4D3N in Bandung (And I took only about 70 photos!).

We were just preoccupied most of the time - taking off clothes and putting them back on again and again.  Who have time for photographs???  Hehehe....  I am talking about trying out all the clothes that we were going to buy.  What were you thinking?  Dirty dirty.... lols...

As usual, a trip to Indonesia will not be complete without a shot like this one ;).  We became instantaneous millionaires!  Lols...  I tell you, the zeroes really drives me up the wall each time we have to pay.  Can't they just print the last three zeroes in smaller font or something, or better still, removed them totally.  It is so confusing.  IDR100,000 = RM35 = US$11.50.  At one time, we overpaid a rude cab driver by IDR500 and thought it was a big deal.  Only to realize later that it was only like RM0.20.  Lols.. no wonder the taxi driver was rude.  Hahahahahaha~  He must be cursing us stingy girls!  Lols...

Believe it not, I met Superman at the boarding area when we were departing for Bandung.  He was standing there with one notebook bag hanging on his shoulder, another hand luggage by the side, sms-ing.  I couldn't resist and blurted.. "Really can fly one arr?" and he replied "Yeah, but I am taking a break".  *faint*  Lols....  Seriously, until now, I couldn't quite comprehend that.  Why?  Hahahaha...  The irony of it, why would superman goes on a plane?  Superman can fly right?

The flight took about 2 hours and we were talking throughout.  The air stewardess must have thought we were thirsty with all those talking and gave us a complimentary mineral water!  Hahaha... Though it was just water, but when it is complimentary on Air Asia, it is a big deal!  Terri & I jokingly came up with a 2 minutes test after that.  Meaning, either one of us will drink first.  Then the other one will only drink after 2 minutes to ensure it is not spiked.  Lols...  We are just being silly...:p  

We arrived at Bandung about 10am local time.  The weather was rather cool.  Found out later that Bandung's weather was actually cool most of the time.  We can shopped all day, hopping from one outlet to the other without breaking a sweat despite of walking under hot sun!  Come evening, it can get pretty chilly.  And the rainy nights while we were there doesn't help at all.  Luckily we brought a thin sweater each.  But then again, we can always buy another there (which of course we did) ;)

There was some hiccup on way to our hotel.  The cab driver too us to the wrong branch, Amaris Cihampelas instead of Amaris Cimanuk.  Was a little disappointed initially cause I read many reviews stating that Cihampelas is the place to be for shopping.  But as it turned out, it was a blessing in disguise after all.  Let's put it this way, Cimanuk is like Bangsar and Cihampelas is like Pudu.  Get it?  It feels a little dodgy in Cihampelas.   

Decided to explore the surrounding after dumping our bags in the room.  Requested for a map from the receptionist and he pointed to a map on the wall.  The one and only map they have.  We went like... "Huh?".  It was not even a map to begin with.  Just some illustration of the whole Bandung City...crazy right? 

We managed somehow to venture out to Riau Street (one of the more popular shopping street). Found a decent restaurant and shared a Bandung's fried rice and a dunno wat (picture above) for brunch.  I can't remember it's name.  Taste wise, ermm, let's just say not to our likings.  :p

Our shopping basically start right after that.  We practically went MAD.  From now on, you will realize that there is not even one picture taken of the shopping spree.  It was indeed a shopping spree.  So spree till neither of us have time to take photos.  Lols... This was taken 4 hours later, with shopping bags piling around my feet.  We saw this very clean cart passing us with freshly made goodies.  Couldn't resist and bought some.  It was indeed yummy.  But then again, we were famished.  Anything would have tasted yummy!

