Sunday, December 30, 2012

Pre-planning for Day2: Seoul-Phoenix Park

Update: I wrote about how actually I went to Phoenix Park in this post http://notakelana.blogspot.com/2013/02/getting-to-phoenix-park.html.

InsyaAllah my travel planner will be making a better arrangement. This result of study I'm going to present here is just a result of my Ms Curiosity and her partner, Mr Goog. I came out with this after googling "Korea map".

1st, Seoul Subway map web app.
http://www.smrt.co.kr/program/cyberStation/main2.jsp?lang=e&sname2=Seoul+Station&stcd2=0150&sname3=Gangbyeon&stcd3=0214&x=142&y=19


2nd, another interactive map which includes road.
http://maps.visitseoul.net/index.jsp?lang=eng&Rq=searchPoi&centerX=126.97729003036784&centerY=37.56586603492867&mapLevel=1

3rd, check out google map if it suggests anything different.

ok, let's discuss.

The 1st map, the subway map says, from Seoul station, after the 4th station, get off and transfer at Dongdaemun History and Culture Park. Referring to the 3rd map, Google map using the MapsGL view that enables us to see photo taken at the spot, it shows that we have to walk out of the station of Line4 and enter the station of Line2 (just at another side of the road corner). Thus, the mark "T" in map 1 is put outside the station.

The 2nd map suggests bus route either if we want to use only bus or if we want to combine bus+subway. It doesn't cover subway only route because that's covered by the 1st map. According to map 2, we can take bus from the police station outside seoul station, get down at iljiro3 and take subway from there.

The time taken for the 12+ km journey will be between 27-47 mins, and cost between 1150w to 2000w. Apparently it's faster and cheaper going by only subway. My TP (travel planner) also warned against using road unnecessarily so as not to risk traffic jam.

Now the options.

Option 1 is not using all of the above. Instead, use the direct bus but it has be taken from Glass Tower outside Samseong-dong WTC Seoul Centre station at Gangnam at 9.30am. http://www.phoenixpark.co.kr/global/english/phoenixresort/contactus_transportation01.aspx
This place is not too far from the COEX megamall which also hosts a giant aquarium. But I assume it's not open yet very early in the morning? :-( To reach Samseong station, it may take 45mins by subway. That means departing from the hotel by 8am.

Option 2 requires careful planning although we may have a bit more time in the morning (Only abt 1hr). It's based on this guide http://www.icact.org/VenueInfo/transportation.asp
For this option, need to consider these 2:
1) Try to take the 1pm bus from JangPyoung. If we miss this bus, we'll have the 3pm bus. Try not to take the 5pm bus and beyond because we want to each Phoenix Park before dark, which will be at 530pm. We need to find ways (and we're not sure how) to go to our hotel, Pyeongchang Coop Sweet House so better do it before dark.
2) To take bus, try to be there 15mins before scheduled time because read somewhere that some bus departs 10mins ahead of schedule due to Seoul's "Palipali" (cepat2) mentality.

Ok here's my tentative. My travel planner will put better thought into this I presume.
0900: 1hr for travelling to Gangbyeon.
Cross the road to Dongseoul bus terminal.
Set max 30mins for waiting the next bus (the bus moves every 35mins)
1040: 2hr in the bus Dongseoul-JangPyoung
1300: 25mins JangPyoung-Phoenix Park. Take the 1pm or 3pm bus to reach PP before dark (530 is maghrib already - remember we hv to transfer to Pyeongchang Coop Sweet House)
1325 or 1525 reach Phoenix Park, solat zohor+asar, find way to go to Pyeongchang Coop Sweet House, check in.

Option 2 requires many transits and apparently is more tiring. Considering it only gives abt 1hr of extra time compared to using option 1, now maybe we have to strongly try to excute Option 1 and use Option2 as Plan B if we miss the once-a-day 930am bus in Option 1.

Lagi perkelanaan tak rancang awal: Seoul 2013!

Sekarang dlm proses planning. Kurang sebulan lagi nak berangkat insyaAllah. Nak plan sendiri semuanya, agak mencabar. Google map pun keluar bahasa korea. Lagi pulak masa nak pergi nanti winter yg suhu puratanya -7C! Alhamdulillah ada insan2 yg arif dan berpengalaman ttg Seoul dan Korea menawarkan khidmat. Apa lagi, pakailah.

