Bandung (Day 3) - Saying Goodbye

Our flight was in the morning, therefore, we get to do much things on the last day.

My take away from this trip...an entirely new experience. I felt like I was a sponge, trying to absorb my surrounding, from it's food, noise, architecture, and nature. I left with a sigh! Well, I'm glad that I chose to spend my Bandung trip in this manner and just for shopping.

Not everything was great but what I gathered from the not so good stuffs, is a feeling of humility. Say...when I saw an old lady, cradling a child, sitting by the roadside, I told myself that how lucky am I to be born in the condition that I am...that I can live comfortably.

As much as people warned about street children, I believed that what we can do is just be a better human.

[While waiting for Shima & Miza shopping at an outlet, I was sitting outside the shop...there were a group of children, selling newspaper. It was a hot day and I didn't have a heart not to do anything. Not that I needed a newspaper but there's this urge to do something. So instead of giving them money, I bought drinks and gave them to the older kid, for her to distribute to the others...One of them later came to me, and thanked me. Well, it didn't cost much, only a meagre RM1 per child. And the feeling out of that...was something that I carried along with me for a long time.]

Well, goodbye Bandung...I'll come back again.

Bandung (Day 2) - Kampung Daun

Wan recommended me to go to Kampung Daun. Apparently it's known for its great ambience. But nothing really prepared me for the experience.

We arrived in Kampung Daun at about 4pm. It's located at an exclusive housing area (something like Country Height, Kajang). It's not a restaurant per se but spread across an area. You can either make a reservation or walk in. The reception is located at the entrance. The eating area is consisting of numerous huts of various sizes, located all over. You can have a view of the hill, streams and waterfall.

Our sauk (hut) is by the hill. The distance from another hut was within 2 metres, so, one can really have the privacy. Everything is green...it's like you're transported into a dense jungle...close your eyes, listen to the sound of nature...it's really soothing. The service is very personalised. To call for help/assistance/order, just hit the bamboo chime. The waiters would be just right at your hut within minutes. Great service!

As for food, I can't really comment much as everything seemed new to us. We decided to try out varied food, range from sambal belut, rice in bamboo, etc. Desert was serabi...it looks like the kuih panjeram, except that it wasn't made in brown sugar...but used other stuffs. We took the one with banana.

Price wise...it's really reasonable considering the good food.

After lunch/early dinner, we walked around a bit at the compound. There was a waterfall right at the end of the path.

If you're interested to go to Kampung Daun, go there early while it's still bright and stayed on until way past sunset. First, its because of the view. Secondly, because the condition of the road is bad.

Personally, I think it's such a romantic place. Can't help but dream away...a romantic dinner with loved ones...perhaps, getting a marriage proposal...hehe...I wish!

For further info, here's the website to kampung daun. http://www.kampungdaun.net/

Bandung (Day 2) Gunung Tangkuban Prahu, Bandung

Over in July, my friends and I decided to travel to Bandung. It was I who decided on our holiday destination, simply because I didn't get to see much of the place the last time I was there in March. Second time around, I would do it my own way.

Anyway, I'll write in a different posting about my Bandung trip later.

This time, I would like to share about Tangkuban Prahu. Most of the Malaysian that I knew who had been to Bandung, never actually went to Tangkuban Prahu. [The typical shopping habit of Malaysian explains it!]...It's such a shame. No one should go to Bandung without going to the mountain.

The journey from Bandung city to the mountain took us close to 1 hour or so, passing the mountain village of Lembang. Gunung Tangkuban Prahu, an active volcanic mountain has not had any major eruption lately. The mountain is over 2000 metre in elevation.

It doesn't take much effort to get there. The car can take you right to the rim of the crater of Kawah Ratu actually. Among the things that I noticed as I got there is of course the smell of the sulphur, the strange looking trees that looked like they are from the LOTR movie, and lots of dragonflies flying around us.

To get a good view of one of the volcanic craters is to go to the watch tower. Be very mindful of the local peddlars, who would go around and pester you to buy stuff. As much as possible, be polite and FIRM! If you'd ever say, "Later" rather than "No", they would literally take it. So, really mean what you say. If you think that you would buy the souvenirs just because you're being polite, forget it. The souvenirs are so much more expensive than the city.

Also, when approached by locals wearing the Guide vest and offer to take you the nearest volcanic craters i.e. Kawah Domas, do ask how much they charged. We had a hard lesson the other day. We thought it was just like any other national park or so, where rate is standard. Apparently not!!! We only knew it when we were returning from the crater.

