Saturday, 7 April 2012

Bandung trip – 7 Apr 12

We agreed to meet for breakfast at 7.30am as the driver is picking us up at 8.30am. Luxiang and hubby woke up early to use the gym facilities. Luxiang even went for a run around the hotel.
 Pet's corner
Gym
Activities for kids

Breakfast is served at B Leaf Cafe at the lobby level from 6am - 10am on weekdays and 6am - 10.30am on weekends. The indoor seats were fully occupied so we chose the poolside seats.
Interior seats
Poolside seats

The variety of breakfast buffet is plenty ranging from the usual egg variety, bread to waffle, porridge and noodle. Hubby chose the food for me while I was busy taking photo. I like the scrambled egg but hubby find it watery. Their omelette is a bit on the hard side. The others praised that the fried bee hoon is tasty.
 Breakfast spread

We set off at 8.30am and the journey to Tangkuban Perahu took about an hour. It's advisable to set off early and no later than 8.30am. The traffic was quite smooth and some minor traffic jams on the way there.
On the way to Tangkuban Perahu

When we reached the toll gate, we have to pay IDR15,000 ~ S$2 for the vehicle toll and admission fee of IDR50,000 ~ S$7 per person.
Toll gate

From the toll gate to Tangkuban Perahu, it's another 20min journey uphill. When we reached Tangkuban Perahu, it's scorching hot.

Tangkuban Perahu is a dormant volcano which last erupted in 1959. The name translates roughly to "upturned boat" in Sundanese, referring to the local legend of its creation (see Wikipedia). 
 Viewing tower
We are at Tangkuban Perahu

The crater at the carpark is the main crater - Kawah Ratu. There are 2 more craters which are Kawah Domas and Kawah Upas. I have read in tripadvisor that forumers dont encourage hiking to Kawah Domas as there are tourist hawkers following all the way and pestering the tourist to purchase souvenirs from them.
Kawah Ratu
Peddlers selling food and souvenirs
Muddy path
 Lots of stalls further down
We are 1830m above sea level

Luxiang has craving for corn and hubby and him bought 3 corns for IDR25,000. The sweet corn reminds me of Dieng plateau.
Delicious corn
Prince charming

When we are about to leave Tangkuban Perahu at 11am, it start to get misty. It's advisable to reach Tangkuban Perahu early in the morning to avoid disappointment.
It's getting misty

We stopped by at a strawberry plantation on the way to Kampung Daun. The admission is IDR7,500 ~ S$1 and every kg of strawberry plucked is IDR60,000 ~ S$8. I have plucked strawberry at Cameron Highland before hence I was not really keen and furthermore, most of strawberries are not ripe yet. Luxiang and hubby went to plucked strawberry while the rest of us waited for them.
 Natural strawberry plantation

Free strawberry juice is available for those who paid the admission fee. I tried and find it too sweet, probably sugar syrup was added into the drink.

Strawberry juice

We had our lunch at Kampong Daun (Add: Jl Sersan Bajuri Km 4.7 No 88 Villa Trinity Complex, Opening hours: 11am – 11pm daily, except on weekends it closes at 12am).

The restaurant was full when we reached and we were asked to wait for about 45min. A number was given to us and the counter will call for our number when it's our turn. We went inside to explore further.
 Kampung Daun entrance
Such a huge rooster
Waterfall
Rides for kids
Silver Busker

Kampung Daun is surrounded by trees, river and there is even a waterfall.  I read from forum that the pathway are lighted with candles at night. Diners sit in individual huts depending on the group size. The huts are quite space out and one or two waiter is assigned to a couple of huts. There is a bamboo which you can use a stick to hit on it when you required the waiter's attention.

The hut where we had our lunch

I ordered the authentic Sudanese spiced drink Bandrek which was recommended by a forumer. It taste like ginger tea but a sweeter and less mild version.
Our drinks

The menu is a mixture of western and Iocal foods. Western food are spelled out in English whereas the local food are spelled out in Bahasa Indonesian. We just randomly picked the food and write the number of serving on the menu sheet.

It took more than 1/2hr for the food to be served and we were starving by then. The food was mediocre and most of them like the soup.
Dishes we ordered

We returned back to Bandung but the traffic back was heavy. We wanted to shop at the Secret but due to lack of time, we asked the driver to drive us to Zen reflexology directly as our appointment was 5pm.

All of us chose 120min seclude relaxation massage (IDR135,000 ~ S$18) except Luxiang who chose 90min Zensation Thai massage. The foot massage yesterday was excellent and everyone look forward to the body massage but it turns out that the body massage is average. Shower facilities are available here. I make use of it as I wanted to wash away the aromatherapy oil.
Massage room

It's 7pm after our massage and we planned to have dinner at Atmosphere Resort Café. However due to problem in communicating with the driver, I'm have no idea how far the cafe from here. In the end, we had dinner at Pak Chi Met again and ordered the same meal as yesterday.

After our dinner, we dropped by at the supermarket for a while before returning back to the hotel.

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