Projek Cuti Sekolah Pertengahan Tahun 2012: Istanbul + Umrah

Ia tidak dirancang awal. Tapi alhamdulillah ia berlaku. Terlalu banyak kenangan manis. InsyaAllah akan ditulis sedikit-sedikit secara sporadic di dalam blog ini.

Bandung (2)

(Originally posted in my parenting blog iwannabeibumithali.blogspot.com on 24th Jul 2011.)

Saya sudah menulis pengalaman Hari 0 - Hari 5 di sana dalam satu lagi pos. Dalam pos ini saya nak menulis tentang beberapa perkara yg saya pelajari melalui pengalaman berwisata di Bandung :-)
  • On language and vocabulary



Org Bandung adalah orang Sunda. Mendengar percakapan supir kami di telefon dan semasa menanya orang di jalan, bahasanya tidak sama dengan Bahasa Indonesia. Bahkan tulisan2 di gerai2 makanan pun banyak yang tidak kami ketahui. Jadi mungkin supir2 dan staf2 hotel itu tahu Bahasa Indonesia. Antara vocab baru kami di sana ialah (Tak tahu mana yg bahasa Indonesia, mana yg bahasa Sunda)
Nelp= menelefon
Rukuh, mukena = telekung solat
Bordir = sulaman
Pulsa = kredit utk prepaid handphone
Baju koko = baju kemeja lelaki kolar cekak musang
Rok = skirt panjang
Stelan = baju sepasang, baju+ seluar / baju+rok
Kaos = t-shirt
Gamis = jubah
Ketan = pulut
Jahe = halia
Grosir dan eceran = (rasanya) grosir=borong, eceran=beli

