What will you do in Bandung for 2 days?

If you're asking me, I'l tell you how I spent my last short getaway in Bandung.

17th July 2015,

I had a nice dinner and short quality time with my friends from senior high school. They asked me to join them for a small trip for about 7 people to Bandung. It takes a lot of time to Bandung from Jakarta ETA 3 hours at ordinary days, and since it's Eid, I think there'll be so much traffic and could be 5-6 hours to get there. So they decided to go there at 4 AM. 

Well I haven't got my parents permission, I rushed to home after they gone, and ask if I could join my friends or not, they said they will pick me up too. My dad, he said it's okay to go since it's just 2 days and one night. 

After I told one of my friends that I could go, not so long after that, he said they've canceled their plan because just a little of them who could join. Well, I'm a bit disappointed because I already planning where to go and what outfit I should wear. well it broke my heart a little so I just fell asleep that day.

Saturday, 18th July 2015

I woke up so late today, I think it's about 1 PM ( LOL I'm so good at sleeping ), and then my dad suddenly came to my room and said "let's go to Bandung" and I was like "Really?" and I'm panicked at the moment and packed all of my stuff like clothes and and charger etc. 

So the story began now.

Since it was too late, I already predicted we'll arrive at late night. my grandma is in Bandung too with my relatives, They stay at some nice villa called Villa Teratai at Lembang ( it's like the highland part of Bandung ). Since she's there, my family first destination is to meet them.

At first, the road is not so crowded, but when we drive about 30 mins, we stuck at traffic and we just accept the reality, it's so looooooongggg journey until we arrive at Bandung, I remember it's 10 PM when we arrive at Lembang and we ate some dinner in there at Ayam bakar brebes. Near that restaurant, there's so many nice street snack stalls at the side road.

[Grilling some sticky rice]

My first attention was ketan bakar ( grilled sticky rice ).

When the seller grilled it, you could smell their nice smell, and after they warm it for us, it could be eaten raw or you could tap it on the spices ( I don't know what is the ingredients but it taste sweet and savoury ), it's sticky so the spices will patch and you could eat it without fall apart.

[It's so warm and nice]

and the second one was grilled bread with some filling.

[Grilled bread on the making]

You could choose so many filling like chocolate, strawberry jam, cheese, peanut jam, blackcurrant jam etc. Warm and soft bread is perfect to company you in the cold breeze at Lembang. You guys should try it if you come to Lembang.

[It's done!]

After strolling around for some snack, we continued our journey to Villa Teratai, and it's still crowded even at night. So we got to there at midnight and since it's too late to look for another hotel, we decide to stay here at night.

My Villa is so nice, it made from yellow bamboo and looks so traditional. there's only one bathroom and one bedroom but there's 2 king size bed inside so it's perfect for the 5 people like us. There's no air conditioner because it's already cold outside and inside. but we still can feel it warm because we're together.

Sunday, 19th July 2015

At the morning, I can see the sunshine rise at the front of our villa, the scenery is amazing and I forgot to take a picture because I'm still so sleepy right at that time

[front look of our villa]

My 2nd day started as I took a walk around, there's a small and nice swimming pool in here but I don't have any thought to swim right now because it's freaking cold out here, but thanks god we had hot water for shower. Actually I'm a lil' bit disappointed with my dad to stay in here because I thought we're going to stay at a nice hotel in town because I really want to swim at that moment but I can't do that in Lembang, it's too cold here even without air conditioner.

Moving on, after we took a shower one by one, we met my grandma and some relatives in their villa, and asked some nice and new place around. My cousin told me to go to Lembang floating market, but he warned us if we want to go there we better hurry up because their parking lot is not so big and there's many people who want to go there as well.

So we drive for about 30 mins and arrive in there, 

There's something I like about this place, there's some coffee maker for our welcome drink. It's so nice to drink nice and warm cafe latte in cold weather. but this place is so ordinary. I thought it's gonna be so traditional like there's many small boat and we have to move from one boat to other boat in the middle of lake or etc, but this is just like they made a square ponds and they put small boats on every side and we walk round in the side.

