Well hello there.
I proved you guys wrong eyh, didn't expect me to update my post again this year huh?! Am a little disappointed as today is technically a whole new month already, but at least it's not a once a year punya occasion sudah. Yeah for me!!
Soooo, as i stated from the previous post, I went to Indonesia just last month, from the 18th to the 22nd of March. Ppl usually refers to Indonesia as Indon but i heard that they didn't like to be called that, so henceforth, i will be referring to them in their full glorious name, which is Indonesia. Well to be frank, who would have liked being called just a fraction of your name as opposed to your full name, if you are yourself a great big nation. Kannn?? Hehe!
As you'd probably be noticing right now, I am in love with Indonesia. Really. Not even kidding. I'm in love with their hospitality, culture, and manners. But above all, I am obviously in love with their shopping complexes. Bahahaha! No laa, that may be second in the list, but still, they were a great host, providing an even greater shopping experiences *wink-wink*.
As i am an OCD when it comes to travelling, i managed to make our own shop till you drop itinerary for the 5 days 4 nights there. No tourist guide necessary, as long as you've booked your supir. Basically it was planned up to the minute, obviously, and we managed to go to 70% of what i planned since my list of places was a bit of an overkill for such a short time. And don't even mention about the "macet" (traffic jam) there. So i am happy on our coverage there.
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| Here's a screenshot of some of the activities i planned there |
And lemme elaborate on our adventures there, day by day.
First day:
1010 Flight to Jakarta.
1155 Arrived at the terminal.
1210 Hopped on an Airasia bus (since it was a humongous runway) and arrived in the actual terminal.
1220 Waited for my two aunts and my mom queuing up to go to the first toilet at the terminal.
1245 Looked for simcards and taxi. People recommended "bluebird" taxi as they use meters as opposed to the readily stated prize from most of the taxis provided. We did find a bluebird taxi sign but the person gave us a price, RM70 even, instead of showing us to the car. Didn't manage to find a simcard dealer or stall. Looked for other taxi and found a supir with an Innova which is called a Kijang there, btw. Also charges us with approximately RM70 or RP300K, we gave in.
1415 Arrived in the city of Jakarta after a long journey of traffic jams and unusual two-lanes-changed-into-five-lanes driving experiences.
1515 Checked into Neo Mangga Dua hotel that is located in between shopping malls, which includes the ever so near Mangga Dua Square, and the opposite WTC Mangga Dua. There are also Harco Mangga Dua, Mangga Dua mall, ITC Mangga dua, and Pasar Pagi Mangga Dua, but we managed to go to Mangga Dua square and ITC only.
The receptionist for the hotel wears hats like the jazz/blues singer ones, by the way, such in exhibit A.
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| Exhibit A |
1530 Started shopping at Mangga Dua square then to ITC. Bought 5 shoes and 8 bajus. We shouldn't have started shopping here because we were going to transfer to Bandung on the next day by train, but the temptation of cheap shoes and shirts were too much. Also managed to buy simcards in Mangga Dua square, from a shop that sells clothes and foods, in which was quite hard to catch. Been rounding up the mall for half an hour until finally deciding on asking the shopkeepers there. Just as we opened up our mouth, the shopkeeper directly asked "Dari Ma-lai-si-ya ya?", which comes as a shock since most ppl from the peninsular keeps on asking us Sabahans in the train or LRT questions like "dari Indonesia ya?" or "berapa lama sudah berada di Ma-lai-si-ya?". Funny experience most Sabahans faced at least once. Back to the simcards, ppl usually recommended buying Simpati since the internet is quite good. As per my opinion, it is as the recommendations stated.
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| Our Bajaj driver |
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| Shoessss |
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| More shoesss |
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| In the bajai on the way back |
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| The KFC poster there |
1830 Stopped shopping and went back to the hotel to mandi.
1945 Was hungry. Looked for food in Mangga Dua Square.
2000 The mom and the three aunts saw pretty bags. Stopped looking for food and went inside a shop instead. Bough a new luggage bag since mom asked me to bring a 40L hiking bag only for this sole purpose. Oh yeah, and a chermin mata hitam.
2100 Continued looking for food. Saw an expensive restaurant. Went inside to fuel up because all the other shop were closed and remained there as the only customers. The waiters looked gloomy, well maybe because we finished eating at 10pm. Who knows...
2215 Went back to the hotel and slept until 3 a.m. Technically, the alarm was suppose to ring at 4 a.m. there, but the ipad was still using local time Msia, so the clock sets off at 3 la. Continued sleeping until got scolded.
Second day:
0600 Travelled to Bandung via shuttle bus because train tickets were really hard to get plus i was lazy buses are more convenient.
0920 Arrived in Bandung and it was quite cold. Met our supir (driver) named Denny, and carry on to Pasar Baru. Ppl usually refers to the supir as Pak or Mas (insert name here) but we straight away called him Denny because he was quite young. Might have seemed quite kasar of us kan? Anyways, mom got carsick from the long travel.
0945 Went to a kedai kain first before arriving to Pasar Baru. Mom miraculously recovered and bought a lot of kain baju kurung, in which, i took two kains too, and six tudungs. An aunt said she was grateful that she didn't bring her daughters along after observing me.
