Bandung: local favorite gateway from Jakarta

Bandung is 2.5 hrs. away from Jakarta by car, less than an hour in high-speed train. It is the third largest city in Indonesia. I wanted to visit for a while but always hesitated as I wasn’t sure what is the highlight. We had a long weekend starting from Friday, so I finally made plan to visit.

Friday, we left 9am, daddy decided to drive so we could move more easily in Bandung (not a wise decision, see later). The way to Bandung was smooth, mostly highway. I napped most of the ride, girls listened to music. We first went to downtown for lunch and then drove to Lembang where our Airbnb is, which is high land. That means we went through some steep hills to get there. At certain point on the ride, I asked daddy why our car was not moving up. He looked at me and said: I’m pressing to the bottom of the pedal. OMG!!! Our car is a city car, not meant to climb steep hills!!! We finally arrived with all sweat due to the scary ride there.

Our airbnb is gorgeous!!! It’s not fitting to the scenery around us as it’s mostly local houses. Ours is a modern 3 floor house with chic design.

the rooftop

to watch sunset and sunrise

top floor with two bedrooms, outside has a tv and sofa

master bedroom bathroom

second floor is the living room and open kitchen

the contrast to the outside world is shocking!

After some rest, we went out to explore. We took a cab. I didn’t want to get scared again as the terrain was unfamiliar. We went to a place that has floating market, imitation of famous places in Japan, rainbow slides, an artificial lake, mini amusement park and small petting zoo. It was full of local tourists. We explored a bit, had ice cream, and headed back home.

I booked a car for our second day as it’s 2 hrs drive to visit White crater. I am so glad we had a driver who served as guide too. We left 8am. First stop was suspension bridge

it’s a 300 meters bridge over the hot spring and jungle. Super nice view.

after walking around a bit, I soaked my feet in the hot spring

girls explored the bubbly water that smelled like rotten egg

then zip line! Although it’s slow, the view was stunning! We loved it.

girls tried the local snack: boiled corn with cheese, surprisingly good and they had seconds

then we visited White Crater, very pretty and chill as it was 2400 meters above sea.

final stop was deer conservation area. It’s part of a big camping ground with a lot of entertainment. Girls had a lot of fun feeding deers

we brought strawberries on the road as we were already tired by then to do strawberries picking. The way back was long, 3 hours, as traffic was so heavy. We arrived almost 7pm. 10 min later our takeout chinese food arrived. I am realizing that order-in is our favorite way for dinner as we are too lazy to go out for dinner even if the restaurant is across the street.

Sunday was open day. Lizzy woke up with fever, so we stayed in most of the day. I considered to drive back to Jakarta earlier than planned as I wasn’t sure where the hospital is in case we need to go. I tend to think of the worst when kids get sick, so wanted to be closer to our known hospital and doctors. Fortunately, she improved by the afternoon and was happily watching Netflix.

I ordered massage in and it was lovely. When I was done we wanted to go to explore but couldn’t get a cab as the area was very congested. After waiting for 30 min without any cab, we decided to take motorcycle. It was an adventure to say the least, congestion, hills, the driver, me and Sofia on the motorcycle, you get the picture. Well… at least we got to explore the local area, got a sense of how life is for locals, and replenished our snack stash for the drive back home.

Monday we left 7am to beat the traffic per local recommendation. We arrived home 9:20am. I did groceries, cooked lunch, finished 90% of New Zealand planning (booking domestic flight and all the hotels/airbnbs), made muffins and cookies. I was finished by the end of the day.

Overall, I am glad we went to visit Bandung. It feels very different than Jakarta and it has some interesting spot to visit. It’s a vibrant city, likely to be among locals’ favorite domestic destination. It has a lot of manmade attractions leveraging nature, lake side glamping, camping sites, amusement parks, and local cuisine. Our family prefers nature, so we didn’t visit many of the top attractions. I aksed Sofia what she thinks about Bandung. She said she feels bad for the street vendors as there are so many, that she can’t buy everything from them to help them.