Day By Day: 1936

March 24-25: Bandung and Garut

When we last left our travelers (Charlie, Paulette, Alta, and Frank), they had begun their road trip across Java--from Batavia to Surabaya. Chaplin makes many of the same stops along the route that he made in 1932. Unlike that trip, however, we sadly do not have a first-hand account of the experience.

Their first stop is Bandung.

See enlargements here.

Tuesday, March 24th: After waking up at the Hotel Praenger in Bandung, the group visits the Craters of Prahoe that morning, then set off for their next destination: Garut. Along the way, they will stop at the lakes of Leles and Bagendit. They arrive exhausted at the Hotel Ngamplang in Garut at 4:00pm. ¹

Wednesday, March 25th: The tourists, along with their guide, attempt to see the Kawah Kamojang or the Kamojang crater but were delayed by a fallen tree along the road. They passed the time at the nearby Radium Hotel, where the manager served them strawberries and whipped cream while they waited for the road to be cleared. Much to their disappointment, they never got to see the crater. When they finally left the hotel at 1:00AM, Chaplin told the hotel manager that if he ever returned to the area he would "spend a fortnight at Kamojang." ²

Even in a place as remote as Garut, people were curious about whether or not Charlie and Paulette were married. A reporter for the Indische Courant, who interviewed the couple, observed that Paulette never referred to Charlie as "my husband" but as "Mr. Chaplin." While Charlie only said "Miss Goddard" or "the ladies." At the beginning of his interview, the reporter said "your wife" in reference to Paulette, just to see how Charlie would react to it: "He pretended that his nose bled and didn't move a muscle in his face." ³

From Garut, the gang will travel on to Djokja where they will spend two days.

More from Java later this week in Day By Day: 1936.

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¹De Indische Courant, March 30th, 1936. 
One of my favorite stories from Chaplin's 1932 visit to Garut was his (and his brother's) introduction to the "Dutch Wife." 
²ibid
³De Indische Courant, April 2nd, 1936. Keep in mind that I am translating these stories from Dutch to English. I'm wondering if "pretending that his nose bled" meant that he just had his head tilted back.