Nadine Jansen Galleries

Loop Javanese

Semarang - Imogiri - Parangtritis - Pantai Baron - Sarangan - Sukuh Candie - Candie Seto - Bandungan - Semarang.

Semarang in Central Java province, is one of many cities where Rimbaud has set foot.

is also the starting point for the islands Karimunjawa, at 3 o'clock boat from the city. These islands are said to be very beautiful. So with Francis, living in the great industrial port, we had planned to go there this weekend. Tickets and hotel reservation systems.

But no. Thursday night phone call from the agency: "Well finally there's no boat, there's too vague." Ah thin.

Plan B: we rented a credit of 2 days and the hard part, to the discovery of the "Other Java". Ayo! Branch

the south. Imogiri and the tomb of the Sultan. A grand staircase (347 steps from the parking warden, 352 from her boyfriend, 356 from The Rough Guide, 345 according to the police but they are corrupt), a nice view but the fog, forcing rainy season.

And above all ... I realized the pleasure of breathing clean air, fresh air. Far from Jakarta and its pollution in the mountain ... I learned to breathe. A lot of good I tell you ...

is drawn to the South. It passes through small country roads in the mountains near Yogyakarta. Between rice fields and small villages ... Magnificent.

The vast range Parangtritis ...

... and another smaller and cuter: Pantai Baron. Peaceful atmosphere, we ask ourselves. Then unrolls a typical phenomenon in Indonesia: we see the rain come, move toward us. We can see the boundary between rain and non-moving rain. So we run to hide. A good mie goreng (despite an order of nasi goreng), and zou.

We arrive in the evening Sarangan. Cool village perched beside a lake. Cool atmosphere but there is a "meeting", we hear people lamenting, crying in a micro view. Want? Dodo.

The next morning we heard of dangdut (traditional Indonesian music) screaming from the meeting room, backed by techno. Hmm? We will pay the hotel, we realize that people in the meeting (twenty people) are dancing like crazy at 8am in the morning, in daylight, therefore, on the song "house" (read " Boum Boum ") issued at high volume. We risk a look, they even set up a podium and everything. They are unleashed! Boggles the mind. I ask the girl to receive what is this "meeting" involving people wearing a t-shirt "SOS training. She says "komplemen Obat", or an addition to medication. No doubt a confidence course or something like that ...

Meet Our Team of depression (look as they look sad):

few pictures and we took off towards Candia Sukuh. Small Buddhist temple lost in the mountains. Beautiful views, cool. A second in the same kind, among the tea plantations, Candie Seto. Equally beautiful.

It goes back to Semarang, pause Bandungan. Still in the mountains, yet cool, yet the temples, but a different style. Beautiful and quiet.

Back in Semarang, airplane, sleep.

A very good weekend ...

Common Application Athletic Supplement

Ujung Genteng

With Pierre Thibaud and Manu, we are party hard in the crate to the south. Objective: Ujung Genteng ("The edge of the roof"), an almost-lost island of Java at the bottom. We are on August 17, c'es the anniversary of Indonesian Independence. Numerous activities take place along the road: the candidates are fighting on a platform, to be pushed into the river dirty, others are catching lots of hanging on top of a tree whose trunk was coated with soap. All this with music dangdut screaming, and among many Indonesian flags.

Passage by oil palm plantations, surreal scene.


Pelabuhan Ratu stop meals. A visionary we recommend spinning up our destination on the same day to avoid fog, the road into a ravine and bandits. The Indonesians have imagination sometimes. I take the wheel, ayo! Stop in a village above sea level, family-friendly wooden houses and views exceptional.


The road elevation is sumptuous. We arrive at Ujung Genteng to 21H (not bandits without precipice and without fog), it is broken in our search for losmen (inn) for a shipment of cars that go (slowly) see "penyu" large turtles that only found in the corner. Loitering on the beach, no turtle, back to square one, sleep.

The next day, wake quiet stroll on the beach, by chance reunion with friends from Jakarta, breakfast, instant noodle, then ... Moto!


First Manu and me. The roads out of the corner are indeed much more accessible by means of locomotion. Stroll along the beaches ...


... then more in height, panoramic view on the region, splendid.


What a pleasure to discover parts like this in small bike, nice discovery. After we lost a little in the villages ...


We eat in a warung where we meet a guy who had been asked for our path 5 minutes early (they are strong). Back from the beach. Exhausted, we eat then we're gonna party in local bars corn, dirty and a little shabby (ripped sofas, earth floor, special decoration, poor sound system, different people). Funny atmosphere. Dodo.

Rude awakening. I jump on a motorcycle taxi for the last lap at the beach turtles, pictures, put away ... And return. 8 hour drive for about 300 kilometers, but it flies along. I never get tired of making the road in Indonesia, a permanent show, among the beautiful scenery and villages to the intense activity.


Best of: jokes Manu:
1 / (pointing the finger at a star, knowing that I already showed my disinterest in this topic) - "Cedric, what's the name of the star there? "
2 / (After finding a dead dog on the beach) - "Cedric, to find one only has to give appointment to the dog dead?"