Bandung Trip - Wilujeng Tepang, Bandung

We slept till the sun was up quite high. Since we had no plan for the day, we just woke up quite late, got ourselves ready and went down for breakfast.

The breakfast buffet in Scarlet Hotel was quite sumptuous with a lot of pastries and cakes, bakso cuankie (special Bandung beef ball), bubur (porridge), breakfast cereal, and main courses.

Other than Bro's and mine, the flight for the rest was at 11:20 a.m. So we had nowhere to go except to the airport.

While driving towards the airport, we passed by Cihampelas a.k.a Superhero Street. The street got its unique nickname from the statue of superheroes along the road, like Batman, Spiderman, Superman, etc.

Batman is posing like that 24/7

Rambo

Other than the superheroes by the side of the road, Cihampelas is just a normal road

We went to the airport and dropped mom. I used my flight ticket to get into the check in area too! And look what I have found!

The best sign board in the airport

I'll translate everything here.

It's best for the passengers to know...
1. If the flight departure encounters delay more than 4 hours, passengers shall get compensation of IDR 300000 (SGD 32)
2. If the flight lands at airport other than destination airport, passengers shall get compensation of IDR 150000 (SGD 16) and free air ticket towards the original destination
3. If the flight is transferred to another airline, passengers shall not bear any additional fee due to upgrade and will receive the difference of the air ticket cost due to downgrade
4. If passenger does not board the aircraft due to the capacity of the plan, passenger shall be transferred to another flight without additional cost
5. If the flight is cancelled 7 days before the date of departure, passengers shall get full refund
6. If the flight is cancelled within 7 days to the date of departure, passengers will get their rights as per Item 2 and 3, including the case when the airline changes the departure schedule

So now, I have something concrete to hold on to if some airlines want to cheat me!!!

After they went to the pathetic waiting room at the second level of the airport, Bro and I went to Bandung Electronic Centre to sell my laptop. We found it a bit difficult to find parking lot, rounded the area for about two times before we got in and parked.

The 4 or 5-storey building is full of people selling computers, laptops, phones, accessories, etc. So we walked around and found the best price.

After we finished our business here, we went to Cihampelas Walk.

Cihampelas Walk was opened in 2004 and since then became the favourite for people, especially students, to stroll along. The concept of the shopping mall is semi-outdoor. There is one huge indoor shopping mall with a few fingers of outdoors outlet. There is a skywalk near the plaza too.

The outdoor area

The kampung/village behind the shopping mall. Indeed the economic gap is still huge here

There is a hotel called Sensa Hotel besides Cihampelas Walk. Bro and I walked in and took some glance to the hotel. I love the concept of white-purple butterflies in this hotel. It makes the whole place look chic and elegant.

We went up to the rooftop pool and I found a very cool daybed by the side of the pool!

The cool interior

The even cooler day bed by the pool

With the breeze of Bandung air, I felt like sleeping here. But I was afraid I would be chased out so we quickly got out and sourced for lunch.

Cihampelas Walk is full of chich restaurants and cafes. Bro suggested Pizzalogy but I was quite tempted to eat Asian food so we went to Mujigae Korean Restaurant. We were greeted and directed to the second floor.

Interior of the restaurant. I want to sit on the business-class airplane seat there please!

The other side of the restaurant

Tech savvy order by iPad (real iPad okay?)

We ordered chicken bibimbap & fried chicken set, kimchi chicken ramyun, and dukbogi (rice cake). In total, we spent around IDR 100000 (SGD 11) for that much.

My ramyun

His bibimbap

Our dukbogi (sorry it's so blurred)

In my opinion, the bibimbap was very nice due to the sauce. The sauce used for dukbogi was generally the same but the rice cakes was to hard to chew. So that's the downside. The taste of the ramyun was nice, but the noodle got soggy too easily.

We strolled along the shopping mall for awhile before Bro sent me to the airport. His flight would be the next day so he would sleep in his friend's place for the night.

I bode farewell to Bro and continued my journey to Singapore by myself.

Tiger Air 6:00 p.m. flight

In Sundanese, you say "Wilujeng Tepang" when you are about to separate ways and expect to meet that person again. So, Wilujeng Tepang, Bandung! See you Later!

