Bandung Tour

Date : 19 – 22 March 2010

Venue: Bandung, West Java, Indonesia.

Intro

Well, it was a very enjoyable holiday I’ve ever had… me and my colleagues, Rien, Arif, Maisara and Faiz went to Bandung, Indonesia. We stayed at Dago Guest House which is located at Bukit Dago. Well, it’s just a budget guesthouse, not like 5 or 3 stars hotel that you expect since we are not at the room all the time. Besides, the location is quite strategic because it is just near by the Jalan Dago and the balcony facing the Bandung City.

Bandung is a crowded city. Many people live there and the peoples will do anything for living. Some of them work as a hawker on the roadside. If in KL, usually the hawkers will use motorcycle, bicycle and van. But here, most of the hawkers use ‘kenderaan dua tiang’ as a transport. Jalan kaki daaa… hehe. And they use their shoulder to carry their goods. Some of the hawkers also use ‘alat dua roda’ as a carriage. Tak tau pulak ape nama benda alah beroda dua yg selalu diorang tolak macam troli tu. Surprisingly, the youngsters and the children just walk around the roadside and they’ll singing from car to car to earn some money while the cars stopped at the traffic light. Those who having a guitar, they’ll play it. But, for those who don’t have any music instrument, they just clap their hand and also made the instrument by their own… Alah, macam dlm citer indon kat tv tu, penutup botol yg dipenyek n dipakukan kt batang aiskrim. Pastu guna la benda tu utk ketuk pada tin ke, kotak ke sbg alat muzik. I tried to snap some of the pictures that show the scenarios, but suddenly an angkutan past by and distract my lance, haha…

One more thing, the drivers drive their vehicle like crazy. Arif said if he drives here, sure he’ll fail hahaha…

Foodies

Well, I shall say the taste of their food is quite good. Like in KL, you can get various type of food, from local, western, Asia, just name it. All in your finger tips. We tried a few types of their local foods like Sundanese style, Padang style, Markasa style, etc. To me, the Padang style is the best, compared to the others. It is the same like our Malay nasi campur style and the taste also more like our traditional type of lauk. The other famous local foods are mi bakso, martabak, ayam penyet, etc.

Sundanese Food

Sambal lenyek wif ulam sets

rice served in mengkuang basket

Teh Botol

having bakso at the roadside

The first restaurant we went is Karamba Sundanese Bistro, which served Sundanese dishes. On the next day, we have our lunch at one of the stall which served Markasa food. This is the first time we tried daging sapi. The taste is slightly the same like mutton or lamb. On the same day we have our dinner at D’Cost Seafood. Haha… when we heard the name also we know the price is cheap. But this is not a joke. It’s true, the price of the foods are very, very cheap. Therefore, those who had spend a lot on shopping and left a little amount of money, this is the right place for you to have your budget meals.

Karamba Sundanese Bistro

Markasa stall... first time makan daging sapi...

D'Cost Seafood... the cheapest food in town

seafood

Shopping & Hangout

Shopping at Factory Outlet is something you should do if you visit Bandung. There are many factory outlets in Bandung. On the first day, our supir, Mas Erwin brought us to factory outlet around Jalan Dago and Jalan Riau. You can find many things here like women, men and kids wear, handbags, wallets, shoes, perfumes, etc. These item look like branded product but actually they’re not. But, the quality is good like the original one. Some of these items have Grade A and some of them Grade B. If you want to find the original branded and cheaper jeans you can go to Toko 3 which is sells the original branded jeans like Louis, Levis, Lee Cooper, etc. Hehe… finally I afford to buy the original Levis Denim Jeans with cheaper price. In the evening, we went to Rumah Mode.

@ Toko 3, the original jeans centre

Rumah Mode

On the next day, we went to Pasar Baru. Usually, people went there to buy telekung, cotton textiles, shoes, tudung, shawl, kain batik, etc. The environment of the Pasar Baru is slightly the same like Pertama Complex in KL and Kompleks PKNS in Shah Alam. But it’s too crowded. On the Sunday night, we went to Jalan Cihampelas, which is known as Jeans Street by the tourists.

Jalan Cihampelas

Entertainment & Nightlife

On the Saturday night at Jalan Dago, we all just ‘lepaking’ at one of the café outside the Dago Plaza while watching teenagers and youngsters with their modified motorcycle and car with loud music. Feel like at Bintang Walk, haha… After that, we went to karaoke at Dago Plaza until 2.00 a.m.

Dago Plaza

Karaoke time... jom kasi pecah ini tekak!

Tangkuban Parahu

We went to Tangkuban Parahu on Sunday, early in the morning before we went to Pasar Baru. Tangkuban Parahu means upturned boat in Sundanese and it is believed to have a relation with the legend of Sangkuriang and Dayang Sumbi, as one of the fairytale from Sunda. According to Mas Erwin, Mount Tangkuban Perahu is a volcano with three craters into which areas tourists can walk through. These three craters are Kawah Ratu, Kawah Domas, and Kawah Upas. Since we have a very little time, we only being able to visit Kawah Ratu. Kawah Ratu, which means Queen's Crater, is a big gray hole which sometimes has a pool of water at its center. Really amaze with the beauty of the nature, but the poisonous smell like sulfur gas sometimes piercing my nostril.