Bandung Review : Time Travel to Cihampelas (BETA VERSION)

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Time Travel to Cihampelas

Well, the Cihampelas name is seems familiar, and nowadays we’ve just known the small thought of this name. But, can you explain the deeper meaning of Cihampelas?

Cihampelas word comes from the combination of two Sundanese words. First word is “Ci" which means “water” in Sundanese language. And the following word is “Hampelas”, which refers to the name of trees with outrageous surface leaves, like the sandpaper that usually used for sublimate the wood and the iron. So, Cihampelas means the magic water which can scrub the skin, or refine everything. The other meaning is the river brook area around the Hampelas trees.

About a century ago, at the Dutch colonialism era, Cihampelas was developed to be the name of an area where European citizen used to stay. This is where you would find a very beautiful area with lots of Dutch’s building surrounding it. The Cihampelas name was inspired by the name of swimming pool within this area. The pool was built in 1902, and it was owned by Mrs.Homann, the wife of the Savoy Homann Hotel’s owner. The pool was built to serve her European guests who always miss their homeland. And after the independence day, this swimming pool had created a lot of Indonesia talented swimming athletes.

And then, we’ll see how the world changes, Cihampelas is quite different from those past days. There’s no Dutch’s romantic buildings anymore in this area, and we won’t see the peaceful European residences with Hampelas trees around them. And the big difference is we can’t see the view of the classical building of historical Cihampelas pool anymore. It was destroyed to make a bigger plan for this city.

Cihampelas today is become a famous shopping spot. Since the late of 80’s, Cihampelas became a trademark for a jeans area here at Parijs van Java, especially with the superheroes statue in the front of some stores. Its popular name is going to beat Cibaduyut as a shoes industry area’s trademark. In 2004, the Cihampelas Walk was built within the area. It has an interesting concept of outdoor walking shopping area, and many people called it by open spaces area. Traffic jams along Cihampelas is become a routine, since it always jam packed with thoe who want to spend their leisure time here.

That’s all about the Cihampelas area, from time to time. So, which one do you prefer? (CS)

Indonesian Version