Satu hari saya dapati tiada tuala mandi di bilik hotel lalu saya call room service dan mereka kata 'tuala sudah habis'. Kemudian saya jelaskan yg saya maksudkan ialah kain lap badan selepas mandi iaitu bath towel, pastu baru dapat tuala itu.
Nama-nama tempat di sini banyak bermula dgn huruf C.
  • On shopping
Hahaha, kami baru tahu factory outlet tu rupanya sama mcm F.O.S. dan Reject Shop di mall2 di M'sia. Pakaian berjenama antarabangsa yg reject, kualitinya tinggi, dan harganya juga mahal, sekalipun di Bandung. (Siapa yg pakai jeans ori mungkin mendapati yg di Bandung sangat murah). Jadi bila dah sampai di sana kami hanya beli sikit pakaian utk budak. Bagi anda yg tak pakai jeans, blaus, kemeja kasual, dress - tak payahlah pergi F.O. Tudung, jubah, baju kurung - memang tak ada kat FO, sebagaimana ia tak ada di FOS dan RS di Msia. Untuk anak2, t-shirt muslimah murah kami tak jumpa.
Yg kami beli beberapa helai utk setiap orang ialah di PasarBaru. Dalam Pasar Baru tu ada beberapa kedai butik dan yg majoritinya ialah kedai2 kecil. Jadi pakaian berkualiti dan tak berkualiti semua ada di sini. Kalau di PasarBaru, mintalah diskon sekitar 1/2 dari harga yg ditawar. Tapi mereka mungkin tak mahu bagi semurah itu kecuali kalau kita beli banyak di kedainya.
Kalau nak beli baju kasual dan seluar x berjenama dan t-shirt Bandung dgn mudah, mungkin Cihampelas ialah tempatnya.
Shopping buku best juga sebab di Bandung ada Palasari dan BBC. Kalau nanti pergi Jakarta, kena singgah di Gramedia.
  • On food
Apa yg membuat kami cirit-birit? Hipotesis saya ialah nasi pecel di Cipo itu mungkin dimasak pagi tapi kami makan masa dah nak dekat Maghrib.
Oh ya, ada juga kopi yg mungkin dari tahi musang. Halal? Entahlah. Kata Ocen, ada restoran besar di sini (kalau tak silap Bali Seafood) menghidang babi.
  • On the less fortunate people
Ada kawan kata, kat sini kalau bagi sedekah kat sorang, menderu2 peminta sedekah lain akan dtg kepada anda. Itu tak terjadi kpd kami. Peminta sedekah yg saya nampak, di KL lagi teruk keadaannya (sebab kat KL ada sindiket). Mereka ini bukan sampah, mereka cuma rakyat yang diabaikan.
Mungkin saya nampak orang kurang siuman sebanyak 3 kali. Dua tipikal iaitu lelaki kusut-masai yang berjalan di kota. Satu lagi memang pelik iaitu seorang perempuan berkulit gelap yang tidak berpakaian, duduk di tepi kedai di desa di Lembang. Sekali lagi, mereka ini bukanlah pembuat sakit mata anda, tapi ahli keluarga dan rakyat yang diabaikan oleh orang yg tak bertanggungjawab. Kapitalisme tak akan dapat menyelamatkan golongan ini. Maka marilah tegakkan sistem Islam agar nasib semua makhluk (meskipun seekor haiwan) terjaga.
OKU pula saya cuma nampak sekali iaitu satu pasangan buta yg melintas jalanraya bersama-sama. Ya suasana bandar di Bandung sama seperti di M'sia, non-OKU friendly. 
  • On taxi drivers and tour drivers
Pemandu teksi di sini ramah dan rajin memberi maklumat tentang tempat2 utk dikunjungi. Kalau handphone mereka berdering semasa ada penumpang, mereka tak akan memperdulikannya (kecuali supir yang anda tempah untuk sehari suntuk). Setakat teksi yg kami naiki, tak nampak ada yg mempunyai walkie-talkie. Oh ya, sesetengah taxi driver / supir mungkin akan mengoffer anda perkhidmatan tour, bahkan mencarikan bibik. Tapi seorang rakan lain menceritakan yg dia mendapat seorang supir yg asyik nak rushing saja - masa diorg shopping, supir tu panggil balik cepat2 sampai diorang tak puas bershopping.
  • Berjimat cermat at Bandung?
Kalau anda ke Bandung untuk berjimat membeli-belah, pastikan (1) dapat tiket kapalterbang yg murah (2) anda beli barang yg memang murah di Bandung berbanding di Msia (banyak juga brg yg harganya lebih kurang saja) (3) minta diskaun di Pasarbaru.
Di Bandung ni, antara yg mahal ialah (1) tiket masuk ke tempat2 wisata (wisatalah bersama rakan/saudara anda penduduk tempatan kalau mahu murah) (2) minuman yg ditolak di dlm kotak beroda di Pasarbaru (air kotak di kedai rp2k, dia jual rp10k) (3) barang2 di Tangkuban Prahu, terutamanya peniaga yg berjalan (tapi ada yg mendesak anda membeli, jadi mintalah diskaun kalau tak mampu menolak) (4) servis yg ditawarkan, kalau anda org luar yg tak tahu harga standard. Contohnya seorang pemandu teksi menawarkan tour sehari dengan harga 600k utk 14 jam, sedangkan kebanyakan org membayar hanya 400k utk sehari suntuk, dan ada juga yg membayar 450k utk 4 hari. Contoh lagi (Ocen yg cerita) ada org membayar 1juta kpd org yg menawarkan utk menjadi tourist guide di kawah dorman tangkuban prahu.
  • On sickness
Pulang ke Msia, kami sekeluarga ada sakit masing2 - saya dan suami cirit-birit, anak2 selesema, Asma' dapat luka di tepi bibir.
  • On the children
Anak2 kami tak suka jalan shopping di tpt sesak. Mereka sangat gembira berjalan di tpt nature yg tak ramai pengunjung spt Maribaya, tambah pula restorannya berkonsep makan bersila dan luas utk Alfatih berjalan-jalan. Dan satu lagi cabaran bersama anak2 ialah memastikan mereka mendapat tidur yg cukup supaya tak meragam, dan bawa bekal air masak supaya mereka tak merayu kita membeli air troli yg berharga 5 kali ganda.

