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Here, I want to write and tell everybody one of my tourism courses during my holiday. The place that I’m visiting is Baturaden at Banyumas regency, Central Java. The place is called Loka Wisata Baturaden. Loka means a place or location, wisata means tour.

For me, the place offers standard attractions like waterfall, river, swimming pool and fresh air. The waterfall is about 150 meters high. The water is falling and flowing through the rocks that become a path. It’s flowing and hitting rocks, creating the sound of “tranquility”. Like I told before, the place is offering standard attraction but it gives great atmosphere. That is the thing that’s difficult to find.

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Being tired of playing in the river, I want something to eat. Luckily, there are many food stalls at the place so that I can find food easily. I won’t be starved during my course at this tourism place. However, I want something specific to the place. After a while looking for the special food, my choice falls to mendoan. Mendoan is the original snack of Banyumas. It is made from fermented soybean. The size is about 15×10 cm. The mendoan is smeared with wheat flour and fried. It’s delicious when hot. Spicy sauce is provided to make it tastier. It’s cheap but tasty and healthy.

After the appetizer, I smell something good. Following the smell, I am coming to a stall that sells rabbit setae. Small pieces of rabbit meat are roasted on skewer. The smell flies to all direction attracting people to buy. Behind the good smell, it has good taste. The meat is well roasted, but not scorched. The meat is so smooth, my teeth are easily masticate it. The flavor is well absorbed, my tongue tastes the delicious flavor. Those foods are making my tourism course more unforgettable.

Calung is usually played on special occasion like at the wedding anniversary, a boy’s circumcision celebration, and other anniversary. Dancers called Lengger (girl dancers) dancing along with the music of calung.

Lucky me, there is a calung festival (a competition actually) when I visit Baturaden. Groups of calung players are competing to perform the best. They show their best performance, uniform, music arrangement and choreography. Each group consists of several musicians who play calung, angklung, percussion, and bamboo flute. No electric music instrument is played on the competition, all we hear is acoustic sounds. Four or more dancers are dancing along with the music. The musicians are singing songs in Javanese language with Banyumas dialect.
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The instruments used are all hand made. Usually, each group has an expert who makes, tunes and repairs the instrument. Calung, angklung and flute are made from bamboo; it is from bamboo Wulung, the best kind of bamboo for music instrument. The percussion is made from big plastic barrel and tire for the membrane.

It is so merry. The music is inviting the audiences to dance or just nodding the head. I just wonder how popular those instruments at the past.