Kabare!!
After a long-stressful month of pain and pressure.. it’s time for a break.. and a holiday was called for. I just got back from Bandung, Indonesia and whoa… of course I enjoyed my trip. =) So.. it all started with the initial planning of course.. first.. it was suppose to be a spa-relaxing kind of holiday.. and then due to some time, cost and itenary changes.. we decided to change the plan to a full shopping concentrated holiday instead!
Folks, the best way to get to Bandung direct would be by our trustworthy low cost airline Air Asia, but other options would be KLM where you would be arriving in Jakarta instead. From Jakarta, you could take a connecting flight or cheaper still, transportation by land.
My recommendation for staying in Bandung would be ideally 5 days, 4 nights as there are so many things to see. Shopping itself takes about at least 3 days and if you would want to fit in some sight-seeing.. that would be the additional 1 ½ day.
When you fly into Bandung, you will be greeted by the beautiful sight of Gunung Tangkuban Perahu.. breathtaking really. The housing planning scenery from the aerial view looks a lil dense compared to flying into KLIA/LCCT where the area is surrounded by trees. I got quite excited before landing because it’s a new place and could not wait to start shopping.
pic: gunung tangkuban perahu, bandung, indonesia
The Bandara Husein Sastranegara is quite a small airport compared to other local airports I’ve been. The bag pick up point was quite.. quaint, I would say. Not so modern, but not complaining. =) We were picked up by the hotel’s driver, the Arion Bel Hotel.. situated about 10 minutes from the airport. What I would say about Bandung as in the Bandung town, its quite convenient and short distance (by car) to go around.. so.. if you want to do some last minute shopping before you go off for your flight. Silakan.. but.. beware of the consequences la eh? Hehehe. Because we kind of went into the departure 30minutes before take-off so it’s quite a risk. =)
As soon as we reached the hotel, we dropped our luggages and headed straight out to the nearest shopping district which is Pasar Baru, located on Jalan Otto Iskandardinata. From the hotel, it was just a walking distance.
First Day Shopping (1/2 day)
Well, since we reached Bandung on the first day at about noon, it was good enough to do shopping nearby the hotel as most of the shops would close early. Pasar Baru area in the Otto Iskandardinata Street is equivalent to Wisma PKNS, where you can get a lot of Indonesia motive stuff like scarves, praying attires, overalls.. basically the makcik2 stuff. There are also an array selections of shoes (as in heels) and leather products.. but the cheapo version tho.. So, I would rather suggest to shop elsewhere to find better stuff. What balances the mall for me was the food court.. where the food was yummy and the place was quite clean. My recommendation is to try out the Nasi Tutug Oncom, consisting of steamed rice, bbqued chicken and their sambal.. Waduh Waduh.. Sedap sekali!!! Apart from that, the ritual “Teh Botol” which is basically tea in a bottle.. would be the best drink to go with.
pic : nasi tutug oncom // teh botol which i drank 5 bottles of em at one go..
After lunch, for us.. the younger generation (sorry mom and aunt.. Pasar Baru is just not my place) we got bored and decided to go move to another nearby shopping district which is located on Jalan Kepatihan. There are few malls over there and the concept is more to Sg Wang.. so it’s alright. =). The popular ones are Kings and Merlin, which is just next to each other.
Merlin row – a lot of sports outlet, and a lot of shoe shops, not the leather type more to sportswear and snickers.
K- Park – located on Jalan Kepatihan houses brands such as Zara, Burberry, Lacoste, Abercrombie and Hollister
Tired from the shopping session? There is a nice café to hang out named Café Daun Hijau located on Jalan Kepatihan right in front of K-Park where you could just order some “energizing” drinks to get you up and going again for the another round of shopping. =)
pic : cafe daun hijau, jalan kepatihan
At the end of Jalan Kepatihan, there is another mall which houses all the Ska Punks leather goods, so if you’re interested in Punk stuff, just stroll down there for a visit.. =P
After an afternoon filled with shopping and rummaging through piles of clothes, we headed back to the hotel and took a cab to The Valley in Dago district, one of the most visited spots for dinner as the restaurant overlooks Bandung city. The view up there is breathtaking and cold and peaceful and lovely.. and the food is yummy too!
pic : The Valley, Dago, Bandung. felt that like I was in Aspen. hahahaha. its really cold.
pic : me going crazy that the foods yummy. =P
Second Day Shopping (Full Day)
As we didn’t know our way around Bandung and this trip was to fully concentrate on shopping, we decided to hire a driver to bring us around Bandung town, so we don’t have to carry our purchases and we get to go to all the recommended places.
My advice, if you’re planning to go around Bandung town and there is more than 2 of you in a group, please hire a driver. It is much cheaper. What we paid for was 500,000 rupiah, which goes roughly around RM250 and will be at your service from 10am to 10pm.
Where to go in Bandung city :
The Jeans district : Jalan Chihampelas – where you can get jeans / bags and skate stuff.
Outlets :
Jalan Riau – There are a bunch of them but I cant remember the name.. the outlets are along the stretch of the road. Owh at Jalan Riau, theres some food outlet and kerepek outlet whc sells yummy food besides “Heritage” outlet”, one of em being the otak otak and also the strawberry shakes. Im not a fan, but seriously, its yummy. the kerepek? reccomendation for the kerepek? ALL OF EM. i want more! whos going to bandung? get me some please.. =)
pic : the otak otak is so fat okay! more worth it than malaysians otak otak.
Dago District – same like Riau, a lot of outlets.. Bandung is all about outlets =)
Rumah Mode – a nice outlet which sells clothing, have a coffee house and packed with people. By the way, it is not pronounced as Moud` its Mo – de, like modest (minus the st). Because of wrongly pronouncing the name of the place, we thought that people gypped us on the info. =P who’s the fool now?
pic : entrance to rumah mode.. seriously. i was whoaaaaaaaa… =)
pic : me and mom.. quick break before we continued shopping..
Diaz – where you can leather bags and leather shoes.
For dinner, we went somewhere slightly outside Bandung town in the highlands, passing by Chihampelas where we headed to Kampung Daun. Slightly resembles the concept of Naili’s, its far much better as you will be surrounded by real waterfalls and nature… and feels like you’re in Cameron Highlands. The food over there is not bad, but if you’re looking for a nice environment to enjoy the night surrounding greens and nature sounds, Kampung Daun is a good place to be. There is also another similar food place nearby which is called Sapulidi, but our guide recco’s Kampung Daun better.
pic : one of the “resthouse” where we were chilling out
pic : Kampung Daun entrance.. very Survivor series-ish..
Looking for nice café to chill out with a bottle of beer? There are some café’s nearby the Alun-alun in town where I didn’t manage to go since I was with my mom.. so.. cant tell you much .. =( Sorry!
Owh owh.. please note : for transportation, if youre feeling adventurous, go on an “Angkutan Kota” which is a small van at a cheap price but make sure you ask where they’re headed.. Its just like our bus services over here. As for taxi’s, there are two types of taxi’s where one is blue in colour with the logo “Bluebird” which will cheap you fairly as in by using their metres and another one without the logo charges you slightly higher, so be careful on which cab you take while youre there.
pic : angkutan kota transport service
Well, I had a fun trip, it was exhausting but definitely am gonna pay another visit down to Bandung to shop because I did not have enough. Hehehe.
Hope that my experience will help those of you who are planning to go down to Bandung. Its worth it. =)
