Bandung (Part 1)

Oops … sorry for the slow update, many people have been asking me when I was going to upload my Bandung trip pics! Here goes…..

When you think of having a holiday in Indonesia, normally Bali would come to mind. Well, apparently for Indonesians themselves, Bandung is also a popular destination for a short getaway. One major reason is the many factory outlets located in that city and from what we have gathered from those who have gone there before like Jared and Jerb, it’s a great place for males to shop!

And so we embarked on our trip to Bandung, with everything initiated by my dear hubby, for reasons that should be quite clear by now!

When we reached Bandung, we walked straight onto the airplane runway!

We were met at the airport by a recent SOT graduate, Fandy, whom Joe din know personally prior to this trip. We were linked up to him through Amber and Michael but he was so frenly and hospitable! Just like an old fren!

Most Indonesians there do not speak English well and we had to rely heavily on him to help us out with ordering and all. He was also our “driver” everyday and even paid for some of the meals when we couldn’t stop him in time! Really so touched by his hospitality and care!

On our 2nd day, he suddenly told us that he would be bringing us to his bro-in-law’s shop for a suit fitting! They were going to bless Joe with a tailor-made suit! Will put up pics when the suit is ready!

Shopping
Bandung’s factory outlets are located at 3 main areas – Riau, Dago and the area around Rumah Mode. Normally there would be sitting benches and well landscaped areas with built-in fountain within the factory outlets. Guess it’s to create a relaxing environment for you to do your shopping! You are also required to check in your bags at the entrance so you can easily select more stuff to buy without being impeded. Smart tactic right?

For the clothing there, there are hits and misses. As there are garment factories there producing clothes for brands, there are some overruns that get sold at the factory outlets. But more often than not, the items are imitation goods. You may see the branded label tag but from the printed design you know they aren’t the real deal! The jeans also had labels like Miss Sixty and Bebe... but eh... far from it! Ed Hardy T-shirts were everywhere!! (We din buy any in case you were wondering!!!)

But we came across some small shops selling made-in-Bandung original designs and they were pretty funky though mainly guys’ T-shirts. Some brands are VARC, Magic Happens, Satcas and Sash. You can click on the links to check out the designs, very cool! Why be a copy when you can be an original? =p

Out of the 3 areas, we find Dago the best for our shopping! We went there twice. Got lots of stuff from there. Of course, dun expect to get nice dresses and blouses, I bought mainly shorts, denim skirts and some T-shirts. Joe bought lots of T-shirts and jeans!

You can find out more about Bandung’s factory outlets from this blog.

Something interesting you can find in Bandung is a “Superhero Street” located at Cihampelas Main Street. The stores here sell mainly jeans and on the front facade, you will see different superhero characters!

Terminator!

Wolverine, Iron Man, Tarzan and the last guy at the bottom right is??

Other than factory outlets, Bandung also has shopping malls and one of the popular ones is called Paris Van Java. Fandy recommends it as a nice place to have a meal and chill with friends. One of the nights, we went for dinner with his parents, aunt and uncle, cousin, 2 other siblings, bro-in-law and niece! It was such a warm family feeling! =)

More updates to come!