Bandung: Day 1 - October 2012

     We had a week holiday in October from school, so we decided to take a mini vacation. I was invited to go to Thailand with some of the other teachers, but I didn't really want to spend a lot of money on a hotel and a plane ticket. Amber and I got a few of the Chinese teachers to come with us on our trip. Many people have been to Bandung, so it was easy to plan. We just had to ask other teachers at school where they recommended us to go. A lot of people actually go to Bandung as a day trip because it is so close. It is a popular place to go, because this is where all the good, cheap shopping is. We thought we had to check it out. We got my friend Lana, a local Indonesian, to help us book our bus tickets to go. You only had to pay about $8 (US) for a one way ticket. The trip there was only about two hours, so that's not bad at all.

     We arrived there very early in the morning. We stayed at a hotel called Scarlet Hotel in the Dago area. It was a very nice hotel that included free breakfast for us in the morning. We actually didn't reserve a room, so we got to pick one out when we got there. It was very quiet, as there were not many people staying there. 

Amber is loving the beds :) 

This is the view from the shower...haha. Don't worry there was a curtain. 

     After we got all settled in, off we went for our day of shopping. We decided to do shopping on the first day and sights on the second day. We saw a McDonald's on the way, so we decided to get lunch. After lunch, we started walking down the street. We didn't quite know where we were going, but that was the way that everyone was telling us to go. We were walking along and we weren't really seeing anything, so we started to ask people along the way in our horrible Bahasa Indonesia. We must have been going in the right direction, because not long after, we came to a bunch of stores that were outlets. We stopped at one outlet store and then decided to take a taksi to some of the bigger outlet stores that we had heard of. 

     As we were riding in the taksi, we saw that the street we were on, was lined with outlet stores. We just hadn't walked far enough yet. The driver of the taksi took us to one of the big outlet stores. We looked around for awhile and some of the girls found shoes and bags to buy. After that, we got a taksi and went to another mall called Paris Van Java. Amber and I got the craziest cab driver in Bandung I think. He didn't speak much English, so we were using our phrasebook. Amber decided to look at the "Talking" section. It had questions that you could ask people just to make small talk. Haha, one of the questions that she asked him was if he had any children. Apparently he thought that meant that Amber wanted to reproduce with him. Haha, moving on. We started to ask him other questions. He was just a cooky driver. He asked us if we wanted to go to the club with him and go dancing later that night. Poor drivers, they must get so bored, they have to find their entertainment somehow. It sure occupied us on the way there. 

     After we got there, we walked around and did a little shopping. Amber and I found this really good bubble tea place. I ordered a fruity tea, with fruit bubbles. It was the best bubble tea I had ever had. So delicious! :) We didn't really stay in that mall for very long, because we didn't really find much and we wanted to go a mall called Rumah Mode, which means "house of style" in Bahasa Indonesia. Finding a taksi to get there was a little harder. Amber did a good job of practicing her Bahasa and asked a worker at a restaurant to help us. For some reason when we called to get a taksi, they wouldn't answer, so he tried for us. He was finally able to get us a taksi so that we could leave. 

     Rumah Mode was just one big store that had a lot of clothes in it that were so cheap! I didn't really find anything that I liked, but the other girls bought quite a few things. I guess I am just picky. We stayed at that store until they were closing. We were getting hungry so we decided to try and take a cab to a restaurant that we had heard about.

     Well, that was the longest cab ride! We went all the way to the other side of town thinking that it was the right way, when we were only about 5 minutes from the restaurant to begin with. The driver drove us all the way back through town to the restaurant to have it be closed! Poor guy. We asked him if he had any suggestions as to where we should go, so he took us to a Pasta Warung near our hotel. The food was pretty good, although we didn't get as much food as we thought we were going to.

     After we got done eating, we actually took one of the little buses back to our hotel. It was a fun little experience. We have seen buses just like it in Jakarta, but we had never taken one. You always see them jammed packed with people sitting on the benches in the bus. They probably should only fit about eight or so people, but of course they fit more. This is Indonesia. Since it was getting late, there wasn't anyone in this bus. It only cost us 20 cents to take a ride on this bus. It is just a rickety little bus that seemed like it wasn't going to make it up the hills. I'm glad we did! 

     After we got home, we were all pretty tired, so we went to bed after watching a little tv.