The Deadly Volcano Trip in Bandung

It really makes me wonder... Why on earth did I agree to go to search for the volcano????

I nearly DIED along the way! No kidding! Yah! I still shiver whenever I thought about this trip...

Well, it all happened on one fine Monday morning... Whereby Weewee decided to bring us to do some sightseeing at one of the famous Volcano in Bandung.


We drove all the way up there... The breeze was cooling and the scenery was superb! All seemed to be a nice fine day for me! I was really enjoying myself!



We stopped the car in mid-hill and took some pictures of the beautiful scenery!



I was really enjoying myself and was feeling so pleased that I actually thought that I like this place a lot...

Never did I know that I would get such a NIGHTMARE!!

Well.......... When we reached the top of the volcano, we were astounded by the amazing view that we wanted more of it! We took some pictrues and aren't they amazing??






The scenery looked just like those pictures right out from my Secondary 2 Georgraphy Text book!

Just then, a local tour guide met up with us. Obviously he saw that we were facinated by the view and asked us whether we would like to venture down to the bottom of the volcano whereby we would be able to touch the hot water and be really close to the ground....

"15 minutes only!" The tour guide assured us....

So, I presumed that the trip would be a short one, since it would only take us 15 minutes .... Me, Clement, Weewee, Sean and Media decided to follow. Elsie and Emil will stay behind as Elsie wore high heels shoes that day. (Lucky her!!!)


At first, the trip down-hill seemed ok... I was wearing a high platformed shoes as well, but I thought that the trip would be a short one, thus I continued to walk ahead bravely...

Along the way, I tried to take pictures to distract me from the leg pains... At that moment, I still could smile and take picture with Media... She was better off cos she was wearing sport shoes and she was much healthier than me anyway...



It was only 10 minutes later that I started to feel the strains... The steps downhill was not easy. There were not proper stairs nor steps, just soil and stones. With my high platformed shoes, I really can't balance myself properly and started to hold Clement's hand tightly. Then I started to lean onto him and felt dizzy... It was then that I felt that I can't walk further. But then, we were already right in the middle of the hill. There were no turning back for me liao!

I started to want to cry!!! Poor poor me!!! Why did I land myself into such Sh*t??!!!

Luckily I got my Clement to hold on to... He was really good cos he was strong enough to hold me and encourage me when I really cannot walk further. He even insisted to carry me! I think his hands must be even more tired-out cos I used his hands to support myself when I was climbing down the steps... Very tedious to be my bf lah... Cos I am such a WEAK girl.. :-(

Then as if to try to make me laugh, he and Weewee started to do funny pose for my camera... Hahha!!! But still, I really felt so sad that I wanted to cry out loud and just die there! I can't walk any further liao lah!!!




Then finally, me and Clement reached mid-hill... (WTF!!! Only mid-hill???!!!) I nearly wanted to give up and stayed there forever... At that moment, I can't turn back, and I really got no strength to carry on down... And the thought of having to climb all the way back up again terrified me!!!


No choice lah... I took a deep breath and continued to walk downhill.. They all knew that I was struggling and I think they secretly pitied Clement for having me as a burden! (Boohoo... sob sob!!) Sean walked so fast that it was technically impossible to catch up with him... Weewee pitied me and tried to stay with me and walked behind me.

But then...

As if I was not worse enough..... !!!!!!!

THERE WERE BEES!!! And some bees started to follow me and buzzed around me! I was so SCARED!!! I screamed and screamed and screamed!!! I had to move fast so that the bees won't follow me, but I CAN'T!! Cos I just sprained my ankle and was already trying very hard to continue the track... I was really in a terrible state and the bees had to come at this particular moment to disturb me!!

I NEARLY NEARLY COLLAPSED THERE!!!

My tears were flowing now and I really couldn't see the steps anymore... I just hold onto Clement's hand and my body just leaned all onto him... He basically "carried" me down hill... Poor him... Cos I think he must be feeling superly tired too...

