My mum was very suspicious of the hotel I booked - because it was so cheap... I think two nights were less than IDR 800k (translating to about USD 25/night)... but the room was spacious and clean, which is all I really need when I travel. The location wasn't that strategic - it was near the Sentul Circuit (with loud motoGP-esque sounds) and was still an hour's drive away from the city of Sentul or Bogor, but isolation didn't bother me, because I wished to be alone.
Despite arriving on a Friday afternoon, the hotel was quiet. Sure, it could have been due to the Ramadhan fasting period, that people don't travel around as much. However, you have to admit a sense of distance from the hotel staff members and other guests... Everyone was wearing masks, temperature needed to be taken prior to entering the building, and staff members shielding themselves behind sheets of translucent plastic as they serve you. Welcome to the new normal, I guess. But I did enjoy my walks around the hotel compound, the winding back roads that led to a series of dilapidated houses built on cliffs, with plastic buckets and remnants of recycled wastes serving as a semi-permanent wall. I paced myself and eyed the three kampong boys ahead of me nervously, as they ultimately reached their destination, a small opening with a fishing pond, full of people merrily casting their fishing rods about. While I turned back, I thought to myself that I'm glad as some things never change.
Not bad, right? The window's room leads to an outdoor view of the compound, where you can see (and unfortunately, hear) the racetracks. But at least they stop racing after the sun goes down, and it was definitely more peaceful than when I was staying over at the CBD of Jakarta....
In the first picture, you'll see a lot of packed foodstuff - I resolved to not buy any meals out during the Spring WildFit (as I mentioned above). I foresaw that the hotel won't have any microwaves, thus the big plastic bowl: to heat up the food I brought I would boil the hotel's water inside the kettle, and submerge the glass container in the hopes of heating the food up. I'm quite the genius, right, if I can say so myself ;). And thus the first day of the mini-adventure wrapped up as I stare into the view while munching on my provisions and listening to the company's town hall... with the leaders urging us to stick around while discussing the appropriate incentives.
