Mbah & Atok go to… tour of Java - Day 5

Mbah & Atok go to… tour of Java — Day 5: Jakarta - Bandung

Wednesday 17 July 2024

The hotel included breakfast, but it was a room service affair. Nasi goreng was served and, while satisfactorily filling, it wasn’t exactly the buffet spread we had imagined. Still, Alhamdulillah. All fuelled up, we went out to yesterday’s promised park.

Tebet Eco Park is an island of tranquillity in the busy city of Jakarta. It was very well designed and very beautiful. Yesterday evening, there were lots of families letting their children run around happily. This morning, the park was mostly filled with people doing their morning exercises. There was a group of children from a nearby school on an outing. Children all over the world are the same: they were noisily being chaperoned by their exasperated teachers trying to get their charges into pairs and in an orderly line. With bemused smiles on our faces, we silently wished the teachers luck.

All cities should have nice parks like this Tebet Eco Park

We spent a good hour exploring the park. We firmly believe cities need parks. They are good places to alleviate some of the stresses of urban living. The trees also contribute towards neutralising some, if not all, of the carbon produced by the city. And Jakarta definitely needs more parks for her 32 million dwellers. But we hope the powers that be would not neglect the park’s maintenance.

Mbah had fun exploring Tebet Eco Park

Afterwards we checked out of the hotel and went to one of the most anticipated attractions (for us, anyway) that Indonesia has to offer — the Whoosh fast train ride. I was so excited that the tickets were bought online weeks earlier. The ticket cost is quite significant for a 45-minute ride from Jakarta (Halim Station) to Bandung (Tegalluar Station). We paid IDR175,000 (approx USD10.80) per person for the 1:02 PM train in Premium Economy Class (prices differ according to carriage class and travel time).

We arrived about two hours before our train, and during the 15-minute journey, we were “entertained” by the assertive driving of our Grab driver. I thought driving in Malang, Surabaya, and other parts of Indonesia was strenuous enough; apparently, Jakarta is several notches higher.

Whoosh fast train station Halim, Jakarta

We both shared mixed feelings about the station. Having been to many other train stations around the world, old and new, as well as having been enlightened a couple of days ago about Indonesian train history, we expected more from a station as momentous as one that is home to the fastest train in Southeast Asia now. For instance, other places would proudly display the station name outside and inside the building. We spent an hour looking around with our eyes peeled but found only a small logo of the Whoosh train in the corner of a very large poster. Could we have missed the signage?

Whoosh, fastest train in Southeast Asia (at the time of writing)

And why was this so important? Among other reasons, brand marketing. We saw many tourists and travellers taking photos and videos. Those photos and videos would most likely be uploaded to at least one social media channel if not several. That’s easy and free advertising; unless this premium service is not obliged to provide any return on investment, which is unlikely. Recently the train operator announced that in the nine months since the commercial launch, Whoosh passenger load has exceeded target. But for how long? Usually, an investment of this magnitude takes years and even decades to gain profit. That commitment asks for years of continuous interest in this train.

Whoosh fast train station Tegalluar, Bandung

Even boarding was a rushed affair. We had almost no time to take photos on the platform. To some extent, these underwhelming incidents tarnished the experience, especially for me, as this was my first fast train ride (Mbah had ridden the Japanese bullet train some years back). 

Luckily, Tegalluar Station saved the day. There, we managed to take photos with some actual trains (although after five minutes we were herded off the platform) and the station had many posters of the train. But it had a dead feel to it as soon as all the passengers had left. We scootered off to our hotel before any zombies could emerge from the dark and empty shop lots.

We would be staying in Bandung for three full days. This was as a payback to our last visit 10 years ago when we were still novices in the kind of travels we do now. In fact, Bandung was our first destination that we applied our “hand luggage only” philosophy. By that we meant only taking a cabin bag each with us so we could be more mobile and agile (like getting around on a rented scooter). But being first timers then, there were quite a few things and places we missed. So tomorrow we will start in the North of Bandung.