Finally, I reached THE PLACE! I cursed under my breath and wiped away my tears... This place better be good! Or else, I am not going to walk anymore! I would rather they leave me there to rot with the stones than to climb up the steps again!

Weewee, Sean and Media were there before us and they started to take some pictures liao...



Nothing fantastic though... Maybe I was really too tired and angry at that moment to enjoy the scenery. That stupid tour guide told us that this trip down hill would only take 15 minutes, remember? Well, F*ck him then! It took me 1-hour to reach the bottom!!!



Clement decided to try the "hot spring".. Which was actually water boiled due to the heat below... Weewee really cannot stand the hotness and look at his expression! Hahaha!



Both of them decided to "act cool" and pose for a picture. Actually they were feeling terrible as the water literally "boiled" their feet!!!


Well, what can I say? Except that I am glad that I survived the trip down hill to this deserted stony place with only hot water and the pungent sulphuric smell...


I forced myself for a group photos and my mind was devastated at the very thought of having to climb back UP again...

Can I just live right there and not walk anymore???!!! My ankle was swelling and I broke my toe-nails along the way down... PAIN is just not enough to describe my sufferings at that moment...

But of course, I can't lah... I still had to continue to walk back up...

I felt like my whole life had ended right there and I started to hallucinate... I remember I was at Bukit Timah Hill playing Treasure hunt during my JC days in the Leo Club... I remember climbing Phuket hill...

The steps went up up up... And I climbed up up up.... I couldn't talk nor smile nor do anything except to take my mind off the tracks....

Luckily, at the mid-hill, there was a proper road whereby small vans earn money by ferrying tried tourists (like me) back up hill...

GOOD!!! As if God has finally saw my sufferings and heard my pleas... I was not fated to die there!!! Yahahahaha!!!!


This was the final picture before I boarded the small mini-van back up to the place where I started this nightmare.

In summary:

Damages: Sprained ankle, broken toe-nails, muscle-ached hand, shaking legs, bee-phobia, torn shoes (my fav shoes from BKK!!) and a broken spirit...

Gains: Er... Nothing much, except to know that I got a very STEADY boyfriend who is fit enough to carry me all the way!!! And to brave the bees with me!! Yahaahha!!!

Thus, in conclusion....

A million-dollar question: Would I Go Back To This Place AGAIN?

Friends, Shopping, Eating, etc! - Bandung & Jakarta

On our first day in Jarkata, Emil brought us to lunch at a seemingly popular eating place called Pondok Laguna! I liked the food there, especially the famous Gurame (Deep-fried fish), TH Kipas (Doufu)... We also ordered Ayam Goreng (fried chicken), Kangkung and Cumi Goreng (cannot remember what this was liao!).

Sean had a very nice meal and he ordered Avolcado drink for me... Strange taste but ok lah, still drinkable... The whole meal costed only $45, including drinks... Quite reasonable lah...

Then later that night, Emil brought us to another eating place in town, called Waroeng Chamoe-Chamoe, Ikan Bakar Woku Manado...


There is a live stroller group of 5 musicians, roving from tables to tables, singing songs to entertain the diners. When it was our turn, knowing that we were Chinese, they sang "Xiao Wei" for us! Hahaha.... Sounded very weird... We carried on eating and decided to ignore them. This is just not my style to listen to people singing right in front of me while I am eating... I hated it!!! I felt so weird to know that a group of 5 people were staring at me while I was devouring my food!

But the food was nice lah. Normal Sundanese food lor...

We drove to Bandung on the 2nd day and we had to drop Elsie at her house and return her car first before going to Media's house. Below picture is a shot taken at Elsie's house while we were resting... She got a nice place and the house looked very 80's to me. Very cosy and quiet. Her father was home and he was very nice to us, bring us some CNY snacks and drinks. He was shy cos he couldn't speak English at all.


After some rest and toilet break, we proceed to Media's house. Along the way, however, the guys decided to do some shoes-shopping! They told me that there is a very famous Shoe-house in Bandung and it was worth buying there...


