timestravelerstales: Mount Padang Trip

The trip was made on October 3. This was my first experience for me to travel with bunch of strangers actually. I usually travel with people I know like my family, friends, or office mates. I have never traveled with strangers. But it was indeed my intention to know how it is like to travel with people you're not familiar with. So I decided to join a trip which was conducted by Meet Up. One social application which enables you to create an event and connect people. It was a very sudden decision actually. The trip was on Saturday and I only decided to join it on Tuesday. I was actually nervous about what it was gonna be like. Would I be lonely? Would I be looking miserable? It was like I was battling with my own fears. It was like I forced myself to get out of my comfort zone.

But guess what? It wasn't that bad. I made friends easily. The first time I shook hand with a girl named Fanny and then a man next to me named Budi. We talked a lot during the trip. The most common question we asked each other was "how did you know about this trip?". Of course I answered I knew this from Meet Up. Most of them brought their friends along. Only like three people including me came alone. But I didn't feel like an alien at all. Then I too got along with Fanny's friends, Syukur and Khamid. And I also got to know two very adventurous girls Desi and Selly. I recalled so because the way they dressed, like real travelers and aventurers.

The trip was exhausting and it took 4 hours to the site due to traffic jam.We explored two places which were Lampegan train station and Mount Padang itself. At Lampegan station we walked through a railway tunnel, which was around 500 m length. It was so dark and creepy. After that we went straight through Mount Padang. The trekking was quite short, only half an hour. But the rocky stairs were very steep. I didn't work out for quite sometimes so I felt completely worn out.

Mount Padang megalithic site was known from 1763. The research was done from 1982 and started again in 2012. The stones were estimated from 5000 years before century. The unique thing is the stones are mostly pentagonal sizes (segi lima). It was used as place of worship in the past and some of them were cemeteries.

Over all I enjoyed the trip because I got to know some new friends. Then the organizer made a new whatsapp group so we could be in touch even after the trip was over. I would love to travel solo in group again. May be next destination is to Baduy and Mount Galunggung. I only regretted one thing, why didn't I start this earlier? If I did that in my early years of traveling, may be I already have so many friends and connections in travel world, and I could be a more independent traveler without having to rely on my friend's availability to go to certain places.

And perhaps, I would already have a soulmate? #eh