We then made the rest of the drive to Cianjur. We were staying in a homestay, but this wasn't like the homestay in Laos, it was a big house just for us. It was really big and we had two cooks who had prepared an amazing lunch on our arrival. It was tofu in a really light coconut curry sauce with weird solid slices of rice sausage thing and Indonesian spring rolls, which were kind of more like pancake rolls. So good!
After lunch we went out for a tour. We drove to a little village and then got into small bus to head further into the back of beyond.
We walked through fields of peanuts and bananas to get to the edge of a huge man made lake. This was home to loads of fish farms and the families live on the lake with the farm. We got a boat trip around the lake and the lake houses before stopping at one and walking along the floating fish pens to take and seat and then get our feet nibbled my the baby nila fish. Argh!!! It was so weird I could handle it!
I also tried my hand at fishing (outside the pens of course!) but was not so successful. A fish just ate half my worm and didn't take the hook. Next we got back on the back and went across the lake to a cacao plantation. We searched for the ripe yellow fruit and then cracked it open and saw the cream coloured seeds in the middle. The cream flesh covered the bean in the middle. We sucked the flesh off the bean which was sweet and tasted ok.
We had to get across to the other side of the lake to get home and for this crossing we used a bambo raft which was pulled across the lake by a really old man using a rope attached at both sides. It was sinking pretty low with us on board! It was pretty worrying when we picked up our large guide from half way across and we sunk significantly deeper into the water!
We made it across without getting too wet and then walked up back to were our bus was waiting. We got shouted "bouley bouley bouley" the whole way! We got on a little but to take us up to the coach and it beeped every time we passed a house and shouted bouley! It was so cute to see all the kids waiving. Our big coach was outside the village football field and there were so many kids there just staring at us. Some of the guys played football with them and others of us just got photographed and photographed them. It was great!
We took the small bus back home before the main group and got stated and waved at the whole time. When we got back the cook shoes us how she was preparing the food. It smelt amazing. She had cooked a lot of it already like a delicious coconut curry and some sides and had already put these out on the table. I had noticed in Indonesia that they prepare food and then eat it when it's cold, well as cold as room temperature gets. We ate a delicious meal of sweet corn fritters, noodles, coconut curry, corn on the cob, rice and long beans. It was all amazing! I wishes I could have fitted more in! We cooked smores and marshmallows on the fire and drank and chatted. We went to bed quite early as there was not much to do. I was sharing the outdoor room with three other girls which was not so private as the curtain would fly up every time the fan rotated past! But I slept well, despite the stink of mothballs coming from my Versace bed covers! Got bitten so much though on my feet as the tiny bed cover didn't cover them! Great place to be though after the grimness of Jakarta!
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