Tada! This is the place! DONATELLO! Sound so Stylo!!! The whole building was theirs and the place looked quite grand, compared with those old shophouses besides it...


So it was shopping time for the guys... I was tempted to look around at first, but I had already had many many pairs of shoes and my place was bursting with un-used shoes that I had to stop myself from buying any new shoes... Anyway, Donatello specialised in Men's Shoes, from what I gathered....

Anyway, Clement bought a pair of sandals (to replace his old broken one) and Sean bought a pair of snickers... Quite cheap though!

After shopping, we finally reached Media's house and met up with Media and Chavela, who flew directly to Bandung by themselves.


From there, Weewee drove us to check into Sangria Spa & Resort (See earlier post on "Nice Scenery") before coming back to Media's house to eat reunion dinner with her family. We had such a good time playing with fire crackers! (See post on "CNY Eve Fireworks")


After the fire crackers, we decided to play pool... Weewee bought this pool-table from a friend at a good price but had hardly played it cos he got no one to play with. It was fun to play pool after so long and we played till late into the night before heading back to Sangria resort...

The 2nd day was very relaxing... Me and Clement went for massage and slept throughout the day until Elsie called us to date us out for the night.

By the way, I had a BAD HAIR-DAY cos there were no conditioner in Sangria and the hair dryer was too weak to blow-dry my hair. Thus I HAD TO WEAR AN UGLY HAIR-BAND!! I looked so horrible that I nearly died on the spot!!! Elsie and the rest were all nicely dressed and look at me! I felt like an ugly duckling standing beside them!!!

Anyway... Ugly or not, We decided to try the roadside stalls along Lembang. Heard the food there was safe to eat, unlike Bandung and Jakarta's.

So we tried the grilled glutinous rice called "Ketang". It was a glutinous rice, moulded into a rectangular block and was being grilled on a grill. In the above picture, I was holding onto a plate of Ketang (that white rectangular block on the plate) and we can choose our own sauces to go with the rice. The seller had about 4 different kinds of sauces: peanut sauce, spicy sauce and 2 others which I can't remember.. Customers are free to choose which one they prefer and poured the sauces over the rice and eat it... Taste ok lah, very plain... Well, it was just a piece of rice with some sauces to go with.

This was cheap! Only 2500Rup, which amounted to about 40 cents per piece. But I guess I might not want to eat this again, cos the seller used her bare hands to hold the rice and put it onto the grills and constantly flipping it.. All this done without any gloves. She then used the same hand to take money from us. Hahahah!!!

By the way, Emil's younger brother and his gf joined us too. But they couldn't speak English, thus I could not communicate with them. Most of the time, we were talking to Elsie and she was the translator and "facilitator" for this whole trip... Elsie went to Australia for her Degree thus, she could speak good english...

After eating Satay at a place called Sate Ayam Asli (costed us about S$14 for 6 persons. Very cheap!) we decided to check-it-out at Malya, a famous Hotel in Bandung. Clement had been there before and initially he wanted to book into this hotel cos he liked the scenery alot. But the hotel was fully booked and also too expensive.


(I still can't stand my ugly "hairband" look!!! Argg... So UGLY!!!)


Anyway, we reached Malya hotel and true enough, this place offers good scenery and very nice atmosphere... We wanted to have a drink at Malya, but the lobby seemed deserted with no attendant at all... Remembering that we pass-by a new hotel when we were driving to Malya, we decided to check-out this new hotel.

We left Malya and reached the new hotel, called The Ardjuna Boutique Hotel and Spa. It was newly opened in Oct 2004 and it still looked very new.

We saw a nice hut and decided to drink coffee there. And again, we ordered 6 drinks and the total bill was only S$16!


(I still hate my hair!!!)


We had a good time at Ardjuna Hotel that night that me and Clement decided to check into this hotel on Monday, after checking out Sangria. But.... the unexpected happened!!! (See earlier post on "Nice Scenery")

Well the last few days went by very fast.... See other posts...

