Delightful Bandung

It's a good thing I'm still in touch with my friends from junior college. We often travel together and our holidays are always filled with fun and laughter. We've just returned from Bandung, capital of West Java province in Indonesia, and are already planning our next trip. The way things are going, this is turning out to be a yearly event.

Thanks to GC, our head planner, the trip went exceptionally well. The driver cum tour guide is polite, highly efficient and extremely patient.

The flight from Singapore to Bandung is about 2 hours. The airport at Bandung is so tiny, by the time we got to the customs, the queue was already spilling out of the airport. Some people were lining up on the tarmac under the hot sun. It was quite an amusing sight.

We wanted to spend the first half of our trip outside of the city, so Irwan suggested Garut - about 75km away from Bandung City. Garut is an Old Dutch hill station and a characteristic Sundanese town in the highlands, surrounded by mountains, volcanoes, and crystal clear lakes.

Enroute to our lunch destination, we stopped to buy sweet potatoes grown in their rich and fertile volcanic soil. These sweet potatoes have been baked for several hours and were exceptionally sweet!

Fermented tapioca (below) is a local delicacy which has a sweet and sour taste. It smelled rather strange and we gave it a miss.

 We were so enamoured with the sweet potatoes that I bought 1kg (for S$1) of raw ones back to Singapore. 

Irwan bought us to this amazing place in Nagreg for lunch. Asep Stroberi (Asstro) restaurant, located at Jalan Raya Nagreg Number 145, serves Sudanese food in traditional wooden gazebos facing padi fields and lush scenery.

 

 They have a strawberry farm which allows visitors to pick their own fruits but we only found out after we have left the restaurant.

 We were treated to fabulous views in all directions.

 

 The food did not disappoint. The strawberry and avocado juice were delicious. According to the locals, most of the local produce are grown organically. 

So happy to be here!

 I like how they toss in herbs, leaves and chilli to add flavouring to the rice. We should do this at home too!