
I didn’t know much about Indonesia before my trip there. I’d heard of cities like Jakarta and Jogjakarta but that’s about it so I didn’t really know what to expect from Bandung. But it ended up being my favourite of all the cities I got to explore in Indonesia.
All I’d heard from someone who lived in Indonesia was that Bandung is the perfect place for bargain shopping. That’s music to my ears.
After a night in Jakarta we trekked to Bandung with the lovely guides from Jack Tours.
It’s hard not to fall in love with a place as humble and beautiful as Bandung.
Bandung is the place I feel I experienced Indonesian culture the most. It’s where we had the most delicious Indonesian foods and saw breathtaking places. I also discovered that it’s a place where strawberries grow in abundance – I have a strawberry key ring. Strawberries are so much part this place that a regular Fanta is strawberry-flavoured. It’s hard to find the orange one like we get at home here in SA.
We also visited two volcanoes while in Bandung. The first one called Kawah Putih crater lake took my breath away. It’s located 50km south of Bandung in West Java. The crater lake is 2430 metres above sea level and is stable; it has not erupted or had any scary activity since around 1600 so we felt pretty safe exploring inside it. What a relief right? WE WERE INSIDE A CRATER! Dormant or not that’s a pretty cool place to be.

Beautiful Kawah Putih crater lake.
The other volcano is called Tangkuban Perahu, located 30km north of Bandung. We didn’t spend a long time there because it was quite hot out and the last time volcanic activity was recorded was a few years ago – 2013 if I’m not mistaken. It was also pretty full so I didn’t manage to get too many pictures.
We dined at some amazing places and tasted some lovely Indonesian cuisine. The dishes were mainly fish, chicken or vegetables. Vegetarians won’t have a problem finding tasty food. They don’t eat a lot of red meat – it’s quite expensive in those parts. As someone who doesn’t generally eat a lot of red meat, the food options at the restaurant were perfect. I love fish in particular and most of the restaurants served whole deep fried fish – face still attached and everything. My cousin Faatimah did not appreciate this. She’s not an eater of seafood.

Some of the delicious food we feasted on in Bandung.
Another place we loved was Noah’s Barn Coffeenery. It is a fancy coffee shop that stocks a variety of coffees from around the world. And the coffee there was seriously good. It wasn’t easy for us to find coffee like this in Indonesia so we enjoyed our time here. I will do a review of Noah’s in a separate post.

Cute display at the entrance of Noah’s Coffeenery.
We also checked out the tea plantation, where we took some photos among the tea leaves and bought some tea. I’ll let you know how it tastes once I open it.
On our last day we visited the floating market. On arrival, you’re served a cold beverage before you start touring. In addition to shopping for curios and such, you can also buy fish food and feed the rather hungry fish in the ponds. We had such a blast doing this, you’d swear we were still kids.
On our last day in Bandung we checked out the floating market. #Bandung #floatingmarketlembang
A photo posted by Aneeqah (@aneeqahe) on
We managed to squeeze in some shopping in between all the sightseeing. The tour guides know all the good stores to take you to.
So if you ever find yourself planning a trip to Indonesia, be sure to add Bandung to your list of must-see places.
Such a beautiful post. The foods look extremely yummy. And that crater lake must’ve been so cool to visit. Definitely adding Bandung to my Indonesia wish list.
You definitely should go to Bandung when you’re in Indonesia. It’s a wonderful experience.