Puncak Visit, Again

I spent 4 hours and a half letting myself got lost among the winding roads and dirt tracks around my friend’s villa in Puncak. It has been awhile indeed since my last visit. And a lot has changed since then. There were now more asphalt roads. New houses were built. Fences were erected. New gates built and closed. Hence thus familiar shortcuts lost.

Luckily, not all of them are lost. And so I found myself hiking along familiar dirt tracks. I had to retrace my steps a couple of times since now there were more fences closing off access to the aforementioned shortcuts, but I knew other ways. I tried paths that I had not taken during my previous visit and found more shortcuts. It was a good thing I didn’t get lost among the woods. It would be hard indeed to find my way back if I did. And I was a long way off from my friend’s comfortable villa.

As always, the sceneries are magnificent. I had brought along with me a digital camera capable of storing 256 MB worth of pictures. But no matter how many pictures I’d taken, they will never be able to explain the depth of beauty these sceneries had. One should be here to be able to understand it.

I climbed to the highest ground of a nearby hill and as always, I found myself taken aback by the loudness of the silence. It was so quiet and lonely up there in the hills. I’d enjoyed the climb in my previous visit. But this time, I felt scared. I was scared of the loneliness, scared of being alone.

The view was magnificent. But the loneliness was piercing.

I was thinking of launching into philosophical musing about God and how lonely He probably was when He (or maybe She) created this world…but it’s too depressing. So I changed my mind.

I walked back to the villa exhausted. I missed a step or two along the way, courtesy of the slippery track (it rained the previous day). My clothing was dirty (courtesy of the missing of a step or two). Got sun-burned (it was a very hot day in Puncak, hotter than usual). It had been awhile since I got sun-burned. Not the kind of skin sensation I’d expect from a visit to Puncak.

The mood in the villa was not uplifting (my friends were nursing a cold). They all wore gloomy faces. It was kind of depressing. We were supposed to be cheerful. There was something amiss; I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

All in all, I’d visited the villa in better circumstances. But I’m still thankful nonetheless.