Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Don't tell my mom part 1

*Warning, long post ahead.

Yes, the title is right, what I am about to tell you, please don't tell my mom. Though none of you knows her anyway..hahaha.. I will tell her personally later when she comes to KL this weekend :P

It was April, and I was stressed for some reason, and so happened Air Asia have yet one of those deal, and guess what, I booked a returned ticket for myself to BANDUNG in Dec!!! Me, myself and I. I did not even considered to ask another single soul to go with me. As the months gone by, I slowly looked up online, what so great about Bandung (save the shopping aside). Come November, the month flew very quickly. Things has been hectic at work with one thing came up after another, and next thing I know, it D-7!! I have not even secured a hotel booking. I was looking for few options and has been in contact with few places, but seems like they are all fully booked by now. One of the contacts gave me another options and alhamdulillah they still have available room. I didn't even bother to look up any further, and confirmed my booking right ahead.

Few days before the trip, I was tied up at work (who isn't?) and on the Thursday (1st) and Friday (2nd) we have the long awaited departments away day at Gopeng. My flight scheduled to depart from LCCT on Friday 7.15pm. So there I was cracking my head, how do I get to LCCT from Gopeng, the chartered bus only left Gopeng at 2pm, straight to PD. So I decided to give the second day activity a miss. So here's what my time looks like on Friday.

1100H : took from Gopeng to KL (jam somehow along the highway, only reached KL around 2pm)
1415H : board a bus to LCCT at the newly renovated Puduraya 
1600H : reached LCCT, took my own sweet time to have late lunch while waiting for the flight
1930H : board the flight (yes, as usual delayed Air Asia flight)
2100H : reach Bandung (local time, Malaysian time is + 1 hour)

The thing is, I didn't even printed the guesthouse contact no, I just remembered its name, and what if they forgot to pick me up? I did not bring my laptop, my phone is not 'smart', so there is no way I can access the net if at all I need to upon arrival. Better yet, all those things that I looked up online, all those places that I wanted to go, remain as a list in my laptop....yes , I totally forgot to print out my plan.

So there I was, in the plane, with a bleak vacation plan...serve me right!! Maybe if I had told my mom, none of this would have happened.. :P Oohh ya, at this point, only some people in the office knew that I am going to Bandung alone (plus my 2 sisters, I warned them not to tell mom yet, as sometimes she worries about nothing).

So okay, to cut the story short, the driver from the guesthouse did picked me up and I arrived safely in Bandung. I was suprised to find out that the guesthouse is actually in the middle of a pesantren!!

3rd Dec 2011

When I looked up for places to see in Bandung, this one caught my attention, Observatorium Bosscha. Maybe because I was partly interested in looking up the skies in the dark night trying to find the stars (don't ask me about constellation, I have no clue!!) . I hired a driver to send me to this observatory and we got there at 0800H. The visits starts at 0900H, so I killed time by having some walk around the area. Like any other observatory, it is situated at higher ground, and at this altitude and weather, the surroundings are just breathtaking!!
radio tower not for radio station, staffs quarters, and the main structure that keeps the giant telescope
The visit starts with a brief explanation by this lovely undergrad student of Institute Teknologi Bandung, as the observatory is a research center managed by the university. Later we were brought to the main telescope, another student took over and explained about how it functions. This is apparently the largest telescope in South East Asia, to date. Thailand is in progress of constructing a bigger one now.

I must say its a worth visit and such a pity that not many promotions are done to attract more outside tourist to the observatory. All the visitors are local people and from what I gather from the 'satpam' @ pak guard, only a handful of Malaysian visitors make a stop at this observatory, and they are mainly students.

The visit finishes around 1100H and I asked the driver to drop me at Gedung Merdeka for a little walk around the town. When we reached there, they are closed for lunch and without wasting any time, I find my way to Pasar Baru. I didn't plan for a mega shopping spree, but I do bought some stuffs there. I dare not took out my camera at the market, security reasons..hehehe...

