David's AW News: Legends in Java

Greetings from West Java…

Hope you guys are doing well!  Last week I was writing from Bali about how the artisans there are feeling the heat—rising costs, shortages and the constant need to reinvent how things are made.

In case you missed it, you can catch up here.

This week… we have moved islands.  Bondhan and I took a flight from Bali to HLP Halim—an airport just south of Jakarta that rather wonderfully describes itself as “Legendary”… and that pretty much set the tone for our trip.   We had only just landed when Bondhan suddenly spotted one of his absolute heroes standing beside the luggage belt—a rock star from Jamrud, one of Indonesia’s most famous rock bands.

Bondhan was completely star-struck!

A short taxi ride took us to the Whoosh train terminal, where, for a little extra money, we upgraded ourselves to First Class. Just twelve seats in the cabin… very civilised.  I had to visit the Whoosh gift shop of course.. 

Whoosh is Indonesia’s first high-speed train—and actually the first proper high-speed railway in Southeast Asia. It travels at up to 350 kilometres per hour, and the name isn’t only the sound of something rushing past. It is also an Indonesian acronym roughly meaning Time-Saving, Optimal Operation, Excellent System. Which is possibly the best name for a train ever. It was just three stops to the end of our journey just outside Bandung. It was awesome. And legendary fast.

Fast, smooth and very comfortable—but strangely, also half empty. On the last leg of the journey, Bondhan and I had the entire First Class cabin to ourselves. It felt slightly ridiculous, sitting there like two minor heads of state, hurtling across Java at 350 kilometres per hour. 

So… why are we here?  Well, apart from always wanting to visit this area.  Bandung has a huge artisan tradition. It is one of Indonesia’s major textile centres, there is a long history of leather and footwear production—your shoes may even have come from here—and the mountains and hills surrounding the city are important growing areas for tea, herbs and botanicals.

Basically, there are a lot of things here that could potentially become Ancient Wisdom products. Then came the next surprise…

Bandung is noisy.  Not quite India noisy—but definitely more beeping, hooting and general traffic conversation than you normally hear in Indonesia.

Art Deco Surprise!

Then we checked into the Savoy Homann Hotel. What a place. Totally unexpected.

The hotel’s history stretches back to the 1870s, although the beautiful curved Art Deco building you see today was completed in 1939. It sits in the heart of Bandung’s old town, where the streets are filled with Art Deco buildings—some beautifully restored, some still waiting patiently for somebody to love them again. Even some of the newer buildings have been designed to echo the same style. … surprise, surprise…

We quickly discovered that Charlie Chaplin had a connection with Bandung. The hotel counts him among its famous guests and proudly displays an old grand piano said to have been played—and apparently danced upon—by Chaplin during one of his visits. There is even a little museum dedicated to him nearby.

Bandung seems to have adopted Charlie Chaplin as one of its own.

We went for a walk through the old town that evening, and the whole place felt wonderfully Chaplinesque. Every available corner seemed to contain a photo booth or little studio where you could dress up and have a 1930s or 1950s-style photograph taken.  Local people were dressed up for their evening stroll. Couples posed beneath the old buildings, families were taking photographs, street performers were entertaining the crowds—and everybody seemed to be having fun.

Super friendly too.  It was one of those lovely places where people simply seemed pleased that we were there.

Leather Labyrinth.

Yesterday, we went to the leather district of Cibaduyut. And that was completely different again. It is difficult to describe—but imagine a leather labyrinth.  Bondhan had done some research, so we started on the main street. Almost every shop seemed to be supplying the footwear trade: leather sheets, glue, soles, buckles, laces, tools and even industrial sewing machines.

Then we started disappearing down the little alleyways. Some were barely wide enough for a motorbike. Behind doorways, inside small houses and squeezed into tiny workshops were hundreds of artisans producing shoes and boots.

One person cutting leather. Another stitching the uppers. Somebody else attaching soles. Another polishing and finishing. It was like watching ants working inside a maze. Many of the boots were surprisingly high-end and beautifully made—artisan designs, heavy leather, biker boots and quite a lot of wonderfully rebellious punk styling.

And such delightful people. Almost everybody called out “Halo!” They smiled, waved and seemed genuinely happy to see this wandering Englishman appearing in their alleyway. People invited us into their workshops, explained what they were making and happily showed us their machines and materials.

No grand factories or glossy showrooms just thousands of individual skills, quietly working together. That, for me, is always where things become interesting.

But enough for now… Later, we began delving into the world of West Java tea. There is a big tea culture here, artisan teas that would drop right into our Mandala Leaves Artisan Tea Brand.

Today we are going deeper. 

And up in the hills surrounding Bandung, we discovered something else completely unexpected—a super-rich, very elite world of enormous villas, immaculate gardens and elegant restaurants apparently frequented by generals, top politicians and some of Indonesia’s most powerful families.

Gosh! I have never seen villas quite like them. But I’ll tell you about that later.

There is simply too much to fit into one newsletter. The tea, the botanicals, the mysterious mountain mansions—and whatever else we manage to discover today.

So perhaps I’ll make an extra newsletter this week… Or perhaps I’ll leave you waiting until next Friday.

Let’s see what happens.

Anyway.. Have a Legendary Weekend!

David