Mountain Myth
Three days in Bandung
Hello dear reader,
I have returned to the scorching hot land of the Olympics, only to find my son’s room flooded, water leaking from one of my neighbours upstairs, source yet to be identified, but I won’t bore you with the details, after all, there are more fun things to do after a 30-hour trip, such as browsing and selecting images and compiling part three of my travelogue.
We’ll start with what I found to be the most fascinating location from our short trip to Bandung, Lembang, namely, Gunung Tangkuban Perahu. We took a CitiTrans Executive Shuttle from Jakarta to Bandung (and back). It’s a van with eight comfy passenger seats, and the fastest (2.5hrs) and most convenient mode of transportation for this kind of trip, I think.
Before I whisk you away to the mountain top, maybe you want to check the previous entries, Labuan Bajo and Bali:
On the first day, we enjoyed our hotel, Gaia, the infinity pool, and an exquisite dinner at their restaurant MonoMono. The next day, we hired a driver for twelve hours to explore the north of Bandung, including Mount Tanhkuban Perahu.
Lucky us, it was a Tuesday and school had already started, so there were not many tourists when we went. Don’t go to Bandung on a weekend, everyone will tell you.
What’s so special about this volcano, apart from it being active? Up until a few years ago, they even let people go down into the crater. This is no longer possible. The volcanic stone is one of the sharpest rocks and according to a guide makes for the best knives, knives that will cut through meat like butter. Maybe it is best not to go down the crater then, those jagged edges look sharp.
Tangkuban Perahu is a stratovolcano 30 km north of the city of Bandung, the provincial capital of West Java, Indonesia. It erupted in 1826, 1829, 1842, 1846, 1896, 1910, 1926, 1929, 1952, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1983, 2013 and 2019. It is a popular tourist attraction where tourists hike or ride to the edge of the crater to view the hot water springs and boiling mud up close, and buy eggs cooked on the hot surface. Together with Mount Burangrang and Bukit Tunggul, it is a remnant of the ancient Mount Sunda after the plinian eruption caused the Caldera to collapse. (wikipedia)
Looks like we’re on another planet, doesn’t it? The pungent smell of sulfur fills our lungs as we stare down into the abyss, thick plumes of rancid smoke rising from its seething pools of yellow ooze.
As with many such places, legend has it, that it was created as a result of a tragedy of epic proportions, a legend that may sound familiar to you.
Sangkuriang is a legend among Sundanese people in Indonesia. The legend tells about the creation of Lake Bandung, Mount Tangkuban Parahu, Mount Burangrang, and Mount Bukit Tunggul. The legend of Sangkuriang tells the story of a young man who falls in love with his mother, which is somewhat comparable to the Greek tragedy Oedipus. (wikipedia)
Fascinating stuff, and surely a source of many inspirations, even though I did not buy any eggs or anything else while up there. I did stub my big toe, not on a sharp rock, but on the heel of my other sandal. The toe bled a lot, something only I can manage, I suppose.
After that legendary visit, we opted for some more ATV action, albeit I stayed behind with a bandaged toe. After that, we went to Orchid Forest, which would have been a serene experience were it not for the bizarre loud music and people shouting at their groups via microphones, some sort of animation of sorts, which killed any notion of tranquillity inside this nice forest, where there are zero orchids to be seen. Weird. Another tourist trap, of which we had enough, esp. after visiting “The Great Asia Africa” as our first stop. That place was so cringe, I spare you any photos or words. Just steer clear of this abomination should you ever visit Bandung.
So we decided to return to the hotel early. We didn’t have much sleep the night before thanks to partying neighbours, which kept me awake until 3 am. We called the front desk around midnight and they called the room, I could hear the telephone ring next door, and then there was a bit of calm afterwards, for about ten minutes.
Long story short, the next day, we talked again with the front desk, and to avoid another sleepless night, they upgraded us to a family loft on the top floor (9th). So nice. Super nice. Complimentary mini-bar, refilled every day for free, beer, wine, coffee, snacks, perfect and calm. So calm. Slept like a baby.
Below are some views, the first image is from the 9th-floor loft, the second is from the noisy deluxe room on the 7th floor, and the third one is from the floor the lobby is on.
It’s a five-star hotel, and although some of the materials used around the building are cheap and show degradation, the overall state of the rooms and facilities is indeed five-star, and so is the service and the prices are more than reasonable. We had our best dinner at MonoMono and it was less expensive (1.3M IDR) than the crappy steaks we had at Holy Cow (1.5M IDR) or the Wagyu we had at el Profesor (1.7M IDR) in Jakarta.
Also, keep in mind, during Happy Hour we paid 330K IDR for FOUR cocktails at the MonoMono bar, super nice ambience, super nice cocktails, super cheap. Can’t recommend Gaia enough if you want to have a short staycation at a nice hotel. Just make sure you get a quiet room outside peak season and if not, talk to the front desk, they may upgrade you. :-)
Normally, I avoid hotel food like the pest. It’s always overpriced and does not taste nice, let’s be honest, aeroplane food is worse, though, and ours was (Qatar food sucks).