From Pasar Baru, I was asking around on how to get back to the guesthouse. So in the end I took a 'beca' that cost me RP 20,000 (I know it was way overpriced, but I considered it as sedekah anyway) and the beca driver finds me an 'angkot' that goes straight to Geger Kalong, the district where I stayed. 'Angkot' is actually a modified van that could take up to 15 passengers at one time. The fares ranges from RP 1,500 to RP 4,000 depending on destination. They have specific route, and I think its the most cost effective mode of transportation. On the roadside, there is all sorts of people doing all sorts of things to make a living. At any traffic lights, the 'angkot' will be approached by either junk food sellers or 'pengamen'. 'Pengamen' is their version of street performer, except that they did not just stay put at one place, they roam around the street. This guy actually sang quite well. When the lights turned green, he will hand out a cup, and depending on the passengers, we can choose to pay, but from what I see, they seldom gets anything.
I didn't dare to take his photo face to face... :D
I went back, dropped the stuffs and went out again. This time to a shopping mall, Istana Plaza, I was only looking to draw some cash since I have spent most of my rupiah at Pasar Baru :P Somehow I was carried away and stepped into music store. After choosing few DVD, upon making the payment, I was short of cash!! I quickly ran to the nearest ATM, and guess what, my transaction was rejected!! I still have some RM, and I was trying to find a money changer, and none was available nearby. At last I have to split the payment between cash and debit card.

After that minor crisis, I board onto an 'angkot' and went back. That night, I was doing quite a detail calculation to make sure I still have enough cash to pay the guesthouse, and to go back...hahaha....

Will I have enough cash? what do I do next? stay tuneeddd........ ;)

8 comments:

  1. My mouth is zipped..lol!
    Omg Jeet, such a hilarious adventure!!! Cant wait till ur next entry.
    Also i faced more or less the same situation like u a couple of yrs back while vacationing with a few girfriends in Bangkok. Dah la i tak activate overseas banking, only credit card activation, pastu pulak i literally ran out of cash. I balik dulu, while my friends stayed behind. Malu betul kena pinjam cash dorang. Clise to RM500 jugak la i borrowed. Sampai jer MY i terus transfer online duit tu to my friend's acc...

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  2. Heyyyy! Not long enough!!! Hahaha. Yah, cant wait for the next entry. :)

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  3. Jeet
    Bak sini nombor telepon your mum. I nak berbicara dgn dia sat. Takleh jadi nih pegi sorang2 cenggitu...

    Having said that, I salute you lah cos you very da brave. Coincidentally, your flight out to Bandung, time tu juga my son landed safely at LCCT. He went there with his sedara mara..all 13 of them -CS-

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  4. maya, thrill ek vacation camtu..hehehe..but are those lesson learnt? takkan nak bawak cash bnyk2, bahaya pulak kan? ;)

    faiz, next one lagi panjang, coming right up :P

    CS, sshh....bukan selalu i buat benda daredevil cenggini,
    kebetulan betul your son kat situ jugak,so ole-ole apa dari bandung yang CS dapat? ceritain dong~~

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  5. you are right, this adventure is the sort thing that you don't tell your mother about. Even when I went to India with one friend pun, my parents risau, apa lagi gi sorang2. good thing you told your sis.

    tapi exciting kan bila explore bandar yang asing macam ni. surprises at every turn.

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  6. yup, i think partly to blame is our asian culture, mak bapak susah nak percaya especially single ladies like us, kalo mat saleh anak back pack after high school, kicik punya hal ^_^

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  7. Ya Rabbi Jeet!
    Buleh dia pergi sorang2.. pastu siap dengan tak print satu mende pon. Adoi la!

    But seriously, saya memang sungguh respek dengan your sense of travel and adventure! *tabek!*

    *you got me hooked up with this travel, off to read more*

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  8. aida..hehehe...dah terbiasa jalan sorang2, so x terasa pelik, am going to plan more solo journey in d future, tapi not this year kot, ongkosnya udah kurang kok ;)

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“Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~ William Arthur Ward...

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