  • To remember for future trips
  1. Beli tiket flight yg murah - need planning
  2. Senaraikan brg yg anda mahu beli - esp buku, sbb kedai buku di Palasari efisien, penjual/pekerjanya seolah hafal tajuk2 buku yg mereka jual dan lokasinya.
  3. Take some time to search for current price of services and things that you need before arriving - tiap kali org tawarkan sesuatu, buat calculation dan kalau agak2 mahal, tolak saja dan cari org lain. Sesetengah servis mungkin anda tak perlukan pun. Tak rugi kalau bersikap fikir 2 kali utk perkara spt ini
  4. Buy map book as soon as you reach if the map provided in your hotel brochure is not good- kedai2 baju di Cihampelas ada jual buku peta lengkap GPS koord. Di airport, yg peliknya, buku ini dijual di tempat berlepas bukan ketibaan
  5. Gadget yg anda bawa - pelajari tekniknya. Saya rugi sbb x dpt connect kpd 3g melalui handphone saya (rupanya kena buat manual setting utk APN) dan tak dapat ambil gambar panoramic mengguna camera sbb tersalah teknik.
  6. Kalau nak shopping semata2 tak payah bawak budak. Bawa saja sampel baju kalau takut salah saiz. 
  7. Tapi kalau nak bawa budak berwisata, planlah dulu nak ke mana. Bukan Tangkuban Prahu saja tpt menarik di Bandung ni. Kalau ikut kata Ocen, pergi Kawah Putih pun dapat tgk kawah gunung berapi juga, dan bayaran masuknya lebih murah dan di sana tak banyak penghisap duit. (TP di utara bandung, KP di selatan. Jarak antara keduanya berjam2).
  8. Update 16/12/11: Read this book. Isinya x sama dgn tajuk. Ia menceritakan byk tpt menarik di Bandung, dilihat menarik dr pelbagai sudut, sekali dgn sejarah ringkas tpt itu, dgn gaya yg agak berterus-terang. Bahasa Indonesia, sy fikir buku ini ditulis utk khalayak rakyat Indonesia.   http://books.google.com.my/books?id=Zxow5ng9r5QC&pg=PA115&dq=Wisata+Paris+Van+Java+By+Her+Suganda&hl=en&sa=X&ei=L2vqTt_KIcq4rAfjtu2ECQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Itu saja catatan peribadi saya. Mungkin akan ditambah kalau teringat.

Bandung - 1st overseas family trip

Originally posted in my parenting blog iwannabeibumithali.blogspot.com on 21st Jul 2011.

We just came back from Bandung yesterday, so hopefully I can write everything about it before I forget. I'll divide them into these subtopics:
  • Day 0 and about this trip
  • Day 1: Children's fun day with Wiji n family
  • Day 2: Pasarbaru and Dago
  • Day 3: Are we different from other Malaysian tourist?
  • Day 4: Hubby's day
  • Day 5: Sickness day and Going home 
  • On mathematics of currency conversion
  • On language and vocabulary
  • On shopping
  • On food
  • On the people
  • On the businesses
  • On the less fortunate people
  • On taxi drivers and tour drivers
  • Berjimat cermat at Bandung?
  • On sickness
  • On the children
  • Things to remember - for future trips

Day 0 and about this trip

This trip is made because my husband had to present a paper in the ICEEI2011 conference in Institut Teknologi Bandung. As soon as he got notification of acceptance of his paper, we straightaway made passport and booked tickets. The conference took place on 17 Jul (Sun) till 19 Jul (Tue) so we made our trip to start on 15th (Fri) till 20th (Wed) so that we have ample time to enjoy Bandung. My hubby's friend Wiji from Jakarta helped us to book a hotel room for us, and it was Cihampelas2 hotel. This hotel provides free airport transfer.

We didn't prepare much for this trip. I read a bit about Bandung trips made by Malaysians, googled a bit of info, hubby bought a decent camera (because we currently use only handphones), and 'bought' rupiah from a money exchanger outside Metro Plaza Kajang. We got Rp8,350,000 for RM2,990. So our conversion is Rp2793 for RM1, or every 10k = RM3.58. In this article, 10k means Rp10000. Packing lightly starting on Friday morning, we made a last minute decision (which was a good one) to take along my netbook.

A KLIA limo invited us from home at 1530 (sharp!), we prayed Asar at LCCT surau, our flight was delayed for nearly 1 hour to around 2000, and a few hours later, we arrived at Bandung International airport. The arrival part of this airport was very basic. A driver from our hotel had already been waiting for us. He was a nice guy, and introduced himself as Ocen. On our request, he helped us to buy XL simcards from a small shop on the street. 15 minutes later, we were already in our room, but as Asma' refused to wake up from her sleep (she's been fast asleep since in the flight), so hubby took Aisyah only for dinner at the hotel's restaurant and ordered a dish for me to be sent to our room. The price of the hotel's restaurant food and room service food is similar to the price of Malaysian tomyam food stalls. Hubby chose not to find food from outside the hotel following his friends' advice not to explore the stalls food yet on the first days for fear of getting stomach problem. Solat jama' Maghrib and Isya', changing simcards, taking a view out of the window, and sleep for tomorrow. In my opinion, Bandung is a lively city. Our hotel was surrounded by houses, and far away were the mountains, and at that hour, there were lights everywhere even at the mountains!
Bandara Hussein Sastranegara International Airport
Day 1

