Bandung Honeymoon - Day 4 and 5

Day 4 was slightly relaxing. Not because we were both sick of FOs or shopping but because it rained heavily in the evening and made it impossible for us to venture outside the hotel. So of course we stayed in and did the next best thing.

That's right, we watched E! Entertainment Indonesia version. Hehehehe..

That morning we did quite a lot of shopping. Correction! Hubby did a lot of shopping. Initially we wanted to go back to Jl. Riau but in the end, we headed towards Jl. Merdeka. We stopped at Matahari shopping mall and did some window shopping. I bought a pair of slacks. I would have gotten my first pair of shoes but the only pair they had that fit me was stained. Hubby was looking for some jerseys, alas he didn't find any he liked. We had lunch at McDonalds; one thing different from back home was that they had a lot of rice meal sets.
Also their sauce tasted a bit funny. Their drive-thru system was rather funny; one girl would stand outside and wait for cars to drive up. She would take their order and then walkie-talkie it to the guys inside. She would then run inside to get the order and then run back outside to bring it to the customers. A lot of running!! Hahaha...I wanted to take a picture but didn't want to be so obvious.

After lunch, we headed to Merdeka Arcade where I tried on hundreds of jeans but couldn't find any that fit!! Grrrr...ini yang kena diet ni!! At last I bought some underwear, like how pathetic is that. Hubby bought a M&S shirt and a T-shirt.

After paying for our stuff, we headed to Istana Sepatu. There, after 30 minutes of trying every single shoes they had displayed, I finally found one that fit. And it was sexy!!And only cost Rp115k (RM40). Hubby was very patient with me coz I guess he had started to feel sorry with me. Sib baik jumpa le jugak satu pasang.

As we headed back to our hotel, we walked by some boys selling snakes. That's right, you read it right. SNAKES!! They has some really good looking ones, some were even beautiful. One of the boys (I forgot to get his name) even posed for me and let me hold his python.

Not that "python", the SNAKE!!

Hubby bought some DVDs, like American Pie 7?!! WTH?! Apa-apa je lah. We walked back and reached the hotel around 3pm.

As it rained most of the evening, we finally felt hungry enough to venture out for dinner around 8pm. We ate the the Simpang Raya Restaurant. Before bedtime, we cut off all the price tags from our purchases and packed our bags (which had grew from 1 to 4).
On our final day in Bandung, hubby and I did some last minute shopping at the FOs near the hotel. We stopped at Up Town FO, where I found another pair of jeans (yeah!!). Of course, hubby did too and his HAD to be DKNY. Urgh, that's it. Next Bandung trip will not be with hubby.
I did however cheer up a bit at Solution FO. I found a pair of sexy CK shoes, that fit!!

We had called for a taxi to come and get us at the hotel at 11am. Turned out the taxi fare from the hotel to the airport was only Rp21k!! What did that human leech charge us the 1st day we arrived? Rp150K!!! Argh, when I think about it...takpelah, benda dah sudah.

But yeah, a note to all future Bandung travellers, if you plan to travel by taxi, ONLY TAKE BLUEBIRD TAXI. And make sure they use the meter. However, unless you're travelling with small children or old people who can't walk far, your best bet for getting around would be the angkutan.

I'll talk more on my key learnings (hah!!) in Bandung. Till then, be good people.

Bandung Honemoon - Day 3

So its Day 3 in Bandung. Again, we had the same breakfast early, though I was starting to feel 7am was rather to soon for me to have rice. I did however change to my preferred cup of tea, instead of coffee.

Today our plan was to travel to Rumah Mode, yet another must-go-to factory outlet. Apparently people go there to shop for jeans. Great, I really needed to get me some. Did I mentioned I only had one pair of slacks on me? And it wasn't actually all that clean anymore, with all that trodding through the rain the previous day.

So off we went to find the angkutan to Rumah Mode. Our hotel receptionist told us to walk to the nearest traffic light and wait for any angkutan that had Cicahuem-Ledeng written on it.


It took us 20 minutes to get to Rumah Mode, thanks to the kind people in the angkutan who told the driver where we were heading. Rumah Mode was a bit more classy than the other factory outlets we had been to, you had to pay for parking.

