Said to be a place where "traditional culture meets modern sustainable living", i was excited to be visiting Dusun Bambu Family Leisure Park but as you can see, it was raining and even though i totally welcomed the cooler temperature, it's going to be hard for photo-taking.
Dusun Bambu is translated to bamboo village and it's obviously appropriate to have a humongous bamboo sculpture greeting us when we arrived at the ticketing booth! p.s. frankly, a mischievous act (lighted matchstick etc) would likely reduce this to ashes.
Seen at the ticketing booth - the list of things you can do at the leisure park! The most popular and the most commonly featured in blogs was Lutung Kasarung; dining in a bird's cage structure surrounded by tall trees.
After paying the entrance fee of 15,000 rupiah per person (less than S$2), we stepped into an arena where ducks (or are they geese) wandered freely.
Right ahead of us was the sight of a typical farmland growing Southeast Asia's preferred carbohydrate; rice! It was a pretty view as we were the only group (no thanks to the rain) and the rice straws were dancing ever so gracefully (gratitude to the wind).
This flowery shuttle arrived for us to board; well, i was thinking of walking to explore the place although the wet weather had dampened that mood.
Not to mention that our mum was freezing!!! Once again, i am registering her regret for not bringing thicker clothing! Oh well, she learnt well and brought winter wear for our outskirt day tour the next day.
Drop In - a centralised location where visitors would congregate in order to check out the leisure park. There's a large metal container with dry pieces of wood and this begets the question to the management; why didn't you light it up so that we can get some warmth!?
Surrounding the "drop in" were quite a few buildings and we just hopped into the one nearest to us as it started pouring again! Pasar Khatulistiwa was, simply put, a place with a food court and souvenir shop.
Mum wasn't interested to follow us and opted to stay in the food court where she can warm herself by drinking a cup of hot coffee! Rupiah wouldn't be of much use as payment; you have to exchange it for the currency printed by dusun bambu! Conversion rate; 1 to 1.
While the ladies helped my mum with her order, the not-so-filial son proceeded to survey the "neighbourhood" - according to my map, ahead of me would be Lutung Kasarung.
There's a direct path connecting me to the "bird cages"; however, there was a gate further down (not in the photo) that's locked. I am guessing it was closed due to the rain; in case of falling branches.
Rabbit Wonderland - more like a kid's playground that's also closed because of the weather. Didn't look too exciting from what i see and i wonder how it's going to survive. More on the wonderland later.
Mum was settled at a corner hidden from the wind and warmed by mug of boiling hot coffee and that's when the teo siblings can finally step out for a sibling-only exploration!
The road ahead didn't seem rosy but we were adamant not to have our time and money gone to waste. The miserly character in our family shouldn't be compromised and with that in mind, we forged ahead, without a care for the world; except for maybe our mom whom we thought would get bored pretty soon.
A running stream cut across our path; i can imagine families having picnics at the sides and enjoying themselves with tons of laughter should the weather be sunny.
Dad would have liked this place as there were so many flowers! We did ask him to join us but he insisted there would not be anything new from his past two visits; last of which was easily two to three decades ago!
Remember, once you are out in the open in this bloody rainy weather, you wouldn't find much shelter; best so far was this space with a propped up umbrella on a wooden platform and even then, there's only a tiny space in the middle where you can sit without wetting your pants!
Long, green field where you can fly a kite if conditions permit!
Navigating via the given map would be a great headache as it's not drawn to scale! Thankfully, the park wasn't as big as a nature reserve and you can probably gauge your direction better without relying on the map!
Sunflower crop!
Spotting the sunflowers brightened our mood as we hope it would bring us some luck in clearing up the sky so that we can proceed with our journey in peace and with many better-looking photographs!
I think the flowers were supposed to be facing down like the above although in the gloomy weather, it's easier to assume they were as disappointed as we were with the unexpected downpour.
Now, i saw quite a few signs indicated corkage charge and i thought they were referring to wine or alcoholic drinks. I just did a google translate and the translation is "guests bringing and consuming food and drink from outside will be charged 250,000 rupiah". How would a foreigner know sia?! I would have wrongly recommended every reader to bring their own food for a picnic!
