BANDUNG - THE BOYS DAY OFF (PART 2)

The daylight that follows was a chilly one. I did not sleep much that night. After the dawn prayers, I wasted no time to begun strolling uphill along Jalan Setia Budhi to have a first hand look at the locals early activities. The smooth tarred road was a straight climb at about 8 to 10° steep, which would provide my RFC cycling buddies a perfect route for our regular weekend climb. Temp was still in the mid teens and the locals, mostly clad in jackets and sweaters for warmth, can be seen rushing to their  destinations, ignoring the familiar surroundings on speda moto(s), cars, minivans buses, cabs, bicycles and what-have-yous. I think our hotel, Casa de Ladera was an excellent as its distanced location from the hustle and bustle of the main city area provided us with the other side of Bandung. It took me a good one hour stroll to finally reached back the hotel and found my buddies all geared up for our golfing at Giri Gahana in Jatinangor, my first ever in Indonesia.

Giri Gahana's Majestic Clubhouse

Pak Wawan took us via a toll highway to escape the macet and we reached Giri Gahana Golf Resort early at 10:00 am. Universitas Padjajaran was a mere 300 meters away. As it was a Monday, tee off was only allowed at 11:30 am to give way for an early course maintenance work.  


Giri offers an outstanding picturesque course fit for a postcard shot. Well maintained turf fairways winding Hole 1 was complimented by the skyline of the city amidst a terrain of mountains as the backdrop. Rashid just could not wait to be at the fairways and proposed to play for higher stakes. Well, unlike back home where the bet were only in tens of RM, here we play for thousands and thousands … … of Rupiahs, much "higher" stakes.

Fairway 18 

To kill time, we proceeded to the driving range instead. To Reza’s delight, there were even caddies here, eager to help you positioned the ball for your hit. Course maintenance were simply awesome, attributed to the abundance of cheap labors.

Me, Manaf, Reza & Rashid for the album

We registered our tee off at 11:35 after the announcement of each of our names over the loudspeaker, the kind like the major tournaments have on TV, albeit minus the applause. Each of us were provided with a caddy and mine was Angie (pronounced “angry” without the “r”). 

Me reading the putting line, not Angie's rear view please

A little Sundanese gal, at a glance Angie resembles rather like a Japanese. I would not discuss much here but only to say that she was an excellent ball liner at greens, and I got a lot of scolding from her for missing putts, and I loved my wife a lot.

As the first and 10th tee box was occupied, the caddies directed us to moved to 6^th hole instead, which was indeed a killer Par 3. The hole was a short 145m across a lake but your ball will be welcomed by an extremely steep green with no breaks in betweens, with only a 10 index. I spotted a wooden single storey kampung-style house well guarded by matured pine trees located near the 6^th Hole green, overlooking the clubhouse and a sleepy pond stretching from the 6^th hole to the front yard of the premise and was told that it is a chalet for the guests! How nice….

Rashid & Reza with loyal caddies

Rashid holed an eagle, I think at Hole 11. Immediately after that, you can hear his tone of voice turned coarse and deep with head held high as if he was about to do an albatross on the next hole. All-in-all, we played our normal handicaps that day, however the ultimate champion was Manaf, pocketing most of loot with a score of 84.

Rashid's follow through

At the front desk while waiting for our ride, we striked conversations with the staff  manning the reception desk. Manaf jokingly told them that one of us scored 68. Thinking that it was from a single handicapper, he revealed that, “… itu cuma untuk 9 lubang sahaja!!” Aaahhh…Bandung girls, even their giggling was like Keroncong Untuk Ana.  

After the game, Reza need constraining not to chase after the caddies

Snores filled the van on our way back from Giri Gahana. We reached Sukajadi sometime after sunset and went straight to another Sundanese joint, which name just slipped my mind but the food was again, exceptional. I think Sundanese uses minimal oil in their food preparation and that serves me just fine.

The plan to meet a long-time friend of mine, a local Bandung guy, was postponed as the day was getting late. Tjepy Hidayat was a colleague back from our university days in Minnesota, the type of person who would go the extra mile to lend a helping hand in whatever situation that may come. I remember back then, Tjepy was always the person to look for whenever we Asian students have some distance travelling to do, like groceries, makan or fetching newly arrived students from the airport as far as Minneapolis some 200 miles away from our place, as he owned the largest transport amongst all, a beat-up Chrysler Minivan.  I have not met him ever since he departed for home more than 13 years ago.

The cool breeze of Bandung's evening was to me a signature climate to be enjoyed while I can. We stayed up late again that night, doing what men usually do on a refreshing evening. Details? I cannot remember.....