Unfortunately I didn't find anything I liked at Rumah Mode. There were tons of jeans, yes, but a lot of them were carrot cut. Not my style. I found one pair of red, sexy Fendi shoes that I really liked but unfortunately they didn't carry my size. Awatlah kaki besar sangat macam pesawah?!!! Hubby bought a pair of Prada shoes but couldn't find any jeans he liked either. All in all, Rumah Mode was a bit of a disappointment for us.


Fortunately along Jl. Setiabudi (where Rumah Mode is located) there were other outlets too. We walked uphill to look for a place to have lunch first. Based on my online research, there was a popular restaurant nearby called Sunda.


Indeed, after 10 minutes walking uphill, we found the restaurant; Rumah Makan Sari Sunda. The restaurant has a very traditional feel to it and reminded us of the restaurants we frequented in Bali. There wasn't any halal signs on the walls, so before we were seated, we asked the waitress whether all the food was halal or not. Fortunately she assured us everything was halal. We were asked whether we would like to have our meal indoors or outdoors. I wanted to eat overlooking the garden, so we headed outside. It had started to drizzle again so it made the atmosphere kind of romantic also.

We both ordered the fried rice with fried bean curd and roasted chicken. I had my usual ice lemon tea without the ice (heee!) while hubby tried the ice cendol. While we were waiting for our food to arrive, I took pictures of the garden and the restaurant. The garden was very nice but because of the rain, we decided not to venture down. There were a few huts in the garden where groups of friends could have their meals there and enjoy the scenery.
There even had a sand pit for kids to play in and a swing, which would have been nicer had it been the wooden kind.

The food was nice but the drinks were a bit too sweet. We had to ask for a glass of plain water to make it bearable. All in all, we spent Rp71.5k (RM25). Nice!


It was still drizzling as we made our way out from Sari Sunda. We made a quick dash to the nearest factory outlet (can't remember the name) and checked out the shoes. AGAIN, I failed to find any my size. I was starting to get frustrated. We headed next to Zenith factory outlet, across the road and a few doors down. Finally I found a pair of jeans I loved. Unfortunately they weren't of Guess or Versace brand but still I was just desperate to spend!! Hah! Hubby, of course, found jeans je liked also, but his HAD to be Versace. Bleh!!


The was a signboard outside of Zenith pointing the way to Deluxe Bag's. Ding, ding, ding!! It had started to rain a bit heavily so we made a dash for the outlet. It was there I bought my beloved Burberry bag. Sigh. Finally a purchase I was happy with. I love it, I love it, I love it!!


We then headed to Donatella, the place for shoes. You know the drill. Nada. The nice thing about the place though is that they had a nice room for prayers. Yeah, no need to head back to the hotel. We then took an angkutan to Cihampelas (Kalapa-Ledeng), another famous road for factory outlets.

Indeed, the outlets were outrageous here. For one thing, they were all named after Superheroes! There was Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Catwomen, even Rambo!! Hehehehe. They all sold the same thing, clothes, jeans, handbags, the usual stuff. We made our way to Cihampelas Walk, which was a huge shopping mall.
My back was starting to kill me so we decided to find a place to have dinner and rest our feet. We headed to the food court where I had bakso while hubby had kueh teow. Hubby bought a few shirts but I was just too tired to try out anymore clothes. We headed back to the hotel at around 8pm.


Day 4 -and more shopping- coming soon.

Bandung Honeymoon - Day 1 and 2

Hehehe, a lot of people are apparently waiting for my Bandung trip write-up. Sorry ah, been ultra busy, but as I watch yet another fabulous episode of Project Runway, here's what hubby and I did for day 1 and 2.

Our flight to Bandung was at 11am. Many thanks to Gee for taking the time to send us to LCCT. Oya, thanks also to my MIL for coming down to take care of the kids. Heehehe, asyik le dok import mak mertua.

Flight was uneventful, I slept most of the way. We arrived at Bandung around 1pm (2pm Malaysia time). We initially walk straight out of the airport and looked for a cab. Luckily hubby needed to pee first, because it was after his toilet break did we realize that we had FORGOTTEN TO GET OUR BAGS!!!

Yek ene, tak sabar nak pi shopping le tu.

