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So I arrived in Jakarta in the morning of 7th with no plans, no contacts, no accommodation (I can just imagine the look on E's face when he reads this. He must be panicking on my behalf. He used to tell me "I'm concerned that you're not concerned". I believed he still thinks of me as a little kid, which I am at heart but not physically. One can only yearn for eternal youth but I digress).
I tried to look for accommodation online but my laptop had to die on me at this critical moment. I thought the four-leaf clover is supposed to make me super lucky? I almost slammed the ThinkPad on the floor but then recalled that it won't do any good cos the hard disk will be able withstand the impact but I'll have to explain to the IT dept why the screen is cracked.
I then decided I should just head to Bandung and not have to wake up at an ungodly hour the next morning to rush to Bandung. I paid Rp100,000 for a mini-van ride (which departed at 1pm) and three hours later, I stepped foot on Bandung. Upon recommendation by a staff at the terminal (note that the word "terminal" is used loosely here cos the terminal is really just a small little office), I checked myself into a hotel/residence called Cherry Homes which is not exactly a proper hotel. Well, for Rp188,000, I get a pretty clean room and my own bathroom, so I'm not complaining. But I'm definitely looking forward to my stay at Sheraton from tomorrow night onwards.
After dropping my barang (I'm tempted to type "parang") in the room, I decided to head out. Not knowing what I could do, I asked for recommendations by the hotel staff. They suggested I visit Paris van Java, which is supposedly an outlet mall. Seeing as the sun is about to set soon and I have no other plans, a visit to the mall sounds good, although I wasn't planning to shop. Turns out Paris van Java is a really nice mall and I loved the many lovely outdoor restaurants that lined one end of the mall. The weather in Bandung is much cooler due to its geographical location - it's in a Valley - and I can imagine myself hanging out in the alfresco dining area with my friends at Paris van Java, trying out a different restaurant every week.
After wandering around the mall for two hours or so, I met up with L (Vienna was so worried about me not knowing a single soul and pulled all stops to put me in contact with her friend, L - who wishes to remain anonymous).
A snippet of our conversation in the hour-long crazy traffic jam.
L: Are you here alone?
Wii: Yes, alone for two days before my colleagues arrive on Mon.
L: You're very brave. My Singaporean friends never dared to come here alone.
Wii: Hmm... I don't feel unsafe at all. The people here are quite friendly.
L: Also, my Singaporean friends usually hold onto the seatbelt when they are on the roads.
Wii: What? Why?
L: Because they are scared of the traffic here.
Wii: Traffic is a little crazy here but you're driving and you know the roads here, so I'm not worried. (Just as I was saying this, two crazy riders came too close for comfort beside the car. I wonder how many accidents there are a day.)
L (asking for the 3rd time): Okay, are you sure you want to eat roadside stores? My Singaporean friends usually won't want to eat at such places. I don't want you to get sick and miss your meeting
Wii (chuckling): Yes, I really wanna try some local food at those stores. Now that you think I'm brave enough to come here along, I'd be brave enough to eat at such places. Don't worry. I won't hold you responsible if I get sick from the food.
Upon my insistence, L brought me to an area near Braga for dinner. I had some Ayam Soto and fried tofu with sweet sauce. Then we had dumplings in ginger soup for dessert. The ginger soup brought back plenty of childhood memories of mummy preparing this dish when the weather turned cold.
After dinner, we make our way to Ciwalk to catch Astroboy the movie. It was a premier theatre and it's similar to our Gold Class theatre here. You get your own reclining seat and your mineral water come served on a silver platter. Pull the drawer next to you out and voila, you get your own blanket. Now, I really understand the appeal of business class air travel. No wonder they named coach as cattle class
Guess what? I actually woke up to have breakfast. I'm guessing it's because of the time difference (Bandung is an hour behind SG) and thus, waking up at 9.30am (SG time) means I'm in time for breakfast in Indonesia!
After breakfast, I made my way to Sheraton and was pretty pleased with my huge-ass room and bathroom. I can't wait to watch the match of the season later that night, Man U vs Chelsea on the huge-ass telly.
A check with the concierge revealed I don't have enough time to visit the volcano crater. It was also too expensive for me to head up to the crater alone. That was a disappointment! I had planned to ride a horse up the crater and take some nice pictures of me jumping at the crater. Next time, perhaps.
In the late morning, I paid a visit to the hotel L is working at. It's a really odd to see a modern, glass-facade tall building alongside a row of dilapidated buildings. I love the executive suite with its own dining area, mini kitchen, and of course, the outdoor balcony - the perfect place for a gathering with lots of booze! Very frou frou~
After the visit, L brought me a the Nanny's Pavillion for a late lunch. It's a cosy little eatery which exudes lots of old-school charm. With its painted rattan chairs, vintage teacups hanging off wall-hooks and oh-so-cute menu, I can't help but fall in love with this place. My chocolate ice-cream waffles and chocolate milkshake makes me a very happy Wii for the rest of the day.
