I had a short visit to my home country recently and stayed with my family in Bandung. It was barely a holiday as there were so many things to deal with our new house. In between the busy schedule, I managed to go around Bandung, a city that has a special place in my heart.
The first thing I wanted to see was Bandung train station. There is no major change on the station (size and the building itself), which is good. It brings back old memories of commuting back and forth between Bandung and Jakarta back in the 90’s. Compare to the old days, the inside train station is much more organised without ticket you cannot enter the platform.
The second place on my list was Dusun Bambu (Bamboo Village). There’s so much buzz about Dusun Bamboo. It’s known as one of very famous family leisure parks. So, when my husband arrived, that was the place I wanted to show him. We went there before lunch time just to get the parking space and of course to avoid traffic. It’s a nice place to hang out with family and friends, if only it is not too crowded.
My happy face despite so much weight I put on after few weeks of stay in Indonesia. We were so spoiled with so many tropical food.
When everything else in Bandung is jam packed with buildings, houses and cars, this side of the city owns paddy rice field. It dried this season because of the heat and no rain.
It’s always nice having a blue sky like this, something we rarely see in Jakarta. It’s probably one of the reasons why Jakartans prefer to spend weekend in Bandung instead of wandering around shopping malls.
Physical money is not accepted by all food vendors. This is the currency used in Dusun Bambu restaurant instead. This currency comes in 10,000 notes and can be reimburse if unspent.
This is the famous batagor, a different type of fish cake, a local food which is eaten with peanut sauce, sweet soy sauce and a little bit of chili sauce.
Otak – otak (fish cake) is best eaten with peanut sauce. It’s wrapped in banana leaf then grilled to enhance the flavour.
Kembang tahu (silk tofu with ginger and brown sugar sauce) is a famous local side dish.
There’s another good place to hang out with family or friends, Hotel Padma Bandung. A breakfast at Hotel Padma Bandung is definitely something not to be missed. This hotel offers a wide selection of tasty local food and fresh juices too. The hotel is situated up the hill, surrounded by greeneries and of course super fresh air which we could not easily get in town. This is by far the closest thing to nature in the heart of the city.
Somehow this view reminded me of Ubud, Bali.
A basket of Indonesian herbal drink “jamu”.
We peeked into the hotel pool…it’s barely an infinity but still charming.
A friend of mine recommended Lacamera for coffee. So here it was, a cup of hot latte from Lacamera.
This waffle was just too good to resist.
TIPS:
Bandung is few hours away from Jakarta by car. Weekend is always crowded with many visitors from Jakarta. It’s best to visit the city in weekdays if you are visiting Indonesia on holiday. Or leave very early morning on Saturday from Jakarta to arrive before 0900am, hit directly to the place you want to be the drive back to Jakarta before 3pm Sunday afternoon.