Bandung time is different from Malaysia by 1 hour (GMT +7). So Subuh was around 4.50. Alhamdulillah I found both hubby and I did not have difficulty at all to adjust to this timing. About 3 azans could be heard from our hotel room. The nearest was from a Masjid Jami' which minaret was just several metres away from the back of our hotel. Another surau/masjid could also be seen around 100 metres from our hotel. After the azans, there were noises made by birds/animals as if they wanted to help waking people up for Subuh. The sound was like "guk-guk-guk" I don't know what animal. After reciting quran from my handphone app, I tried to use Internet. I didn't turn on my laptop because the power outlet here is round, our power adapter could not fit it. Wifi signal of this hotel could reach our room, and My Samsung Galaxy 5 running Android 2.2 Froyo 'refused' to get Internet connection from the XL simcard. However 3G could run okay at hubby's handphone so I connected to fb for several minutes. Then the phone ran out of credit, luckily there was a top-up stall just outside our hotel.
The guk-guk sound may come from the green area above, which is the Bandung Zoo
Far to the bushes is a masjid/surau, this one is the 2nd/3rd nearest to the hotel.
After breakfast at the hotel's restaurant (we had to pay extra 50k for having the kids joining), we were happy to start our first activity. Outside the hotel building, we were greeted by a few people selling things (key chains, fridge magnet, leather sandals, t-shirts, slippers) who tried to persuade us to buy. We only bought a canvas sling bag which became very useful during the entire trip. Then we walked along Cihampelas road taking some pictures, until Asma' complained of tiredness. So we went back, and on the way, Asma' stopped us to buy Minnie Mouse t-shirts she spotted at a shop. The shop lady refused to give much discount so we had an impression that Cihampelas was not a good spot to get a good bargain.
Many shops at Cihampelas has characters outside
SMA Pasundan 8 shares the same building and compound with SMA Pasundan 2. Can you draw a border between them? 
As Wiji had promised us to take us for sightseeing together with his family on this day, so we waited for him to arrive. Wiji told us that they were trapped in traffic jam that delayed them for a few hours. After zuhur, we happily boarded Wiji's MPV and headed towards Tangkuban Prahu. We had lunch at a Bento restaurant on the way as a treat for the children. It was not purely Japanese food, in my opinion, but local food modified into Bento style.
Hoka Hoka Bento provides children play area and serves 'children friendly' food like rice with scrambled eggs
The visit at Tangkuban Prahu was a brief one. We were greeted by a few people selling things again (fur hats, bamboo puppets, keychains). The guy that sold the bamboo puppet kept following us (even onto the gazebo) until finally my hubby 'surrendered' and bought two puppets. The price for both was around 30k, which I think was too expensive. My hubby later told me that the guy only followed us not Wiji eventhough Wiji also had his children along. So I think it means we looked different from Indonesian tourists. After some snaps near the signboard and on the gondola, we got back into the car and proceeded to D'Ranch.
Going up the hill
The crater of the dormant volcano.
Ocen told us that the ticket to go down this crater is too pricey. Better go to Kawah Putih (in the South of Bandung), it costs lower. But we didn't manage to go to Kawah Putih anyway.
Rooftops of the souvenir shops. Ocen also told us that these shops are expensive
Congratulations, your car has reached 1830M above the sea level.
Going down to Lembang
After riding horsecart, rowing boat, playing 'gold miner', I noticed that the game my children enjoyed the most was fishing the toy fishes! The fact that we already have the toy fish set at home made me think that that must be the most 'unneeded' game but I was wrong.. As they took too long to fish, I escaped to buy some clothes, 2 pairs of t-shirt+trousers and one hooded shirt, all for Alfatih, for 140k. Actually I mistakenly read the price label as 4k, 4k and 6k so I thought these were seriously cheap. You see, if you're in a hurry, you may read 40000 as 4thousands. But I don't regret buying those anyway as later I realized that Factory Outlets are actually way more expensive.
Cinderellaz
Our horse overtook this 'slow' horse
But Wiji's horsecart could not overtake ours coz our horse started to run faster!
Asma' and Aisyah 'betrayed' me when they stopped hand-cycling so I had to do all the hand-cycling myself! No wonder my arms became so muscular now!
Something special about that day was, it was 16 July which means Istiwa' A'zham, one of the two days in every year where the sun location is precisely on the Ka'abah at 1227 Makkah time. So anywhere in the world where the sun's shadow can be seen at the time, the shadow can be used to check the direction of qiblah. In Bandung it is at 1647 but it was cloudy that there were no shadows.

