Grassroots Influence New Horizons Xiao Xiake (Travel Expert)
Because I had already arrived at the train station to get train tickets from the ticket machine on the same night in Jakarta, I got up at 5:00 a.m. on August 20 and took a taxi to the train station. Jakarta's long-distance and short-haul stations divert traffic to distract people, so taking a long-distance train to Bandung and to Bogor's train station is different. To Get to Bandung is Gambir Station, which is located right next to the National Monument Square. The distance from Jakarta to Bandung is about 153 kilometers, but it takes three hours to arrive, why the railway speed between the two cities is so slow, you can see from the train that the two cities have to pass through many stretches of mountainous areas, in order to solve the traffic problems between the two places, the Indonesian government decided to build the Indonesian high-speed railway (also known as the Yavan high-speed railway). It is a high-speed railway connecting the capital Jakarta with Bandung, the capital of West Java. It is possible to extend it to Surabaya, The second largest city in Indonesia, East Java Province, and the future two cities will not be reached in an hour, after China and Japan fought for the construction of this high-speed rail, and later won the bid by China.
About ten o'clock before the train to Bandung Railway Station, the luggage is placed in the station's large locker, because the same night at more than seven o'clock to take the train from Bandung to Yogyakarta, so at night to retrieve the luggage, can find a large locker at the train station to help me solve the big problem of luggage storage, otherwise the trouble will be big, you must charter a car all day to put the luggage, will increase the cost of transportation. The next question is where to go to Bandung? Because I had learned about the tourist attractions in Bandung from "Java, Indonesia: Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surabaya" published by Taiya Publishing House in July 2018, I was most attracted by the Boat Volcano and Milk Lake on the outskirts of the city, the Asian-African Conference Museum and Bandung Mosque in the downtown area, and the Anglo-Happy Village on the outskirts of the city. Located on Mount Vladimir, 36 kilometers north of Bandung, it is the only volcano in Java that can be reached directly to the crater by car. A famous tourist attraction, the huge Queen's Crater is brown in color and emits a strong smell of sulfur, the bottom of the crater is covered with black lava, and there are some smaller craters nearby that can be explored on foot. There is another milk lake located about 50 kilometers south of the city of Bandung, because the lake water has special minerals, depending on the concentration and temperature of sulfur or oxidation, its color will change from blue to white, light green or brown, and the sand and rocks around the lake are also leached white, which is a striking volcanic lake tourist attraction. Considering that the volcano is closer to the milk lake than the urban area, although the milk lake seems to have a highway to reach the vicinity, but considering the transportation cost and travel time, it was decided to travel to the volcano.
There is an article "[Bandung Tourism] Attractions Selected 14 Attractions General Arrangement" points out that the downtown part of Bandung is concentrated in three blocks, namely the railway station area of the city 1.Asian and African Museums, 2.New Market, 3.Mosque, 4.TSM mall, 5. Anglo-Long Symphony on the outskirts of the Eastern District, and 6. Little Paris, 7. Jeans Street, and 8. Rumah mode in the North District. The southern suburbs of Bandung are 9.Milk Lake, The Northern Suburbs of Bandung 10. Boat Volcano, 11.Terraces, 12.Ciater Hot Springs, 13.Lembang Floating Market, and 14.Lembang Cowboy Ranch. During the ten hours of staying in Bandung, I finally traveled 1, 2, 3, 5, 11, 12, and 13, but the most wanted volcano did not go, and I told it.
When the luggage was sent out of the train station, a handsome driver was greeted, negotiating the price of going to the volcano and going to and from the city, because the price was not expensive. After leaving the city, walk along the road to the mountains, you can see the idyllic scenery of the roadside, and stay to take pictures of the peasants' labor. There are also mansions and good homes on the hill, and the road is lined with flags celebrating the National Day. Also saw a kindergarten holiday, many mothers came to pick up children to go home, did not expect that in the mountains, Indonesian mothers will also come to pick up children, and children wear clean uniforms, there are a number of roadside stalls at the school gate, children grab food and toys, etc., it can be seen that although the Indonesian people's income is low, but the people live and work in peace, children are also very happy. The driver asked me in English if I would like to go to the musk cat coffee garden to see, before hearing about Indonesian migrant workers, often like to buy musk cat coffee for Taiwanese employers, and is an Indonesian specialty, of course, I went to visit.
The natural origin and artificial farms of musk cat coffee, mainly concentrated in Sumatra, Java, Bali, Sulawesi and other islands in Indonesia, as well as the Philippines and some places, are one of the most expensive coffees in the world, with 1 kg of raw raw beans up to 400 US dollars, sales of goods up to 1000 US dollars per kilogram, and the annual output of coffee made from picking up ten wild musk cat manure in Indonesia is only 500 kg. Cat coffee is produced from the feces of the Indonesian coconut cat (a kind of musk cat) as a raw material, so it is called cat coffee. Coffee beans are eaten by coconut cats and hulled after completing fermentation in their stomachs, destroying proteins, producing short peptides and more free amino acids, the bitter taste of coffee will be reduced, and the excreted feces are the main raw materials, coffee beans can not be digested, so they will be excreted, after cleaning, roasting has become musk cat coffee. Coconut cats are omnivorous, eating seeds for a living, but also eat insects and snakes, birds, amphibians and reptiles, so the feces discharged by the truly wild coconut cats will be mixed with various substances. In Indonesia, there are local farmers who catch coconut cats to raise and feed coffee beans to make coffee. However, there is still a certain difference between artificial breeding and natural, so the cat coffee sold on the market is mostly artificial (Wikipedia). Interested readers can read further into the vision magazine "Musk Cat Coffee: The Dark Lament of the World's Most Expensive Coffee".
