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.
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| Chips section with a lot of banana, tempe, sweet potato, everything |
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| Candy and chocolate section |
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Spaghetti Bolognaise |
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| Spagheti Aglio Olio |
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| Nasi Sop Konro (Makassar Beef Rib Soup) |
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| Asian Claypot Rice |
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| Chicken Parmigiana |
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| 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. :)
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| 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.
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| The dim lighting |
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| 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.
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| 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
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