selamat tinggal bandung..

the whole bandung trip was as a whole a huge jumble of emotions and experiences. we had to stay overnight in kl and my mum's friend had a membership with leisure holidays so we managed to get free board at jln ipoh. the condition of the premises was less to be desired of but who am i to complain? we had to move to another apartment suite because the one we were initially given had a disfunctioning toilet and the a/c was out. the new suite wasn't that much of a change though. we still had to manually switch on the a/c and i'd to tweak the toilet contraption for it to be able to flush.

after settling in, everyone moved on to do some warm up shopping at sogo which wasn't too far away. my mum and i didn't actually do any shopping considering we weren't too keen on shopping in kl and carrying all the new stuff to bandung and drag it all the way back again. we did however buy a couple of books (small ones) which my mum had been looking for. we'd normally eat at insaf at jln tar but the rest of the group were more interested in the sogo food court. at least i got to get my mum to sample the yong tau foo there. hehehe. after some more roaming around in semua house, we were back in sogo to have a little snack at secret recipe where i must say the service is not that up to par.

after rounding up the gang, we headed back to our humble (temporary) residence. rested for a bit before deciding to go down and look for food (a.k.a. dinner). i watched on as my mum had some nasi lemak with fried chicken. was waiting for my bff to come by pick me up. since i didn't really want to go far for fear of being locked out, we both decided to have dinner at the nearby dominos. a quick stop to the atm where we bumped into some suspiciously scary duo. had a nice time catching up over our large double crust aloha chicken pizza and parmesan breadstix before my mum signalled to get my a** back. lol!!

the flight to bandung took about 2 hours. omg!! indonesia airasia is such a drag! not to be mean or anything but the plane condition needs improvement and the flight was rather shaky. had the flight been longer, we'd all prolly be throwing up like nobody's business!! hehe. it was my first time to bandung and the airport was really small. after being cleared by immigrations, we had to make a u-turn and get our carry on bags scanned. the same scanner was used to scan all our incoming luggage (from cargo) as well. so everyone was kinda crammed at the edge of the scanner looking for their checked in baggage. it was such a mess!!

our guide/driver was already waiting for us outside the airport (indo: bandara/bandar udara). we all hopped into the van and went to get some padang food for lunch. then the drive to rumah ebo didn't take that long. it was a quiant place. narrow from the front but the length of the overall house was pretty long and it had a pretty little garden in the middle of the house surrounded by a koi pond. as soon as we've settled in, the shopping spree began. we immediately headed for rumah mode, mode plus and natural. honestly, i didn't buy much. the pants i wanted wasn't in my size. the fact that maybe my shopaholic instincts hadn't kicked in yet prolly contributed to it as well. so i obediently tagged along to my mum. dinner was interesting. we had gurame fish soup, fried and grilled gurame fish, fried tofu and tempe with belacan (shrimp paste) and some vege too.

although in general, i felt at peace in bandung, that first night after my mum had fallen asleep, i was just about to join her in slumber when i heard someone slightly knocking on the door. i thought it was my mum's friend who wanted to return the nail clipper she'd borrowed from us but i figured she could always give it back the next morning. after ignoring the knock, i started hearing sounds of wood being scratched. i ignored it and forced myself to sleep. when my mum casually asked her friend if she'd come by last night, her friend thought she was referring to her earlier visit. hhmmm...

day 2 of the shopping expedition, we headed for rich & famous (a.k.a. happening factory outlet) and a couple of other shops at jln dago. had lunch at ibu suharti's fried chicken where they say even the chicken bones are edible and was back at jl. dago to resume the shopping frenzy. the whole stretch was littered with factory outlets which actually more or less sold similar items but there are those different pieces you might not find in the other outlets. our guesthouse was just a stone's throw away from jln dago. so if anyone was thinking of some last minute shopping could just walk up to grande for instance. hehehe.

during day 3, we were brought to pasar bharu. it's pretty much like manila's divisoria mall. approximately 5000 stalls were housed in pasar bharu so you can imagine how confusing it must've been like to roam around. imagine being lost inside with no sense of direction. i bought myself a telekung set (prayer costume) and clothes. if i was of a smaller size, i'd prolly had bought a whole lot more stuff considering the choices they had there. of course i bought some batik perkalongan dasters for myself and one for my bff. i bought this gorgeous dress there too. heheheh. my mum bought 2 sets of gorgeous material for a kurung or kebaya set.

the outlets in jln riau weren't as impressive. although heritage had a good selection of clothes and bags albeit slightly pricier. bought a few stuff at the stamp which was opposite heritage. cascade bore a higher price tag as well. the new outlet, the secret, had a nice mysterious kinda look to it and the clothes were nicely placed. i was actually more interested in the photo frames near the back exit to the garden. hehe. terminal tas was filled with low quality bag imitations which was such a turn off for me. i had high hopes of getting a carry bag (should've bought one at greenhills, manila when i was there in may). fortunately i did grab a lesportsac imi at rumah tas the day before at Rp.135,000.

sunday was all about relaxation. the guide/driver brought us to tengkuban prahu to see the volcano crater (seriously not my thing) after a brief shopping experience at the morning sunday market. while waiting for a couple of the group members who were searching for our missing trooper, we had a quick morning snack at a restaurant (indo : resto) nearby. after the crate we had lunch (at 4pm!!!!!) at kampung daun. the place was cozy and nice. we picked a hut next to the mini waterfall next to the stream. straight from lunch, we went down to the roger's salon, spa and clinic for some pampering. we were lucky enough to be able to stretch our 3pm appointment to our 6pm arrival. lol!! i took this opportunity to do a hair spa, foot spa and ear candling. all that for only Rp.443,500 (~RM160). the foot spa worked wonders for me. my feet were overworked from all the walking and shopping. i jumped at the chance to do the hair spa. it was l'oreal after all. that alone was Rp.150,000 (~RM54) which was cheap by malaysian standards.

unfortunately my mum fell ill that night from food poisoning. we suspected it to be from lunch at kampung daun. i've never seen my mum sick like that before. she was shivering!!! her teeth were chattering and her whole body was shaking. she couldn't even hold a glass of water steadily. i rubbed some vicks vapour rub on her feet and put on her socks to help keep her warm. the next day i told her i'll just go to one store and then go find food so i could stay with her at the guesthouse the rest of the day. i let her rest and sleep while i joined the rest of the group to diaz (a.k.a. bag heaven). the whole time there i felt really bad (and sad) my mum wasn't there cos she was really looking forward to go to this particular store. so i ended up not buying anything and after dropping off the group at jln cihampelas (previously known as jeans street) to indulge in more factory outlets like paris van java and others, i went to get some water, buns and lunch for me and resumed my part as the doted daughter. at the same time i was really thankful that i'd come along to accompany my mum. i can't imagine how she'd be if she'd gone alone.