[We had a scary experence though. Besides the guide, the souvenir sellers actually followed us to the crater. It did cross my mind on how dangerous it could be for us. There we were, 3 ladies travelling, with about 5 or so men, trekking along a lonely trek at the mountain. If something were to happen to us, there would be no way anyone would come to our help. There were no one else in sight, perhaps not within 1 kilometre. Besides being lighteasy about the walk, I couldn't help feeling uneasy about it, especially when Miza was walking way ahead of us with the guide, leaving me & Shima with the men.]

Well, back to the crater...the walk DOWN will take you more than half hour, if you're not fit. The guide told us that it would take us about 20 minutes, trekking down the 1.2km. Oh boy, we were fool to think that it would REALLY take us 20 minutes.

Do take it slow. The trek down is okay but do remember to get a good walking shoes. Be extra careful as the trail might get slippery...and you could trip over uneven steps. Enjoy the view and scenery. Notice that the vegetation changes as you walked further down the mountain.

After making a few stops, we finally arrived at the bottom of the crater. Coming from a non volcanic country, it was an amazing experience for me. There you'll be able to see the bubbling water from the hot spring and steam coming out from the ground.

If you're up to it, get to relax your feet in the hot water...and since there'll be strong smell of sulphur, don't stay too long...it's kind of hazardous to be exposed for long.

The trek back didn't take us as long as we did when we came down. The reason is that we took the short cut back to the main road. If you decide to do this, make sure you inform your driver to wait at that point....otherwise, you'll have to find other means of transportation to take you back to the top or...TREK back...The short cut was of easier trek as we only needed to climb up to about 100 metres and then trek alongside the mountain until we reach the main road.

It was definitely a trip to remember, which was coming very close to a volcano (well, my Gunung Batur trip didn't count. )

Last pointers:

• It is not that cold at the mountain (if you're comparing it to Mount Kinabalu), so, you don't really need a warm clothing


• A good pair of walking shoes would be excellent, though a normal flat shoes is sufficient.

Bandung (Day 2) - Sightseeing

After a full day of shopping, we made arrangement for sightseeing. We decided to use Pak Atang to drive us around. He was a cab driver that drove us from the airport to the hotel. An entire day would cost us around RM120.

We started quite early....but first order of the day was the money changer. While waiting for Miza & Shima at the money changer, I spoke to Pak Atang. I asked a lot of things and Pak Atang was patient enough to explain. I gave him a list of buildings that I wanted to see and he planned our journey.

We later drove around the city. It's rather difficult to take picture from inside a moving a car. Some of the things that I managed to see were the masjid agung, cathedrals, jalan asia afrika, Hotel Savoy Homann, ITB (Institute Teknologi Bandung), Bank Indonesia, Gedung Sate, etc. We also stopped at Muzium Geologi as I really wanted to see the Java Man specimen.

Bandung is an old city with lots of old, colonial buildings. Therefore, it's a great experience if you could move about the city, viewing these old buildings. I wished I had more time. It would be a nice if I could walk inside a cathedral, looking at its sculpture and stained glass. However, one has to be a bit more practical as it can be time consuming to try to view all the buildings. So, do make your homework before travelling to Bandung & prioritise on the things that you want to see.

After touring the city, we went up to the mountain i.e. Gunung Tangkuban Prahu (there's a separate posting on it). After spending few hours there, we left for Kampung Daun for lunch. We arrived in Kpg Daun at bout 4pm (seriously starving).

Bandung (Day 1) - Shopping!

My Bandung trip isn't something that I had planned for long. I was there briefly (less than 24 hrs) in March, as an extension of my biz trip. Due to that, I told myself that I would definitely come back...and I did!

Miza was toying with the idea of a ladies getaway, and I blurted out Bandung. We managed to get tickets and get everything arranged in perhaps about 1 week. Shima was coming back to KL, and then decided to follow us for that trip.

Well, back to my trip...We took the AirAsia early morning flight. As we didn't get to purchase our tickets earlier, our return tickets had cost us about RM700 (inclusive of tax and all). We arrrived in Bandung at about 10am, local time.

After checking in, we decided to go for some shopping (well, it was my bargaining item. I had promised the girls that I would allocate the 1st day for shopping & the 2nd day for sightseeing). As we were staying at the Santika Hotel, there were some factory outlets located along the same road. The girls got to do some shopping but I didn't.

