Back through the rails
Took train back. Managed to do this despite my mom who’s being over-concerned.
The main difference with the currently popular bus is actually about the place where we can go up the train and get down. With the limited resource given to rail mass transportation, train can only go to so much places and we would still have to use other mini bus services to get somewhere else, which could be far and through congested roads. Price and time to arrive is roughly the same.
Unlike what I thought previously, the train doesn’t run much faster than car. During the mountain part, the speed doesn’t go over 60 km/h (I had GPS on just to kill time). The speed only goes to around 80 km/h when already passing Purwakarta and closing to Jakarta.
Also, the car path from Bandung these days are Cipularang → Jakarta-Cikampek → Jakarta. Train path doesn’t actually go much further. Well, it turns through Purwakarta east side and come in from Cikarang and Bekasi, that’s about it. I thought I would arrive in Jakarta later, but it’s not that much different, which is rather surprising. Probably it would be even relatively faster in high rushback season like end of weekend. In fact, I might arrive at the same time if I took the taxi from Gambir instead of waiting for the bus. :P
The sound when taking turn and the shake is definitely not a mean of transport I’d recommend to my mother. But the size of the room is large enough for room space, and for walking space when feeling stiff or bored. You can even walk to the next cars just for the heck of it. Not a good choice in case you travel alone with lots of baggage on board.
But the view is nice, especially when passing through those narrow bridges between mountains, it’s almost as if the train is flying. Sunset also looks very nice if not because the railway cuts through mountains a lot (meaning we had dirt wall by left and right) blocking the view.