Bandung Trip - Fin

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Bandung Trip - The Last Night at Bandung

Bro predicted that the journey out from Ciumbeuluit (the area of his university) would be very long. But we were lucky that it did not take much time for us to drive to Dago.

We checked in into the hotel and took a rest for a while.

The hotel was called Scarlet Dago Hotel.

This hotel provided family room with reasonable price. That's why we chose it. And from Agoda, it looked nice and good.

However, it did not turn out to be. The light in the room was super dim and one of the light bulb had already spoilt. When we opened the blind of the room, it was emergency staircase and janitor's room. And the thing I could not tolerate was the bathroom. There was a big glass separating the bathroom and the bedroom and there was a rolling blind. The blind was so very full of black patches I wanted to cry when I looked at it. The bottom of the glass separator was dirty too. And the bottom part of the washing basin was black.

When we were about to go out, I made a feedback to the front staff. Without me asking, she offered to change the room for me. I really salute their service.

We walked to other rooms to see and found that other rooms were better but we had no time to pack our stuffs again and move. So I gave way. 

And this was the best part of Bandung: Kartika Sari. I am a big fan!

We went to Kartika Sari Dago whereby the whole building belongs to Kartika Sari. It is a huge building for a bakery. Inside there are other shops like boutique and restaurants and toy outlet.

Chips section with a lot of banana, tempe, sweet potato, everything

Candy and chocolate section

Kartika Sari Specialty

Kartika Sari was founded since 1984 and became the icon of Bandung small bites since then. The specialty of Kartika Sari is brownies and bollen (pastry roll with various fillings). 

There are almond brownies, chocolate chip brownies, raisin brownies, tiramisu brownies, and mocha brownies. There are also steamed brownies with various flavours! I love the almond and chocolate chip brownies. The brownies are crunchy and tasty and so chocolate. Okay, I don't need to say much. When you visit Bandung, buy and prove that I am not lying.

Another specialty of Kartika Sari is the bollen. I love brownies but I love bollen more. And I believe whoever invented bollen is now at the most luxurious place in heaven because of his good deeds! Kartika Sari has a lot of variation of bollen. Actually bollen is pastry roll with banana and cheese fillings. But this shop offers you a lot more than just banana and cheese. There are bollen pisang coklat (chocolate banana bollen), bollen pisang coklat keju (chocolate banana cheese bollen), peyeum bollen (fermented cassava bollen), bollen durian (durian bollen), bollen kacang hijau (mung bean bollen), and bollen apel (apple bollen).

My all time favourite is bollen pisang coklat keju. I can still taste the fine taste of the pastry, the melting chocolate, the sweet banana, and the tasty cheese. Oh my!

But through this trip, I found the competitor to bollen pisang coklat keju! It's bollen peyeum. Yes, instead of banana, the filling is fermented cassava. I love fermented cassava so I love bollen peyeum.

The price range of the bollen and the brownies is about IDR 40000 to IDR 50000 (SGD 4.4 to SGD 5.5) per box. Believe me, it is worthed!

The all time favourite!

If you bought quite a lot, the staff could help you to pack them into a box with handle so you can easily throw it in into the check in baggage.

Buy more and get the box :)

We spent about 1 hour here and walked out with additional 3 boxes of Kartika Sari products. For your information, Kartika Sari does not have any branch out of Bandung. That's a great strategy so that people will always come back to Bandung for it.

We continued our journey to the highest and most northen part of Dago: Dago Pakar. We drove about half an hour and reached our destination at about 6:30 p.m.

For the last night in Bandung before we bid farewell, we decided to go to the high ground, looked at Bandung from above, and gave our tummy some expensive food.

So here we were at The Valley Cafe & Restaurant.

In front of the main entrance

When we arrived, the restaurant was still quite empty but the best seat outdoor had been taken by reservation. Therefore, we only got the seat at the roofed balcony. The menu of this restaurant ranges from Indonesian, Asian, to Western food. So we ordered various food accross the continents.

Spaghetti Bolognaise

Spagheti Aglio Olio

Nasi Sop Konro (Makassar Beef Rib Soup)

Asian Claypot Rice

Chicken Parmigiana

Chicken Cordon Bleu

One thing for sure: the portion is HUGE! I was amazed that the restaurant was so generous in giving the side dishes. I saw mixed fruit salad, steamed brocolli, eggplant salad, mini lasagna, mashed potato, onion rings, and cord fritters. The portion of the main dish was generous too. With approximately IDR 100000 (SGD 11) I got this huge plate with everything inside.

