I can be tough, dammit!

So there I was after class, sitting around a couple of classmates at school and drinking sprite zero while I overheard a couple of them talking about going to the mountains near the city to go hiking and camping this weekend. Being a nice kid ( haha) that I am, I told them it sounded really interesting. Only to get one of them looked at me and smirked while saying this, "What does a princess know about going to the mountains?"

WTF b*tch said what? I calmly responded saying I had been there done that, only for him to say spending a weekend in my family villa and go horseback riding don't count as enjoying the true nature. Now if only I wasn't a civilized human being, I would have stomped him with my 4 inches stilettos.

What does a curly pimply random dude know about me to say that?

Back in high school, for a Sociology project, me and a bunch of fellow students from school did a weekend field trip all the way to Baduy Village. See, not all people volunteered to go there. The rest of us prefered going to other village called Kampung Naga ( Dragon Village ) 4 hours outside the city because it's more civilized and friendlier. Wusses.

Now I'll explain to you, my non Indonesian lovelies. Baduy Village is basically located in the hills of Kendeng Mountain, 6 to 7 hours from Jakarta by land transportation only to reach the outer rim of it, a little village called Ciboleger. The residents, Baduy Tribe, is one of the Java's oldest ethnics groups still living in a harmony with nature. They open some mountainside villages for visitors or researchers but some are closed.

Baduy Village consists of Outer Baduy and Inner Baduy, there are a couple of smaller villages in each which names I pretty much forgot but they're all up in the mountain and very traditional. The outer Baduy is a bit modern and accept civilizations, they have radio, TV, and lamps. The Inner Baduy however, isn't. They have rigid taboos, there are rules to visit there beside the fact it takes around 8 hours to get there on foot across the forests and hills from the Outer Baduy. They refuse anything modern : No electricity, no lamps, no toilets, no soaps, no touching people with different genders, no metal tools, no perfumes, no glasses, no cameras, no vehicles, etc. You can forget asking if there are any restaurants or computers and such. They're primitive and superstitious. The men work as farmers but not for the purpose of selling them, but for their families. Money isn't important for them, they don't wear sewn clothes, they don't choose their partners because their families and elders do that for them. They don't do formal education but they can count money. They speak Sundanese but some of them are fluent in Indonesia. They fight against attempts of the government to make them part of modern world.

Anyhoo, yeah back to the topic, I had a choice to opt for easier place to do my sociology project but I didn't. I chose Baduy Village. I went there with a few teachers and around 60 students using an army truck. No kidding. 60 people in an army truck. I felt like a sardine. I didn't go to a fancy schmancy private school for my high school because my parents wanted me to experience real life. No more private school for me back then. Hence the school couldn't provide edible transportation. We used this :















Along the way, my teachers reminded us all the taboos there. We're expected to talk silently and not stare at people. "Don't annoy the locals," Said them. According to many sources, Baduy people practice some sort of magic. Like a voodoo for their enemies. And they can perform it on you if you piss them off or disrespect their cultures / beliefs. A teacher even told the girl students to not be so pretty and dress down. "You don't want a Baduy man to be in love with you, they'll follow you everywhere. If they know where you live, they'll go to you even if it means walking for 5 days to Jakarta." Holy crap. That's the first time I wanted to be an ugly girl in my life.

It's not as scary as people said when I got there. We spent a night in Outer Baduy, in one of the local houses. It was so quiet but we got lamps. The villagers were friendly. The next morning at the crack of dawn we walked through the forests, rugged terrains, rivers and the hills to Inner Baduy with our bags and everything, we got to the first Inner Baduy village called Cibeo at 5 PM. YES, that's what I call walking, you guys. We were exhausted so I really admire Baduy people for doing this everyday. There the situations were completely different. The village people only say a word or two to us and they let us stay in their homes and provided us basic food. Basically only a small plate of rice for each of us only with vegetables. I brought shredded chicken in a tupperware only to have a bunch of people in my group asking me for some so what should be a food for a whole day was finished in that single meal time. Oh man. We stayed for 2 nights. We lived off Baduy food and I basically ate two or three spoonfuls in any meal time because I couldn't stand the stale taste. I really got my lesson. There I feel grateful for my home, my comfy bed, and my incredible cook.

I walked everywhere, we saw how they work, interact, plant vegetables and crops, traditional Baduy houses, traditional clothes woven by Baduy women ( I bought one for my mom ). We wanted to go further to Inner Baduy areas but they forbid us. They consider themselves people of the sacred inner circle, we couldn't go further than we already are because the next areas are forbidden territory and no strangers are permitted to enter. The Inner Baduy Tribe are very strict with their rules. At evenings we just sat there in silent until bed time because nobody could talk so much in moderate volume. My guy friends being moody because they couldn't smoke at all. My girl friends being moody because they couldn't shower. One time I woke up at 4 AM wanting to pee so a bunch of girls walked with me near the river, where we could pee only with flash lights lighting our way. We heard movements behind us and screamed, only to find out it was a couple of Baduy girls washing clothes in the river. At the crack of dawn. In complete darkness.

So far no scary things happened to us. But it happened to this girl in other group on the last night. People said she smoked near the river in the afternoon, and around midnight she started screaming and blubbering. Her body temperature was high and she was wailing like a crazy person. The Baduy girl whose house I stay at told me in limited Indonesian that the girl was possessed. That she made the god / the spirit of the mountains upset for violating their rules. The hair in the back of my neck really stood up that time. Luckily the possessed girl got better in the morning, one man in her group went to the village elder/ spiritual priest's house and apologized, eventually he checked up on the girl and she stopped screaming. Like the spirit had got away or something. Tell me if it doesn't freak you out.

We went back to the Outer Baduy village the next day, walking for a lot of hours again and finally reached our army truck to take us back to Jakarta, to school. Being in the truck was way harder then because people smelled so bad. But we laughed it off and I practically squealed seeing my car and my driver waiting for me. I remembered he brought me a sandwich and fries that I very quickly polished along with my regular clothes to change into. I didn't go home until after I visited my favorite spa to get my body scrubbed and massaged, also got my hair done. I believe my spa therapist squished her nose and my hairstylist thought he's witty enough and said, "Darling, you look awwwwwful", before working on my hair to make it look good again.

Of course I spent the following two days doing nothing but sleeping most of the times, but still the random dude today has NO rights to say what I know about nature. I'm so pissed. What do you think I should do? Write him a letter?

To : Random Curly Pimply Dude

B*tch Please, The "Princess" went to Baduy!

Lolita

I rest my case. Phew, such a long post. Don't skim, I'll know if you do. Kidding.