The coffee expert commented: "The selling point of musk cat coffee is its story rather than its quality". Musk cat coffee flavor is not popular in the coffee industry, but because of the scarcity of its source, many Indonesian producers in order to earn musk cat coffee tourism money, the musk cat in a cage as small as the size of the rabbit cage, which is full of feces and urine, and almost only to the musk cat to ingest coffee beans, normal musk cat will feed on insects, fruits for food, but the producer only let the musk cat ingest coffee beans, creating musk cat malnutrition, and even because of the influence of caffeine, let the musk cat appear mental abnormalities. I don't know that musk cat coffee has so many controversies, before I saw the financial news, I learned that a Taiwan businessman Ke Baiyu built an endless 8000 A tea garden No. 8 in Bandung to plant Assam black tea, and even created the musk cat coffee garden of Indonesia's highest altitude "Golden Bailin Estate".
Of course, the coffee garden I visited is by no means built by Taiwanese businessmen, after entering, you can visit the breeding situation of musk cats, there are pictures on the wall to explain the food they feed, and the production of musk cat coffee, and also show the coffee prototype, so that I have a deep understanding of musk cat coffee. Of course, the visit is free, but there is no free lunch, of course, the manor hopes to attract tourists to taste and buy coffee through the production process of musk cat coffee. The Internet said that Musk Cat Coffee went to a café in Taipei through agents, and a cup of 250 ml would cost 800 yuan. Up to 80 USD (about NT$2,500). Of course, if it comes to peace, so I ordered a cup to try, of course, it is not so expensive here, a cup of about NT$100 can be drunk. I didn't expect it to be different from general coffee, coffee powder can not be fully dissolved, so you need to filter with filter paper, but you will eat a grain of powder, a little troublesome. As for the taste? Because I am not a coffee lover, I can't see if it is great or not, but I think the flavor is a little different, but it should be "more curious than delicious". As for whether I have bought it? Because many relatives and friends have the habit of drinking coffee, in order to meet their curiosity, of course, I spent money to buy several packages back to Taiwan to give gifts to relatives and friends, and even when I returned to Taiwan at Surabaya Airport, I also spent the remaining Indonesian dollars to buy musk cat coffee, after all, it is quite cheap and easy to carry in Indonesia, relatives and friends will be very happy, is the only choice for Indonesian souvenirs.
Previously, I didn't know that there was so much controversy about the production of musk cat coffee, so I visited its production, drank and bought, foresight magazine said, "Experts call for the end of such inhuman treatment, one of the keys is that tourists do not visit these coffee gardens again, and by rejecting musk cat coffee, so that extremely innocent animals can regain their freedom." In fact, experts emphasize that the deliciousness of musk cat coffee is often novelty and topic rendering, and it may not be really delicious. Only when consumers refuse to drink can they make tourists the most inhumane and despicable, and perhaps have an end." The report mentions that "in order to maximize coffee production, musk cats can eat food every day except coffee cherries or coffee cherries, and they cannot choose, day after day, until the day of the end of their lives." "However, here I see the manor mention that the musk cat only feeds them coffee beans on Monday and Thursday nights, and will feed honey, papaya, milk, eggs, and even chickens at other times.
After all, drinking a cup of coffee would have been very pleasant, and if it still involves humanity, even if you have to buy filter paper to drink, you don't have to. However, this article still reports on what I have seen and heard in this coffee garden, and the controversy involving the breeding and inhumanity of animals is left to you to judge. Of course, this time to visit here, I bought coffee gifts, in addition to the owner of the manor, the happiest is the driver who took me, it should also be able to get the return given to him by the owner of the manor, in the future, if the tourists really do not come and refuse to buy, the most seriously hurt will be the farm owner and the tourist, including the driver, etc., and even including the Taiwan businessmen who operate coffee plantations here. Whether to buy musk cat coffee or not in Indonesia is up to you!
The idyllic scenery seen on the way from Jakarta to Bandung, the hills are commonly undulating
The idyllic scenery of the mountainous areas that are common on the way to the volcano
Tomato fields, you can see tomato branches supported by bamboo chips
Farmers work diligently in the fields
Fine housing is still visible in the mountains
Flags are also hung on the trails in the mountains to celebrate the National Day
A peculiar tree that wraps around a clump of leaves
A row of houses built along the mountainous terrain
Kindergarten children leave school at noon, and the mother-in-law and mother-in-law come to pick them up
Children buy food at the vendors after school
Vendors selling various kinds of candy, two children with tight bags are buying
Musk cats are cute in appearance, with a pleasing appearance of a raccoon and a fox's long tail
Coffee trees in the manor
Photo of a musk cat eating a coffee bean with an excreted coffee bean
Round rolling coffee beans after washing
In narrow cages, they live all around in controversy over soaking in their own urine and feces
In order to maximize coffee production, the daily food eaten by musk cats is mainly controversy over coffee cherries
The introduction of musk cats eats quite a varied diet every day, feeding coffee beans only on Mondays and thursday nights
Introduce the production process of musk cat coffee
A shed area where visitors can make coffee and rest
In the area where coffee is sold, there are TV shows to introduce its products
Coffee products at different prices, IDR 225,000
Musk cat coffee after brewing, if not with filter paper will drink a grain of sandy unsolved coffee powder