By now you might have established how much I loathe Jakarta. Some people were born to live in buzzing cities, but I’ve never really adjusted here, no matter how much I’ve tried. If you asked me what my achievements in life are, I’d put surviving in Jakarta as one of them. It’s a constant hurdle, and sometimes I feel very close to raising a white flag and say, ‘Okay, I give up.’

Whenever I feel I’m close to the edge, a getaway works wonder to keep my sanity intact and restore the balance.

When my sister and I went to Bandung last time, we spared 1 day to visit a place that’s far from the crowd. Bandung has so many beautiful landscapes, and given the limited time, it was hard to choose one. We finally settled for The Lodge, a place my sister had been wanting to visit for more than a year.

So off we went, through the long and winding road (literally. It was far). It was Wednesday, so we thought we were doing a good job avoiding the weekenders.

We were wrong.

Apparently, The Lodge was one of the hottest spots in Bandung right now. Despite being in the middle of the week, the place was full.

But it’s a beautiful place, so I got why these people wanted to see it.

Half an hour later, the sky opened up and people were moving to the nearest shelters.

The rain was gone as quick as it came, and people breathed out a sigh of relief  as they ventured out under the open sky again.

At one point, I noticed a swing that didn’t look safe enough for people to be on, I was convinced it was only for display. The beam jutted out high above the ground, with ropes that looked questionable form afar.

Imagine my horror when I found out that it wasn’t only for display.

It wasn’t for playing, either. So apparently it was provided for people to pose for pictures. You line up, wait until your turn to get up there, sit for 2 minutes while your friend snap pictures of you. Then get off and that’s it. There was also another spot for you to take (supposedly) amazing photos, and you have to line up for that 2-minute experience as well.

Both my sister and I were not interested (the lines were long!), so I just took photos of strangers who happened to be on the swing and that sky tree thing.After that, I quickly took some pictures of the surroundings and left the place.

While we were here, I observed the people around me, and saw almost every group had a selfie stick with them (I have a . And honestly, people here went the extra mile to get nice selfies, including hogging spots for what seemed like an eternity. It was hard to get an empty spot, and when we did, it was like click, click, click, done. We didn’t want to be those annoying people who hogged the spots, but having come all the way here, we also wanted to get at least 1 (ONE!) decent picture of each of us in this place.

Would I go here again? Probably not. While it’s obvious this place was beautifully instragrammable, driving that far for a crowded place would not be my choice for relaxing. That’s quite a shame, really, as The Lodge was truly stunning, but it seemed people came here mainly to take selfies, rather than to enjoy the peace and quiet.