Heavenly Jakarta, Amazing Bandung

Destination: Jakarta - Bandung - Jakarta, Indonesia

Date: 20th - 22nd July 2007

Guide: Pak Agus (Contact number:  +62818720301)

Tangkuban Parahu, Bandung

Tangkuban Parahu

Please, please, please, visit this place. You’ll be amazed. In Sundanese, ‘tangkuban’ means upturned and ‘parahu’ means boat, and so the highland was given the name Tangkuban Parahu due to its geographical resemblance to an upturned boat. It is one of the popular tourist attractions in Bandung and one of the still active volcanoes in West Java. The journey starts at the very peak of the highland and the tourists will have to walk all the way 1km down to the sulphuric crater, Kawah Domas (Domas Crater). To exit, the tourists will have another 1km to walk to the foot of the hill, away from the sulphuric zone. 

The one you can see in the photo is the Kawah Domas and its last eruption was in 1983. When you visit the site, don’t forget to buy some raw eggs and boil them in the hot water spring of the crater. And if you’re a thrill loving person, you can try dipping your feet or having you face steamed too, emmm… why not?! According to Pak Kamin and Aliq, two uninvited local guides we found at the peak of the highland, Tangkuban Parahu has its own classic story to tell behind its preserved natural beauty.

The story tells of Sangkurian, a lad who at his young age was sent away by his mother, Dayang Sumbi, for disobedience. God had granted Dayang Sumbi with eternal youth as a payback to her sadness. After many years in exile, Sangkuriang returned home. At that time, the two had long forgotten and could not recognize each other. Sangkuriang, upon seeing Dayang Sumbi, fell in love with her and asked for her hand in marriage. One day, Dayang Sumbi saw a birthmark on Sangkuriang and realized that Sangkuring was actually her son. Some people say, Sangkuring had gotten really mad when Dayang Sumbi revealed the her true self and kicked the boat resulting the boat to overturn. Another version says, Dayang Sumbi had requested Sangkurian to build a dam on the river Citarum and a large boat to cross the river, with intention to fail Sangkuriang’s plan in marrying her. Sangkuriang was adamant and took the challenge, which later on forcing Dayang Sumbi to tell him the truth. When he knew Dayang Sumbi was his mother, Sangkuriang got really frustrated that he kicked the dam (wow, what a biiiiggg guy he must have been, eh!) and the unfinished boat (I can do this) causing severe flooding and an overturned boat. Hence, the creation of Tangkuban Parahu.

And what the hell happened to his father, Si Tumang?

Two things I learned from the story - these two local legends, Sangkuriang and Dayang Sumbi, must have been giants back then and … this is what you get to be forever young and beautiful, even your son can get frustrated of not being able to marry you!

Bandung Town

Bandung town

Located 190km from Jakarta, Bandung is the 3rd largest city in Indonesia and is suffering from a major traffic pollution. The cool plateau is surrounded by hundreds of volcanoes and some of them are like time-bombs, still active and waiting to explode.

A little bit of its history, Bandung was colonised by the Dutch who came here to open plantations, tea plantations especially, during 17th and 18th centuries. Bandung was in fact one of the heaviest battle places during 1945-1949 war against Dutch. Due to the invasion, Bandung is now famous with its large stock of Dutch colonial architecture. When we were on the way back to Bandung town from Tangkuban Parahu, I realised that most of the buildings and houses were pretty much designed with a mixture of local style and Dutch influence here and there.

This metropolitan city offers a couple of high class golf courses for golf lovers, distros for party animals and not to mention paradise-like spas scattered all around the city center for people who love to be pampered. People like me for example.

Bandung is famous for its denim and leather products. We spent most of our time here, at the town area by doing a lot of shopping and browsing around the ‘jeans street’. Factory outlets, they’re everywhere! Bersepah! Local fashion wears which of course, a lot cheaper than the branded items, were put on display along the streets. I even got myself a pair of cheap VOLVO sunglasses and a few clothes. I saw no ‘harm’ in buying them. They’re cheap but wearable.