Once we had collected our bags (which took us about 30 minutes because everything is done manually!!), we headed out to search for a taxi. This wasn’t hard to do because the taxi drivers were looking for us. We picked one and told him we needed to get to Hotel Karmila, Dago.

Rp200,000 pak"

WTF??!!! I knew they would overcharge us but I didn't expect that much. We negotiated with him and he finally lowered his price down to Rp150,000. Still!!! But we had no choice, all the other taxi drivers didn't want to take us after seeing us negotiate with that guy...komplot habis!! On the way to the hotel, we asked the driver how much it would cost to hire a car and driver, in case we wanted to venture outside of Bandung city.

"Mobilnya saja Rp350,000. Kalau mau supirnya, tambah Rp150,000. Itu enggak kira petrol dan parkir."

Erkkk...yeah, right. No needlah, you bloodsucking human leech. We'll find another, much cheaper, way to get around.

We arrived at Hotel Karmila around 2pm (takde le jauh sangat dari airport pun...grrrrr). We walked in and asked for the cheapest room (standard). Hehehe...luckily they had a few but asked whether we would want to upgrade to the executive room as it had a double bed, instead of two twin beds. We declined as we intended to find the cheapest place to stay so that we could maximize our cash for shopping!! Hehehe..

The room was nice and suitable to our needs. After checking in and praying, we ventured out to look for some lunch. We were famished so we asked the hotel receptionist where the nearest place for Nasi Padang was. Turned out there was one just 100 meters from the hotel. Sweet!!

The name of the restaurant is "Restoran Simpang Raya" and apparently it's quite famous. We were warmly greeted by the hostess and were lead to a table. 2 minutes later the waiters all came out and started laying down plates and plates of food. And everything looked delicious, but I guess everything does when you haven't had a bite for 6 hours. We selected the pucuk ubi, begedel and chicken curry. The chicken curry was really nice, siap mintak kuah lebih. The rest of the dishes looked good but since we had 4 days to savor the food in Bandung, we decided to try the rest another day. The bill also was really cheap, just Rp32,500 (around RM11.50). Kat Malaysia nak dapat ke harga camtu? I don't think so.

After filling our bellies, we headed out to check out the factory outlets. All along Jl. Ir H Juanda, there were lots and lots of factory outlets. We headed in one called Blossom Family Outlet. They had a lot of clothes but unfortunately I didn't find any jeans that I liked. We did however find a lot of clothes for the girls, so pretty and cheap!! In the end, we bought 2 gowns for the girls, one each. Price = Rp131,500 (RM46) for both. Again, kat Malaysia bleh dapat ke? Guess brand some more. :D.

We went into a lot of factory outlets but mostly just to check out the prices. We walked for miles until we reached this night market place. I can't remember what it was called but it was far. We felt the distance on the way back. Hehehe. We stopped at Circle K (ala 7-11 over here) for some bread and drinks (dinner) and then called it a night.

The next day we got up and had an early breakfast. Early because it was only 7am where as we were still on Malaysia time (8am). One thing nice was that the hotel gave us a choice of either coming down for breakfast or having them send it up to our room. Of course we opted for room service. Bleh layan cite gossip TV artis Indonesia sekali. Hehehe. Breakfast was simple but filling. We both had special fried rice and black coffee.


After breakfast, we took off to Pasar Baru. Pasar Baru is the place to go to if you're looking for telekung, head gear and all kind of fabrics. We headed out quite early, at around 8.15am. We took the angkutan, which is the preferred mode of public transport. Thankfully our hotel receptionist was very helpful and told us which angkutan to take and how much it would cost. Getting an angkutan was easy; just stand outside the hotel and every 2 minutes one would drive by. We looked for one that said "St. Hall - Dago" and before long we were on our way to Pasar Baru. We told the driver our destination and he promised to show us where to get down.