That evening, we had dinner at this little restaurant near our hotel - Warung Nasi Ampera.  We had a roast chicken wing, some cucur udang thingy (prawn crackers), vege and otak-otak (fish paste).  Again, taste wise, not to our liking.  Mind you, their otak-otak is white in colour and it's texture is like biting into a medium hard fish ball!  :p  In total, it cost us less than RM20 (US$7).  We find eating in Bandung pretty cheap!  For that 4 days, we probably spend less than RM200 on food.  But then again, we were eating bird's food la... (sandwich, cup noodles & such).  :D

Day 2 & 3, we have arranged for a driver to take us around.  We both hate our driver cause (1) he is not attentive, (2) not helpful, (3) wherever we want to go, he make it sound like very far and troublesome :(.  But then again, we were comparing him to Meko, our driver in Bali who was super efficient.  :p   

We went shopping on Day 2 to Jalan Dago and Jalan Setiabudi and we immediately fell head over heels with Rumah Mode.  Seriously super place to shop.  Plenty of big names like Guess, Armani, CK, Desigual.  Good environment too.  :)  Towards the end, we were super tired but still drag on... :p  I asked Terri... "Do you feel your feet so painful as if it gonna break and yet, you still wanna shop on cause you don't wanna missed out on any good deals??".... we both just laughed... hahahaha!  We went for foot reflexology after that and for just IDR75,000 (RM27), we get 1 hour of pampering on our feet and when it was over, we felt brand new again!  That good!  Lols...

That's our room which have a wash basin smacked right in the room.  Cool huh..? Hahahaha.....  The moment we opened the door, I went like.. "WTH?"... hahaha... but it was ok la.. in fact, we love it there so much that we were looking forward to going back to the same hotel again.  Though the room is small, it was clean and extreme cozy with all the necessary; cable tv, free wifi, room slippers, toiletries & etc.  

Our loots on Day 2!

Day 3, we wanted to do some sightseeing.  Initially plan was to go to this place called 'Kawah Putih' (white crater).  Our useless driver kept saying that it is very far away, not worth going, nothing much to see and the weather is bad, the road is narrow, yadda yadda yadda.  We ended up going to this other volcano crater called "Perangkupan Perahu" (topside down boat) despite of many negative review read on the internet.

En route up the hill, it was drizzling throughout.  There were stalls set up along the road selling colourful hammock like these.  I think they are hammocks.  Or are they?

Arrived up at the crater about 1.5 hours later.  First stop, the toilet. :p  Right outside it, there was a cart selling noodles.  Yucks.  Right outside the toilet?

That's the crater which we travelled 1.5 hours to see.  Seriously, I don't know how to appreciate it.  Nothing much to take picture of too.  It is like, get off the car, toilet, go to the edge to look down the crater, take some mandatory touristy photo and that's about it.  Seriously, not worth going.

There were also stalls selling knick knacks there.  If you ask me, nothing interesting at all.  In the picture above, the little girl in pink was smacking butterflies with a towel o.O  Whatever happened to little girls are made sugar and spice and everything nice...:p  The little girls here smack butterflies. o.O

Bottles of volcano ash/sulfur can be seen being sold along the street there.  Apparently they can be used to cure acne, skin problems and god knows what else.  Any taker? :p

Souvenir t-shirts.

We head on to Kampung Daun (a famous eating place) for brunch.  The journey took us approximately 45minutes.

Kampung Daun is famous for it's setting.  Each table is set in a private gazebo and all these gazebos are spread out in a vast piece of land beautifully landscaped.  We were lucky enough to get one that is set by a little stream.  The weather was cool, the gazebo was cozy with sound of rushing water in the stream, somewhat rejuvenating.  Nice!  If I am not mistaken, I believe they have some gazebos that are set up the hill overlooking the beautiful scenery of that district.

Terri & I was so tickled by their menu.  'Sop Buntut' (Ass Soup), 'Sop Buntut Goreng' (Fried Ass Soup).... hahahahaha...

'Mie Tek Tek' (boobs noodle)... hahahahaha....

We ordered gado-gado which tasted funny...,

a tofu thingy which also tasted funny....

and a bbq fish with sauce which was the only one that agrees with our palate.  It basically tasted like teriyaki fish. :p

I ordered a hot cappuccino cause I like the flower design they made and I actually went to the extend of verifying it with the waitress if their cappuccino really have a flower design on it just like how it was on their menu and she said yes.