The sop konro had too much coconut milk in it. I could not stomach it. The best two were the chicken parmigiana and the spaghetti bolognaise. :)

Before enjoying the food

After finishing our food, we walked around to admire the view of Bandung from above and to experience the breezing air of Dago Pakar. The cafe was getting more and more crowded as we walked around.

The dim lighting 

Crowded, crowded, and crowded

Besides the cafe there was a resort now. I also took some time to walk the resort and it wow-ed me quite a bit. The resort also provides outbond area for the guests. Maybe next time I could try staying there. It must be wonderful to wake up with the view of Bandung and to go to bed with the lights from the city.

So we went back to Bandung. I fell asleep all the way till we reached Cibadak to pick up our nasi campur babi. And you know what, we queued again eventhough we have pre-ordered the day before! 

While waiting, Bro and I ordered sekoteng from the neighbouring cart. It cost only IDR 6000 (SGD 0.65) for a bowl of sekoteng. That was my first time having sekoteng and I quite liked it.

Sekoteng is a bowl of ginger soup with peanut, mung bean, bread, and cracker

Initially we planned to go back to Paris Van Java Mall to experience midnight shopping in Bandung, but I was already half dead. Bro also said that it would jam very much especially it's a Saturday night. So we gave up that plan and went back to the hotel.

We did not want to say good bye to Bandung but we had to.

Good night, Bandung. Good bye.

Next Post - Wilujeng Tepang, Bandung!

Love is in the air,

Little Feet

Bandung Trip - Finally He Graduates

I only slept about 3 hours that night.

The next morning was quite hectic because the hotel did not have hair dryer!

So I woke up early to bathe and dry my hair manually by combing it over and over till it dried properly.

We walked to the university and entered the graduation area by the side of the function hall.

Yes.

By the side of the function hall.

The function hall is too small that it can't hosts the students and the parents at the same time. So a huge tentage was built and some televisions were set to display whatever happening on the stage real time.

But, the TVs were set too low only the front row could see the whole screen.

The traffic jam in front of Universitas Parahyangan that morning

You see how low and how small the TV is?

And that half day was the longest hours in my whole life!

The programme was so boring with a lot a lot of speeches from the whole world. Each speech was more than 15 minutes. And after that we were required to sit there and watch all the students graduated. More than 500 students and Bro's Faculty of Technic was the last one and Architecture went after Civil Engineering and Bro's student number was the last.

Can you imagine?

I practically just sat there more than 4 hours to wait for 1 minute of his show on stage.

With the company of a box of cakes

It was about 1:00 p.m. when his name was called and he walked up to the stage. His friends started to clap and in the end the whole university clapped like crazy. Don't take it wrongly. He was not famous nor he was the best student in his batch. He was the last one and the end of the suffering. That's why everybody clapped and cheered.

I should have taken a video

But the programme did not stop here. There were still some speeches from student representative, parents representative, and a closing prayer.

After that, the real party started.

All the students were going crazy. They took photos with family and friends. All the friends brought gifts for them. And yeah, that's the beauty of graduating.

The proud bachelor!

Let's continue to bring pride to our parents! 

How merry it was

By the end of the day, this was that he got

It was about 3:00 p.m when he felt I had snapped enough. So we walked back to the hotel, took our luggages and continued our journey.

Congratulation! I was, I am, and I will be a proud sister all the time.

Next Post - The Last Night at Bandung

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Bandung Trip - A Buzzing Night at Bandung

From the outskirt, we directed ourselves to the city centre of Bandung.

Jalan Riau.

Jalan Riau or Riau Street is a quite a well-known street for tourists and locals as it hosts a row of factory outlets. This is one of Bandung's main attractions. And of course it is proven successful. With quite a number of factory outlets, more people visit Bandung just for the shopping pleasure.

Our first stop was The Secret Factory Outlet. A factory outlet with black colour facade and an elegant interior.

The facade of The Secret Factory Outlet

The building is so big I thought it's some kind of shopping centre but no it's just a factory outlets. There are many choices of fashion items for women and men. We spent quite some time inside before getting out and walk towards the next outlets.