Jakarta City

It only took us two hours to travel to Soekarno-Hatta Internation Airport, Jakarta from Kuala Lumpur by air.

Through naked eyes, Jakarta looked similar to Kuala Lumpur. From my observation, the capital city of Indonesia seemed to experience problems like uncertain time of traffic jam, frequent flood, major vandalism, high traffic violation rate, high crime rate and widespread corruption (juuussst like Kuala Lumpur), but on the plus side, the city possessed high rise buildings, modern facilities and urban lifestyle indicating an up-to-date development (juuussst like Kuala Lumpur). Coming here to Jakarta, was like coming home. What difference does it make anyway, since we also have a lot of Indonesians back in KL city.

Jakarta has a wide range of tv channels but at Maliboro Hotel, Channel 16 could be THE only channel most viewed! Porn movies round the clock!

CJ Bar, Hotel Mulia, Jakarta

I was actually more interested in checking out pretty girls at CJ’s Bar in Hotel Mulia. People said you could find high class call-girls there. Was it true? Yes, it WAS true. We checked out the famous nightspot and I could see tonnes of flirty pretty girls, wearing almost nothing, toying with their heavily drunken customers. One of the girls even tried her luck on my other-half, showing a classic sign of flirting, thinking that he would fall into her trap that night. Of course the alluring and seducing didn’t work. The so-called ‘home minister’ was right by his side all the time-lah!

Psssttt… psssttt… we also checked out the Sexy Girls Show at Maliboro Hotel. Sexy and steamy indeed. Too bad the place was opened exclusively for males only. Ladies were not allowed. But we managed to talk it over to its manager-cum-‘ibu’ and she then allowed me to go in with one condition - I could not get angry or lose my temper should one of the dancers came over to our table and gave my other-half a lap dance. Wuhuuuu, and one lap dance for him alright! Wuhuuuu! We only stayed in there for half an hour after deciding to have a massage treat in the room. I swiped my eyebrow and thank God for this was all over now. Outside, I could see my other-half was blushing from head to toe! Eleh, macam tak biasa. We called up two female masseuses to the room. My other-half had to blush again as the two masseuses came over wearing extremely short skirts and skimpy blouses. I tell you, Jakarta was really, really, really meant for males. So ladies, watch your men!

Mangga Dua

Mangga Dua Mall and Harco Mas at Mangga Dua were the best shopping areas for tourists to find cheap stuff like electronic items, textiles, kain telekung bersulam, handphones, clothes, handbags, shoes and kitchen wares. The places were huge!

As usual, like any other trip, we bought some merchandises from Planet Hollywood and Hard Rock Cafe.

We stopped by at Jakarta’s most famous landmark, the MONAS (National Monument), for some photoshoots.

We managed to attend the Formula BMW Asia Series at Sentul International Circuit, near Jakarta to catch Jazeman Jaafar in action on the last day of our trip. The 14 year old Malaysian racer was delirious when he finally won the race after showing a quite frustrating result in the beginning.

Eating Places

The first thing we did when we arrived in Jakarta was to check out their nasi padang. Sederhana Bintaro was one of the best restaurants in the city that served nasi padang. Marvellous!

Sederhana Bintaro

For big eaters, check out Pondok Sedap Malam that served the best Sundanese delicacies in Jakarta city. Highly recommended! We tried fried Guramek (it’s a fish), black pepper crabs, ginger prawns, kangkung belachan and sambal belachan.

Pondok Sedap Malam

We went to Tata Ribs Cafe for dinner. The cafe served a spicy meat soups eaten with tartar sauce. According to Agus, the place was always full at night. Perhaps we were just lucky at that time.

Tata Rib

Simpang Raya Restaurant could be one of the best restaurants that served nasi padang in Bandung. As for the dessert, we checked out the Kartika Sari Cafe. Here, they served a large variety of delicious homemade cakes and chocolates. Their sweet corn-in-cups were simply delicious, one should never ever miss trying out! Unlike our corn-in-cups, theirs were added with grated cheese and condensed milk.