For a planned trip, this trip is considered the shortest time we had for the planning stage. We bought the tickets in early March and travel on 21 May, unlike the trip to Bali which we bought the ticket a year earlier.
First day was a short day in Bandung, due to our flight was at 3:30pm and as usual, some technical glitch happens to AA’s system, all flights were delayed for at least an hour. We waited like forever and heard the announcement. There are many Indian tourists who already waited longer than us for their flights to Kolkata and Chennai and they were getting really impatient. They looked to me like they gonna storm pass the gate and drove the plane home themselves! 
Waiting till stick to the access door of T10. While waiting, why not camwhore my brand new Timberland shoe :p
Flight was generally okay, except that… half way in the flight, I finally realized that I forgot to bring along the pack of vitamins/medicine chilling in the fridge….arrgghhhh!
No Zoe’s fav chicken rice on board, so have to settle for Foccacia sandwich and Teh Botol Sosro. Daddy busy filling up the immigration form…
Bandung skyline from the plane. Bandung is really a mountainous valley
We finally reached Bandung at close to 6pm and the sky is already as dark as 7pm here. Ahh…suddenly I am reminded of Bali, it was like that too, sunrise at 6am and sunset at 6pm. The custom clearance was again another forever wait, so slow and took us about 1 hour to get out. They seems to be very very strict with Indo people who brought things back, checking and questioning for so long.
This could be the world’s smallest international airport
Took a airport cab (IDR40k) to Amaris Hotel and reach there within 20 mins albeit the jams and heavy traffic. Oh yea, less than 5 mins in our first taxi, we were asked to change to another taxi. Don’t really know what was the reason but later the taxi driver was promoting his service to us, IDR350k per day (12hrs) and he will take us anywhere we wanna go. Hmm..no thanks as we already arrange for car + driver, the rest of the days we will take blue bird taxis as recommended, since we stayed very near to Jl. Riau, there is no need for taxi rides for shopping.
I must say Hotel Amaris in Cimanuk is a good location to stay, it is quieter with some chic cafes around and walking distance to Jl. Riau (5 mins walk). Daddy said, the only thing missing is a Circle K shop nearby to drop by and buy some snacks or beer for the nite. The hotel is just behind Gedung Sate (Governer’s building) and situated in an area mainly lined with bungalow houses. The hotel arrange for a cab for us to Paris Van Java mall and the taxi was already waiting for us when we got ready at 730pm.
Note: For Blue Bird taxi, if you called them to pick you up, the minimal charge is IDR25k if the rate shows lesser than that when you reach your destination, if you cancel it, they will charge IDR5k.
The jam was legendary in Bandung on a Saturday night, it took us more than half hour to reach the mall (PVJ) and that also we asked to be dropped off at the entrance and we will walk in ourselves. Apparently, there were some events held by Honda that night and we see many youths gathering there with their Japanese comic outfits. It was really a sight as I can see some of them really put a lot of efforts in those outfits - manga dolls, cyborg, and some looked like aliens or devils. I forgotten to take any pics of them. Bleah!
Our aim that night is not much, just to try out Duck King restaurant in PVJ and hunt for some bottled mineral water supply from Carrefour in PVJ. We step into Sogo too and I managed to buy a pair of Mary Janes for Zoe at 50% off…haha!
Duck King at PVJ. Tried the Avocado juice again but sad to say the food is not up to standard and pricey too. Cost us about IDR160k++ for a plate of mix roasted chicken/duck rice, loh shu fan soup and duck king special fried rice. I found hair in the soup too…yucks!
We just walked around PVJ after dinner, the mall is quite okay and has most of the brands found in KL like Zara, Topshop, Marks & Spencer and etc. What attracted me was some of the Korean accessories shops there carries some really cute hair accessories. I did not get any cause I think I have outgrown the styles and Zoe is too young, and its not cheap…LOL!
Day 2
Day 2 was a shopping day for us at Jl. Riau (aka as Jl. L.L.R.E Martadinata). We had breakfast by the hotel pool and the spread was quite alright with fried rice, noodles (they change the noodles variety daily), chicken porridge, sausages and freshly made vege omellete.
Breakfast at hotel
The walk to Jl Riau - Cascade and Heritage FOs
The walk to Jl Riau took us about 5 mins, passing by a small lane near Jl. Progo and Grand Selera hotel at the main road. The first outlet we saw was Calamus FO but nothing much in there. The FOs in Bandung open for biz at 9am and closes by 9pm at night. To me, the best outlet to shop in Jl. Riau is Cascade and Heritage, this two outlet are actually connected via a walkway at the children section of Heritage. Daddy and me bought most of our clothings there. The nice thing is, when you purchase more than IDR250k per receipt, you are entitled to free coffee at their cafe. The cafe was situated at the top floor with a pond full of large Koi fish, it was a nice place to relax after some shopping therapy.
Aromatic thick coffee (free!) and fried banana fritters Bandung style with lots of mozzarella cheese toppings, yummy!
Large Koi fish pond by the cafe. Zoe enjoying a piece of Mayasari layer cake
We spend about 3 hours of shopping before having lunch at Riung Sari restaurant just accross the road from The Secret FO. Btw, I found a Zara dress, shorts and Old Navy leggings at Secret FO, happy happy! and the price is reasonable, cheaper than KL.
Main entrance and payment counter at Cascade FO
Lunch at Riung Sari restaurant. I tried the nasi timbel.
After the shopping in Jl. Riau, we took our loots back to the hotel. The hotel staff have changed our room to a bigger room as we were assigned a very small 10m2 room the night before. The bigger room was really much better.
We decided to take a cab to Jl. Braga, which is famous for it’s street paintings. It was quite fun to walk and see so many paintings on display and they were trying very hard to sell the paintings to us. We were told that the paintings in Bali comes from Bandung too. Daddy bought 2 pieces of paintings there and the price is so much cheaper than in KL.
Paintings galore at Jl. Braga
We had dinner at Atmosphere Resort Cafe on 2nd night. Took a cab there that cost us only IDR10k (abt RM3.50) from Jl. Braga. The Atmosphere restaurant have very nice ambience with outdoor and indoor sitting. We did not try out the outdoor sitting cause it is raining and Daddy is afraid of mozzies bites.
Dark and romantic ambience in Atmosphere Resort Cafe
Daddy ordered the steak, I ordered the Atmosphere special pizza and Zoe got hooked to the special soup and spaghetti.
Day 3 - Mt. Tangkuban Perahu and strawberry picking - coming up next!
), we are finally getting the keys to our new home! Yay Yay Yay! 