Oh yes, Wiji's wife also taught us how to make the most out of our XL simcards. Just dial *123#, and choose from the menu that appears. But we still need her help though in the first time, because there were Indonesian words that we didn't know.

Day 2

We managed to catch 'the sunrise'. Then we tried the 2nd method of breakfast as we didn't want to pay that extra 50k anymore. The hotel staff told us that there were no restaurants open before 9am. I think they meant the big restaurants. We walked along the street, and entered a small restaurant. Besides our order, we were served with unsweetened tea for everyone. I learned that this were the style meals are served here.
I think this is not the real 'fajr', because the sun has gone pass the horizon, we could only see it after it passes the mountain!
Houses at the back of Cihampelas road. Ocen said "yang cantik-cantik letak di depan, yang tak cantik di belakang..". These houses are not ugly anyway, only Ocen was comparing them with those big bungalows we saw while on the way from the airport
We took a taxi for Pasarbaru and arrived at 8+. Usually business here is 9am-9pm. But many shops in Pasarbaru were already open. The beginning of our shopping was not so pleasant though, as Asma' was crying all the way, maybe for about an hour. We managed to buy some Minnie mouse shirts and jeans for the girls, batik shirts, raya dresses for us, and a telekung (mukena/rukuh bordir) a friend asked us to buy. As we didn't look like locals (I think) and got children with us, we were often approached by people selling drinks on wheeled minicarts, and the price for each drink was 10k! And I easily gave in to my children's request to buy drinks, and there were 3 requests, so we spent 70k for drinks alone! Exiting Pasarbaru 3 hours later, the crowd was so immense! From here, waiting for taxi was longer, not like in Cihampelas.

At the hotel lobby my hubby requested for power adapter and he got one. Then it was resting time for everyone but me. I was unhappy because I still could not recharge my gadgets or connect them to Internet (My hubby was recharging the camera so I have to wait). There were no printed materials for me to read except the hotel's brochure which map was not helpful. All the TV's 65 channels were uninteresting for me. Only after my hubby left for ITB for the opening of his conference I could use the power source for my netbook, and successfully connected to Internet by putting the simcard in my 3G modem after registering for 7 days Internet using handphone.

At about 5pm hubby came back from ITB and we took a taxi to Dago Tea House, as recommended by an Indonesian student. We requested for a place where we could see the city landscape. It was near the stage - apparently Dago Tea House hosts art and cultural activities (but there was no activity at the stage at that time) But it was getting dark and the stage blocked us from getting the whole view. We enjoyed the food anyway, and it costed us 160k. Mine was Nasi Timbel Komplit, and hubby ate rice with some dishes - Kangkong (forgot what kind of cooking it was), Cumi bakar (oh we didn't know that cumi=sotong!), mutton satay, for the drink we had Bandrek (Bandung's popular drink - coconut drink with ginger) and another specialty (forgot the name) but it was santan with gula kabung, and the children had marqueissa juice.
Dago Tea House. On that day, other people had their meal in the pondok in the garden downstairs, so only us were here  upstairs
It was getting dusk so the city scenery was not clearly recorded in this picture. The stage also blocked our view
Let them play at the spectators' area before Maghrib
There must be some other place to view the city? We found it the next day
We asked the taxi driver to drop us at Cihampelas Walk (Ciwalk) and we'd walk to the hotel. We tried to find Gunung Agung bookstore at Ciwalk (as recommended by an Indonesian friend) only to be informed that it was closed, so we walked back to hotel.

Day 3

That day we tried the 3rd method of breakfast. First hubby and I took turn to have breakfast at the hotel restaurant while the children were still sleeping. Then hubby bought a pack of bread and drinks for the children from a convenience store just beside the hotel.

