After teaching on Saturday I left school to go to one of my students birthday parties in EX. Shortly after I left to pick up my friends and drove down to Bandung. Its a great drive as you pass through the mountains and get to see a side of Indonesia often missed by staying solely in Jakarta. We got to Bandung around 6 and grabbed a great hotel with an amazing view of most of the city. (One of first times in my life when I can afford to get a good hotel and not have to worry about how it will affect me financially). We ate at a great German restaurant where I had some pork ribs. Everything in Bandung is considerably cheaper than Jakarta so a few beers and a couple games of pool only cost about 200 thousand rp.
Bandung is famous for its factories and wholesale prices. Much of the fabric and textiles from Indonesia come from this city so they are known for great deals on all sorts of things. I went to one of these mega wholesale markets and was blown away. I wasn't planning on buying anything but ended up getting some very nice headphones which normally cost around 300$ for less than 70$. I also got some clothes for 1/3 of their normal price. The place is ridiculous.
On the way back we had a bit of police trouble and had to pay a small bribe then proceeded to get lost in some backstreets. We were using the gps from an ipad but the problem is that the roads are not exact to reality so you begin following a road then end up jumping to a different road on the gps. So there we were weaving down a road just wide enough for my car dodging bricks and chickens with the locals all laughing at us crazy bules. Suddenly we faced a dead end... that meant that I must reverse my car back down an alley so narrow that I was struggling to navigate going forwards. Some local children stepped into action to help guide me backwards and I managed after about 15 minutes to go back far enough to find an old rickety bridge that I could use to turn around. It was an ordeal I wont soon forget. I got back to Jakarta by early evening and slept almost immediately.
It was really good to get away from Jakarta and all its crazy pollution and traffic. It really felt like a different country. I only saw 3 other white people the entire trip so needless to say everywhere I went people were staring at me or even pointing at me in surprise. Bandung is also in the mountains so it actually gets cool there. I haven't felt weather below 30 C in so long I almost forgot what it was like to be comfortable. The trees and buildings are also different in Bandung. Even though it is only about a 3 hour drive away it really felt like I was visiting a completely different part of the world.
Bandung is famous for its factories and wholesale prices. Much of the fabric and textiles from Indonesia come from this city so they are known for great deals on all sorts of things. I went to one of these mega wholesale markets and was blown away. I wasn't planning on buying anything but ended up getting some very nice headphones which normally cost around 300$ for less than 70$. I also got some clothes for 1/3 of their normal price. The place is ridiculous.
On the way back we had a bit of police trouble and had to pay a small bribe then proceeded to get lost in some backstreets. We were using the gps from an ipad but the problem is that the roads are not exact to reality so you begin following a road then end up jumping to a different road on the gps. So there we were weaving down a road just wide enough for my car dodging bricks and chickens with the locals all laughing at us crazy bules. Suddenly we faced a dead end... that meant that I must reverse my car back down an alley so narrow that I was struggling to navigate going forwards. Some local children stepped into action to help guide me backwards and I managed after about 15 minutes to go back far enough to find an old rickety bridge that I could use to turn around. It was an ordeal I wont soon forget. I got back to Jakarta by early evening and slept almost immediately.
It was really good to get away from Jakarta and all its crazy pollution and traffic. It really felt like a different country. I only saw 3 other white people the entire trip so needless to say everywhere I went people were staring at me or even pointing at me in surprise. Bandung is also in the mountains so it actually gets cool there. I haven't felt weather below 30 C in so long I almost forgot what it was like to be comfortable. The trees and buildings are also different in Bandung. Even though it is only about a 3 hour drive away it really felt like I was visiting a completely different part of the world.
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