Selalu Ada Cerita di Bandung

Oh my god, is it August already? Time does fly fast! Tomorrow I'll be going back to Jogja to start my (hopefully) last round of my university life. I'm so stoked because I still have little projects here and there to accompany me and myself while finishing study because, well, single lady here everyone! If only I still had a boyfriend back in Jogja, I could probably do something productive. But hey, I've got a list of fun activities for the rest of the year and I'm looking forward to it!

So since I'm getting back soon, my family decided to take a holiday last weekend to Bandung. It was on my request because I have a friend named Ranji who has shown me a lot of Bandung's beauty through his Insta story and I just feel like visiting the city. I haven't visited the city of Bandung itself for years now. Last year I did visit Lembang though but it's different. Too bad I couldn't see Ranji in person myself because I'm dying to! He's a been a very helpful friend slash tour guide :p I would like to thank Grand Tjokro for taking care my family for the staying, it was a very warm welcome and we had so much fun staying there. 10/10 would definitely stay at Grand Tjokro again! Psst, my mom love the buffet menu, lol. Too bad I couldn't take a lot of pictures of the room we stayed in because I was too exhausted once we reached the hotel and my family just scrambled here and there too so it wouldn't look so nice, would it?

If you guys follow my Instagram or Snapchat, you'd probably notice the new presence of my new friend, Poyo! I was walking in Cihampelas when I passed by Istana Boneka and this cute baby was stacked like a pyramid on the front door! It was love at first sight, and I quickly went into the shop and took one home and named him Poyo because he reminds me so much of Poyo the round cat (that anime, you know?). I took a picture of it and showed it to my ex because we love Poyo and I thought he still loved round things too but he didn't sound so impressed so yeah, poor him. Amazing how break up can show you true colors of a person.

As much as I love travelling to places, I'm not one who seeks local foods with high demand. I mean, tourists like me would go crazy on finding local foods and try each one of them. But for me, it's always visiting places with breath-taking and picturesque view because the biggest reason for me to travel is to take a lot of beautiful photos, including my own photos lol. Narcissism alert! I'm just being the millenials that I am :p One of the many places Ranji recommended me to go, I decided to choose Lawangwangi as my first destination because when I looked up the place on Google, it looked nice. It kinda reminds me with the upper part of Kaliurang back in Jogja, you know the kind of view where you get to overlook the city from up above and the city light glimmers in the horizon. The place totally screams my name, I can tell. But it took almost an hour from the city center all the way up to the upper part of Dago where Lawangwangi is.

Lawangwangi itself is an uphill restaurant-cafe and also an art space. I must warn you about their way too overpriced food and beverages tho. I love foods, I review them every so often in this blog and I'm sensitive about it. I was surprised that with such high mark-ups like that, even the foods don't taste well. They totally need an improvement because I ordered something that says grilled chicken steak, but the chicken was so thin and white like it's been boiled, it was dry, and it was hella bland. It comes with a handful fries and a thankfully delicious olive oil salad but still, the price I had to pay for my food was just ridiculous. I think they just win people over with their breath-taking view.

If you're lucky, a small exhibition will accompany your visit

Second day in Bandung, ready to seized the day

When I visit Bandung, the first thing that comes to my mind is to take a photo here in the famous tunnel in Jalan Asia Afrika. I've seen gazillions of it scattered in Instagram and I just have to take one too! Sounds silly but hey, that's what tourists do! It was really a struggle tho, because it's a damn tunnel, vehicles passed by every second and I only had my dad around to take my photos and he just doesn't really understand how to operate my camera well so this was try number xxx after the so many failed outcome lol. And the wind didn't help either, I was struggling to keep my hair pretty.

Tourists gather around in Jalan Asia Afrika because that's where all the good stuffs are. Like this one wall art located not so far from the tunnel. I just had to take a photo in here too because the drawing reminds me with my faculty's art group.

The main course of my short getaway has to be this; Kawah Putih. I've never been to Kawah Putih before and I didn't know where it was or how it looked like at first until my father took us all there and oh my god, I was lost for words. It was so beautiful, so mesmerizing, very indescribable. It was very cold there though and I was wearing a mini dress with no sleeves which I covered with only one layer of cardigan so you can guess it right that I was freezing to death. Took us two hours from the city center because the place is quite high in the hill. Again, gotta warn you with the ridiculous amount of money you have to spare if you bring your car with you, because they're gonna charge you for IDR 150K. And don't forget to wear warm clothes!

I originally wanted to make a vlog out of this holiday, I even had it started on our way to Bandung but had to cancel it anyway because I lost the motivation to make one in the middle of the way lol. Besides, it's not that fun if I recall, though I get to visit some places I've never been to in Bandung but it was very tiring and well, tiring. But that's how holiday supposed to be, right? Always with its ups and downs. I'm just glad that I could spend some time with my family before I return to Jogja tomorrow. And possibly meet this Bandung guy that I've been dying to see because he's in Jogja now lol. Next time I post a new post, I'll be in Jogja!