[Lembang Floating Market]

To buy something, you must purchase some money for token because they only accept tokens in here. I stop for a sec when we entered this place because I saw something. There's a nice small stall beside, it's gemblong ( just sticky rice coated by brown sugar ), it's my favourite street snack, because it's sweet from the outside and savoury in the inside.

[Gemblong]

Despite their looks, Gemblong in here is so tasty. I gave 9 out of 10. but I really hate they made it smaller than the regular size.

The second snack we tried is something that got my mom's attention,

It's a mini bak pao ( steamed bun ) but this is not just an ordinary pao, they made and drawn the pao with some cartoon characters like minions, doraemon, pororo, spongebob, hello kitty, kerokeropi and avenger. And also they have varies filling like chicken, beef, red bean, chocolate, etc

[Mini Pao]

Sometimes I saw this kind of food in some mall and I don't think they will taste good. But after I saw it, because it's toooo cute I became curious and want to eat it once. I tried it and as I thought before, It doesn't taste good. So standard and their dough is so thick and made it hard to eat and tasteless.

[Porridge]

Because we haven't eat anything since leaving the villa, my mom, dad and lil' sister buy some porridge. They're too hungry and need to take a breakfast. As I continue to look around, my lil' brother following me along. We're still looking for other snack.

[Ingredients for the porridge]

Since both of us like japanese food, we found one stall that sells takoyaki and okonomiyaki. We give it a try, we bought one octopus takoyaki and okonomiyaki, but there's a long line queueing. So it takes us some time, and there's some people that doesn't want to queueing and most of them are adults, I feel so angry but also pathetic to them because they still don't have manner in their old age. So I just being so patient and wait for my order.

[Takoyaki on the progress]

Anyway, after my order's done. We're going back to my parents that waiting for us while eating their porridge, we ate our snack and finish it. Well, it's so ordinary and nothing special about it and not so tasty like we expected.

[Cakwe and fried meatball]

Our last snack is cakwe and fried meatball, as you can see at the photo up there, it looks quite tasty right? but wrong! it's not good at all, I'm so disappointed by this one. I don't have any other comment except my disappointment.

So after we ate some snack here, we continue our way to Kampung Daun restaurant in Lembang too, it is our favourite family restaurant that we always come when we visit Bandung. We eat and sleep for a bit in here because their cozy and comfy atmosphere. After we had our tummy full, we continue to Cihampelas, it's a famous place in the city because there's so many cheap and nice factory outlet and my mom really want to shop so we decided to go there.

As we arrive, I told my parents straight to the point that I want to meet my friends in a mall called Paris Van Java ( PVJ ), and it's not so far from there. I went there from Cihampelas walk using Gojek, and it was my first time using that so I'm really nervous somehow lol.

After I arrive at PVJ, I meet my friend named Indra and he brought his friend, Joshua along. We want to try some nice cafe around there. I know some of it because I've been following some foodies in Bandung and they post so many nice cafe around here.

[Take a sip from two hands full 's coffee]

We went to two hands full cafe and tried their coffee, and Indra also Joshua order some food. Their coffee was nice, and I really like it. I also tried their food a bit, and it's also nice. Their price is regular like other cafe and their place is nice, it look like old building because there's many brick and they put some nice light bulb hanging around. You can feel the ambience here and it's really a nice place to hang around.

[On our table overview]

After I meet them, they took me back to Cihampelas walk and finally meet my family. Because it's already 7 PM and tomorrow I need to go to my campus for some thing, we started to drive but there's a big traffic in Cihampelas, we can't get out from the parking lot for about 1 hour and the highroad also crowded that take us more time to arrive home. It's really a long and tiring journey, it takes 6 hours to get back home. 

So that's my kind of story how I spent my 2 days in Bandung, hope I can get back here as soon as possible..