Sunday, April 1, 2012

Day 2 In Bandung - The Shopping Begin

We had a fabulous hotel breakfast this morning. I've never try this local fruit or "buah salak" before. It looks a bit like a palm fruit but tasted sweet and fresh in the inside :)



Now here top few places and attractions in Bandung which happened in our must visit list (:

Our first shopping location was of course Rumah Mode at Dago. Going there was a bit tricky and the hotel we were staying was a bit far away from Dago. We thought of walking over to the nearest train station but gave up after 20 minutes of walk. We finally took the local bus or "Angkut" which mean carry by the local. We got ripped off for the 1st time taking this bus :( The driver charges us Rp60,000 since there's no meter or fare chart which we gladly pay (as its only RM20) after convertion but then we realized, almost all local taking the same type of buses and no way they can afford that much for transportation! We found out that the charges were only from Rp2000 to Rp3000....grrrrr!!!

Well, Rumah Mode is definitely different from other factory outlets. It was huge and had smaller shops in the same area. 



There were also a Java Coffee house and a food court of restaurant. It may seem quiite outside but inside were full of tourist looking for great bargain. Polo shirt, menswear, dresses, skirts, pants of all brands were everywhere! 

         


No camera allow in the shop, so we ended up just do our own shopping. We almost spend all our money here in this shop. The only thing, I couldn't any S or XS for my size so I ended up getting a M and L! No matter what must grab something here!




 





After shopping, we went to the nicely decorated Indonesia restaurant. I ordered a Mee Siam and he order Nasi Jawa, which are both cheap and nice ^^



 








Shop Till You Drop in Bandung

Every year my birthday celebration had been rather usual. The year before I was at Library and last year I was at Zouk. This year rather than spending of unnecessary money in alcohol and partying till dawn, I travelled to Bandung, Indonesia. 

Bandung or The City Of Flower is a small city in Indonesia. Famous for factory outlets where you can get go bargain, Bandung is one of popular destination for local Malaysian and Singaporean. 

I was there for four days, three nights by Air Asia. Reaching airport, I was caught by surprised by the local custom and immigration clearing. With only two counters and two officers, with more than 70 passengers, the clearest took us about a good 45 minutes, the longest I ever spent getting my passport stamped :(

Luckily for us, our driver from the airport was patiently waiting for us. The journey to our hotel was pretty fast as our hotel was quite near to the airport. The only bad thing was the traffic was really really bad and cars, vans, motorbikes just cutting each other lane without proper signal. But I guess that's how the transportation work here.




We are staying here in The Golden Flower Hotel at Jalan Asia African. Oh, I just love my hotel. The room was pretty comfy and amenities were complete with Plasma TV, gym, spa, pool and a large shower head :)




As we reach quite late on the first day, we only managed to go to the famous Atmosphere Cafe at Jalan Lenkong about 20 minutes walk from our hotel. 


Its actually pretty dangerous walking all the way to Atmosphere Cafe as we were not sure where was it. At 9.15pm the street was so quite and dark. After a good 15 minutes walk, we decided to hired a tricycle who refused to leave us alone. For Rp3,000 he cycled us to our destination and waited us outside. 

Atmosphere Cafe is a must visit. I definately recommend this cozy garden restaurant. The atmosphere here is relaxing and there was a local live band with pretty hot dual singers. The food is not bad and the singers were good. It really lighted up my mood.












The best part it it had a beautiful chalet type garden where diners can dine under candle lights surrounding by trees and plants...totally romantic :)



We ordered some food and drinks, the bill came up not more than RM70! I am definitely coming here again  in my next visit ^^