Our Bandung Trip (Part 3) - Food!

Do you love eating chilli? If you are like me, then you will especially like this post! (:

Thanks to Ps and wife, we got to taste as many good food in Bandung as we could in our short time here... They were suggesting eating at 2 places each for our lunches and dinners in order to intro all the favorite foods!

I am not surprised if I had loaded on a couple of kilos during this trip...

Now, here's a restaurant which serves Sundanese food ala kampung style!

There's a 'fireplace' there.. which I think they cook their food above the fire. And there are some seats which are like the Japanese's tatami. You sit down on a raised platform, without your shoes on, and tuck into your meal with your family.

So off we went to take our food... We got to choose whatever we want, then pay at the counter.

And I was absolutely thrilled to see this:

A BIG bowl of sambal belachan!!! With chilli, I can eat more than usual. (: In fact, there are always more than 1 type of chilli available at every meal place in Indonesia.

Here's bandung @ Bandung. HAHAHA! But they do not call it the 'bandung' drink... I think they call it Sirop Susu.

Here's the Sirop Susu drink and Sirop Susu ice lolly covered with chocolate syrup after a sumptuous meal!

The next place we went to was an outdoor restaurant- Kampung Daun

The restaurant's setting is mostly Mother Nature herself with big ferns, trees, waterfall, flowers, all along a long sloping terrace!

The view is more beautiful at night.

There were little huts situated along the sloping terrace of this place where you could enjoy your meal and fellowship at. Here're more pictures!

Waiters preparing a hut for the next customers

Here's Ps's wife getting the waiter. Just use the stick at the right hand side and knock the hanging wooden cylinder. So cool and tribal sounding!

Then the waiter comes along with the food after about 15 mins...

So here's the food (which was only average by the Indon's standard)

Well, nevertheless the satay here beats Singapore's hands down! The meat is super well marinated and cooked over charcoal!

Fried chicken with peanut gravy

Some tapioca dessert laced with coconut sugar and shredded coconut.

And here are the pictures of the satisfied diners!

Ps & his wife

Us! (:

There was also another day when we were rushing and Ps wanted to get some food for us and suggested takeaway.

We were thinking... MacD?

NO! (I think no MacD in Bandung)

It was a bag of deliciously fried tauhu!

Here's the takeaway place!

Here are the pictures of the some of the other food we tried in Bandung. Enjoy!

'Standing' fish. It was so crispy!

Real oxtail soup! The meat is really from an ox's tail! A very tasty soup but a little oily and salty for me.

Tauhu mixed with fishcake wrapped in thin flour paper and fried. Then served with yummy peanut gravy. A bit like our tauhu goreng but NICER of course!

Oh so spicy fried chicken!

Nasi padang- Indo's fast food because....

They would lay out 20 over dishes on the table for us straightaway. If we touch and eat, we pay. If not, just leave it. Of course, orders of more of the same dish are welcomed!

I think the nasi padang there is very delicious except some of the dishes were too salty... esp the beef rendang and chicken curry.

Laksa... which Jared thinks Singapore's still better.

Beef noodles. Nice soup!

Lastly, ais krim/ice-cream time!

Ice-cream in coconut

Ice-cream in pineapple

Looks exotic? But it's just very normal tasting...

So that's all for our Bandung trip. I think it's really not a bad place to visit if you have a local to bring you around or at least a personal driver to drive you to the various places and could recommend the good stuffs there. (:

Bandung Trip (Part 2)!

Here's Part 2 of our Bandung trip.

Here're some of the photos of the factory outlets we visited.

Don't you think the Factory Outlets look so high class?

Here below is the hustling and bustling Traditional Market. I heard that many S'poreans and M'sians buy wholesale clothes and goods from here to sell it back home...

OUR HOTELS + R&R (Rest & Relax!)

We stayed 3 nights altogether @ Bandung.

For the 1st 2 nights, we stayed at SANGRIA RESORT & SPA.

It's located at Lembang (aka Flower Town) which is at the outskirts of Bandung. Lembang is a mountainous area and thus cooler than Bandung itself.

I honestly felt a tad disappointed when we reached the hotel room. There was a strong mothball smell and NO aircon! And it looked plain.... :(

But it was quite OK as we were seldom in the room itself.

The view of the room was not bad! Of course not as scenic as the Swiss's but still facing the mountains and the wild 'jungle'!

As the night went on, we realized why there was no aircon. It was cold! We had to cover ourselves fully with the blanket!

We realized in the morning that breakfast food offered at this resort is not so nice... just pass.

But Jared was very excited for SPA!

