INDONESIA TRIP - BANDUNG (2)

Here I am, heading to Bandung again for a short getaway. I love Bandung because it is only about 2 hours away from Singapore, and the place had yet to be dominated by tourists. This was my birthday trip. I had told myself no more shopping this round, focus on sight seeing instead and admire the natural beauty of Bandung. True enough, it was a breath taking experience. I reached Bandung in the early afternoon, left our luggages at the hotel and headed to Trans Studio Mall. It was known to be the biggest mall in Bandung so we decided to take a look down town. Well, the mall was a high end shopping center with luxury boutiques all over the place. Things were not cheap and there were very little people walking around. We had our lunch at the food court, and I guessed, this place was the best place in the entire mall. Food tasted so so good!! Had my favourite Batagor! The satay was fantastically awesome, so much better than those back home.

The mall had an indoor theme park and some movie theatres. As the mall was not to our liking, we decided to head back to our hotel and rest. We were basically relaxing for the afternoon and not long after, it was dinner time. Because of its convenient location, we stayed in the same hotel as our previous trip, favehotel Cihampelas. It was only 5 minutes away from Ciwalk. We headed there for our dinner. We had been eating Indonesian food on our last visit, therefore this time we decided to try non-local food. We entered a steak restaurant and by looking at the menu, we had made the right choice. Dinner was very fulfilling.

We had a walk around Ciwalk after dinner basically to ease our fulfilling tummy before heading back to our hotel.

Day 2 in Bandung was to go to Ciwidey. Our driver picked us up at 8am at the lobby, and we headed straight to Kawah Putih, White Crater, which was located in Ciwidey area.It was a 2 hour drive down so we just sat back and relax. Entrance fees were necessary to gain access to the attraction, and it was well worth it.

It was truly a breath taking place. I would say that this place was much better than Tangkuban Perahu which we had visited in our previous Bandung trip. It was a fairly cooling place located on highland. Temperatures ranging between 10 to 16 degrees, so be sure to bring a jacket if needed. I went without jacket because I had forgotten about it. The scenery was indeed beautiful. It felt like as though I was being transported to another world.

There were basically no life growing from the sulphuric ground. What was left behind were dead dried tree stems and branches. I understand that this place, Kawah Putih, was one of the 2 craters that made up Mount Patuha, one of the volcano nearby. The color of the water would depend on the concentration of sulphur beneath it. This place is a must go for anyone visitng Bandung. It was a very beautiful sight which I had no words to describe it. Simply  amazing!

Our next destination was Situ Patengan, known as Blue Lake, located at the foot of Mount Patuha. 

Another beautiful place for scenery and it felt more into reality. It was a peaceful and quiet place, and you could basically sit there, let the breeze blow over, mesmerizing you. The view was definitely stunning. The lake was surrounded by lush green tea plantation aligned in an orderly manner, making it felt like a carpet of grass. 

We had covered two scenic places and they were both to our liking. We were being taken back to nature, away from the bustling city life. Our next destination was another place of mother nature, that was the Cibuni Crator. Definitely another astonishing sight. We had to trek up around 500~700 metres to reach there. It was an easy walk though. The route past a majestic tea plantation where it stretched out towards the horizon.

Soon enough, we had arrived at Kawah Cibuni. There were smoke coming out from the vent in the ground. Look where you were walking because the stoney ground could be hot. I could steam my face here, but the air was poisonous. This place had not been popularized yet maybe because it was just a small crator and many people would just skipped it. Luckily we visited here. We cooked egg in the boiling sulphur water and it tasted normal. No difference actually.

We headed back to the hotel after this as it was going to be a long drive back. We were stuck in the jam on our way back so try to avoid weekdays if possible. But to visit the attraction during the weekends would be little crowded. We were all tired when we arrived back at our hotel, so we had our dinner at a German restaurant located behind the hotel. The food was not very fantastic but still edible. Lighting was terrible therefore no pictures to display. 

Day 3 of our trip was to walk wherever our legs could bring us. We walked to Heritage Factory outlet, heading towards Riau area. We past through some settlements of the local people and saw how their lives were.

We stopped for a break at a local cafe selling high end deserts. For once I felt like a VIP I had never felt when back home. It felt so relaxing, eating my ice cream bit by bit, savouring the macarons bite by bite. Nice feel.

After resting our legs, we set off to continue our walk. Until when our legs gave way, we hopped onto a cab and headed to our last destination, PVJ Mall, Paris Van Java. 

This mall had tons of restaurants, and it was so much better than the Tran Studio Mall. This mall is crowded and prices are reasonably priced around the mid range budget. We had Japanese food for dinner, not too bad. 

We had a slow walk back before the sky turned dark. The small streets did not have street lamps and given its too many drains along the pavement, it was not a very safe walk in the dark. We walked past some local street food stalls, but we were too full to try out so we headed back straight to our hotel.

On the last day of our trip, we packed up and checked out early to go back to PVJ to try out more food. Before we hopped onto our flight back, we had our lunch at The Duck King restaurant. Half a Peking duck costs only about $20 and with all the dishes ordered, it was reasonably cheap. The standard of the food were great and the restaurant were filled with chinese visitors.

After finishing our sumptous meal, we headed back to the hotel to collect our luggages and home sweet home.