I wonder what was it that they served me when my cappuccino finally arrived.  Where was the flower??? :(  I felt so cheated.  

Along the way up and down to Kampung Daun, cute little flower nurseries lined both sides of the road.  Cute probably cause of the way they arranged the plants.  Very neat and nice.  Spotted this yellow orangy lily and wanted to get it for a lily crazy friend but didn't cause no one was there to tend to us.  :(  I can just grab one and run, but, but.... ermm... doesn't sound quite right, right?  :p

It was more shopping after our little excursion... hehehe...  the mind wasn't really at the crater earlier when we were there anyway.  Lols... We were both like can't wait to get out of it and quickly back to the malls. :p Picture above was the cafe where we would enjoy our cuppa after a shopping session. :D

My loots on Day 3. :)  I tell you, I was like super happy that day.  Lols...  Bought quite a number of shirts for the husband.  It's about time to clear out some of his old shirts (which he never allow me to and which I've to do it very stealthily!).

Check this out!  They are all mine!  Not exactly all mine but my loots alright.  Some are for the husband, some for family.  :)... A total of 33 pieces.  Mad crazy right?  I learned later from Terri that according to her cousin, 33 pieces over 4d3n is considered pretty inefficient.  Wtf?

There were so many super cute kiddy clothes too.  This may seem a little crazy, nevertheless I bought two.  Lols... I just couldn't resist.  Lols...  Terri & I kept going "this is so cute... that is so cute....aiyoooo......"... hahahahaha..... 

Terri was surprised that I managed to stuff everything into my small luggage bag.  I just replied I am no doubt my mom's daughter.  Cause mom is pretty good in packing up her luggage too.  Lols...  Anyway, I make sure my stuff are all packed neatly for just in case I need to open up my bag at the airport.  Definitely don't want strangers to peek into my untidy bag with undies all over the place :p  My instinct was right in the end.  My luggage was overweight and I need to transfer some weights into my backpack. :D

Do you know that I was conned by Terri that we would go to Bandung in empty luggages except for undies and toiletries and buy everything else there.   I thought why not?  It would be adventurous and fun! Luckily I brought 2 sets of clothing for change.  That woman, brought everything.  Bluffer!

That basically wraps up our little excursion to the shopping land.  It was no doubt a good trip for both of us.  We had so much fun together and bought so many pretty things.  That would last us for awhile till our next shopping trip.  Oh, we each bought 3 boxes of the famous Indonesia Layered Cake too.  Not  sure exactly whey we bought so many.  Was cursing about it after we placed our orders.  Otherwise we would have more money left for more shopping.  Hahahahaha....  Unbelievable I know.  Lols....

Now you know why I was bursting with excitement.  *whispering* "Bandung is really good for shopping"!  Don't tell anybody ya...!  Shhhhhh......!

Tips for Bandung based on our own experience:-

1) Taxi counter is on the left side as you exit the Bandung airport.  Approximately IDR40,000-50,000 to anywhere within Bandung City.  Somehow, from the hotel to airport, cost us only about IDR25,000.

2) Driver cost: IDR450,000/day inclusive of car, petrol, parkings.  Basically everything.

3) We feel not worth to engage a driver for shopping trip cause he would just park at one place while we hop from outlet to outlet on foot.  Not useful.  Afterall, we can deposit out shopping bags at entrances of outlets. No need to worry about heavy bags.  Just grab a cab at the end of the day to head back to the hotel.  More economical.

4) You should start shopping at Jl. Riau first (as we find the prices there are cheaper) before moving on to Jl. Setiabudi and everywhere else. That way, you will be able to gauge the prices of stuff.

5) Rumah Mode on Jl Setiabudi is the place to be if you are into brands.  Plus their stuff are nicer too.

6) Be careful when picking out branded stuff.  They have the tendency to mix fakes among the real ones to make them real.  For example: GUESS & GUE55.  

7) Bring a thin sweater for the cool night weather.