Bandung, Indonesia

My last holiday for 2015 was to Bandung, Indonesia =))

It was a rather impromptu trip. We decided early December, bought the tickets and by end December, we were on on the flight to Bandung!

Before going, Google and friends told us that it's a shopping heaven. We were a bit skeptical though because some said it's fake goods and what not.

So we arrived in the worst airport ever- seriously, Bandung has the smallest, most humid and super crowded airport -_- HAHA but it's alright, we didn't expect much anyway. We then headed to our hotel, Park View Hotel which provided free pickup service from airport.

 The room was cozy and it had my favourite Tiffany blue colour as decor hehe

Unfortunately bathroom was too small but we were away from our room most of the time anyway. Breakfast had a decent selection so it was a rather comfortable stay there and you may just get the receptionist to call you a cab anytime without any extra charges.

The location was very convenient. It's 15 minutes walk to Rumah Mode, 10 minutes walk to Paris Van Java(biggest mall in Bandung- it's soo huge something like Mid Valley without Gardens hehe) and 20 minutes cab to nearby tourist locations so yeah it was pretty good!

First day damage!

Rumah Mode has the best selections! We basically just shopped the bulk of our clothes there and no other warehouses could beat Rumah Mode.

The prices were cheap. I am unable to verify the authenticity of the brands but there were Zara, Forever 21, MNG, Dorothy Perkins etc etc

Dresses, skirts, blouses all could cost around RM30 each. Jeans are around RM60 and mens wear are cheap as well. Less than RM100 for a coat or pants ^^

We really took advantage of the great deals hehe 

However, please beware of the 'branded' bags. These are definitely fake so no purchase of bags in Bandung.

On top of that, Rumah Mode offers wide selection of food so you could rest and eat after a tiring day of shopping hehe and they have massage parlours as well.

It was a really tiring day. We walked to Rumah Mode but because of the bulk of bags we had, we couldn't walk back to the hotel LOL and we had to take a cab who cutthroat us -_-

A nearby Fashion House warehouse had pretty good deals as well and offered almost the same brands as Rumah Mode but the selections were not as wide.

After a day of full on shopping, night time was eat, eat and eat and we went to Cihampelas walk for street food. FYI, Nasi Gila is the bomb! You should try it =)

The next day was a day of sightseeing.

Our tour guide picked us up at 6.30am and our day started.

Tangkuban Parahu is a volcanic site.

The scenery is like a photo I've taken from Google but no, this is from my camera.

It's gorgeous and all but nothing much to see here.

We saw people selling wood crafts.

Do you know the wood is in that pattern?

The pattern is all natural! Very unique =)

Just beware that for entrance fees, foreigners are charged 10 times more than locals. And everytime you go in with a car, you have to pay for parking. All of these are not included in your tour fees.

We actually spent quite a lot forking out money for entrance fees, etc etc on top of the tour fees. So I suggest that if you were to choose, you might just want to go to Kawah Putih because it's nicer and Tangkuban Parahu is the other end. Our journey from one end to the other took us 13 hours in total for the day. We were already warned about how far it was from one end to another but because both places are listed as popular tourist sites, we decided to go both hehe

We stopped by here for lunch - D Seuhah da Lada

Really nice place where we get to sit on top with a nice view.

The food was good too and the Ayam Ngumpet is not to be missed. Yums!

And then we went on a 3 hour journey to Kawah Putih. Oh my, it was so far but going uphill, with the chilly weather and the nice scenery is just all worth it hehe

Kawah Putih is a sizeable highly acid lake (pH 0.5-1.3) which changes colour from bluish to whitish green, or brown, depending on the concentration of sulfur and the temperature or the oxidation state. The sand and rocks surrounding the lake have been also leached into whitish colours through interaction with the acidic lake waters.

The smell of sulfur is strong because there is a good deal of steam and sulfurous gas bubbling from the lake. If you can't stand the smell, you might need a mask.

Beautiful place but one where you can't stay long because of the smell.

Unfortunately, the day has ended and we took another 3 hour ride back to our hotel LOL

Lucky for us, we found some friends to share the whole tour ride so it wasn't too costly on our end. I would suggest the same for you.

The next day we went to Jalan Dago and the famous Kartikasari is a bakery which sells Pisang Bollen. Honestly, I really don't know what's the hype about this Pisang Bollen because to me, it's nothing to really shout about. But because everyone queuing there have a box or 2 in hand, we had to buy to try.

Meh..bread with banana?

Haha, good for souvenir, though!

In conclusion, if you want to visit Bandung, please shop and break both legs in Rumah Mode and you may visit Kawah Putih for some sightseeing. Other than that, there's nothing much else to do. A 3 days 2 nights trip will be more than enough.