Bandung - a W/E trip

Bandung is Indonesia's forth largest city, as such it tends to suffer from traffic and waste management problems (read - is dirty and gridlocked!) and therefore no longer deserves the previous nickname of "The paris of the East"

However, being only 2 hours or so from Jakarta, it is still a popular tourist spot. So i decided to visit last weekend, (and, coincidently, friend was there thur-sat on a staff trip from work). So we meet up Sat morning, and....... slept, mostly, that'll teach me not have have big nights out before going away on holidays!

You can fly there, catch a train or drive.... the drive goes through a lovely set of hills and volcanoes, called Puncak Pass, covered in tea plantations.

There is plenty of accommodation options to choose from, from Sheraton and Hyatts to backpacker guest houses but this w/e for some reason was quite busy, we found a slightly tired looking hotel, that may well have once been quite grand. It was ok.

That evening we got into the car to travel to a place called Kampung Daun, which is quite a famous place to eat Sudanese food (specialty of the area) I assumed that it was in town.... haha.... 1.5 hours later, car petrol gauage on empty (and service stations all closed for the evening ...:( ) we finally (10.00pm) arrived, fortunately we also did find an open petrol station.

The place is a collection of open air gazebos serving as diners tables with a dozen kitchens interspaced between streams and gardens.

Food was good, but nobody bothered to tell me that the Oxtail soup - meant soup, plus a plate of oxtail meat, rice and vegetables, so when that arrived plus the plate of Ribs I ordered i looked like a right greedy bastard.

After that drove back to town and visited 'Embassy' a night club that, as it turned out had DJ Naro (a reasonably well kown Indo DJ) and DJ Missil (French DJ) playing that night. :)

The next day had a bit of a sleep in - funny that! before checking out and travelling to a small mall that had been tarted up to look like a european street, called, strangely enough, Paris van Java ... some good specials on there and I managed to buy some new clothes, had lunch at Black Canyon - dining outside (Bandung is at a high altitude so the temperatures are very pleasant.)

Bandung is also famous for shopping, notably factory outlets for all sorts of name branded clothing, Guess, Pierre Cardin, Hugo Boss etc.

Again spent some money - but at less than $10 per item who's gonna complaign.

After this another travel to the Dago Hills north of the city, and overlooking the city. A coffee shop / art gallery was our destination Selasa Cafe. The coffee was very, very good.

The views were great - though a little overcast.

The art work was not really to my taste. They also do performances there and have a small amphitheatre. This one was called the suffering or something - apprently not supposed to take photos....

Anyway, all in all a nice place to visit, i'll head back there some time again.

a link to a better travel writer than I ... http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/2726