Visit Indonesia Year 2008, Let’s Visit Bandung!!

As we already know, our goverment already decided that this year 2008 is the second Visit Indonesia Year. So, as a Bandung citizen, I was moved to promote my own city ^_^

Bandung is the capital city of West Java, with altitude about 700 m above sea level, resulting in a very comfortable wheather around 20-26 Celcius. The city itself surounded by mountains, as the legend said that long long time ago Bandung was an ancient lake.

Bandung is only 120 km from Jakarta (capital city of Indonesia), about 2 hours car driving through Cipularang freeway (without traffic jam), 3 hours if using train, or 45 minutes with plane. Btw, there’s only one international flight from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia directly to Bandung. The scenery along the way to Bandung is very beautiful, and you should enjoy it while coming here. It doesn’t matter what type of transportasion you choose, because every transportasion has their own beautiful scenery to see.

Now, what could you do in Bandung?? The first thing I suggest is to try our unique couliner. Start from traditonal Sundanese food, where you could try Nasi Timbel Komplit (steamed rice wrapped in banana leaf, sundanese fried/grill chicken, fried tahu/tempe, sour vegetable soup, salted fish, and raw vegtables with traditional chili sauce), Sundanese fried/grill Fish, Sundanese Satay, etc.

Or you prefered Chinese Food, then you could try the famous Bandung noodles, which is different type from original Chinese noodles, Dim sum, Nasi Goreng, and all other kind of Chinese food either hallal or non-hallal (contains pork).

If you want to have meals with beautiful view of Bandung or simply cozy suroundings, you could try our various cafes with different location around Bandung which usually provides Western food, Chinese food, and Indonesian food.

Longing to try old Holland recipes? Then you must try cafes in Braga street, where these recipes still being made exactly the same way they were made. Even the stores still been decorated the same way. This Braga street also offer Bandung night activities such as pubs and bars.

Already too full with main courses?? Then try Bandung snacks. You must try our specialitis such as Pisang Bolen, Cheese sticks, all kinds of fried snacks, Brownies, steamed Brownies, and all variety of traditional cake and cookies. These could be find in many famous cake shops in Bandung.

Did I made you hungry?? XD Okay, that’s enough talking about couliner. Now, other thing I suggest is shopping!! Yeah, Bandung provides so many places for spending your money. The place that usually tourist want to visit are Pasar Baru where you can find anything with very reasonable prices, Cihampelas street for any jeans and you could also see their unique store decoration, hundreds of Factory Outlets and Boutiques for unique style clothes, and our various shopping malls with different decoration concepts. Well, I can’t talk too much about this because I myself rarely went shopping XD I love to eat btw, hence my long explanation in Bandung couliner XD

If you love to see architecture design, then you must see Bandung herritage buildings. They said Bandung has Art Deco style. I’m not an expert in this, but you could find this buildings in Asia Africa Street, Merdeka Street, Cipaganti Street, Diponegoro Street, Ganesha Street, Braga Street, Dago Street, Pasteur Street, and many more. Don’t forget to see our famous landmark Pasupati Flyover.

Curious about Sundanese traditional culture?? You could find angklung playing in Saung Mang Udjo, or right now, RRI helds several kinds of traditional cultures every Sunday. It’s too sad that not many places held these traditional culture, and shame on me because I myself didn’t know much about it. -_-

For those who love to see beautiful mountain scenery, you could also visit places around Bandung. We have several tea plantations, craters, natural hot spring, waterfalls, caves, and many more. But I suggest you to contact our local tourist services before you go there. Because you’ll need a good arrangement so you won’t get exhausted and could enjoy the scenery to the fullest.

Start to get interested in visiting Bandung?? Then you must do some preparations. ^_^ Okay, but first I must stated several things listed in ‘Dark side of Bandung’. We all know that every big cities must have dark side. Currently, we still have problems with Motorcycle gangs who usually do criminal things, pickpockets, and beggars. That’s why I suggest you to not roaming around by yourself especially around midnight to dawn, always put your valuables belonging in a safe place and do not leave it behind (even in hotel rooms), and don’t give any beggars some money (I know it’s very harsh, but that’s the right thing to do). Geez... I hope I didn’t ruined your interest -_-

Now about places to stay, Bandung has hundreds of hotels. From five stars hotels to budget hotels. Since you could find any information about this in internet, I won’t list it. But since my mom run a small cozy budget hotel called ‘Kenangan Hotel’, as her doughter, I must promote it ^_^ Please check our website (http://www.kenanganhotel.com/) for further information.

Okay, I’ve made a very long blog entry. If you still need more information about Bandung and want to see some pictures, I suggest you click these links bellow:

Bandung Tourism
The Bandung
Bumi Melati