See the environment right in front of us! So nice yet i couldn't even bring in my own food?! Okay, to be fair to the company managing the leisure park, the entrance ticket wasn't expensive in the first place.
The park is purpose built and i guess maintenance cost would not be cheap. The least we can do is to help support the dining establishments in the park. hmm... even i don't feel convinced of that corkage charge.
Eh, a coconut sculpture? I think. *shrugs*
We ventured further north and noticed a few enclosed compounds we thought were staff housing. Even if i am curious, i do respect other peoples' privacy.
No, i seriously didn't break down the fence! It was already lying on the ground when we neared it and only then did we realise it was a camping ground known as Sayang Heulang!
Rain was getting heavier and the sisters decided to make their way back. A scaredy cat when alone, i had no choice but to follow them. :(
Despite the supposedly long distance on the poorly-scaled map, the building where my mum was at was actually quite near to where we were.
As i didn't quite fully check out the surroundings, i told my sisters to look for my mom first and i shall meet them a short while later. Above was another angle taken of Rabbit Wonderland.
Still thought it was still a lousy place until the truth hit me like a hard rock thrown in my face. How could i have not realised it?! There's a reason why this was named the rabbit wonderland and all the while, i have been thinking of only alice and the wonderland.
It's known as rabbit wonderland because when the weather is good, the rabbits would be let out of the pens to mingle with the visitors (who paid an additional entrance charge).
My personal view aside (given the potential abuses by people who don't know how to handle the rabbits), i knew this playground would be a great hit with children!
Now, my sisters weren't impressed with Dusun Bambu since we didn't really see much in our stroll. If only they had accompanied me and be fascinated, as i was, with the little huts by the lakeside.
The above was the panoramic view i took before stepping onto the performance platform ahead of me. It was a man-made lake but the view in front of me was just too beautiful; traditional huts, towering trees and even the modern building on the left seemed to complement the entire landscape.
Guess there were activities you can do at the lake in normal, non-rainy times.
My curiosity lies with the huts; what are they used for? How do i enter? Is it an accommodation where we can stay for one night? My questions shall be answered soon.
Reversing my footsteps and bypassing the stream that i talked about much earlier. As with the man made lake, the stream should also be purposely built.
Purbasari - a Sundanese restaurant by the lake and that's also the entrance towards the huts which means the huts were used for dining, very much like Kampung Daun.
Lutung Kasarung - honestly, the many pictures of the bird cages at this place were the deciding factors for choosing Dusun Bambu over others and it would be a great pity if i couldn't see them with my own eyes.
The mid canopy trail shall lead us to the locked gate; earlier, i did notice a guardhouse with staff manning it and i was thinking of asking them for permission just to take a few shots of the bird cages.
Permission was denied, albeit nicely and i didn't want to put them in a difficult position by insisting my way. As expected, safety was of concern as the floor was slippery and it was still drizzling. By the way, you need to rent the bird cage for a fee; big cage cost 150,000 rupiah an hour whereas smaller ones would be 125,000 rupiah an hour.
This would be closest i could manage for a picture of the bird cages. For those interested to know how they look like in good weather, please google. :)
Got scolded by the rest as i apparently took too long and they were getting worried! As i had overseas roaming, our general guide when we couldn't find one another is to give a missed call and then wait at the main entrance; in this case, it would be the place with a smaller scale bamboo structure, where we disembarked earlier from the shuttle.
Reached the paddy fields once again after taking the shuttle back to the ticketing booth.
Another panoramic photo - noted the rather big difference in picture colour and quality between the above photo and the ones before. The one directly above is taken using my iPhone panorama function; personally, i still prefer using DSLR but without a wide angle lens, it's more tedious to stitch up a few photos to make up a panorama.
Back at the spot where our driver, Mr Askan, was patiently waiting for us. Sadly for us and fortunately for the management, there's no bonfire to send us off.
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Location
Kolonel Masturi KM 11,
Cisarua, Bandung Barat,
Indonesia
Location Map
As above.
Website
Map of the Leisure Park
As above.
Pricing
Weekend & Public Holiday - 20,000 Rupiah per person
Weekday - 15,000 Rupiah per person
Car - 15,000 Rupiah each
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