We booked Ocen for the day for 400k. Our plan was a nature park first, then bookstores, then factory outlets.

We asked Ocen to take us to Maribaya as recommended by a friend. Ocen told us that it was not so much a tourist spot. He took us there anyway. We went through Lembang again, the town that we have to got through to reach Tangkuban Prahu. In the town I noticed a person walking wearing ape-like mask. My question about what the person was doing was answered later in the day. The trip was worthwhile, because the scene was beautiful and the children enjoyed the nature very much, unlike the previous day when Asma' kept crying and Aisyah kept fighting with her sister. We hiked along the hilly route to reach the waterfall of Hutan Raya. It was an awesome scenery, except that there were rubbishes in the water. After enjoying the view, we treated our tastebuds with 5 pieces of jagung bakar and ketan bakar, together with some drinks, they costed us 81k. On that Monday morning, there were only 2 other families, a couple and a lady enjoying the waterfall. I explained to Ocen that we came to Bandung not only for shopping but to enjoy beautiful landmarks and getting things that we could not get in Malaysia as I noticed that Ocen was like feeling we were a bit different from other tourists who used tourdrivers' service. Later in the day, Ocen would see how weird we are :-)
Up-up the hill
At times like this, I wished I had the skills and tools of a pro photographer. Our camera could not record the beauty as good as our eyes did
The sky view of Bandung from Ciumbeleut
The yellow flowers at the right..
Aisyah is a very brave girl
This is not the main attraction of Maribaya waterfall
Let's follow this route to get to the main attraction of Maribaya
They were too happy
Here's the main attraction, pic taken from another bridge
Taken from the bridge above the waterfall - the side where the water has fallen onto
The other side of the bridge, where the water falls
The other bridge, taken from the bridge above the waterfall
Only one food stall was open. It was Monday morning. The lady selling the food waited for us at the picnic area with a mat as soon as we reached that area.
Ketan bakar = pulut
Jagung bakar was really juicy
Leaving Maribaya, we had lunch at one of a unique kind of restaurants by the roadside of Ciumbeleut. These restaurants offered better view of Bandung compared to Dago Tea House! We ordered a lunch which costed us 80k. I tried to snap panoramic picture of the city from there but found out later that I did it wrongly so none of my panoramic snaps were saved. At the time we were about to finish our lunch, a group of Indonesian tourists came. Then I heard a sound of percussion to see two children wearing ape masks, one was doing the percussion, another was 'dancing'. Ocen explained us that they were school dropouts, and by making this kind of performance, they could easily earn 5k from anybody. Yeah but 5k is not that much right?
View from the restaurant
The rice in the basket was red-purplish
One plays percussion so that people will look back
.. and got a surprise when looking at her masked friend just behind them
After praying at a masjid jami' across the road, we continued to Palasari. The first bookshop, the one nearest to the parking lot, happened to be the one that offered the best price. Then we scouted other bookshops and finally reached Palasari's BBC (Bandung Book Centre). As hubby had some more books to find, so we asked Ocen to take us to the next bookstore. Hubby decided to find it at Tobucil (Toko Buku Kecil). We didn't know anything about Tobucil, except that one of my fb friends mentioned it as a nice bookstore. Hubby managed to get its address and phone number using 3G from his handphone. After half an hour of roaming the city, we managed to reach Tobucil.. and we laughed to see how different it was from hubby's expectation. Not buying anything from Tobucil but using its toilet, then we proceeded to the last bookstore - the biggest in Indonesia - Gramedia. But Gramedia Bandung might be small if compared to its Jakarta main store. Here again hubby found nothing to buy. I spotted Gunung Agong signboard on a shopping mall opposite Gramedia, but hubby said that probably the books will not be there as they were not even sold in the bigger Gramedia. So that was the end of our book shopping in Bandung.
BBC the biggest bookstore @ Palasari. Palasari hosts many small bookstores selling discounted books. BBC has many stores throughout Bandung.
Tobucil is in one of the bungalow lots at Jl Aceh
It's selling art n craft materials for hobbyist - ornaments hung at the entrance are origami roses
Toko Buku Kecil
As book shopping has ended, so we entered the era of factory outlet shopping. As recommended by hubby's student again, we went to Toko Tiga. We didn't buy anything as it sold only jeans and casual outfit for 100k-200k. So we asked Ocen to take us to other FO where children's cloth were sold so he took us to Rumah Mode. Again at Rumah Mode, we found out that it also sold only branded clothes (which tags been cut to half or had a hole punched in, like in reject shops), and also almost everything was above 100k. We anyway bought a pair of Minnie Mouse jeans each for the girls as Aisyah looked like wanting it so much. Entering our MPV, I told Ocen that we were not the kind of people who look so much to buy branded clothes, hence the 'no real shopping' at FOs.