MonoMono is a refreshing exception. For one, it’s not run by the hotel and secondly, they offer a nice choice of food from a chef who hails from Peru and has been working all over the world, including in Munich at the Oktoberfest. How do I know? Well, after we had our succulent dinner, he paid us a visit at the table and we chatted for a good ten minutes. Very nice experience. My wife’s mutton chops, while fantastic, had quite a bit of fat, which she cut and left on her plate. My plate was licked clean and so was the one pictured below.
You could tell that every dish was prepared with love and pride and you could certainly see and taste it, and at an affordable price to boot. Perfect. An experience, you’d love to repeat, unlike El Profesor or Holy Cow, two places I would recommend you never visit.
My son had Mac and Cheese as a side dish, and needless to say, he loved it. Without a doubt, MonoMono is the best restaurant we have been to, during our four weeks in Indonesia. Now, there is of course better, for sure, but from the places we have been to, MonoMono stands above all.
And that’s all I have on Bandung. We avoided Bandung proper, because there’s nothing of interest for us there (we have visited Bandung many times before), from factory outlets with fake products to too much traffic, only good to spike your blood pressure.
Maybe, I’ll tell you about the misty tea plantations, the marvellous Situ Patenggang Lake, or the White Crater Ciwidey some other time, all places well worth visiting while in Bandung.
But what about the best Sushi place, you ask?
I’ll make it quick.
Genki Sushi < Sushi Tei < Gion – The Sushi Bar < Sushi Hiro < Shori Sushi. And the winner is?
The Shori Sushi Bar we went to is located inside a very nice new mall in the Suridman Central Business District (SCBD). Enjoy the sushi and then enjoy the view on the rooftop. Shori is hands down the best sushi we had while in Jakarta. Forget Suhsi Hiro and the rest, overpriced and too set in their tracks, out with the old, in with the new. Shori is King.
Likewise, with steak places, most old and many new ones went from good to meh or even worse. The light at the end of the tunnel for us was Gyu-Kaku at Gandaria City. They offer a la carte or all-you-can-eat. If you are starving and don’t mind the time limit, go for the latter. Anything you order will be tasty, guaranteed. Again, in case I wasn’t clear, skip Genki, Gion, Hiro and el Profesor et al. Go to Shori, Gyu-Kaku, and Paulaner Brauhaus. Thank me later.
Final, and most important question. Where to get the best cup of coffee?
It’s tricky.
Say what? In a nutshell, Run DMC is correct. It’s tricky.
Especially if you’re a coffee snob like me, with spoiled, unforgiving, zero-tolerance taste buds. Yep. You see, I already had my perfect unrepeatable, perfect cup of coffee at Lake Toba, on Samosir Island, in North Sumatra back in 2011, when I did that Batik Fashion photo shoot.
Never have I reached that Olympic sensation again. I came close a few times, deploying various tactics, manual Hario grinders and fresh beans brought from faraway lands by kind messengers. This time, I thought would go deep, grind hard, and pour with utmost prejudice, to brew the brew of ages.
The result? Inconclusive. For now, all I can say is that the best cup of coffee is the one you grind and brew yourself, nothing will come even close. I had a lot of awful coffee while in Jakarta, especially in Bali. From the above image I favour the red one and the Mandheling Toba, but… sacrilege, I might experiment by mixing some of these single-origin beans into a special IPF blend. Take the best from each and mix it into something magnificent, unparalleled, or… utterly awful. I will also get an Aeropress and play amateur barista. One has to experiment, yes?
And experiment I shall, with coffee and fiction. Speaking of which. We shall return to our regular fiction posts next week. The final editing of Carter will commence and a print version should be ready this fall on all major publishing platforms. My main focus going forward will then be finishing the first draft of Spherean, which has been lagging as of late. Mea culpa. Before long, I’ll have a new video to share, featuring the “Generic” transport vehicle of the future, that is to say, the future as depicted in Spherean. Below you can find the last Qlev Pod video, in case you have missed it.
One last thing. I have started to go through my camera shots. Thus far, all I have posted are iPhone 11 shots. I might compile a selection of camera shots for a future FotoFriday post if there is interest. Let me know!
That’s all for today. Now back to crisis management, dealing with “dégâts des eaux.”
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Always happy to see more photos. No need to ask about interest :P
Some excellent stuff here. The volcano does indeed look like another world. That's also an incredibly active volcano based on all those eruption dates.
I'd wager I could find you a best cup of coffee here in Melbourne. Rarely does a month go by where I am decrying that I have experienced the best cup of my life (made by others, I must admit).
You paid 13 million for a dinner? 😜
I had so much fun following your trip along. You should get hired to travel to mass tourism destinations by locals frustrated with tourism. 🤣
Talking about not sleeping at night: In Romania I stayed a couple of nights in a soviet era hotel. I was on the 9th floor. The wedding from the terrace across the street kept me awake until 4am. The funny thing is that, at street level, you hardly heard anything because the venue was inside a shopping complex. But the sound propagated like crazy as soon as you went up. Closing the windows didn’t help.