We had lunch at one of the roadside shops, and nothing fancy of that sort. I introduced them to some local dish. Shima decided to have Nasi Timbel and Miza and I had nasi goreng. We also had advocado juice (Jus alpukat) and orange juice (Jus jeruk). As in any other indonesian food, it was definitely yummy.

There was something in the menu that we didn't know, i.e. Nasi Goreng Terasi. We asked the guy from the shop what terasi was but he couldn't explained. Fortunately for me, I have Wan (an Indonesian friend) who lives in Bandung, but working in Jakarta. He was in Malaysia for his masters and therefore, knew the Malaysian word for it. Funny thing...Terasi is actually belacan!

After lunch, we bought lots of titbits from the shop next door. We bought the local munchies such as pisang salai (with varied flavor), cheese sticks, and lots of other kerepek.

We went to pasar baru, after sending off our stuffs back to the hotel. Pasar baru is a place where you can buy all the local produce, largely textile. It's worth to note that the place is a very busy place, and crowded. So, do bear in mind about your handbags and purse. It also closes early, about 5pm. Therefore, do allocate a FEW HOURS to be there. As per the first trip there, I hardly ventured into the other part of Pasar Baru...only managed to cover the ground floor.

Among the things that you can find there are batik attire, embroideries, kebayas, and muslimah attire. There's a particular shop that I took Miza to, that sells finely tailored muslimah business suits. It was definitely a deal...A nice 2 piece pant suits, and lined, cost only about RM70.

As for batik attire, it ranges from blouses, nighties, kids pyjamas, etc. I bought some batik blouses (long sleeve, chinese colored) and they cost me slightly more than RM10 (about Rp 35,000 to Rp 45,000). There are a lot of varieties, so take a lot of time to choose the one you like.

My interesting find this time was the kids clothes. I bought Jareth a 2 piece attire and for Girl, a dress. Both are made from batik jawa, with excellent workmanship....not to mention that it was extremely cheap. Each was about Rp 15,000 which was like RM6.

For muslimah, there are a lot of things to buy. It range from telekung to swimsuit! Telekung (or Mukena, in Bahasa Indonesia) is something that you definitely have to buy. There are a lot of choice. Most of them are beautifully embroidered, and are in many colors. Being Malaysian, the prefered choice would be white. The materials also varied. The more expensive ones would be the ones made from imported cotton like french cotton or japanese cotton. But that would only cost about RM100.

There are some being sold with bags or separately. For the kids, there are choices of colors. It was strange for me though but according to the mba' at the shop, the kids' telekung are mostly colored as that attracted the kids, plus, as kids play a lot, the telekung won't be that dirty unlike white.

During this trip, I didn't buy any of the telekung but Miza & Shima did. I bought one during my trip in March, for Mas. Bought her a white telekung with gold embroidery. The embroideries were so intricate, around the hemline and also way filling the back.

Other muslimah stuff...a swimsuit. It's a 2 piece attire, with the top long enough to cover the bottom. It alco comes with a headgear, covering the neck as well. Shima bought one. Can't really remember how much it was but if I'm not mistaken, it's about RM50.

Beside that, there were lots of choice for tudung (headscarves). Shima bought the one made from pashmina shawl, which she intended to wear for her New Zealand trip.

There were other things that a muslimah can find such as a neck cover, which one can use together with a low cut blouses/shirt. Basically, there are a lot of stuffs for covering aurat. Probably even things that you can never imagine.

Well, pasar baru was definitely a shopping experience. However, coming back from the pasar could pose some problem. Either you make an arrangement with your cab driver or hail a cab from the roadside.

Getting into a cab can also be tricky thing, which we experienced. The roadside was crowded, not to mention that the road was exteremely busy. Because the staircase is literally next to the road, there wasn't a space for cab to properly stop. Therefore, making it really difficult to get into the cab.

For us, as Shima & I sat at the back, so, we got in thru the passenger door but Miza had a problem to even open the door as she was sitting in front. The other vehicles moved so close to the cab that there was only about less than 1 feet gap! It was only after the security guard stepped forward & stopped the oncoming vehicles that Miza could enter the cab. Come to think of it, it was really a funny experience !!!

Note: The picture above is of Shima trying out her swimsuit, much to the amusement of the ladies at the shops!