1100 Went to Pasar Baru. A friend of Denny's followed us shopping as a porter, the guy who helps people carry their shopping bags and recommends where to buy, named Zul. He used to live in Sarawak but came back to Indonesia later on. Personally, I dislike his latter role as we were unable to shop freely as every time we arrive at a shop, he would unexpectedly steer us to another shop that he recommended. Even though the price may be cheaper (we wouldn't know right, because we can't survey the prices ourselves), but it was and always will be annoying since we couldn't window shop. He'd ask us what we wanted to look for, and he'll straight away bring us to a kedai that sells them. We couldn't even survey for things. We ended up running away from him but he did find us eventually. Bought four shoes, three telekungs, three skirts, 10 shawls for the cousins, hand drawn batiks, a laptop bag, two baju tidur for the nieces, three skirts and a jubah. Oh yeah, and famous snacks such as kacang bandung and pisang cheese.
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| Air bandung in Bandung |
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| The view of Bandung from atop Pasar Baru |
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| The food court area |
1600 Checked into the Arion Swiss-Belhotel, Bandung. And the room was awesome. The best hotel room so far (in my whole travelling years), within a low to medium budget of about RM150 per night. I give you guys 5 stars! And it's really near to Kartikasari (the super famous bakery in bandung) and the Governer's house.
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| Arion swiss-belhotel |
1730 Continued shopping to the Dago-Riau Factory Outlet (FO) region. Bandung is actually full of FOs, just like the FOSs here, but the building is stand alone, and not as a part of a shopping mall. You could get branded goods with a cheaper price.
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| The FO area |
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| The famous durian ice cream at the street stall |
1930 Didn't get much from the FOs but managed to buy a wallet la. Mom bought a bag that looks like a car for Con-con, the nephew. Went to dinner at a masakan padang restaurant. The dinner was very odd because they automatically serve you with all their lauks, and only charge you for those that you touched. Sooo, jangan gatal tangan pigi kacau semua yaaa. Bahahaha! But it was quite cheap, about RM50 for 6 people. Managed to humiliate myself by accidentally knocking down the cutleries from our table. Nice one there, miss clumsy. But hey, at least my tummy was full.
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| The nasi padang lauks |
2030 Went on a night tour all around the city and returned to the hotel.
Third day:
0615 Travelled to Kawah Putih. The journey was long and full of views, as the side of the road was a long block of houses. And a couple of hospitals and hotels in between.
0900 (maybe) Arrived there and started "hiking" down the crater. The view was magnificent (see below). All was taken via an iPhone. *breath taken*
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| A panoramic view of Kawah Putih |
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| Look at the fog!! Brrr~ |
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| Yeah yeah! The most typical place to take a picture here. |
1200 Went strawberry picking. Wanted to do this since such a long long time ago. Very exciting!!
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| Strawberry picking at the Kawan Putih, Ciwidey area |
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| The whole area is full of strawberry farms |
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| There's Denny! And the strawberry keeper. |
1300 Went to lunch at a Masakan Sunda restaurant, which i forgot the name. The food such as Ayam Brengsek and Ikan whatsitsname was really really good.
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| Here's the restaurant. Minus the car, it looks very traditional. |
1400 Went to Rumah Kopo, where the kain baju kurungs were cheaper than the ones we went earlier. Wahahahahha! Mom and the other aunts went berserk for the cheap kains.
1500 Went to Rumah Mode (Mo-day i was told). If you happen to be in Bandung for a very restricted time, you should just go to Pasar Baru for unbranded things and Rumah Mode for branded things. Even my friends, who studies here said so. Bought a dress and a hoodie for me, and a couple of shirts for the nieces.
1700 Afterwards, my friends, the one i just mentioned, kidnapped me. We went to Harvest Patisserie and Chocolatier, in which they said sells the yummiest cakes and ice creams (Well the ice cream was mind boggling) and dinner at Miss Bee Providore. The food was nice but the ambience was even better.
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| The caramel ice cream was mind blowing |
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| The menu in Miss Bee Providore |
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| Yes, i became the type of person who takes pictures of their food. |
2100 Mom called and my friends sent me home. Came back and saw them getting body massages at the room without me. Packed up the things and slept.
Forth day:
0600 Travelled back to Jakarta.
0830 Arrived at Jakarta.
1000 Got lost with one of my aunt in there. Eventually found the others. BTW, the phone signal is quite bad there. So, do not separate if possible.
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| My aunt with a pretty high stamina, when it comes to shopping |
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| Shops |
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| More shops |
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| My shop. |
1345 Finished shopping. Bought 4 dresses, 5 blouses, a skirt, 2 perfumes. Wanted to go check into the hotel, Amaris Hotel Thamrin City, but unfortunately, it was jam-packed.
1645 Went to Grand Indonesia Plaze, the largest shopping mall in Indonesia, and i am still in awe. This is the newer side of town, where the buildings reminds me of Singapore. Very tall ones. Again, the people there are very well-mannered and friendly. Even got warnings from shopkeepers all around there (Jakarta and Bandung inclusive) from pickpockets. Very2 nice people. The shops here were all medium to high end shops, and since the rupiah is depleting in quantity, couldn't buy much.
2000 Went to the hotel and checked in. Be warned, the room there is really really really small. But the location is superb, in Thamrin City mall and just next to Grand Indonesia. Last pack and slept.
Fifth day:
0200 Woke up, got ready, and went to the airport. Bye-bye Jakarta. Till next time, insya Allah.
P.S.: I know there's been like three drafts already. Maybe this is why people who does scientific writing needs a lot of drafts to produce one freaking paper.
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