Price: $45 USD
Transportation: Lots of walking & Taxi or Tuk Tuk -->avg ride 15 mins. = $10 USD
We traveled to Indonesia this last weekend with my parents to visit Jakarta, Bogor, and Bandung. My grandfather (Kaes') was in the Dutch military so my dad's family travelled a lot. As a boy, he lived on several Indonesian islands but stayed the longest in Bandung.
Bandung, is the capital of West Java and is located 112 miles southeast of Jakarta. With over 2.9 million population in 2007 and over 7.2 million people on the greater Bandung area, it's one of the most densely populated city in Asia.
The first night after we got to Jakarta (Kaes and Kim) to meet Dirk and Norma, we didn't have the best of luck. After the ATM machine eating my credit card, and being dropped off on the side of the road by our hired driver, and botching the little Malay we knew, we finally got to the hotel. The next morning when we woke up in Jakarta, we drove south to Bogor, which was about 1 hour away and visited the beautiful botanical gardens. After that, we continued our drive through the Puncak Pass on to our main destination in Bandung. Puncak Pass is a longer route to Bandung, but a beautiful countryside drive.
The northern part of the city has a lot more hills than the rest and is home to the Tangkuban Perahu volcano. Long-term volcanic activity has created fertile andisol soil in the north, suitable for intensive rice, fruit, tea, tobacco, and coffee plantations which are everywhere. It is definitely a beautiful site to see acres and acres of tea plantations up and down the sides of the mountains.
My dad lived in two houses while in Bandung. We found the one on Jalan Bengawan and the other one was converted into a small school. Unfortunately, the house on Jalan Bengawan was not maintained but it was still nice to see where he lived. The best part was hearing his childhood stories including the home-made tank races down his street.
The last day we headed back to Jakarta, but unfortunately Kaes and I got an Indonesian version of "Montezuma's Revenge" and was stuck in the room the whole day until our flight home that night. Dirk and Norma flew back to Singapore two days later, and finally made it back home after a little mishap with taxi cab driver on the way home from the airport. Luckily, they were okay and finally made it back safe and sound.
Next weekend, we are off to Cambodia to see the largest religious monument in the world, Angkor Wat! Stay tuned...
Tangkuban Perahu volcano
A tea plantation
At the botanical gardens in Bogor
The house Kaes' dad lived in before World War II
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