Bandung - Company Trip

Bandung, City of Flowers, is an awesome get-away from the polluted, noisy Jakarta. It's about 200km from Jakarta. Normally we need to fly to Jakarta then taking taxi, bus or train to Bandung. The journey will take about 3 to 4 hours. Now, thanks to Air Asia, we could fly directly to Bandung, saving the long journey to go through Jakarta. The city is Indonesia's third largest city and is known as the "Paris of Java" because of its European ambience. Bandung shares with Miami a fine legacy of Tropical architecture dating from the 1920s. Also, the climate and scenery is very pleasant as it is situated at a highland (situated on a plateau 768 meters above sea level) and surrounded by lush plantations. It has a cool climate throughout the year with temperature ranging from 20-30 degrees Celsius.I like the weather, cooling throughout the day and get quite cold at night.

Why people come to Bandung? First of all, to escape the heat from other major city in Java. Secondly, Bandung is renowned for its shopping, particularly for shoes, textiles, clothing and denims which are found in the colorful Jeans Street "Jalan Cihampelas". And for those who prefer branded clothes, check out the factory outlets located around Dago Street, RE Martadinata Street, Setiabudhi Street, and Buahbatu street. In those outlets you can shop till you drop. There are so many factory outlet stores to visit (too many to know the exact number) and plenty shopping malls.

Places that I visited. Needless to say, plenty of shopping of course to a lot of the factory outlets. Beside shopping, I visited Tangkuban Parahu ("upside-down boat"). A very popular tourist attraction. It is a volcano, 25 kilometre north of Bandung. It last erupted in 1983, supposedly dead now. It is the only crater in Java accessible all the way by car as far as the edge of the volcano mouth. This is Bandung's most famous natural attraction. You can see really nice view at the top. Not far from the volcano, there is a hot spring call Ciater Hot Spring. In the Hot Spring Ciater Resort you can enjoy swimming in warm sulphurized water pools (about 42 degrees Celsius). It is good for healing rheumatism and skin problems.

Food wise, I ate mostly Sundanese food. It is nice, except that its a little salty.

Photos

Tangkuban Parahu


View at the top of Tangkuban Perahu


Ciater Hot Spring


Ciater Hot Spring (steaming hot water)


Sindang Reret Restaurant

Yet another Masterpiece

After my last trip to the ocean, I visited yet another natural wonder. A masterpiece could only made possible by our Almighty God. The Mulu National Park in Sarawak, we Malaysian must be proud to have all these wonderful natural wonder given by God as said by our Prime Minister in TheStar yesterday. As a nature lover myself, sadly to say that we Malaysian have not done much to preserve our natural heritage.

Mulu, nature's most spectacular achievements and the 'jewel in the crown' of Sarawak's national parks. It began millions of years ago, it is estimated 30 million years to become what it is today. It is one of the largest limestone cave systems in the world. This system, a breath-taking natural wonder, contains a number of record breaking caves. With the world's largest cave passage (Deer Cave), the world's largest natural chamber (Sarawak Chamber), and the longest cave in Southeast Asia (Clearwater Cave), it is not surprising that Mulu is now world-famous. The cave system span over 200 km and is thought to represent only just 30-40% of the actual length. It could well be over 600 km when fully discovered. Just imagine, a cave system that cover almost the whole of Peninsular Malaysia.

As Malaysian, we must take pride of ourselves as Mulu been listed as Malaysia’s second World Heritage site. The first is Mount Kinabalu. It is my hope that there will be more site in Malaysia to be listed.