We went to Bandung recently. This was actually the first trip to Indonesia for hubby and me. Bandung is known for its shopping heaven and yes, the reason that we went there is to shop of course! :)
Our chosen hotel is the Arion Swiss-Belhotel (http://www.swiss-belhotel.com/index.html).We took the Air Asia holiday package which comes together with the flight ticket + accommodation. We heard quite a number of good reviews on Arion Swiss-Belhotel so we thought of giving it a try. Alhamdulillah, we made a good choice. The hotel is very comfortable, not too far away from the shopping places, good spread of food (buffet as well as ala carte), friendly and helpful staff, and has very good spa facilities too (but according to our 'supir', the best hotel in Bandung would be Aston, due to its location. Holiday Inn is not bad either).
In front of the hotel.
We hired a ‘supir’ through Total Car Rental. The supir that we got, Yayat, is very friendly and sporting guy. He really made our trip a memorable and a smooth one (if anyone wanted to hire Yayat as your ‘supir’ in Bandung, you can pm me at m2rs(at)yahoo(dot)com) to get his direct line instead of going through the rental service. I think it's gonna be cheaper).
The guy in the black t-shirt, well that's our guy, Yayat.We spent 1 full day (and a half the next day, he he) at Pasar Baru. You can really go crazy here because there is lots of stuff like kain kebaya, telekung, blouses, etc. They are not just beautiful but VERY cheap as well. You have to pay cash at Pasar Baru so make sure you bring enough cash to shop. Roughly, budget for at least + - RM500 per woman for Pasar Baru.
Your visit wouldn’t be complete if you didn’t go to the hundreds of Factory Outlet they have there. If you love some branded goods like Polo, GAP, Esprit, Guess, then this is the place for you (most of those stuff are original. I bought the same clothes in Bandung that they have at the boutique here in KL BUT at a much cheaper price. How did I know? I went to check some Esprit shops in Malaysia after I’m back and saw them, no kidding). However, we didn’t buy goods like designer handbags or shoes, as most of them are imitations. We find that most of the F.O are selling about the same stuff so we end up didn’t go to all of them, just some selective ones. But in my personal opinion, if you are tired / lack of time, you can skip the rest but Pasar Baru and Rumah Mode is a MUST! (Btw, F.O accept credit cards so no need to worry about bringing enough cash for F.Os).
The beautiful setting of Rumah Mode.Apart from going to the F.O and Pasar Baru, we also visited some of the shopping malls like Matahari Mall and Bandung Super Mall. Bought lots of stuff here as well since some of the branded stuff is not available in Malaysia. Plus at least we know that all of the stuff here are original, no need to worry about 'kena kelentong',.....he he :)
In terms of food, it’s quite hard for us as my sister and I are not into Minang and Padang food but Sundanese food is fine. So we end up keep on eating at only two Sundanese chic restaurants which is the Dapur Sangkuriang and (oh man…sorry, can’t remember the name of the other restaurant, but we ate there twice). Oh but once in a while we filled our tummy with McD so that’s how we survived :P. We didn't dare to try out the street hawkers as we are not too sure about the cleanliness as well as the 'Halal' status.
Dapur Sangkuriang.
We are supposed to visit Mount Tangkuban Perahu but my mom in law has been to the mount and she said nothing much to see there. So we decided to keep on shopping since we thought that we haven’t had enough (.....of excess baggage.....LoL!).
For those who just love to shop (especially for apparel and textile), you definitely need to give Bandung a visit one day. Even hubby who’s not into shopping did say that he wanted to go there again to shop for his office wear! So...need I say more…:)
A picture of us, compulsory for every posting :)
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