Jakarta, Day 2

i don't remember what time i fell asleep but i do remember waking up to my 3.15am alarm to get dressed. we requested a taxi at the front desk the night before so we had to be ready at the lobby by 4am.

for some reason the taxi driver thought we were going to the airport instead of the train station T____T.

we bought burgers to eat before boarding the train. when we purchased our train tickets from the kiosk, what we received was only the receipt for our ticket purchase. we actually had to print out our train tickets using the machines provided before boarding. our tickets cost 100K per person one-way. one of the guards helped us purchase them through the kiosk yesterday. the irony was, after we paid for our tickets to Bandung, we found out that there were no more train seats available for the trip back. lol.

no worries. mari gamble, says Mashi.

the train service that was operating the Jakarta-Bandung route was called Argo Parahyangan. i think Mashi purchased tickets for the executive coaches; our coach was really roomy and food was available for purchase on the train. i assume it's the norm for the locals to purchase their tickets in advance, so the cheaper classes were unavailable by the time we wanted to get ours.

the train was slightly delayed; the train left the station about half an hour late. total journey to Bandung was about 3 and a half hours. it was still dark out, so there wasn't much to glimpse out the train windows. since i didn't get enough sleep the night before, i spent the whole duration trying to catch up on my sleep. Mashi woke up at some point in the journey to take photos out her window.

an equivalent of our ktms?

railway platform at 5am

Gambir Station

the train interior

sleepyhead selfie

muka tak cukup tido

morning view

welcome to Bandung!

we hired a taxi to take us around for the day. the taxi driver first brought us to a bunch of factory outlets: Summit, Passion, Heritage. i didn't get anything much from here, to me the clothes found here were so-so. Mashi went on a mini shopping spree though. lol. that was the main purpose of her trip to Jakarta, so knock yourself out!

one of the factory outlets we visited

we were then dropped off at Kartika Sari to buy the supposedly famous brownies. i was too busy figuring out what to buy that i forgot to take any photos here. they would pack all your purchases into small boxes for you to transport them on the plane/bus/wherever easily. people say their Brownies Kukus were most famously sought after; i personally felt that their Brownies Bakar were the best. i purchased one of them bakar ones to eat with Mashi in the taxi. wish i had bought more of them to bring back. the kukus ones tasted like normal moist chocolate cake if you think about it.

next we moved on to Pasar Baru, since everyone says Bandung is famous for their laces, no? you know how Japanese anime love to exaggerate the character's eyes whenever they depict them shining in awe or wonderment? yeah that's exactly how i describe the two of us when we came across rolls and rolls of gorgeous lace.

was half glad i didn't bring enough rupiah on this trip =P. the store we went into said they could even tailor you an outfit completed in one day for 800K, lace and lining included. too bad we weren't staying in Bandung, i would've taken up on the offer immediately lol. i have yet to find a tailor i'm comfortable with back home.

Mashi was also on a mission to find a particular piece of cloth for her friend so while she poked and prodded every lace in the store, i sat down and chilled (and started an imaginary list in my brain on what type of lace and color to buy in the future hahahah).

mashi belek kain sepenuh hati

yummy lace colors

the people here are really helpful - sanggup hunt high and low for whatever color cloth they think you might fancy. they tried really hard to find a matching lining for the lace that Mashi wanted to get. they even managed to find an exact match for her friend's cloth. they mentioned to us that outsiders usually buy cloth by the kilos. hebat, oh?

which color lining????

we also purchased some telekung here as well; we conveniently passed a store selling a whole lot of them on our way in.

Rumah Mode was our last pit stop of the day. this was where i purchased some outfits for my kids. in my opinion there wasn't much to be found here (that was to my taste), but food choices were abundant here.

Rumah Mode

haul for the kids

before dropping us back at the train station, the taxi driver brought us to a place where we could get mee kocok for 20K.

Mie kocok is an Indonesian beef noodle soup, specialty of Bandung City, West Java. The dish consists of noodle served in rich beef broth soup, beef tendon, bean sprouts and bakso, kaffir lime juice, and sprinkled with sliced fresh celery, scallion and fried shallots.

mee kocok

mine didn't have bean sprouts, lol

since there were no more trains or buses available to get back to Jakarta, we took a van back to the city with a bunch of other strangers, costing us 120K each for the ride. we left about 4pm and arrived at Gambir Station 3 hours later. it rained on the way back, i was half frozen because i was seated in the middle and the air-conditioning was on full blast T__T.

that night after lugging our things back to our hotel room we decided to go downstairs in search of street food for dinner. we came across this stall just outside our hotel, selling nasi goreng gila, whatever that is. here it's normal for people to eat at food stalls by the side of the roads. it was so dark you could barely see what's on your plate. the nasi goreng wasn't bad, actually. it didn't have any onions (or whatever-stuff-that-i-don't-eat) that i had to fish out lol. we shared our table with some other person who was working at the Embassy nearby. aaaaand he offered to pay for our food. thank you kind sir!

street food

nasi goreng gila

i retired early that night. Seventh Son was on tv but i was too tired to care. i think i started snoozing way earlier than Mashi, haha.