Because it was already so late at night, we only managed to visit two outlets. I can't remember what was the second factory outlet that we entered. I can only remember that the theme of this outlet is garden.

I noticed that the interior was dominated in white and it felt so garden. I found something cool in the fitting room.

This is what I found inside the fitting room. Open the door and you will see a full length mirror with white wooden fence at the bottom. Cute!

The factory outlets close at around 10:30 p.m. We were forced to stop our shopping trip. We walked back to the car and drove to Cibadak.

Again.

Yes.

The residents in Cibadak and the surroundings area are mostly Chinese. That's why this area is full of delicacies for Chinese.

That night Cibadak looked more crowded as compared to the night before. Was it because we were later? Was it because it's a weekend night?

We straightaway went to Nasi Campur Babi 888 (Mixed Pork Rice 888). The queue was so long. We waited for more than half an hour for that plate of mixed pork (roast pork, char siew pork, pork ball, etc).

I did not have any passion to eat that.

Instead I went to another street stall that sold lumpia basah. Lumpia basah is a specialty snack from Bandung. Maybe it was originated from Central Java where lumpia has been so famous.

Lumpia is spring roll. But lumpia basah is different. The filling is generally the same: bambooshoot, carrots, and beansprouts. However, the skin is not rolled properly like other spring rolls and it is not deep fried!

I went to order and watched the uncle slowly took the ingredients of my order, put the condiments, stir-fried the vegetables, prepared the spring roll skin, spreaded some kind of sauce on to the skin, placed the filling inside the spring roll, folded the spring roll skin into two, put it inside the clear plastic bag, and handed it to me.

He spent more or less 15 minutes to create this masterpiece. I handed him the payment of IDR 12000 (SGD 1.3) and walked back to Nasi Campur Babi 888.

To my surprise, the had yet to start eating!

This is my lumpia basah! I love it

The rest also liked it and in the end I went to order another one. This time I was a bit smarter. I paid him and told him that I would be back in another 15 minutes.

When I went to pick up my order, nasi campur had not been served yet. But when I came back, they had started eating!

The nasi campur with sumptuous amount of meats and 3 small chunks of cucumber

All of them loved it, even mom who did not really eat pork. There are some kind of sauces that should be poured on to the rice and the meats to make it special. I could not really comment on it because I did not taste it.

They decided to come back the next day so they could bring this thing back to Palembang. I thought about how bf loved pork (more than he loves me) and decided to pack one portion for him too.

We then drove back to the hotel and got ready for bro's graduation the next day.

Next Post - Finally He Graduates

Love is in the air,

Little Feet

Bandung Trip - Back to Lembang Again

We planned to continue our journey around Lembang initially but bro needed to get back to his university to collect his graduation robe and attended briefing.

Therefore, we drove back to Bandung again.

Since the next day would be his graduation day and we expected heavy traffic jam, we booked three rooms around his university. While Bro went to settle his urgent matter, we were to check in and had some rest in the hotel.

But before we reached Bandung, we made one stop.

At a vihara (Buddhist temple).

Yes.

Another vihara.

Only now I realise that all over Indonesia is full of vihara.

Vihara Vipassana Lembang

The view from the car park

Everyday Buddha

The Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas

The Statue of Reclining Buddha

You can get a fortune paper from that building

We did not really have time to spend time here so we kinda rushed off to pray and dashed back to the car. Bro then drove back to Bandung, dropped us at the hotel to check in, and left us.

Unfortunately, we encountered a few things here:

1. The room that we booked was taken by other people. There was apparently miscommunication between the hotel and Agoda that caused double booking. The front desk offered to give me 2 single room instead of 1 double room. We looked at the room and decided to just take 1 single room and get refund of the difference. However, we failed to notice that the room had no aircon, TV, and complimentary water bottle. So Dad suffered that night.

2. Our car's tyre was almost flat. Dad spent some time to settle this matter but nobody could find the tools inside the car. In the end, he asked the hotel staff to pump up the flat tyre as tentative measures.

Only after that we walk out of the hotel and had lunch at nearby restaurant. It was actually a restaurant for the students around so the price was so reasonable. Only for IDR 20000 (SGD 2.2) we could get a plate of rice, the main course, and mineral water. We ordered its beef ribs hot plate, beef ribs soup, and fried milk fish. And the winner was the hot plate!