On our last day, which happened to be Media's Birthday (See post on "Media's Birthday Celebration"), we went to buy some cakes and kuehs to bring back to Singapore. We went to a few cake shops and then, so unfortunately, Weewee's car broke down at this last cakery.

So, Weewee had to call for car-repair service while we waited together with him. Then after like 20 min, Media's Mum came to pick us up to buy cake back home. So me and Media went with her mum, while the guys waited for the repairman....

By the way, after the whole 7 days trip, I only could remember a few local dishes like "Gurame, Bak Mie, Mie Baso, Ayam Goreng, Nasi Goreng".... And also the nice nice ice-cream kacang Media's Mum treated me when we were at a cake shop buying the cake! Yum yum!!!

Media's Birthday - In Bandung

Coincidentally, it was Media's birthday on 1 Feb and that was also our last day in Bandung. Her family decided to bring her out for dinner and then back home for the cake-cutting celebration...

The restaurant was at a place, called Cihampelas Walk, which I feel was slightly similar to the Xin-Tian-Di in Shanghai. There are a lot of young and chic shops around there. Of course the restaurants and cafes are mostly foreign brands, obviously catering to the foreigners. And I think, this place also caters to Chinese cos there were alot of Chinese New Year decor and the whole place looked very nice at night.



The restaurant that we will be going is called Glosis, which is a famous place for steaks.


There's a live jazz music on stage and Clement took the opportunity to dedicate a birthday song to Media! See how embarrassed she was when the singer congratulated her and sang her a birthday song! Media was too shy to go on stage though...



After the dinner, we decided to take a walk outside. The kids were thrilled at the Chinese New Year decor set outside the place and the 3 of them started running around and climbing onto the stage area...



I think, if Chavela can run, she too would join the kids! Hahahah!





Chavela refused to be brought down the stage! She was definitely having a good time!!!




Finally, we managed to get the kids to go back and we celebrate Media's birthday again at her home... Media's Mum bought this ice cream cake at a famous cake-shop (forgot the name again!)


One big happy family!!!


A happy min-family!!


Sing Birthday song....


Blowing candles!


And cutting the cake!


That's the end of her birthday celebration!

And do you know why my dear dear is so happy? Cos he is wearing a newly-bought shirt, which we bought at Rumah Mode (The Factory Outlet)!

Chay!

Manicure + Pedicure + Hair Treatment - All in Bandung!

Shiok right?

Me and Media went for full package manicure and pedicure session on my last day there in Bandung. I was feeling terrible after that stupid Volcano trip (See previous post on "Deadly Volcano Trip")... Thus, in order to cheer me up, Clement suggested that I go for hair treatment and pampered myself to forget the pains.... (wow, sounded so serious hor!)

Anyway, I was not expecting much though... Cos this town seemed simple and thus, I expected their service to be so-so only...

But I was wrong!

"The Cream Bath" (or we called it The Hair Treatment in Singapore) consist of 4 steps : Wash, Massage, Apply cream and then Steam. The massage was great! The hairdresser not only massage the head, they massage the neck, back and both hands!!! Wow! We had to change into a "tube-top" so as to allow them to masage the shoulder and upper back.

But I was lazy, so I requested not to change and they just massage my head, neck and both arms and hands. So SHIOK!!!


Then while I was having my hair done, another lady was doing my pedicure and manicure... At first, it was very funny. She can't speak English, thus, most of the time, I had to use my hand-language to communicate to her. Unless needed to, Media will help translate...

The manicure and pedicure was done quite well. They scrub, clean cuticles, and trim and polish the nails. One flaw is that they did not have professional nail polish and they didn't have the top coat and last coat polish. After cleaning, they just apply the nail polish onto the nails directly.


And they use Revlon nail polish instead of professional nail polish. Thus, the polish wear off easily... Mine wore off already by now...



But apart from the flaw, all was done very nicely... We took about an hour and a half for the whole hair treatment cum manicure cum pedicure....

And guess the cost of this pampering session??

Only about S$13!!! COOL!!!