Natural Environments I Enjoy Spending Time in

As a city dweller since ever, nature is something I attempt to appreciate. Gladly, I live in a city that provides facilitates to feed my hunger for it and I also got an opportunity to learn more about it both theoretically and practically while in a university. Generally, I can say that I enjoy nature and I am fortunate to have experiences spending time in various kinds of natural environments.

Urban green spaces

I am grateful for living in Bandung city. It has a lot of city parks, especially after the last mayor turned them into thematic parks. They are wonderful places to hang out with your friends. You can walk, eat, or hold an event there with them. Of course you can also do the things alone. What a pleasure to contemplate about the universe while sitting on a park bench surrounded by ancient trees. Some of the parks I like visiting: Taman Balaikota, Taman Lansia, Taman Tegalega, and Taman Maluku.

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There is also an urban forest worth-visited: Babakan Siliwangi. The urban forest has a conflicted background and my undergraduate thesis told about the stakeholders involved. Basically, the conflict was about the issue of developing Babakan Siliwangi as an aparthotel and such. Many people spoke on social medias against the development. Eventually, in 2011 Babakan Siliwangi was declared as a world urban forest in an international event.

I have a special label on this blog for my writings about the urban forest. Now Babakan Siliwangi has a forest walk, I recommend it to anyone. The forest walk is basically a floating bridge surrounding inside the forest. I went through the bridge once with a friend from North Sumatra. Along the way, he found various species of trees that brought him back to his childhood memories.

As a cyclist, I enjoy having trees canopies above me when I bike. Fortunately, there are a lot of streets with trees in Bandung. The streets are also not too wide and the weather is relatively cool. Those make Bandung is a comfortable city to bike.

Homeyard is also included. I like to see what people plant in front of their houses to prevent me from boredom while jogging around neighborhood.

White sand beaches

When I was studying in Yogyakarta, I had the opportunities to visit some good beaches there. Yogyakarta has a lot of beaches. The beaches in Gunungkidul are really wonderful because they are white sand. The water is as crystal clear as in your bathtub. You can also find exotic creatures like starfish, sea cucumber, and sponge. 

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Some of the white sand beaches in Yogyakarta I have ever visited are Pantai Wediombo and Pantai Drini. To reach the beaches, we had to take our own vehicles because there were no major roads. I went there with colleagues from organizations, by motorcycles and buses. The trips took about two hours from the city. Once we reached the beaches, it was awesome because no one else came to those places. It felt like the beaches belonged to our own.

Places I visited for field study

When I was in university, I studied Forestry. That brought me to a lot of new, exotic places; various kinds of forests. I had opportunities to visit teak and pine forests, Nusa Kambangan (the Guantanamo version of Indonesia), thorny bushes, mangrove, Ujung Kulon, etc. Those were my best years ever. I really enjoyed my four years experience as a Forestry student and I don't regret it. I got to know different kinds of people as well during my time there. The places I visited as a student also gave me much inspiration to write, especially for this blog.

What kinds of natural environments do you enjoy spending time in?*

*) The question is taken from Essential Words for The IELTS with Audio CD by Dr. Lin Lougheed (2011, Barron's Educational Series, Inc.)