Tired, we asked Ocen to take us for dinner, and he took us to Restoran Sangkurieng where Sunda food is served. Here Ocen told us that he didn't want to join our dinner because he already got commission from the restaurant for taking tourists in. We asked the waiter to suggest the dish. The food we had tasted similar to Malaysian food anyway. It so happened that my lab mates were eating just beside our 'pondok'. As in Rumah Mode, the main visitors there were Malaysian people, easily recognized by the way the ladies dressed.
The Conqueror
To conclude about the day, I could say that we were happy to get some of the books we wanted, and amused with our own ignorance about what Tobucil and factory outlets actually were that we learned about it from our experience.

Day 4

I got a runny nose and Asma' got some kind of blister around her lips. I ate a paracetamol thinking to avoid from getting fever.

Morning to afternoon was hubby's presentation session at ITB. I suggested to him that I'd take the children to the zoo which was just opposite ITB during his presentation time so that after his session ended, we could ask a taxi driver to take all of us for some sight-seeing. Thinking of the cost that will be spent at the zoo, I changed my mind to taking the children to stroll Cihampelas street in the morning. Having gone to two FO, I changed my mind that Cihampelas street was actually not bad at all to shop at.

Allowing the children to have as much rest as needed, the children 'took turn' to sleep in the morning and afternoon that I had to cancel my morning plan. I took the children's flu syrup, twice their dose, hoping that it would help me to get better. When hubby returned at around 3, he bought us KFC. As the sisters were sleeping at the time, we shared the chicken with Alfatih only.

We went to Cihampelas Point (Cipo) food court for dinner. This was the only place that did not serve free tea for everyone. We had Nasi Pecel, Somay, Batagor, Soto Sulung, and for drink, Wedang jahe susu, black coffee and chocolate drink for the sisters.

That night, the runny nose stopped but I caught fever to replace it.

Day 5

I woke up in the midnight rushing to the toilet. I got diarrhea. Still feverish, I slept back after Subuh and lying down a lot of time in the morning. Hubby also got diarrhea, but alhamdulillah not the children. We decided that we would't go anywhere in the morning until we checked out of the hotel.
T-shirt (Kaos Bandung) bought at street stall at Cihampelas
Aku lebih suka nenen ibu
12 noon, while leaning against the sofa with half-closed eyes at the hotel lobby waiting for the hotel driver to transfer us to the airport, I decided to take paracetamol again, hopefully I'd got some energy to move home. Alhamdulillah at the airport, my fever subsided and I did not need the toilet rushing anymore, at least until home. But hubby's diarrhea got worse. He rushed to the toilet when people had already lined up to board the flight, and toilet was the first place he went into as soon as we finished the immigration procedure.

After taking back our luggage and changed back our remaining Rupiah to RM in RHB currency exchange, we bought KLIA economy taxi coupon for home and headed straight to the taxi waiting line. It was already dark outside but forgetting to watch for the clocks in KLIA, we thought it was around 1915.

In the taxi, I changed back my handphone clock to GMT+8, only to realize that it was already 1955! Fearing the possibility that we may loose our maghrib time upon reaching home, I told my hubby who also sort of just realized about it. So he asked the taxi driver to drop us for maghrib prayer at any masjid, just to hear the driver answered back that his job is only to send his passenger home. Okay then, as you wish, robot. Both of us were sick, so we just kept quiet hoping that the taxi is fast enough. I wonder if we're a pack of Arab tourists coming to enjoy the 'moderate Islam' in Malaysia, will he entertain our request or turn us down to show off his 'professionalism'. Alhamdulillah we reached home at 1923, allowing us about 15mins before Isya'.

So that's the end of my day-to-day account of our Bandung trip. After this story is uploaded, I'll furnish it with some pictures, and later I'll write about the other subtopics I have listed in the beginning of this story in Malay in another post.