Akhir Juni saya dan seorang teman memutuskan untuk berwisata Curug (air terjun) Bidadari di Sentul.

At the end of June me and a friend decided to go to Curug Bidadari (Curug = air terjun = waterfall; Bidadari = angel).

Browsing sini, browsing sana.. petunjuk arahnya ga jelas semua atau lebih tepatnya saya dan teman saya sama-sama belum pernah naik motor ke Sentul.

Browsing didn’t give clear information on the direction to get there or it was more likely because neither me or my friend have gone to Sentul by motorcycle.

Rekan saya menyarankan kami mengikuti saja angkot 05 Cimahpar yang lewat Lapangan Sempur.

My colleague suggested us to follow 05 Cimahpar angkot that passes Lapangan Sempur.

Ibu dari murid les saya mengusulkan lewat Tanah Baru.

A mother of my tutoring student suggested to take Tanah Baru route.

Setelah berunding dengan teman saya, kami sepakat mengambil jalur angkot 05 Cimahpar.

After discussing it with my friend, we agreed to take 05 Cimahpar angkot route.

Kami pun menetapkan hari dan jam keberangkatan. Bulan Agustus saya mengajukan cuti sehari.

We set the departing date and time. I took one day leave on August.

* * * * *

Di hari yang telah disepakati kami bertemu di seberang sekolah Budi Mulia.

Our meeting point on the D day was across Budi Mulia school.

Jam 8.30 pagi kami berangkat.

We took off at 8.30 am.

Tantangan pertama datang; bray, mana angkot 05 jurusan Cimahpar?

First challenge soon strike us; dude, where the hell is that 05 Cimahpar angkot?

Kami sudah masuk ke jalan Pajajaran dan angkot itu tidak terlihat. Waduh, apa kami salah jalan ya?

We were already got to Pajajaran street and there wasn’t the sight of that angkot. Oh no, did we take the wrong street?

“Gimana nih?” tanya teman saya.

“So what now?” asked my friend.

Wkwk, pilot minta navigator ambil keputusan.

Lol, the pilot just asked his navigator to take the decision.

“Tenang, kita bisa nanya orang” jawab saya kalem supaya tidak bikin dia senewen.. padahal dalam hati saya juga sudah mulai kebat kebit. Tapi masa sih mau balik lagi, jadi yah sudahlah, kita go show saja “Pasti nanti ketemu juga tempatnya”

It took a long ride, long trekking on foot & lots of nervous moments to get to this beautiful waterfall

“Relax, we can ask people for direction” was my calm answer as not to make him nervous.. the truth is I was already felt nervous. But there was no way we would cancel this so be it, we gotta stick to the plan “We'll find it”

Kami memang akhirnya berhasil sampai ke sana tapi jangan tanya lewat mana karena kami mengikuti petunjuk arah dari orang-orang yang kami tanyai. Pokoknya tiba-tiba kami sudah sampai di Babakan Madang dan beberapa waktu kemudian sudah masuk Sentul.

We did get there but don’t ask which route did we take because we just followed people’s direction along the way. It seems suddenly we found ourselves at Babakan Madang and few moments later we entered Sentul.

Kalau itu sudah dianggap sebagai petualangan.. oh, tunggu dulu.. ada susulannya.

If it was taken as adventure.. oh, no.. there were yet things to come.

* * * * *

“Kok cuma kita ya?” teman saya dengan gelisah menengok ke belakang.

“Howcome there are just us?” my friend nervously glanced back.

Motor yang kami naiki berbelok memasuki jalan setapak yang tidak rata, berbatu-batu, naik, turun dan kiri kanan tidak ada lagi rumah-rumah, cuma rumput ilalang yang tinggi-tinggi serta pepohonan.

The motorcycle we rode in got into a rugged footpath, it went up and down, there were no houses at the right or left side, only tall grass and trees.

Beberapa menit sebelumnya kami dihentikan oleh beberapa pemuda yang mengatakan jalanan di depan ditutup karena sedang diperbaiki dan bertanya apakah kami akan ke Curug. Ketika kami iyakan, mereka minta kami mengikuti mereka.