The Spa packages here in hotel are cheap compared to Singapore's exorbitant prices! But pricey compared to what you can find elsewhere in Indo. I heard that you could get a good spa service at S$8 here!

BUT we opted for high-class. Heehee.

My 3 hour spa on the 2nd day including hair and scalp treatment, neck/shoulder/back massage, aromatherapy bath as well as manicure & pedicure costs only S$70! Whoohoo!

Here's our individual spa room...

The jungle and mountains lie ahead of me....

Here am I doing my manicure and pedicure in full view of the scenery... I actually fell asleep in the midst of this.This is a good life....

And here's the pics of the beautiful swimming pool. We heard it's heated on weekends...

The Spa Resort was really not bad after all!

Here are also some sightseeing that we accomplished during our short trip.

TEA & STRAWBERRY PLANTATIONS

Ok, we didn't really visit the plantations. Just passed by them cos it was drizzling and it was too cloudy to appreciate the view. But Ps told us it's BEAUTIFUL. And the strawberries there were VERY sweet and fresh! When I ate it, I told Jared it seemed like they were dipped in sugar solution!

TANGKUBAN PERAHU CRATER (or 'Overturned Boat')

Heard that this volcano is partially active and last erupted in 1969!

It was cold here!

There were shops and locals selling their stuffs here... Ps told us that these sellers jack up their prices for tourists. So beware! Ps's wife bought strawberries here for the local's price of S$6 for 5 medium-sized packets! (Instead of S$2 per packet for tourists!)

We saw many female tourists riding the horse with pink hair (see top left photo)!

HOTSPRING

Ps kindly drove us to the hotspring. 'Kindly' cos it was almost about an hour's drive there and the route was bumpy with steep curves. AND, we went there at midnight!

Ps told us that the hotspring would be rather hot earlier in the day.

Let me show you how 'warm' the place was.

Can you see Jared in the midst of the steam??? HAHA!

The water originated from a hotspring and the temperature is at 42 degrees celsius. It was bearable, in fact very comfortable once we got used to it. Some tips from Ps...

Tip #1: You got to slowly submerge into the water. The hot water is good for blood circulation etc etc.

Tip #2: You should not stay in there for more than 20 minutes unless you come out and 'take a break'.

Tip #3: You should shower in cold water when you are done.

I had a bruise-like feeling at my back which was gone after I soaked in the hotspring.

Verdict: Jared & I liked it! ((: We slept very comfortably that night...

HILTON BANDUNG

Our last night was spent at Hilton Bandung. It was a HUGE, NEW (5 months old) hotel and really splendid.

The staff spoke good English! Finally...

And it was cheap! At S$120 a night for a couple deluxe room. And guess what? They were having a promotion of 'stay one night, get another night FREE'!

BUT, ARGHHHH! They only informed us then when we checked in... and it was already our last day to be there! We decided to cut short our shopping that day to come back and 'enjoy' the hotel and its facilities.

Here are the pictures of the room!

The blind at the glass which separates the bedroom and toilet is remote-controlled! Wow...

We visited the lounge for complimentary drinks and some MORE drinks and snacks. Prices were very affordable. Each item cost less than S$10 unlike here in S'pore...

We loved the swimming pool there... The pictures will speak now.

I also like the shallow pool cos I am afraid of deep waters! It was only 1.2m deep. (:

Lastly, we were also very impressed by the generosity of the Hilton staff. The last morning we were there, we invited Ps and his wife for breakfast @ the hotel. Our treat.

It could have cost us S$50 per pax at least (looking at the type of food and ambience). But the staff told us they will not charge us for the extra 2 breakfasts! So solid!

We were definitely VERY pleased with Hilton. We want to come back again!!!

I think we got to have a Part 3 for our Bandung trip... To showcase some of the food we ate there!

Till then!

Charm Bracelet

I am supposed to post the details for the rest of my Bandung trip. But I can't now cos I don't have the USB cable for the camera with me... I should be able to get it in the next few days.

Anyway, I bought the May's issue of Style magazine today and found a small booklet about charms by Thomas Sabo.

Gosh... my heart melted.

I L-U-R-V-E Charm bracelets!

I don't own any of these cos I couldn't find a pretty one around. Until... I saw this...

There are so many charms available to choose from! And each charm is so intricate, cool/cute and pretty! *Drools...

Then, I checked out the price....

Bracelet WITHOUT charms = S$59

AND.......... the charms cost.....

S$38 - S$139 EACH!!!

<<<<< Heart shattered >>>>> It's so expensive! Well, I hope a cheaper imitation will be available soooon!