Bandung - a weekend trip.

[kingwilly]

Bandung is Indonesia's forth largest city, as such it tends to suffer from traffic and waste management problems (read - is dirty and gridlocked!) and therefore no longer deserves the previous nickname of "The paris of the East"

However, being only 2 hours or so from Jakarta, it is still a popular tourist spot. So KW decided to visit last weekend, (and, coincidently, his g/f was there thur-sat on a staff trip from her work). So they meet up Sat morning, and slept, mostly, that'll teach him not have have big nights out before going away on holidays!

You can fly there, catch a train or drive.... the drive goes through a lovely set of hills and volcanoes, called Puncak Pass, covered in tea plantations.

There is plenty of accommodation options to choose from, from Sheraton and Hyatts to backpacker guest houses but this w/e for some reason was quite busy, we found a slightly tired looking hotel, that may well have once been quite grand. It was ok.

That evening we got into the car to travel to a place called Kampung Daun, which is quite a famous place to eat Sudanese food (specialty of the area) I assumed that it was in town.... haha.... 1.5 hours later, car petrol gauage on empty (and service stations all closed for the evening ... ) we finally (10.00pm) arrived, fortunately we also did find an open petrol station.

The place is a collection of open air gazebos serving as diners tables with a dozen kitchens interspaced between streams and gardens. we were there at night so photos dont look that flash.

Food was good, but my tilac forgot to tell me that the Oxtail soup - meant soup, plus a plate of oxtail meat, rice and vegetables, so when that arrived plus the plate of Ribs I ordered i looked like a right greedy bastard.

After that we drove back to town and visited 'Embassy' a night club that, as it turned out had DJ Naro (a reasonably well kown Indo DJ) and DJ Missil (French DJ) playing that night.

The next day we had a bit of a sleep in - funny that! before checking out and travelling to a small mall that had been tarted up to look like a european street, called, strangely enough, Paris van Java ... some good specials on there and KW managed to buy some new clothes, we had lunch at Black Canyon - dining outside (Bandung is at a high altitude so the temperatures are very pleasant.)

Bandung is also famous for shopping, notably factory outlets for all sorts of name branded clothing, Guess, Pierre Cardin, Hugo Boss etc.

Again spent some money - but at less than $10 per item who's gonna complaign.

After this another travel to the Dago Hills north of the city,

and overlooking the city. A coffee shop / art gallery was our destination Selasa Cafe. The coffee was very, very good.

The views were great - though a little overcast.

The art work was not really to my taste. They also do performances there and had a little theatre in the round.

this one was called the suffering or something - we were not supposed to take photos....

Anyway, all in all a nice place to visit, i'll head back there some time again.

[slimboyfat]

can you please tell KW that he is too old for nightclubs.

[kingwilly]

KW says what would u know and piss orf!


anyway thats wot all the morning naps, afternoon naps and evening naps are for!

[Whiteshiva]

Nice post - I worked in Jakarta for about 6 months back in the mid-90's but due to the workload I never got out to Bandung/Jogyakarta/Borobodor, etc. Looks like I missed something, but unless work brings me back to Indonesia, I don't think I can be arsed to go back. The only good things I remember from Indonesia were the paychecks and the women - which isn't bad in itself, but I keep telling myself there is more to life than money and pussy......

[mend]

I understand that Jakarta is loaded with Hot, Sexy, Willing, ladies, but nothing much else is good about it...., Correct???

[stroller]

^
If you're into chip thrills, as you seem to be, there are plenty of drugs as well.

So KW decided to visit last weekend, (and, coincidently, his g/f was there thur-sat on a staff trip from her work).

Friend of yours, by any chance?

[kingwilly]

I understand that Jakarta is loaded with Hot, Sexy, Willing, ladies, but nothing much else is good about it...., Correct???

By way of answer I'll quote a piece written in the Jakarta post on the weekend...