After 20 minutes bumping around in the angkutan, we arrived at Pasar Baru. We were early, a lot of the shops hadn't even opened yet so we browsed the area around it for a while. We made our way to Pasar Baru at around 9am and got lost in a maze of shops selling everything, from baby clothes, to jeans, to telekungs, to handbags. I was on the lookout for some telekungs for the spa and also some new headgears for me and MIL. I didn't plan to buy any fabrics, eventhough I went crazy looking at the choices. Cantik, cantik!!! And some were so exclusive. Hubby told me to get some but I told him, wait until I become a mak datin, then I'll buy fabric like that. Hahaha.
We spent about 2 1/2 hours at Pasar Baru. I got what I came for; 5 new telekungs for the spa and quite a number of new headgears for me and MIL, which I bought at El's Desain, Lantai 1, Blok K2 No3. We took an angkutan back to the hotel for prayers. After resting for a while, we headed back out, this time to Jalan Riau. We decided to walk there as our receptionist told us it was only a 10-15 minutes walk. And we were used to walking, having walked all over the US during our Uni days.

True enough, we reached Jl. Riau in 15 minutes, even after getting a bit lost. Our first stop was at The Oasis Clothing Outlet. Again, I failed to find jeans my type. Ahh, the curse of being a supemodel mom. Hubby found some jeans he liked but decided to shop around first to check out the prices. In the end, we bought more clothes for the girls, 2 gowns each. Total spent Rp336k (RM118). For 4 beautiful gowns, that's not bad.

A few doors down was The Summit, yet another factory outlet. We spent 1/2 hour browsing through the clothes and again hubby found stuff he liked. Me? Alas, I was finding it hard to find something my taste. Whenever I found something I liked, they didn't carry my size. Grrrr.
All that serious shopping made us very hungry so we looked for a place to eat. I remember reading in Apit's blog about this nice restaurant called Dakken Coffee and Steak, so we searched around for that. We found another factory out called the Heritage which looked inviting but before we walked in, I noticed the signboard for the restaurant. Lorrr, just next door. Sweet!

Indeed the place was very nice. We were warmly greeted and lead to a table promptly. After checking out the menu, I ordered the lamb chop and lemon tea while hubby had the Sirloin steak Bali and durian shake. It didn’t' take long for our food to arrive and boy, did it look appetizing. It also tasted very good. The steaks were done just right and were very juicy. My lemon tea was a bit tangy but hubby's durian shake was very...duriany. Hehehe. All in all, our very nice lunch cost us Rp136k (RM48). Nice!!

Stomachs full and ready for more shopping, we headed back to the Heritage. It had started to rain a bit. I headed out to the ladies section, determined to buy something. At last I found a blouse that I liked and carried my size. Happily, I snatched up two; one orange, another blue. Hubby bought some boxers (Tommy Hilfiger lagi, ahaks) while I also snagged some jeans and shirts for my SIL's boy and also Ida's kids. Total damage Rp351K (RM124).

We then headed back to The Summit. I had my eyes on this really cool Burberry handbag but was hesitant to buy it coz it cost Rp390K (RM138). Still a deal, but I had never spent that much on a handbag before. Usually I just buy them during the Jusco sale for RM30. Hehehe. I jotted down the price and took a mental picture of the handbag and promised myself to sleep on it tonight. Hubby, of course, had no problem spending his money on some slacks, also Burberry brand. Total damage Rp125K (RM44).

Across the road from The Summit, we saw a few more outlets. We headed into The ForMen outlet. As the name states, this outlet carried clothes for men. Hubby fell in love with this Armani black shirt but alas they didn't carry his size. Sigh, and he looked so good in it too. He thought of buying a jacket (Hugo) but then figured he would hardly wear it back in Malaysia. What's the point? So in the end, we didn't spend in ForMen but it's a really good place to find men’s clothes.
Next door was more for me; Terminal Tas which loosely translated mean Handbag Terminal. And believe me, the place was overflowing with handbags. You name it, they've got it. From Gucci, to Bonia, to Coach, to Channel. Unfortunately, the current trend right now for handbags is the oversized ones. And I mean oversized!! I mean like, "hi, this is my handbag. It has rhinestones, can fit a toddler and costs 2000 dollars." I had a bit of a hard time finding a handbag that was not too big and in the end....I found one!! Coach some more!! And guess the price. Rp80K = RM28!!!! I was grinning ear to ear until I found out that hubby had bought a Gucci wallet AND an Armani belt. Sheeeshhh...sapa yang sepatut shopping sakan sini?

It was almost night fall and the rain had stopped drizzling so we decided to head back. We were still full from lunch so again we had bread for dinner. Penat jugak berjalan.

Days 3 and 4 coming up. Stay tuned.