Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Jakarta - Bandung

A short trip before hectic work for exam is started and the very first trip in year 2011, this time with Putu, Fanfan and Nive. It started when TigerAir had promotion ticket for SGD65 return to Jakarta and it was overlapping with Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival.

2 Mar
We took evening flight back to Jakarta, reached Jakarta around 7pm at night. The trip was made so convenient by Putu, he got his driver to pick us up from the airport, and headed to Pondok Indah Mall for dinner. We had the famous Bakmi Gajah Mada for dinner, introducing Fan and Nive to Indonesian Food. Also again thanks to Putu and family for hosting us throughout the trip.
Sunset from the Plane
3 Mar
We started early in the morning to avoid traffic jam, yeah, we headed to Bandung, my hometown. It was Thursday, hence the traffic along the tollroad is OK. We reached Bandung around 11am, and I needed to make several calls to my dad to ask for direction. Sorry guys, I am really not familiar with Bandung road.

The first destination, of course, to fill in our stomach, we went to Kedai Teteh, at the junction between Lembang, Maribaya and Tangkuban Parahu. We had the famous nasi timbel of Bandung and was surprised that Fanfan can eat very spicy food.
Kedai Teteh, Lembang
Nasi Timbel + Orange Juice
We continue our journey to Tangkuban Parahu volcano. It has been years since the last time I visited Tangkuban Parahu volcano. The view is amazingly beautiful, the weather is the cool mountainous weather. We could see the crater and took lots of photos over there.
The Crater
Another view of the crater
Beautiful!
Another shot
Done with sightseeing trip, we continued for shopping trip. Bandung is famous for its factory outlets. Rumah Mode is the best option for shopping. Time is never enough when it comes to shopping cheap stuff. I was amazed by how many clothes we bought that day. The price is good though, 15 SGD for a good quality T-shirt, 15-20 SGD for bottoms.

My mum prepared dinner for all of us, so we made a short visit to my house. The famous nasi liwet and gado - gado are for dinner with teh botol sosro as drink. We could not stay too long in my house as we had to go back Jakarta soon. We reached Jakarta around 11pm at night.

4 Mar
We had free time in the morning, after a long discussion, we decided to try out hair creambath in Indonesia. Putu brought us to Irwan Team Salon, one of the most expensive hair salon in Jakarta, or more precisely should be in Indonesia. We had haircut and creambath. The price is still cheaper than Singapore and the service is much better.

At night we went to Java Jazz Festival, for the first time in my life, I ever go to watch concert in Indonesia. We also learnt about traffic jam in Jakarta, it took the freaking 3 hours from Ciputat to Kemayoran. We splitted in the festival, Fanfan and Nive went to watch Santana's concert, while Putu and I went to see Sondre Lerche. I don't know who is Sondre Lerche at first, but the concert turned out to be good, nice songs and nice performance. Then we gathered back to see few songs from Corinne Bailey Rae. We took a cab back at around 2am, amazingly, we could reach in half an hour.
Only in Jakarta : traffic jam with monkey on the road
5 Mar
This is the day for resting, Putu had to stay at home for Nyepi (a Balinese "Day of Silence" that is commemorated every Isakawarsa (Saka new year) according to Bali's calendar. It is a day of silence, fasting, and meditation. The day following Nyepi is also celebrated as New year). So we decided to explore some malls in Jakarta. Amazingly, Jakarta has lots of malls. We went to the famous Grand Indonesia. Putu's friend helped to bring us around. We had Indonesian Chinese food for lunch at Duck King Restaurant, nice food! Putu's friend drove us around in Jakarta to see Jakarta CBD, we managed to see Sampoerna Strategic Square where our Jakarta's office is located. We ended the day with dinner in Plaza Senayan with my friend.

6 Mar
Putu's family prepare authentic Balinese lunch for us, it is really awesome! I couldn't even find such food when I visited Bali. Then we went to airport to end the trip. Awesome trip!

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