zoe = God's kinda life

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Bandung family trip

Look what mum got for me when i got home!

Touched down KL 16 dec, 2006! And it's always good to be home =) Look what mum got me as a welcome gift! hhaa.. heart-shaped balloon!! in the evening, joel left his beloved jie & flew off to Japan to make noodles and mochi! (and ya, i look so jetlagged and crappy in the pic below)

Dang dang dang... 19 dec, dad, mum, kor, uncle soo tot, aunt boey chew & I flew off to Bandung by the budget airline, AirAsia.. the plane is so small, feels like those private jet, except that it's not! ahaha.. they squeeze like 80 ppl on the plane? they shud hv cheap airlines like that in Canada!! Of course, what u pay is what u get.. The air-stewardess are definitely not the usual pretty, polite, understanding kind.. Urgh, kor said they might be spiteful they couldnt get into more prestigious airlines =P They were loud & noisy, keep selling stuff on the plane.. aHhh~ but the flight was interesting.. & really thank God that we finally managed to land in Bandung safely cos there was a bad fog.. I must commend the pilot's skill.. hahaha.. maybe they spend more money getting good pilots and less on air-stewardess. business techniques =P muahaha.. y m i so mean?

And when we reached the airport.. it was like a bus terminal? haha. our check-in luggages were just piled in one corner & u had to sieve through it yourself to get ur luggage.. Anyways, we managed to get out of there safely, just to see a demonstration going on outside the airport! crazy world out there.. haha, we took a cab & got to our hotel..

Bandung is a place for food & shopping.. that's it! hhaa.. So since we dun really take pics when we're shopping, u'll realise that it's mostly food.. this whole album is besically like a log book of the 8 meals we had there. this pic u see is restaurant in the padi field.. u get to eat in little huts like that.. it's so cool! the weather there is cooling, kinda like genting? so u get natural breeze.. and there's no mosquito! which i find is super amazing, given that mosquitoes love to feast on my blood.. hahaa.. u take off ur shoes and sit on little cushions (kinda like the japanese), so it's quite relaxing..

plus they serve the food in nice banana leaf, coconut shells etc. haha, and of course, it's yummy! maybe it's just bcos i'm sitting in the middle of the padi field, even the rice there tastes nicer.. if you ever ever get the chance to go to Bandung, this is a must go place.. It's called "Restoran Sapu Lidi" which actually means a lidi broom.. dun ask me why.. they hv weird names here..

Besides that, we visited the volcano too! first impression, it smells horrible! hahaha.. the smell of sulphur, like rotten eggs! ewwy.. but it was a truly amazing view, the smoke keeps coming out and all.. it's as though it's still alive, even though it has been dormant since a long time ago.. the only thing 'unpleasant' about the place is we were permanently swamped by the locals who were trying to sell us souvenirs. like literally, the circle around u and keep coming closer.. was quite scary.. and they are quite persistent!!

From the top, we 'walked' down towards the crater.. And ya, those 'locals' literally followed us all the way down. And down there they had hot springs and stuff.. =) In some, the water was boiling hot!! We even managed to get hard-boiled eggs out of it. This one below is probably only 30 plus degrees.

One day, when we were shopping at Jean Street (the famous street that sells factory outlet jeans) it started pouring.. Monsoon rain.. the roads were flooded!! These boys came out to do 'business'.. Umbrella for rent.. 1000 rupiah each time (40 cents)..

Yupyup.. Not many ppl know about Bandung but i think it's a nice place for a laid-back, relaxing kind of holiday.. My cousin knew a fren there, so she helped us organize this whole thing. we had like a 'personal tour guide' driving us in his little van.. so, it was really good! we just tell him where we want to go, and he'll know where the best place is for it.. =) everything is cheap there too! haha. especially since it's in Rupiahs.. u get a headache converting it.. just to give u a rough idea.. RM1 = 2500 rupiah.. and CAD 1= RM3.. haha.. do the math yourself..

Ohya, and there's a few must-eat dishes if you go there.. Batagor, Sio May (like the ones u find in dim sum, but it's made of fish meat instead), murtabhak... and the noodles there are like the indomee instant noodles!!! hahaa.. yumm...