The Jakarta Post PrintJune 23, 2007




Jakarta: A city we learn to love but never to like
Opinion News - Friday, June 22, 2007
Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Lipstick, stilettos, cheap makeup and condoms. These women that walk the
night are distinctly familiar yet impossible to remember, and no matter
the variety of euphemistic names they go by, at a base level they all mean
"whore".
If Jakarta were a person, she'd be a whore. Fornicating with power and
money, feigning ecstasy. All the world's pleasures accessible at a price.
The city residents love to hate is one of contradictions. A place where
beer flows more freely from taps than running water and malls stand as
plateaus of gluttony amid the conscripts of poverty.
Falsehood has a perennial spring in a city where life is blunt and
brutish. A place where even humanity has a price.
Shelters for the homeless are too few to mention. But love motels sit
strategically in all five municipalities -- inconspicuous in their
presence, conspicuous in their activities.
Jakarta's callous monotony can also be a living prison. Scores are trapped
in congestion while slums incarcerate a million sadnesses.
Most everyone is caught in the interminable daily chase for wealth,
property and the pursuit of leisure time.
Those who can enclose themselves in housing enclaves to keep the din of
the metropolis at bay. Hence Jakarta's two faces: the modern city and the
kampung.
Unlike Lady Liberty half a world away, the mistress of Jakarta makes no
pledge to shelter "your tired, your poor... your huddled masses yearning
to breath free".
Yet come they will.
Though used and abused, she is still pursued. She holds the promise of
pleasure. The power to make impossible dreams come true. A promise luring
thousands to her bosom every year.
The city's glitz shines bright from yonder. But the magnate resonates from
predominance as the nation's financial and business hub. Though it
represents just 0.03 percent of the country's territory, its activities
account for 17 percent of national GDP.
Friends abroad email of a beautiful summer's day in Cambridge. Another
recounts a walk in New York's Central Park. A Delhi resident boasts the
expedience of its Metro.
We in Jakarta can gloat over little other than the availability of kretek
and Teh Botol at every corner tuck shop.
Still we are here, calling her home. Our mother, drunk or sober.
What cannot be conveyed in any postcard or email is the city's slowly
beguiling character, which sways even the sternest disposition.
Jakarta is not captivating all at once. Her subtle charm, like the smog,
abounds, enveloping everything.
It is not a place to like. One has to "learn" to love the city over time
with all its idiosyncrasies or hate it completely.
Not surprisingly, Jakarta's nickname is the Big Durian. The foul-smelling
fruit that those who love it can never forget, but those who do not will
always regret.
For the housewife it is the luxury of everything imaginable at the
doorstep, from morning groceries to roving tailors on converted
three-wheeled sowing machines.
Professionals have range of choice in work and hobbies thrive.
Children are perhaps the orphans of the city. With few parks and
playgrounds, those who can afford it place their kids at artificial play
areas in icy-cold shopping malls.
Jakarta is a place where the good, the bad and the unthinkable have equal
favor. A society constantly living on a guilt edge forcing the best and
(worst) of creativity to rise.
Leave her for a few days and an unconscious longing creeps in as we covet
the luxuries found nowhere else: The fried gorengan chock full of
cholesterol; the street vendors who sell everything from magazines to
souvenirs; the umbrella kids on a rainy day; the Pak Ogah U-turn boys who
are a Godsend when we need them and a frustrating hindrance when we don't;
The huge range of high-end to dead-end goods to suit every pocket's need.
Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo perhaps said it best: "This city is a giant
living laboratory".
But this is nothing new. Half a millennium ago, when the genesis of
Batavia was emerging, the harbor borough had always been a repository for
different cultures.
However Jakarta is no melting pot. Instead it celebrates idiosyncrasy
providing a place not only in which to survive, but thrive.
The young mohawked punks, the elderly in their kebaya, the satin-tied
executive and waria trannies all have their place. A microcosm of
Indonesia's beautiful diversity.
No single ethnic or religious group has ever dominated, not even the
so-called indigenous Betawi.
This is why we love Jakarta. The freedom to be all that one can be or even
don't want to be.
It is custom in Betawi culture to present a cake in the shape of two
crocodiles during weddings. Legend has it that crocodiles only take one
mate for a lifetime. Like Jakarta, once you learn to love her it will be a
life of unending lust.

