Thomas H. Reid

“ From the compact kampong nestling among the trees, the native women, clad in bright coloured sarongs, came with babies, who take to the water as if it were their natural element. Merry shouts of laughter ascend from the valley as the youngsters splash about and [32] chase each other. Everything suggests beauty and peace and contentment, and as one drinks in the scene it is borne in upon one that the comparison with the Garden of Eden is not inapt. What could one wish for more than a beautiful, bounteous land and a happy, contented people! ”

“ We British people are so accustomed to the idea that our ports are the best and our trading arrangements unequalled that we are astonished when we discover that our shipping and commercial rivals know how to do some things better than ourselves, and that all wisdom is not to be found within the confines of England and among the people who are proud to own it as their place of birth. ”

“ Hotels and Travelling Facilities
Before going to Java, the tourist ought to make himself acquainted with the outlines of the history of the island since it came under European domination. Half the charm of European travel, if one is something more than a mere unreflective globetrotter, lies in the historic associations of the places visited, and it is the comparative absence of this quality which robs new countries of the interests they would otherwise possess for educated people. Scenery alone surfeits the appetite. ”

“ We have painted Java in rosy colours because we found it beautiful, the people companionable and the conditions agreeable. It is possible that others may go over our tracks without deriving a tithe of the enjoyment. ”

“ In the plains going eastward through Central Java from the Preanger Regencies to the mountains of the Teng'ger Region, one cannot fail to be struck by the remarkable change in the appearance of the natives. The Soendanese of the West may not have the resource and thoughtfulness of the people of the plains, the Javanese, but they have brightness and vivacity which make them more attractive. Their bent of mind is reflected in the bright colours of their dress. ”

“ The general impression left by one's visit to Java is the excessive cleanliness of town and country and the widespread cultivation. There are, of course, black spots in the towns; but they are as nothing to the traveller who has perambulated the native quarters of any British Colony in the Far East. When we think of the millions of dollars Hongkong has expended to cope with filth-created plagues and to reduce the native rookeries of China [95] town, it fills us with the highest admiration for Dutch administration in Java. ”

“ There is everywhere a generous appreciation of space, and doubtless the good health enjoyed by the Dutch ladies and their families so markedly in contrast to the British colonists on the other side of the Equator is largely due to the more comfortable homes in which they are settled. In Java, the bath-room is a special feature, and only those who have travelled much in tropical countries can appraise it at its true value. It is all in keeping with the thorough cleanliness of the Dutch people, a feature which impressed itself upon us wherever we travelled throughout the island. ”

“ Beneath his massive form, colour is lost in shadowy but closer at hand are the dark pervading greens of the trees and vegetation, palms and tree ferns and banana trees helping by their graceful form to provide the truely tropical features, while the equally graceful clumps of bamboo sway and creak in the light breeze, their pointed leaves supplying that perpetual flutter and movement which one associates with the birches and beeches of one's native land. The cultivated patches on hillside and valley are rich in colour. ”

“ Palms and tree ferns and feathery clumps of young bamboo are called to aid by Nature's landscape gardener; but they do not shut out the verdure-clad ravines that mark a waterway or the terraced rice-fields which climb almost to the top of the highest summits.
We thought we had seen the acme of perfection in rice cultivation and irrigation in China and Japan. But here in Java, we have seen more to excite the admiration in this respect than in either of these countries. One can only marvel at the completeness of the system of irrigation. ”

“ Let this be Governor-General Daendels' epitaph!
Had not one's attention been distracted by the eccentric performances of the kreta, one might well have admired the scenery. Close at hand, the road teems with fascinating pictures of native life. Only occasionally does one see a really beautiful face, but there is a pretty shyness such as one seldom sees on the roads of a European country. ”

“ It would have been much better if the road had never been made. Surely no highway was ever more badly graded, and we are not astonished that a practical people like the Dutch set themselves to construct a more sensible road by way of Tjitjoeroeg and Soekaboemie. We have seen paved mountain paths in China more inaccessible, but not much, and when we dashed up to the Sindanglaya Hotel at 12.15, we thought more highly of the team that had pulled us over the Pass than we could have believed when we formed our first early morning prejudices. ”

“ When consideration is given to the fact that Java is only two days' steaming from Singapore, that it is more beautiful in some respects than Japan, that it contains marvellous archaeological remains over 1,100 years old, and that its hill resorts form ideal resting places for the jaded European, it is strange that few of the British residents throughout the Far East, or travellers East and West, have visited the Dutch Colony. ”

“ As in all other matters pertaining to the comfort of the European in the tropics, the Dutch, in the matter of food, seem to us to have achieved better results than we have in the British Colonies. The "riz-tafel" may not appeal to the English palate, but there is no lack of clean, wholesome dishes, and side dishes that make us wonder at the toleration of the traveller with the Indian and Colonial caravanserai. The tourist who visits Java after traversing India will be agreeably surprised at the difference in favour of the Dutch Colony in this respect. ”

“ In the plains, sombreness of dress is a characteristic—the browns of Mid-Java changing to an almost universal dark blue in the west, reminding the traveller of the Chinese and the inhabitants of the southern Japanese islands.
Everywhere, the male Javanese carry the kris or native knife in the girdle. There is much variety in the blades, handles and sheaths of those weapons, real native damascene blades costing considerable sums. One taking a superficial trip through the island is at a loss to understand why the natives should be armed. ”

