Stops: Kimaya Braga Hotel, Monumen Perjuangan Rakyat Jawa Barat, Bandung Institute of Technology, The Maj, and Kimaya Braga Hotel. (Day 53)

Turns out, there are a ton of national holidays this month. That’s what happens when the country’s ideology mandates religious affiliation with: Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Catholicism, or, Confucianism. You wind up with a lot of lunar-related days off. I was not familiar with Waisak (Vesak) but we have an extra long weekend. Everything like museums or facilities is closed, but also everyone is in town from Jakarta. The city is packed. I had planned on going to the mayoral mansion today, but…. Went for a walk for a bit instead, and then took Gojek up to a national monument (also closed–not just the museum, the whole site), wandered over to the Bandung Institute of Technology which was open but of course deserted (good to see students and faculty completely abandoning their campus on a holiday), took another Gojek up to a gallery and restaurant in the hills of Dago, and then walked all the way home.

So, pictures of some of what I saw along the way.

Non toxic do not eat slimy unicorn poop.

I forget who this is, I , but “sandiwara” means drama.

Nice, quiet tree-lined street approaching the university.

View between a couple of buildings on the campus of Bandung Institute of Technology.

More from Bandung Institute of Technology.

And, more. The style kind of reminds me of national park lodges. Very 70s.

Very nice lunch up in the hills at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space. The galleries were closed but the garden was open.

Looking down at where I had lunch. Between the tree limbs just to the right of the guy on the laptop.

The cafe and gallery are off the skyline road into a valley. There are several stages and event spaces.After lunch, I walked down past a bit of farm, an abandoned hotel development, a glamping site and then hit the next main road. Chock full of cars at a dead stop. Good thing I had not tried to book a car. They never would have arrived.

I really should have grabbed a pic of the insane traffic, but I was in it. I could walk faster than the vehicles. I walked past a truck, stopped in a convenience store, got a can of root beer, drank it, went back out. The truck had just caught up with me. Coming down the hill there was often no sidewalk and motorbikes coming up the shoulder the opposite way. Keep an eye on the road, not the camera.

No matter where you go, the fascist stuff is easy to pick out. Pemuda Pancasila is a militia death squad organized crime right wing political operation which is sadly prominent (almost?) everywhere in Indonesia. The Act of Killing is a film of terrible things in which they figure.

Was hard to capture this bizarre glass thing rising out of the valley as I walked down.

Kind of Logan’s Run gone to seed in the background of this quiet block. But, The Maj is an abandoned 230+ unit luxe residential development that was never completed. Local residents are afraid it may wipe them all away in a landslide.

They are apparently, and for very good reasons, not happy about what might happen next. This handmade banner over the commercial billboards says, “This land belongs to the local citizens of Dago Elos. It does not belong to, The Muller Brothers and a bunch of companies.“

A ways down the hill. Apparently, this unit comes up for rent frequently or is hard to fill. 3m by 3.5m with bath, furnished with a table and bed. 850,000 IDR or about 85 USD per month.

Probably seem prominent in my posts, but images and text in public that are pro-Palestinian are quite scarce, but far more prevalent than in Sumatra.

And, then I got back. 16 km is not bad for one day. Nobody, for very good reasons, walks. But, I’m glad I did. And, those are just some of the things I saw along the way.