In the end of November 2013, Rakata Adventure invited friends and business partners to visit one of the beautiful villages in
Jatiluwih Area, Gunung Sari Village. It is located in Tabanan regency,
approximately 2 hours of driving from Denpasar.
Gunung Sari is a part of Jatiluwih.
It is famous with Balinese traditional irrigation system called Subak.
Furthermore, it has plenty of natural resources, art & culture and its
community way of life which is very interesting to explore.
Since Jatiluwih is one of the World
Heritage Site, it is necessary for the community to develop and protect their
village. Regarding to the issue, Samdhana Institute together with Rakata
Adventure and local community designed a community development program which
supports the local to become independent on promoting and running Gunung Sari
Village as a tourist destination.
This program is participated by
photographer, Balinese dancer, runner, and cyclist. Every guest was able to
share and mix their knowledge with the local. It’s lovely to see how the local
and the guests were blended together.
Kriss, Wira and I were discussing
with two local boys on creating a 10K running course map in Desa Gunung Sari.
With endomondo and nike + on hand as the GPS we began to run.
The first
1.5km, we were running in the road, we enjoyed the engagement of yellow and
green colors from the rice field. In the next 2.5 km we were running in the
pathway and we could see the local harvesting and some of them ploughed the
field with tractors and also with cows
Entering
4km of walking (we were taking a lot of pictures instead of running) we passed
through a Big Temple. The temple was hidden by big trees and we could hear the
birds tweeted all way long.
In the next
4 km we were again welcomed by the green lush of the field rice, but the route
became hard. It’s wet, muddy and surely slippery. For the trail lovers, this
could be very interesting route to enjoy. In the other side of the pathway, a small
river accompanied us and running with us
We finish
our “runtastic” on 2 hours and 17 minutes and as the result, we got this
beautiful route for the village.
Last but
note least, I would like to ask runner/non runner or simply just a fun runner
just like me to enjoy running at Gunung Sari. It is more than getting healthy
or following passion as a true runner, it is the way you contribute to Gunung Sari local community. LET’S RUN FOR RUNNING
THE VILLAGE
