Bandung Day 2

we rose up and early since the toilet was out of order.
the plumber came at 5a.m and soon afterwards we were ready to have our breakfast at the Suka Cafe.

the food was so so.
there was no milk provided for the tea/coffee.
the coffee tasted weird-at least to me la;)

we took a cab to Pasar baru which was at the other end of the city.
there are 8 storeys altogether with the mosque occupying the top floor.
the further up you go, the more spacious it gets in-between the shops.
sadly none accepts credit cards. so one would have to tote a lot of Rupiahs along.
MH bought a lot of stuff that methinks we only stopped because she ran out of Rupiahs.
the money changers were all closed-funny since it was the weekend.
surely they would make a killing what with the tourists and all.

we had lunch at the 6th floor. lots of food stalls.
we tried Pak Chi Met Ikan Bakar where i had prawns while MH had fish.
cost us just Rupiah 47,500

we made our way to Jalan Dago for the factory outlets.
sadly it could be very trying to hail down a cab outside the Pasar Baru.
there was no space whatsoever for one to flag anything down. (it was a one-way street and the street was choked with vehicles)
even the pavement was filled to the brim with the street sellers toting along their merchandise and waving them to your face asking you to buy.
they even called us Makcik!!
MH retorted that she might consider buying if they didn't call us makcik ;)

we had to walk considerably to board an Angkut.boy were we in for a long journey.
along the way we were constantly entertained by the 'resident-musician' of the road.
the jam was horrendous.
finally we got off the Angkut some metres away from the main area where the factory outlets were.
it was near Amanda-the brownie/cake/pastry specialist.
bought quite a number of brownies.
by now both of us were laden with shopping bags which was a strain on our next shopping expedition.
so we went into another couple of factory outlets before making our way back to the hotel.
managed to grab a few shirts. price wise-very reasonable.
it's just like FOS/Reject Shop but with much wider variety.
i'm pretty sure the Factory Outlets like Heritage etc in Jalan Dago have a lot more to offer but we didn't have much time.

we hadn't bought the food for our friends and families as souvenirs.
so we went out again in search of Kartika Sari-another outlet famous for brownies/cakes/pastry etc.
another ride in the Angkut since we were Rupiah-pinching by this time.
it was a very long and tiresome journey.
we asked the driver to drop us at the nearest Kartika Sari outlet.
i guess, the nearest one would mean a circle around the wet market, the stadium, the city mosque etc before dumping us by the roadside of which we had to cross over to get to the cafe.
(told you, it was mainly one-way street and being the weekend (libur day) meant it was jam-packed)
there was plenty of brownies, pisang bolen and other kerepeks.
they even had eel krepek, perut kerepek etc.
out of this world man!
i wasn't that adventurous and hence didn't buy anything of the sort.

the ride back to the hotel was torturous.
we took a cab and the short journey took longer since the streets were all jammed.
i even fell asleep.
the meter first read Rupiah 13,300 before i started to sleep and by the time we reached the hotel it has become Rupiah 23,500!!

we had our dinner at the hotel since the joints were all aching ;)
we shared the ala Bakso mee soup.
not bad.
we also ordered the pisang goreng which was sprinkled with cheese and chocolate rice.
i guess the Bandung people/Sundanese really dig cheese and choc rice for almost every single food that we ordered came with these 2 items.
dinner came to about Rupiah100k.

Bandung Day 1

was in Bandung for 3 days with BFF.
the flight was uneventful.
the airport was a bit primitive in that the conveyor belt (if you could call it that) was right next to the immigration counters and one would have to double back to scan one's hand-held belongings before proceeding to collect the check-in luggage.
we've read beforehand that it wouldn't cost more than Rupiah 40k to hire a cab to the hotel.
saw the taxi stand across the road and we rushed over.
the taxi drivers were quite aggressive and one offered to drop us at the hotel for Rupiah 100k which was more than double the actual price.
we returned to the airport in search of the coupon-taxi and lo and behold there was a guy with a little paddle that says "taksi" (not unlike auctioneer's paddle) sitting right outside the arrival hall.
he quoted Rupiah 38500 which was even lesser than the expected Rupiah 40k.

the Sukajadi hotel was rather far and out of the city centre.
cozy but rather poorly maintained.
the sink was blocked.
the toilet couldn't be flushed.
we had to call the maintenance guy at around 5am to fix the toilet.
can't complaint about their service.
generally i find them rather shy and in fact the plumber just walked pass us without saying a word that we had to ask whether the toilet has been fixed or not.
i mean, either they were too shy or we were just too brazen for them;)

after a short break due to the unforeseen mishap that befell my BFF i.e. extra heavy menses and 'silap parking', off we go to our first destination namely Rumah Mode.

the things we heard about this place were that it was a nice place to shop. but i found it a bit dissapointing.
fake kiplings bags, fake leather goods and all.
the clothes were okay but none to my liking tho the pajamas were nice that MH bought a pair.
we had lunch at Bumbu Desa which was quite nice.
lunch @ bumbu desa-teh botol & the aa-encompassing nasi tembel or sthg like that.

overall, ambience was above average but shopping wise was a letdown.


we had our fair share of riding the Angkutan Kota or Angkut.
fare was very cheap-just Rupiah 2k each.
if you've been on a mini bus (the infamous pink bus), then you'll feel much at home.
we even walked quite a bit tho there was no proper pavement. had to maneuver our way thru the hustle and bustle of the road.
there were Honda Jazz & Avanza (they call it the Kijang) everywhere. and 4-wheel drives.
much like in Malaysia where for every 10 cars that you see on the road, at least 7 cars are either Proton or Perodua cars.
i wonder if Jazz are very cheap over there or are they so wealthy that almost everybody can afford it.

the divide between the haves and the haves not are quite big.
one could earn money by stopping the traffic to allow the cars to make u turns!!
it was quite a sight to see the drivers making a u turn and almost automatically his/her hand would come out from the heavily tinted window to drop some money onto the 'u-turn traffic man'.
the angkut provided a different kind of scene.
it is quite normal for the city to be jam packed especially during the weekends/public holidays (hari libur).
so for every stop that we made due to the jam, there would be someone singing a song on a guitar.
i must admit they have quite nice voice.
but they are very young.
i counted 2 who were barely in their teens.


we made a pit stop at Gampoeng Aceh for some refreshments.
the strawberry yogurt had real strawberries in it and i had a second tapau'ed;)
the goreng pisang was laden with cheese and chocolate rice.

we dropped by the Paris van Java shopping centre.
they even have Crocs there but sadly the alice range was yet to arrive.
i couldn't find my size in KL so was hoping that i could find it there but to no avail.
the shopping centre was rather vast-imagine Mid Valley.
i had my first taste of J Co donuts and i would say that i'd prefer Big Apple donuts.
the former was a tad too sweet for me.

walked back to the Hotel since it was within walking distance.
dropped by the Rainbow Outlet (which was 2 doors down from the hotel) to buy my nightwear.
we didn't bring another change of clothes since we wanted to save space;)

we retired the night rather early. made plans for the day after which was shopping, shopping and shopping till we drop.........