Bandung Revisited 10 - 12 August 2007

Eagerly waiting to board our flight at LCCT

In the midst of my hectic schedule, I managed to sneak out of the country and flew to one of my favourite cities for retail therapy....BANDUNG. One tip about retail therapies...go with companions who love to shop. Companions who instantly get the adrenalin rush when they hear the word SHOPPING. And they are also the ones who can't close their eyes at nite when they missed out a bag or a blouse which they saw earlier and didn't manage to grab. It is more FUN if you are with this kind of group.

My "gang" for this Bandung retail therapy trip were of course Muni and Jupe. Two of our UW Madison seniors Kak Ariza & Kak Aiza came along with us this time.

Arrival at Bandung airport

We stayed at the same hotel where we stayed last time. Hotel Sukajadi, located at Jln Sukajadi, right smack in the city of Bandung. Compared to the last time we were here, the hotel has more guests from Malaysia. And they all have this look on their faces...I AM GOING TO SHOP TILL I DROP...(for the ladies..especially)

We were met at the airport by our driver Pak Termizi....a pious looking guy..somewhere in his mid 30s. He took us to the hotel to check in.

Since it was a Friday and he was to go for Friday prayers, we asked him to drop us at Restaurant Ayam Goreng SUHARTI for lunch. It was tough to place our orders as the menu was written in Bahasa Indonesia. My sis who has been at this restaurant before told me to go for the ayam goreng.

So..1 ayam goreng or fried chicken was one of our orders. The food was yummy..very tasty rice accompanied with vege and fish. I took one portion of the ayam goreng...it was kinda funny looking....I tried to figure out what it was anyway. And when I finally did...it was the head and its beak still attached to it!!! I almost flung it out of my plate...Thanks to Jupe...she took the "thing" from my plate and put it back into the plate where it was served in. That was some encounter.

Outlets around Jalan Riau

They sell those yummy Amanda Brownie Kukus from the boots of the cars

We hit the usual shopping places. Pasar Baru was the first stop. We got so, so many pieces of telekungs. Halfway through our shopping, we had to call our driver to carry our bags of telekung into the car and then we continued shopping.

Our 1st day damage...some guests of the hotel "tegur" us on our shopping.

Other shopping stops were Rumah Mode, Summit, Herritage (for clothes) and DIAZ (for handbags). Surprisingly this time I didn't go gu-gu-ga-ga in DIAZ as compared to the last time I was there. I only got a small FENDI toiletry bag. Jupe & Kak Ariza got a few pieces for themselves.

The bags in DIAZ...but I didn't get any...

What was interesting with our visit this time was our lunch trip in Kampung Daun. It's a beautiful place where locals & tourists frequent for good local food. The concept was small open "pondoks" in the well kept green area complete with river & waterfall running across the place. It was so peaceful and relaxing. We had to climb all the way up to our designated eating "pondok". It was worth the climb...coz the food was really, really good.

The eating huts in Kampung Daun

Our food for the day....

After two solid days of shopping and eating it was time to leave Bandung. Our flight was in the morning. It is always the challenge to keep our luggage at its minimum weight. Air Asia only allows 15kgs of free luggage. After weighing our bags (yang dah beranak tu...) we exceeded about 8kgs in total. We had to pay about RM120 for the extra. Well...getting better this time compared to the RM300 we paid the last time.

At the end of the trip, everyone was happy. All the stress went out the door...at least for a little while. On board the flight home...a similar thought was on everyone's mind....WHERE IS THE DESTINATION OF THE NEXT TRIP :-))