Enak! Delicious! Haozi!

Bro met us afterwards and we continued our journey. Back to Lembang. This time, along the way (the same way that we had passed through twice at the same day), we made a stop at GH Universal Hotel. This hotel is famous for its Victorian architecture and a lot of people come here just to take pictures. Unfortunately, we were there when it was raining so we could not take good shots.

At the roof top fighting with the rain

At the second floor

We spent about 15 minutes there and paid the parking fee of IDR 2000 (SGD 0.22). We even used the washrooms too. :D

Bro then brought us back to Lembang to eat tahu (tofu). You may think we were crazy to drive long way to eat tofu. But this tofu is different. It is Tahu Susu Lembang (Lembang Milk Tofu). It is called tahu susu because it is made of the mixture of soya bean, cow milk, and butter. The texture of this tofu is so smooth and it is tasty.

While driving towards this place, you can see a gas-station-like structure, but actually it was a drive through area for Tahu Susu Lembang.

Cute, right? Photo source: pasundan.info

When we were there, there was nobody at this section. I thought it was closed due to fasting month. So we went inside.

One building consists of factory. It was empty too.

Another building. The place where you order and pay

In front of the payment counter, you can directly see the staff frying your tofu

As always, other people tend to be impersonators to successful business. I believe quite a number of fried tofu stalls in Bandung claim to be the same as Tahu Susu Lembang. That's why it is clearly stated on their sign board that they don't have any other branch.

We were there during the fasting month so the factory and the food court behind this building were empty. If not we could taste some other delicacies from tofu and even watch the production of tahu susu.

However we had no choice. We only could eat. 10 pieces of tahu susu goreng (fried milk tofu) cost IDR 12500 (SGD 1.4).

The pretty tahu susu goreng!

Eat the hot simple stuffs in the breezy afternoon of Lembang is just perfect

When we left this place, it was almost 6:00 p.m. Initially we intended to visit Rumah Stroberi (Strawberry House) but we did not have the time due to bro's schedule.

Lembang has so much to offer. There are many choices of leisure and you can just choose whether you want to eat, enjoy the scenery, play with your family, or any other things. You can just name it and Lembang has it.

Our next stop was Pasar Terapung Lembang (Lembang Floating Market). This area is also one of the unique travel choice when you are at Lembang. It was opened since 2012 and it is still well maintained until now.

Lembang Floating Market is a man-made tourism spot that offers a good scenery as well as dining experience. The entrance fee to this market is IDR 10000 (SGD 1.1) per person (including drink of your choice) and the parking fee is IDR 5000 (SGD 0.55).

Passing through the entrance, we saw two big lighted sign boards of the floating market. In front of us was a big pond and there were a row of tables and chairs by the side of the pond. We walked towards the main area of the floating market.

The entrance looks so traditional 

The sign boards in the shape of coins

Let's walk and admire the scenery!

Tables and chairs along the side of the pond. Romantic!

Gazebo nearer to the food stalls

When we turned and enter to the centre of the floating market, we could see row of small boats by the side of the platform. We bought some coins to do the purchase and started to select the foods we would like to have. The free drink (hot or cold, you choose) were redeemed here too.

The coins. Sorry it's blurred.

The row of cute boats selling the foods, mostly Bandung traditional foods

Kue gemlong was the first thing that we noticed and we bought

We sat at one of the tables along the platform and bought some small bites. We bought some kue gemlong (fried glutinous rice flour + coconut + sugar), pisang goreng (fried banana), and lotek (special Sundanese gado-gado).

The last bite of kue gemlong. So nice till they didn't let me take a snap first.

Fried banana with sprinkles of cheese and brown sugar. Brown sugar + cheese made the fried banana tasted special. 

Lotek is the Sundanese version of gado-gado. I don't know what kind of spices that are different but the smell of the peanut sauce is sharper and the taste is stronger.

We enjoyed the dusk for quite some time before lifting our lazy butts up. If not because of the closing time of that place, maybe we would sit for some more time.

We left Lembang Floating Market around 8:00 p.m. when the front door had already been locked. We made a big turn from the back gate and exit the place.

Our journey in Lembang ended at Floating Market.

Till the next time I see you, Lembang!

Next Post - A Buzzing Night at Bandung

Love is in the air,

Little Feet