Wow ! Didn't realize that I'd been abandoning my blog for more than a year ! Well, nowadays busy "facebook-ing", hence its neglected state. Anyway, decided to "revive" it by blogging about my recent trip to Bandung, Indonesia with my friends.
No, didn't eat any mee bandung there. No, didn't drink any air bandung either.
Couple of days before our trip, there was this earthquake at Padang. Having passed Geography marginally, I had no inkling whether Padang is anywhere near Bandung, so had to do some Googling to find out. Soon we found out that Padang is on the Sumatra Island, whereas Bandung is on the Jawa Island, so... relief.
Therefore on 2nd October 2009, all of us trooped to LCCT (yeah, had to take Air Asia) for our trip to Bandung early in the morning. The journey lasted about 2 hours plus. Seats : rather cramp and uncomfortable. Food : No more nasi lemak, lasagne, sandwiches. Only left instant noodles, NO THANKS !
Captain Drunk was mumbling something about the weather and time, I supposed, but couldn't really understand. When it was time to land, I'm not sure whether it was the wind (definitely can't be worse than the typhoon when we landed in Taipei last year !) or whether he couldn't decide on his course, we all saw the plane swaying left right left right before landing, then he REALLY applied the brakes ! We could just picture him full concentration stepping with all his might on the brakes.
Regardless, we landed safe and sound, but with a rather empty stomach. Queuing at the immigration was a slow affair since the airport was rather small. Also, I saw the conveyor belt "delivering" our luggages. There was a funny moment when I saw a bag "refusing" to move properly on the conveyor, only to be "pushed" behind by a larger luggage. Still, after a few inches, it refused to bug ! The guy manning the conveyor had to "push" the stubborn luggage. Turns out it was my friend's bag ! Hehehehehe.......Outside the airport, we meet our driver, Amir (I think it's spelt as such). Nice guy, even helped me carry my bag, much to the chagrin of the rest, since he took the smallest and left them to lug their own "baggage" ! Hehehe... boy, did they complain !
Anyway, the first stop was..... LUNCH. He took us to this nice Sundanese (not Sudan ya...) restaurant in town. Nice ambience, good food. Main star of the day was the lovely strawberry juice, although it was too sweet for my liking. Had to add lots of ice to tone down the sweetness. My friends also ordered "sop bontot" (sup ekor in Msia) and their famous "dancing fish".
After the satisfying lunch, we went off to "Rumah Mode", a very nice and large factory outlet. Now, if you're expecting factory outlets like Hong Kong where each brand is one outlet, then you're very much mistaken. The factory outlets in Bandung sells basically any extras or even rejects from brands like Nike, Miss-T, Burberry, Quicksilver, Guess, etc etc etc all in one location. Therefore different outlets may have different designs.A lot of people are there to grab bargains (they are quite cheap actually, compared with their normal prices) but for people like me (clue : rhymes with cat), it's more of a "browsing" trip. But surprise surprise, I managed to find a pair of sweatpants from Adidas and it's only for RM20 ! Anyhow, during those few days, we visited quite a number of those shops.
At Rumah Mode, they had a very nice Java Bean outlet, akin to Coffee Bean in KL. Really nice coffee there. Then I noticed this other shop selling smoothie, and looked at their menu. Saw it ? "Kopi Durian" ! Dare not try............
Outside Rumah Mode and actually on most of the streets, there will be hawkers with carts like these selling food ranging from Bakso to ice creams to fried bananas, etc etc etc. Not only that, at traffic light junctions, there will be people hawking wares like strawberries, blueberries, kuihs, drinks, and even saw a lady with more than 10 types of newspapers in both hands. Talk about a walking newspaper stand !
Later, we checked in to Hilton Bandung.......... next door. Hehehe.... We stayed at Hotel Cemerlang. The one thing I really have to complain about is.... their coffee ! Horrible, terrible, cannot even be classified under "coffee" ! Black, but no coffee smell, and definitely no coffee taste. It actually tasted like Japanese tea with burnt rice.That night, we were taken off to "The Valley" restaurant for dinner. Since the restaurant is located quite high up in Bandung, it has a really good view of Bandung. Also the journey to the restaurant is an interesting one. Imagine within 1/2 an hour, you go from Kota Damansara to Jalan TAR, pass by Salak South, back to Kenny Hills, then finally reaching Gasing Hill.
Funny ? Yeah... we passed through bungalows, only to suddenly see small houses, which in a short while turned into shops, some dilapidated, then we'll see bungalows again, mansions even, suddenly some small shacks and shops, etc etc etc.
But truly the view from The Valley was spectacular. A very nice romantic restaurant (unfortunately I wasn't with a nice handsome hunk ler.....) cool breeze and great food. Prices are very reasonable too.
The next day was sight-seeing day. After breakfast (the first and last time I tasted the lousy coffee), we made a pit-stop at the petrol station. They also sell gas tanks there, and they are small cute ones, unlike those in Malaysia. People on motorcycles will buy and strap them to the back to carry home.
Our first stop was a visit to the crater of a volcano called Tangkuban Perahu. There's steam (or smoke) coming from the centre of the crater. Kinda scary, if you ask me ! Seems that there's a story behind its name. There's a lot of hawkers there trying to sell their wares and they will crowd around you. There are also ponies for hire if you wish to canter around for a bit.
A small drama happened when one of the ponies almost kicked my friend because another pony's tail swished on its back and startled it !. Luckily my friend was unhurt.
After that we went off to a hot spring. Very nice place, forgot the name though. They had placemats all around and you can just choose the spot you like and have like a little picnic there. However, I dipped my fingers into the "river" and find the water to be just lukewarm. But it's a really lovely place for R&R.
On our way to lunch, we passed by lots of farms. Hehe, this looks kinda like the farm I have in Facebook's Farmville.
We stopped by the road to buy big huge but cheap avocados, or as the locals call them, "Avokad". Since I duno how to eat or appreciate avocados, I refrained from buying any. Called sis also but she also didn't want any.
Just before lunch stop, we dropped by a strawberry farm and saw this stall outside hawking everything strawberry, from bag to slippers. Didn't pick any strawberries, and the jams looked extremely sweet. Tried their local tapioca, but didn't like the taste since it seemed to be fermented with rice wine.
Finally our lunch is at a restaurant called "Sapu Lidi". Lovely padi-field-themed restaurant with nice little huts like these for us to enjoy lunch. Quite cool. For a city gal like me who've never seen padi, it's just lovely. They even have scarecrows around.
Took the picture below when we were on a bridge passing through town. On the right was development of a high-rise building, and on the left is what you see here... a very highly congested living area.
Souvenir-wise, Bandung has nothing much to offer, so I didn't buy any souvenirs at all. All I bought were some snacks (nuts and dried bananas) and Amanda Brownies. Now this, I like. Very nice moist brownies, steamed instead of baked. But only can keep for four days.
So the next time anyone goes Bandung, you know what to get for me. Hehehehe.
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