, Olivia, Tika, Mega, Ade and Ria, the office boys Yono; Udin, Maman the driver, and finally our security guard Mr. Didi. Since the bus was leaving at 7 am, all the participants had to be at EF Pluit by 6.30am.
After everybody had taken their seats on the bus, we started the journey. It took about 3 hours to get to Tangkuban Perahu, Lembang, our first destination. The bus went quite slowly. Tangkuban Perahu is a mountain in West Java and it is volcanic. There are sulfur deposits inside its crater and we visited these first. After that we went for tea and snacks on the mountain in a little cafeteria hanging off a cliff. We stayed here for about an hour and a half. Next we went on to the city’s famous factory outlets on Riau Street. Here we had lunch and then went shopping. We all went our separate ways for about two hours then met up back at the bus. After that we went to Prima Rasa, an exclusive cake shop. Here we bought boxes of Brownies (the local speciality) and various other sweet things.
Our last destination was the outdoor restaurant called Kampung Daun. The restaurant layout is unique as guests sit on the floor in thatch huts. The restaurant lies across a valley and is situated in a very picturesque area. One of the striking things about Kampung Daun is that it is lit by many large candles, giving it a very fairy tale environment. Also as it is high up in the mountains and a lot cooler the restaurant staff light a huge fire for everyone to sit around. We stayed here for well over two hours filling our faces. The food was excellent. As time was getting on, we headed back to Jakarta at around eight. Traffic was quite heavy until the highway and as a result we didn’t get back until around eleven. Overall, the trip was great fun; we all got to see a piece of Indonesia and got to know each other a bit better.
EF Pluit Team, 16 July 2008.