“ In Java, as in most Oriental countries, the traveller feels that he is moving in an atmosphere of antiquity, and though it has become a misnomer to refer to "The Unchanging East," it is borne in upon one that in the large group of islands comprised in the Philippine and Malay Archipelagoes, from Luzon in the north to Java in the south, from Samar in the east to Sumatra in the west, centuries of western contact has left but a slight impress upon the characters of the people. ”

“ Modern civilisation has advanced like a resistless wave and gradually engulfed an older civilisation, but here in Java one feels that the change has not been so decisive; and railways and canals and cultivation notwithstanding, the difference [88] in general advancement between the Javanese and the Japanese is most marked, and even the Chinese, conservative though they are in most ways, have more character and look more hopeful soil for the reception and development of western ideas. ”

“ But after experience of the filthy Chinese quarters of Singapore, Hongkong and Shanghai, it is satisfying to European self-respect to observe how Dutch officialdom has asserted the claims of hygiene and cleanliness upon the Asiatic residents. The objectionable hanging Chinese signboards are noticeably absent in Batavia, as in all other towns throughout Java, and something has been done to make less clamant the odoriferous articles of Chinese commerce. The Dutch have proved that the Chinese are amenable to European notions if only firmness is shown by those in authority. ”

“ Sourabaya is the most important port and business centre of Java, but this fact notwithstanding many of the foreign business houses still maintain their headquarters in Batavia. As a place of residence, each has its good points, and those who have lived in both are divided in preference. Possibly we were not in either long enough to form a lasting opinion, but we stayed so long in Sourabaya that we prefer Batavia. It would be sheer ingratitude, however, not to acknowledge the hearty welcome we received from the British colony in Sourabaya, and the personal help of members of that community. ”

“ A motor-car ride through the residential quarter and round the suburbs of Batavia gives one a good idea of the extent of the town, and, incidentally, of the merging of East and West in the population. Former Dutch residents have left their impress in more respects than one, and one result is a half-caste population which takes a much more prominent part in the affairs of the island than is the case, so far as we are aware, in any British Colony. ”

“ Travel by rail throughout the Island is cheap. For the convenience of visitors with limited time to devote to Java, a tourist ticket has been arranged. This may be obtained from the Steamship Company in Singapore. The price is $40 (Singapore currency) . The tour laid down by the coupons covers the whole of Java from Tanjong Priok, the port of Batavia, to the easternmost end of the island beyond Sourabaya on the way to Tosari and Bromo. Buitenzorg and the Preanger health resorts may be visited on the tickets, the famous Hindu ruins near Djocjakarta, and the health resorts of Eastern Java. ”

“ The mountain garden of Tjibodas, mentioned in a previous article, is well worth a visit. A good walker, starting at six o'clock, can go there, breakfast and be back at the hotel by noon. But the excursion to be taken by everyone who stays at Sindanglaya for any length of time is to the falls at Tjibeureum, Kandang Badak and the crater of the Gedéh. Ladies may make the trip in sedan chairs; gentlemen on foot or on horseback. The falls of Tjibeureum consist of three cataracts, falling 400 feet down a perpendicular crag, and the winding road passes through some interesting jungle scenery. ”

“ How terrible, we thought, must have been the scene on the mountain slopes when the enormous craters of the Teng'ger range were belching forth their death-dealing streams of lava, their showers of ashes and stones and choking sulphurous fumes! How insignificant was man before the powerful agencies of Nature! ”

“ The visitor will find the Museums full of objects of interest. On Koningsplein, young Holland devotes itself to recreation, and evidence is given here and elsewhere throughout the suburbs of the widespread popularity of the English game of football. The Dutch do not follow the British Colonial custom of sending their children to Europe. Many are educated and kept under the home influence in Java, and a fine healthy race of boys and girls is being reared to play its part in the new Netherlands created by Dutch enterprise and perseverance. ”

“ There is a resident doctor who has graduated in the Schools of Tropical Medicine, and when we were in Tosari there were visitors from Burma, Siam, Singapore, Penang, and all parts of Java, recruiting from malaria and other ailments peculiar to Far Eastern residence. But they were not all invalids, and formed a bright, companionable party.
The Teng'gerese who people this mountainous region are a race apart. Their religion is a mixture of paganism and Buddhism, and, though reputed to be kind and honest, they are an ignorant, uncouth, uncultured people. ”

“ Wherever one goes in Java, the public vehicles are in a state of decay, far more disreputable than the gharry of Singapore, and a large number of the ponies are decrepit and suffering from open sores. If Java is to become a tourist country the vehicles should be better supervised.
Before setting out from Djocjakarta, the visitor should get the hotel proprietor to communicate with the stationmaster at Moentilan, with the object of having a more comfortable carriage than fell to our unhappy lot through leaving the matter to haphazard. ”

“ On the score of not speaking Dutch or Malay, no English man or woman need be deterred from visiting Java. English is spoken at all the hotels, and though all the train conductors and stationmasters may not do so, there is sure to be an educated Dutchman or lady in the car to whom one may turn for help, which is always readily given. ”