L then dropped me off at the real outlet malls and I spent the next hour being bored by the lousy fashion and retail offering. I just am not into shopping anymore. So I decided to pamper myself a little and went for a massage. The coconut milk and lemongrass body scrub left me smelling perfect for the day. I went back to the hotel and after a change of clothes, I'm out again!
This time, I'm having dinner at Blind Restaurant @ Ciwalk with Dimaz. This is a concept restaurant and the concept is to have customers eat in pitch-blackness. The idea behind it is that with all distractions and attacks on our sensory system in today's busy life, one forget to savour the food we put into our mouths, so by eating in the dark, and thereby, taking away our sense of sight (which is the most depended sense), we are forced to use and focus on our other senses.
Before we were led into the dining room on the second floor, we were instructed to remove all mobile phones, watches and illuminating objects. Then we were led into a very, very, very dark corridor and into a very, very, very dark room. We had to place our hands onto the shoulders of the person in front of us and walked very, very, very slowly to the seats.
Silly Wii realised she made a very silly mistake of ordering chicken chop with mushroom sauce - she can't possibly touch the food with her bare hands and thus, have to poke at the food blindly! No pun intended. Surprisingly, she managed to finish her chicken chop, fries and managed to avoid the carrots altogether! The waiter confirmed this. Blind or not, she ain't putting no veggies in her system!
I loved the experience and the concept of this place. I could really taste the saltiness of the mushroom sauce and slightly burnt chicken skin. On top of that, the blind get employment opportunities. How cool is that!
One thing though, we went into and left the dining room without a chance to see how the room looked like. I could have been eating with cockroaches running around my feet for all I know...
After dinner, Dimaz took me on a mini tour of Bandung, where I saw the Museum of African Conference, hotel where Charlie Chaplin once stayed, very retro train tracks and some other buildings. He said my trip is complete since I have a picture of me in front of the museum. Yeah!
After that, it was back to the hotel for the match of the season. Dimaz is a huge Chelsea fan and you can imagine the tension between the both of us when we watched Man U and Chelsea in action. After a humiliating defeat and Dimaz' non-stop gloating, I kicked him out of the hotel room at 2am in the morning (not literally, of course).
Look at the view outside my balcony! I met up with Dimaz after training and we headed to a cozy little bar for a drink with his friends. Dimaz is convinced that all Chinese know Kungfu and are very familiar with the culture of Chinese zombies. He wants me to write him a yellow tailsmen for protection. In blood, no less. 
After that, we headed to town for a game of pool. It's interesting how whenever I meet new friends, I somehow end up playing pool with them. It happened in Australia, KL, Singapore and now, Bandung.
Good thing I can hold my own against the boys. ;)
Dimaz sent me back to the hotel on a 100km/hr motorbike ride on the bumpy roads of Bandung and I'm convinced I wanna get my rider's licence after my driver's licence.
While at dinner @ The Valley, I had some insightful chat with my colleagues and it's nice to know all of us have connected over the course of a short few days and are
Dinner was followed by a night of merry-making @ a bar named Cloud 9 with my colleagues to mark the end of our 3-day training event (on the next day). I am overjoyed that I laid my hands on two Indonesian Cola bottles! I've been trying to buy them off the street vendors but none are too willing to sell me.
I'm not telling how much we've had to drink that night but let's just say, I broke my personal record of 4 tequila shots. And there were some very discriminating pictures of everyone!
I had so much fun interacting with and getting to know my Indonesian colleagues over the course of three days. Most of the time, I don't understand what they are saying in Bahasa Indonesia but they still make me laugh my guts out! I know I'm going to miss them when I'm back in SG.
On Thursday morning, I went into our Jakarta office after a good night's rest at Intercon Jakarta. Another huge-ass room and a huge-ass bed and a huge-ass bedroom. Seriously, do I need all this space?
After lunch, it started to pour cats and dogs and soon, the roads were flooded. In Singapore, when one says the roads are flooded, he meant the water level is ankle deep. In Jakarta, when one says the roads are flooded, he meant the water level is
KNEE DEEP. I wished I was able to capture some pictures of that through the car window but visibility was very poor and I most certainly don't want rain flooding the car if I were to wind the window down. Good thing the expressway was not flooded too badly or I won't have made my flight back to Singapore. But I'm not complaining if I didn't make it. Haha.
Note: There are so many things I want to do but didn't get a change to - ride a horse up to the volcano, ride on the green bus and shout "kiri kiri", eat at Macas, visit the strawberry farm. I'm so going back to Bandung to get these done!
PS: I think this is the first time in a long time that I've typed so much about a trip. :)
