Shopping in Bandung...woo hoo!

Bandung is basically all about shopping. Coz there, you are a millionaire (literally!), and you can afford Dolce and Gabbana underwear, Aigner bags, Giorgio Armani suits, Just Cavalli T-shirts decorated with in-your-face studded bling-blings, Burberry tops, and Kimora's Baby Phat clothes for your kids! Designer stuff everywhere! We were there 3 days and we hardly exhausted all the Factory Outlets there! Here are some we didn't even enter (see pix below).

BLOSSOM Factory Outlet (Look behind the Angkot)
RAFFLES CITY Boutique Outlet

Before going to Bandung, I did some last minute research, where to go and where to eat in Bandung, and here are some good blogs I found on Bandung:
Bandung: Shopping Paradise
(I didn't go to all the places she went to though, and I have to say if you wanna go shopping, Dago's the best. So many factory outlets within walking distance. She went to Cihampelas, that's where the shops are named after Rambo, and Spiderman and loads of other superheroes. That's where we took our X-Trans back to Jakarta.)
Place to eat at Bandung (A Malaysian perspective)
(I went to Simpang Raya. Mmmm, the moment you enter and sit at a table, plates and plates of food are set before you. Whatever you want to eat, you touch and if you don't wanna, you don't touch. Some are charged by the plate and some dishes are charged by the pieces. E.g. if there are 2 pieces of chicken on a plate, and you only take one. you are charged just one. We sorta misunderstood and ate by the plate. So guess what, we were charged for 4 pieces of chicken, 2 pieces of meat, and can't remember what else. Still, the price was quite reasonable.
I also went to Kartikasari for the brownies and kek lapis. Maybe i tried the wrong brownie coz the brownie was alright but the kek lapis was buttery and moist and simply gorgeous for a whopping Rp109K. When my dad was there, he bought another brand and it was okay, a bit on the dry side but this one....just lovely. mmmmmmmmmm)
I always go check out Trip Advisor if I plan to go anywhere. Click here for Bandung Forum page.

So having done my research, I wrote on a piece of paper I'd like to check out BEC. That's short for Bandung Electric Centre coz I wanted to check out the price of a camera. A Nikon is after all made in Indonesia. I wanted to go to Natural on JL Setiabudi, Uptown on JL Dago, Pasar Baru which opens from 9 - 5, and Renaritti on JL Martadinata. Other FOs of interest mentioned were Grande, Rumah Mode, Cargo and Rich & Famous. I also wanted to check out Distros which were supposedly cooler than FOs.

So did everything go as planned?

Here's what happened:
So we went to Bandung the night before the day we were supposed to go. Arrived there at nearly 10 p.m. Checked in and called it a night. Next morning, we got up, got dressed and breakfast was tasty. The selection was small but boy, was it tasty! It was made up of fried mee-hoon (vermicelli noodles), porridge, fried rice, fruits, and bubur pulut hitam. Yummy!

We asked the bellboy the whereabouts of Pasar Baru and apparently it was like a 10 to 15 minute walk away. Cool! No need to get a cab. So we walked in the direction pointed to us and we could see banks and lots of hardware stores. Kedaton Hotel is really like in the old part of town. You also see push carts laden with car parts:
I wanted to take some photos but we've ran out of batteries. (The pix above was taken the next day.) So, first thing on the agenda was to go get some batteries. Here's the electrical shop we bought it from.
Just a door away was a stationery shop which sold batteries for much cheaper. Dang! Anyway, Zul asked the seller what road were we on? She said / ʌ be t∫eɪ/ . We did a double take. What!? She pointed at the signboard across the road.

Oh, Jl. ABC.

Okay then we walked straight up the opposite direction of Pasar Baru and guess what, electrical shops lined both sides of the road!
Apa lagi, I went in and out asking about cameras. Alas, nothing beat the price of a Canon in Mangga Dua. As we walked the road back to where Pasar Baru was, we came across a wool shop. 1 big roll costs about Rp5000.00 so I bought 4 different coloured wools for Fatemah, who crochets well.
I also bought a cake tin in shape of a teddy bear.
Hahaha, I am not your regular shopper. In Jakarta, I bought a cake tin in shape of a car. There you go, that should make both Inez and Mika happy. To date, I have not made any cakes yet though. 8)
Anyway, sorry, silau laa this pix. Haha if you want a headache, just stare at this picture for 15 seconds. The car cake tin pix is slightly better. Forgive me for being an amateur photographer.

So we then made our way to Pasar Baru, wading our way through a crowd of people. I think we spent like 4 to 5 hours there. My friends wanted me to get for them some Kebaya material and so here's one of 'em. This one costs Rp150K. Or Rp 130K. Gosh, how quickly I forget. You can get a whole 'pasang' i.e., that is cloth for both top and bottom for Rp100 the cheapest I've come across. But, the quality is different. I have also come across really exclusive looking kebaya tops that cost millions of Rupiahs. So it really depends on how much you are willing to spend.
So, anyway, I bought everything on the first day. No intention of going back to Pasar Baru, unless really necessary. And we did return, coz Zul wanted to get belakon for his friends. The same belakon costs Rp80K at the Jakarta airport. If you buy enough, you get discount up to Rp15K per belakon. It's this traditional batik jawa type Songkok. Sorry no pix.

Then it was back to the hotel. We asked the hotel people again where to go if we wanted to have a good lunch. They recommended a place called Dapurku. We kinda lost our way on our way there but came across other interesting finds like this antique store.
We actually wanted to ask for directions to dapurku but got sidetracked. I ended up buying a Russian doll-like Indonesian doll. It actually doubles up as a container of sorts, and you can actually store your rings or brooches in there, but it's not that cheap. I haggled until I got it for Rp100K.
It's much bigger than the Russian dolls I got. I love Russian dolls. I have 2. And sometimes I let the kids play with them coz it teaches them the concept of size and allows them to create stories. They weren't cheap either. I bought them for like 30 Euros. Oh dear my memory is going. But that was years ago, 2002.

We finally found Dapurku. We were so hungry. Here's what it looks like from the outside.

The first thing we saw from the entrance was the food counter.

From the entrance, to the right is like a tuck shop selling all the traditional kerepek:
What it looks like inside the restaurant (pix below):
What we ate:
When you go to the counter, you point at stuff, and they will cook or heat up the food you ordered and bring to your table. The fish really tasted like otak2 if you are from Johor, or Sata if you are from Trengganu but spicier. Price: Rp51 920 for two.
Food: Yummy. Me, I love the sambal. I take the opportunity to eat their chilli sambal wherever I eat. Mmmmmmm.

Next stop, Dago street. First FO, was Uptown.
Will blog later.