A Train Ride Through Java

A few days before the Sept. 2 earthquake on Java, I passed though some of the affected areas on a train ride between Bandung in the West Java highlands to Yogyakarta (pronounced Jogja) on the Central Java plain.

This must be one of the world’s most interesting rail journeys. The slow but comfortable “Argo Wilis” (endearingly, Indonesian trains have names — this one a volcano the train passes on its 13-hour journey) snakes its way along a mostly single track around terraced hillsides and between old volcanoes, through Tasikmalaya and Banjar — the towns that recently made their tragic appearance on world news. The train then descends onto a plain of rice paddies, some still green and glistening, others brown from recent harvests.