[obsidian]

nice thread. you have swayed me. i am going to visit jakarta. soon.

[kingwilly]

your welcome to PM me when ya do....

[kingwilly]

your welcome to PM me when ya do....

What would he know? you'd be better off PM'ing me for the lowdown on places to go!

[obsidian]

how many hours by train from the thai/malay border?

[kingwilly]

how many hours by train from the thai/malay border?

The train would get a bit wet, no?

Perhaps you are confusing Jakarta with Singapore....

[obsidian]

sorry. i took the boat from penang to medan and got badly scortched. how many hours by train/bus from medan?

[kingwilly]

medan is on the island of Sumatra, you'd then need to get a boat/ferry over to Java and then further travel to Jakarta....

There are several flights a day between Singapore Medan and Medan Jakarta
- about $50 or so and about an hour flight, I suppose.

you can get a high speed ferry from Penang (about an hour) to Medan

I'm not sure how long it would take to get from Medan southwards and change over etc to get to Jakarta - would be an interesting road/water trip, no doubt....

[kingwilly]

Ok, found some info (this is from a lonely planet book) from Jakarta - but i guess it goes in the reverse also.

Most buses to Sumatra leave between 10am and 3pm and you can catch a bus right through to Aceh if you are crazy enough, destinations include blah blah blah....... Bukittinggi is a 30 hour plus journey... and Medan is then another 19 hours!

[obsidian]

i thought jakarta was on the southern tip of sumatra. i assume ferries are readily avaiable to get to java.

is there extensive boat travel available to indonesia from singapore?

[kingwilly]

Jakarta is on the (almost) western tip of Java - however, it appears all the bus services between Java and Sumatra, include the short ferry hop.

is there extensive boat travel available to indonesia from singapore?

it appears the answer is yes...

there are a number of companies that run boats or hydrofoils (about a 24 hour journey)

Services on the Lambelu to Padang and the Kelud to Batam (near Singapore) are of most interest to Travellers........ Other passenger ships also go from Dock 1 (Jakarta pier) to Palau Bintan and Palau Batam, from where it is just a short ferry ride to Singapore.

The Samudera Jaya is a small but reasonable priced hydro-foil that seats up to 300 passaengers, it leaves Jak on Saturday for Batam and the reverse direction on Thursdays.

The Telaga Express also leaves Jakarta every Saturday and covers the same route.

[obsidian]

yup. but would have to piece up the trip.

[kingwilly]

Sea links to get to Indonesia.

Malaysia - high speed ferries between Penang and Belawan (near Medan, Sumatra)

Demai (Sumatra) and Melaka (Malacca)

Johor Bahru ferries run to Islands of Bintan and Batam in Sumatras Riau islands.

[obsidian]

seems sumatra isnt terribly well covered by rail, but java is.

[kingwilly]

very true, but the trains have a habit of crashing....

[obsidian]

and the boats tend to sink?

[kingwilly]

yep, and the pilots crash the planes.....


(travel in Indo is carnage!)

[obsidian]

my very limited experience with indonesia/medan suggested that indonesia is much more third world than thailand. would you agree?

[kingwilly]

yep, 100%. not much more to say really!

mind you Medan is a shit hole, and not really a good representation of Indonesia as a whole. Really just an industrial/mining town. Jakarta is pretty good for decent malls/nitelife/restaurants etc.

traffic is pretty rubbish though, and public transport is still very much 3rd world. ( the low cost of having your own driver sorts that problem though. ) Golf courses are very nice, plenty of beaches and nice resorts to stay at as well.