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!

Batam, Indonesia

Yeah, another weekend out of Singapore, this time is a day trip to Batam with Diana, Jiahui, and Joseph. We have been planning this trip since May and now only we can go.

3 July 2010
We meet up in Harbourfront Station at 8 am then directly went to the ferry ticket counter to buy return ticket to Batam. After a quick discussion, we decided to take 9.20 am ferry to Sekupang Ferry terminal and went back from Batam Centre Ferry Terminal. Our original plan was to do water sport in Waterfront city which is close to Sekupang Ferry Terminal. Return ticket cost SGD34 plus seaport tax of SGD6. There will be SGD7 Batam seaport tax later.

We reached Sekupang at around 9.20 am Batam time and gosh, it was raining heavily! We had no choice but to cancel the water sport plan and went to Nagoya Hill, the biggest shopping mall in Batam. So it was a waste for us to come via Sekupang Ferry Terminal, Batam Centre or Harbour Bay are nearer to Nagoya. The taxi counter offered us IDR60,000 for a ride from Sekupang to Nagoya Hill. When we tried to bargain, he told us to walk! What a rude guy! He thought it was raining and we had no choice. Luckily the rain is getting lighter, so we decided to walk out and flag a cab outside. After a bargain, we got a ride to Nagoya Hill for IDR35,000.

We finally had our lunch at the food street in Nagoya Hill, pempek Palembang (Palembang style fish cake) and teh botol (bottled tea), kind of signature dish in Indonesia. The price is ok, IDR10,000 for individual portion and IDR30,000 for mixed one.

After lunch we walked around to find a place for spa or massage. We finally decided to take Soothing Spa package from ESKA Wellness, which we regretted it so much. Initially they told us the package cost IDR350,000. We agreed and went to the spa room. The spa is not that great. They were running out of spa rooms, so they used their massage rooms to do all the stuff except for jacuzzi. When we were about to pay, they suddenly told us that there will be 10% government tax to make the price to IDR385,000. We were not happy and tried to argue that they never told us in the beginning, neither was it written somewhere in the page they showed us on the price list book. Apparently, it was written on the first page, that they NEVER showed us. What made us more unhappy, they never apologized at all. They assumed that all the guests coming there know that there will be this tax. One of the lady said something like "we didn't tell other customers as well, but they pay". Hey, it's not about paying or not, it's about what we agreed in the beginning. So we strongly not recommend people to go to ESKA Wellness. Never or you will regret it!

Enough with the anger, we were running out of time to go Golden Prawn for seafood. So we settled in the seafood restaurant in Nagoya Hill, called Lingga 933. The seafood was disappointing too. We ordered 3 crabs, sotong and kangkong, cost us IDR222,000 for 4 people. But gosh, the crabs are so small. Each of us bought two packets of Opak Belahcan, it is nice especially for those who like spicy food.

We quickly went to Batam Centre to confirm our return ticket. We wanted the last ferry at 8.40 pm. This time we got the ride for IDR20,000. The rest of the time, we spent on shopping at Mega Mall Batam Centre and drank root beer at A&W. We reached Singapore at around 10.40 pm. Overall, it was not really an enjoyable trip.