Jakarta Trip 4: Bandung Day Tour

In the morning we woke up around 4:30am,

I felt horrible  coz I don't get enough sleep, decide to just have some coffee from the dining room and do my blogging.

Mr still asleep, I decide to check the breakfast and feed myself such a nice Sundanese food. Heavy but makes me super happy.

At 8:30am, the driver arrived. Forgot to mention that I book the tour from Fres-tour, the operator also helps me to book my return train ticket from Bandung to Jakarta.

The pricing is quite a bargain if we compared with all the itinerary. For USD 37.5 per person for whole day tour include lunch, car, driver and all the parking.

We enter the car and start the journey to Tangkuban Perahu. A crater lake with a famous story among Sundanese in West Java. The journey from hotel to the entrance of Mount Tangkuban Perahu took around 45min with a beautiful village and farmland around. 

Too bad when we reach there the guard mentioned that the Mountain is closed due to erupt. It was very disappointing because the main reason I visit Bandung was to visit the Crater Lake, nothing else.

The guide tried to change the destination to Sari Ater Hot Spring, which for me was I don't even know why we went here.  It was a hot spring pool for people to soak their body and relax around. We just watch and get some horrible coffee with French fries. 

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Well the coffee is actually not a horrible,  just a style of Indonesian makes the coffee by mix the coffee ground in the serving glass.

Sari Ater is like a play field for families. Many attractions are offered here such as riding horses, dirty bike, 4WD ride, ATV, flying fox and many more. I just didn't expect to have this kind of attraction, we just walk around and leave the place for the next destination.

The next destination was Lembang Floating Market. It's actually a new family tourist destination to spend their weekend around. Like other floating market, the place sells a lot of food,drink and many more. 

We bought nothing event though my brain keeps telling to buy satay, shiu may, batagor and many more. But the place was way too many people scared me out to fight for food.

This Jumbo size lake been change into local attraction which..

well, quite creative

Around the area the management design it as a mini village with all the plants meant to be edible

its kind of cute too

Fresh Water as the main element for Sundanese daily life

Paddy field and mini saung (hut)

Basil leaves and lemony mints

The next to paddy field they create some mini-strawberry farm where the visitor allow to pick their own strawberry to weight and eat.

The Strawberry doesn't look that appetizing,

Too small and not red enough :P

The other corner of Strawberry Park is the big lake with very colorful boat parks along the side.

When we go close enough, those mini boats selling plenty different thing majority edible stuff.

Way too many people

Way too many foods

till I don't know what to buy and eat

We left the place couple hours later to get some lunch. Look for Nasi Padang food is quite hard in Bandung. Most of the restaurants were Sundanese theme. Based on fresh water fish and raw vegetable. I love the food, but I wasn't sure Mr will like it. So I guess Nasi Padang is the best option since the way they cook are almost similar with Malaysian curry and gulai.

Another nice experience having a meal in Nasi Padang is how they serve to the customer. Instead of giving them a menu to choose what they fancy to eat, the waiter will present every single food  they have in  a small plates. One mini plate for one kind of food.



Mr told me to not go crazy over the food which I was starting to. In this kind of Nasi Padang restaurant, we don't have to eat everything they served us. They only calculate the food which touches or contaminated by us. So yes, just touch the plates you are going to eat. The rest they will bring it back to the kitchen to re-heat.

After a very late lunch we head to Train Station. It was a crazy rain where we don't really have time to visit any factory outlet to buy something. I was just too paranoid and stress about the traffic jam and getting late to train station

We arrive bit too early, where we have around 40 minutes to roam around, take some pictures and look for some ice cubes to drink in the train.

Jakarta Trip 3: We off to Bandung

It was 9:30 am when we reach there and the train departed at 10:50.
For Malaysia time it is considered early, but here it is a quite late time.
5:30 am in Jakarta is already bright like 8:00 in Kuala Lumpur.
I must be the most uncivilized people where I keep expecting everything like in KL.
We had some coffee to kill the time and wander a bit around Monas (National Monument).


The business class we took wasn't that bad. Not a super comfortable but it doesn't kill me or makes me feel "eww". The airconditoning work OK, it worth for USD 7 ticket price.

Trip to Jakarta - Bandung took about 3 hours with plenty view of the Jakarta slump area and greenish beautiful village in the West Java. Damn my murky window makes me can't take a good picture.

Along the way the view is quite amusing. It's remind me with my college life with all the green and nature.

Stunning Green View

We arrive in Bandung at around 13:00 hrs and straight attacked by illegal taxi. I call it illegal because they use their family car and offer you a ride with some pay. We got quite a nice driver and send us to the hotel. It was cost us USD 6, for about 1 hr ride to reach Dago area.

When I search in Internet about the cool area to hang around in Bandung, many website talked about Dago. A lot of cafes, pub, and drinking place around. I kept thinking about an area like Kuta or Seminyak area where mini pub and drinking place are spread along the road. But I guess I translate it wrong.

Bandung Railway

I book a hotel in area Dago Atas (upper Dago) which more to traditional village in the highland where I should look for a hotel in Dago Bawah (Dago lower land).



For the beginner who never touch down to Indonesia especially Java island, you need to be understand that nobody control about the level of noise so call it noise-pollution. People can put their music on loudspeaker as loud as they wish at the time God-knows.

The Village view around

In Malaysia the government won't allow people to make a noise at certain level include Asian (prayer call), they still manage it at low-reasonable-volume. In Indonesia you will surprise how loud they are.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter to me since I am half deaf. I still can sleep or do my activity with the noises.

After we check in to the hotel, we look for lunch nearby. Stone cafe was the nearest, and it's selling beer too. With the concept of Sundanese style of Saung, a noise from crazy motorbike, and cold from the rain, we enjoy our lunch here.

Saung at Stone Cafe

On the evening we just hang around the hotel, watch tv and nap. Nothing really in Dago Atas. Such a village with not much thing around but people and their overprice cafe.

In the evening after prayer call we went out to get some dinner. The first place we visit was Laos Cafe. The building look good but not really impressive, so we walk further to go to Congo Cafe. The sign-board said that the cafe only 300 meters from the main road, so we decide to walk.
Actually it much more further than we think. We have to walk round the golf course, about 3KM. At night, quiet, along the jungle and bushes.

super tiring walk to Congo Cafe

Nothing really impressive here, we decide to go back after dinner and watch TV at the hotel. I kept thinking I must be grow too old, I can't take any activity too far from my bed at night. I don't feel safe or something. We slept early cos we need to get up early for city tour tomorrow morning.

TV and Sleep