Going to Jakarta and Bandung - 2

(Continued from Part 1)

The next day, 8 June 2006, Inka and Irza went to Jalan Rancabolang with their father and grandfather; to buy the famous “Amanda” baked brownies, which is one of Bandung’s specialties. It’s located quite far from Bandung city center, at the south-east outskirt of Bandung, near the Jalan Soekarno-Hatta highway around Buah Batu area. Actually the brownies can also be bought from many stalls scattered around Bandung, however the price is more expensive.

In the afternoon, after checking-out from the hotel, they made another round of sightseeing around Bandung before going back to Jakarta. They went to “Rumah Mode” outlet store in Jalan Setiabudhi, before passing by the famous Jalan Cihampelas and visiting the Cihampelas Walk (CiWalk). As usual, Inka and Irza immediately went to the Timezone amusement centre there, while their mother, grandmother and aunt window-shopped around the mall. They also bought the famous J.Co Donut, which is reputably the best doughnut in Indonesia.

From Cihampelas, we then went to Jalan Pasirkaliki. Our destination is the “Bumbu Desa” restaurant where we bought food for dinner the previous night. Almost everyone was satisfied with the food, so we decided to go there again for lunch. This restaurant is located along Jalan Pasirkaliki, just south of the Pasteur junction, not far from Istana Plaza, one of the biggest shopping malls in Bandung.

Actually it was already past 2pm Indonesian time (or 3pm Singapore time) when we reached the restaurant, so it was actually quite a bit late for lunch. However that doesn’t stop us from enjoying lots of variety of Sundanese food, such as grilled chicken, pepes tahu, pepes oncom, kangkong belachan, bandeng fish, and the most important, lalapan (raw vegetables) and sambal (chili). There are three types of sambal provided, and all are good. With Teh Botol (Indonesian famous ice tea) for drink and es cincau hijau (green grass jelly ice) as dessert, it’s simply delicious.

More pictures at the Bumbu Desa restaurant, including the food – you have been warned!! :) :) – can be found here. After finishing our lunch, we then go straight towards Terusan Pasteur and hit the Cipularang expressway to go back to Jakarta. We reached Jakarta in the evening.

The next day, I took Inka and Irza to Depok to visit a new shopping mall around Margonda, Depok. The new shopping mall is called Margo City, and it’s located just opposite Depok Town Square (Detos), another shopping mall in Depok which we have visited earlier. At that time, this Margo City was not yet finished and still on the last stage of development.

Since the shopping mall was quite new, most of the units were empty. The only “life” of the new shopping mall is the J.Co Donut stall, which always can make people to queue for very long time to get the (reputably) best doughnuts in town. As usual, Inka and Irza went to the Timezone amusement centre (agaiiiin, *sigh*) on the second floor.

Since nothing much to see and do there, we went to Detos, which is just opposite the road, and we had dinner at the Popeye restaurant on ground floor. Inka chose the fried chicken, while Irza chose the chicken strips. More pictures can be found here.




The next day, in the afternoon, we went to Cilandak Town Square (Citos). We did another round of shopping at the Matahari department store, and as usual, Inka and Irza also dropped by at the Timezone on the ground floor. During tea-time, we also went to Kafe Pisa and had some ice creams. More pictures at Kafe Pisa can be found here.

On Sunday morning, 11 June 2006, the whole family was very busy attending the aqiqah ceremony for Adyarafa Almefty Priguna, a.k.a. Rafa, which is Inka and Irza’s youngest and newest cousin. Rafa is the first son of Uncle Firman and Aunty Ria, and was born on May 2006. The event was held at Uncle Firman’s house in Puri Cinere, Depok. The event includes prayers for the baby’s health as well as shaving of some of the baby’s hair. More pictures at the event can be found here.

In the evening, we went to Bakmi Japos restaurant in Pangkalan Jati, Cinere, to celebrate the birthday of Nenek (Inka and Irza’s grandmother). The restaurant is located next to the Pangkalan Jati golf course, and we loved the ambience of the restaurant. Some of the tables are located facing a park with a small pond, with live music provided every night. The food itself is OK, not really great. The pictures can be found here.

Inka and Irza were staying for another week in Jakarta, before going back to Singapore on the 18th of June 2006. Inka even had the chance to go to Bandung again with her grandparents, and visited Rumah Strawberry, which is a nice strawberry theme park located along Jalan Cihanjuang, Bandung. Unfortunately, there were no pictures available.

(The End)