Few minutes earlier we were stopped by few men who informed us there road ahead of us was closed because it was under construction and they asked if we were on the way to the waterfall. When we said we were heading there, they asked us to follow them.

Kami ikut saja karena mengira mereka akan menunjukkan jalan memutar untuk menghindari jalan yang sedang diperbaiki itu.

We followed them because we thought they would take us on a detour to avoid the constructed part of the road.

Eh, kok ujung-ujungnya mereka malah membawa kami lewat jalanan seperti ini..

So why is the eventually brought us to pass this kind of path?

Yang bikin hati mulai cemas adalah ketika kami menyadari di jalan yang sepi ini cuma ada kami berdua dan mereka. Wah, segala bayangan mengerikan mulai muncul di kepala. Gimana kalau ini jebakan? Gimana kalau tiba-tiba kami disergap kawanan orang jahat? Siapa yang bisa nolong? Siapa yang bisa dengar teriakan kami minta tolong?

We started to feel worried when we realized there were just the two of us and them on this quiet path. There, lots of scary images came to the mind. What if this was a trap? What would happen if we were ambushed by bad guys? Who could help us? Who would hear our screams for help?

“Tetap waspada saja” kata saya menyembunyikan kegelisahan karena teringat juga pada cerita teman saya mengenai pengalaman teman-temannya ketika mengunjungi curug ini dan kenyang dipalak preman.

“Stay alert” I told him as I hid my own nervousness as I also remembered his friends story of how they were asked for money by local people when they came to the waterfall.

Saya memikirkan uang, kamera Nikon, hp dan motor serta tentunya nyawa kami lah yaww..

I thought about the money, the Nikon camera, cellphones and our motorcycle along with our lives of course.

Tapi dua pemuda itu ternyata bukan orang jahat. Mereka menunjukkan jalan alternatif menuju curug. Cuma caranya itu bikin orang jadi curiga karena tidak ada penjelasan dari manajemen pengelola curug.

Those two men were actually not bad guys. They showed the alternative way to the waterfall. However it brought suspicion because there was not explanation from the waterfall management.

Sebetulnya kalau di depan jalan yang sedang diperbaiki dipasang pengumuman resmi bahwa pengunjung ke curug akan dibawa melalui jalan alternatif, hal itu akan menghilangkan kecurigaan, kebingungan dan tidak membuat citra manajemen pengelola curug menjadi jelek.

If there was a sign informing that visitors to the waterfall would be taken to the waterfall through an alternative road, it would not bring suspicion, confusion and bad image for the waterfall management.

Jalan alternatif itu sebetulnya malah bisa menambah daya tarik curug karena siapa kira kami bakal trekking melewati jalan setapak dengan pemandangan yang lumayan bagus.

That alternative path could actually add more attraction to the waterfall because we didn’t expect to go trekking on footpath and having quite a good view.

Kami tidak keberatan membayar ekstra sebagai upah untuk dua pemandu itu tapi kan lebih enak kalau dibuat resmi bukannya dengan omongan ‘nanti kalau ada yang tanya, bilang saja teteh teman saya’ yang memberi kesan seakan kami ini pengunjung selundupan, ilegal karena tidak punya karcis masuk, bikin hati jadi kurang tentram selama berada di sana, takut ketemu petugas, takut jadi harus tarik urat dan tentunya tidak mau diusir dong..

We didn’t mind to pay some extra fees for those two guides but it would be nicer if it was made formally instead of just ‘if anyone asks, just say you’re my friend’ which gave the impression that we were illegal visitors because we didn’t have any entrance tickets, making us nervous when we were there, worried we would meet a guard, worried we would have to have arguments and we certainly didn’t want to be asked to leave the compound..

Padahal kami bayar Rp.35.000,- seorang lho. Sepuluh ribu lebih mahal dari harga tiket masuk yang resmi.

Where infact we paid Rp.35.000,- each. Ten thousand higher than the official ticket price.

Ah, Indonesiaku yang indah yang dikotori..