Last December my family and I went to Indonesia, Jakarta precisely, to spend Christmas with my mother and brother. I know it’s a bit late to write about this, but as life gets a bit busy here I finally managed to post this now. Like the saying, better late than never….
Anyway my boys and I flew together, for hubby still got work to finish. He came five days later and left a day earlier before us. Six days is enough for him, since he doesn’t like Jakarta. He doesn’t like the crazy traffic jam, the pollution, and no beaches or parks nearby, and he is not into shopping malls and night life 🙂 We stayed at my mother’s house, it was the first time the boys staying at their Oma’s house since my mother moved to a new house three years ago.
While we were in Jakarta, beside visiting some relatives and catching up with my dearest friends we also went to Bandung and Tanjung Lesung. Two weeks was short enough when I tried to squeeze every thing in, from meeting with my friends, family, taking the boys to some places where they can be wild (definitely not the shopping malls!), pampering myself in this case, massage and creambath, eating here and there, and of course a bit of window shopping tee hee 🙂 I’d like to apologise to some of the bloggers in Jakarta that I’ve known that this time I didn’t make time to meet up with some of you. I guess being in the festive season it was a bit hard to try to catch up as everyone was busy or was on holiday. Next time I’m in Jakarta, surely we gotta plan to catch up!
So, here are the highlights of our holidays and pictures for you to enjoy.
1. Bandung, West Java
Sindang Geulis Kahuripan
I haven’t visited Bandung for such a long long time. I can’t even remember when was the last time I went there. We left Jakarta as early as 7 am, my brother was the designated driver for the whole trip, while my mother, the boys, and myself were the passengers. Before we reached Bandung we stopped at this place called Sindang Geulis Kahuripan . I first saw this place in IG and it looked so gorgeous. Little that I know that this place is not touristy at all (which is better) but also it’s so hard to get there. First, after asking so many people for the direction we finally got to the area close by. Some of them said that we should hire an ojek (motorbike) because the access to go there is so rocky and hard to reach. Being a smart city person who thinks they just wanted money, I refused the offer. So, we continue until about 2 km then my brother’s car could not get up anymore. The road is so rocky and muddy. Unless we have four wheel drive then we’ll be ok. So…what to do? Again, being a stubborn me I declined my brother’s idea to just forget it and continue to drive to Bandung. No way! I got to see this place and took an amazing pictures like those I saw on IG hahaaa!!
While my brother tried to get park and looked for someone to help us with an ojek or something, the boys and I started to walk. Then it rained. Yay, good idea! We kept walking in the rain until further and further away from where my brother parked his car. After about 20 minutes walked, we heard the sound of motorbikes. There were two motorbikes with three young men on it. I stopped them and asked how far is this place called Sindang Geulis. They said, it’s still very far away, if I wanted to keep walking it would take about 2 hours, WTH!? I asked them where are they going, and to my delight they actually heading to the same place as us. Then they asked if we would like to come with them on the motorbike. I was happy but also a bit worried. Because you know why? There were only two small motorbikes how on earth they gonna accommodate all of us? But, anyway…we managed! So, twin 1 and I hopped on one motorbike, while twin 2 hopped on with another 2 guys. Off we went! In between rocky little winding road and float here and there, I hung on tight for our life 🙂 Those three guys are from Bandung, they were university students who also never been to this place. After about 45 minutes on the back of motorbike we finally got to Sindang Geulis Kahuripan.
Sindang Geulis Kahuripan in Sundanese means a pool in the mountain with beautiful scenery that gives life to those around. Sindang ; pool Geulis ; beautiful Kahuripan ; life. The place was not crowded, there were few people swam in the pool. Maybe because it had been raining before. We had to pay Rp.12.000 for the entrance fee which I think it’s a bit pricey. As for my thank you to the three guys that took us on their motorbike to this place, I paid for their entrance fee as well, they didn’t ask for that. All they asked was for me to say something on their vlog and of course a selfie pictures with them 🙂 🙂 🙂
Personally I didn’t think the place is worth to visit, especially after all those rocky roads! But we enjoyed the scenery. On the way back, this time I hired two ojeks/motorbikes to bring us back to where my brother and mum were waiting. The boys thought what we did was COOL, hahaaa…!
The Sangkuriang House Dago
We finally got to Bandung around 3pm. For two nights we stayed at The Sangkuriang House in Dago. We booked two rooms and they gave us an extra bed as well. The hotel is good, room is clean, shower is strong. The price we paid is also included breakfast. The hotel is pretty cosy with a nice garden and has two swimming pool. We like it.
That night we had dinner ala lesehan somewhere up in the hill. Then went to Paris van Java for ice cream and coffee.
Grafika Cikole, Tangkuban Perahu, The Lodge Maribaya, Dusun Bambu
The next day we went to Terminal Wisata Grafika Cikole where the boys did some flying fox, climbing, and paint ball. The place is very nice, very green and tidy. There are also two types of accommodation in this place, one is like a cabin type and the other one is tent. So I guess you can choose either you want to stay in the room or in the tent, glamping :p
Then we stopped at Tangkuban Perahu. This place changed so much since the last time I went. Now we can’t go to the very bottom, they put fence around it. And so many sellers around and so many people too! So we didn’t stay long here.
Next stop is Maribaya Lodge. Again I first saw this place on IG and FB group. The place is situated about 5 km east off Maribaya waterfalls. Here you can do trekking in a beautiful natural surroundings close to pine forest, camping, flying fox and also it is famous for pictures taken, where you can sit on the high swing with pine forest below you, or you can try ride a bike on a string! If you want your pictures taken with those props, you gotta line up and pay. The fee is not dear but the queue oh my God! So of course, we skip this, I honestly can’t be bothered just for the sake of Instagram cool 🙂
We had our early dinner at Dusun Bambu, a very nice place to end our day.
Kawah Putih (White Crater)
After breakfast and check out we continue our journey to Kawah Putih before heading back to Jakarta later. Kawah Putih is a striking crater lake and tourist spot in a volcanic crater about 50 km south of Bandung in West Java in Indonesia. The lake is 2,430 meters above sea level so the local climate is often quite chilly. This makes a little change from the humidity of Jakarta. Kawah Putih is a sizeable highly acid lake which changes colour from bluish to whitish green, or brown, depending on the concentration of sulfur and the temperature or the oxidation state.
After Kawah Putih we went to have our lunch before heading back to Jakarta.
- Tanjung Lesung, West Java
On Christmas Day, right after we had breakfast and opened all the presents we started our 5 hours drive to Tanjung Lesung. Lucky, that day the traffic was good. We rented a villa through AirBnB for one night only since my husband had to go back to Australia the day after. Our rented villa situated right in front of the beach and we can see the Krakatau very clearly.
We had pretty relaxing time in Tanjung Lesung. Walked along the beach, swam, and had a nice dinner at the one of the resort’s restaurant. Food was good and they also had a fire dance performance. I tricked the boys by saying they could try the fire tricks after they go up and dance on the stage :p So, they were dancing chicken dance with another 10 or so kids! 🙂 🙂
The journey back to Jakarta was pretty tiring and as usual traffic was so baaad!
Overall we enjoyed our time spending with family and close friends in Jakarta. I have managed to meet up with Mindy two days before we flew back home. Mindy and I have been online friends since Multiply until now, it was great to finally see her and her husband and cute little Medea in flesh 🙂
I hope I won’t bored you too much with this very long posting 🙂 Life is back to normal now, kids go back to school and swimming, basket ball game, surfing, and rowing are also back on our daily menu….yay welcome back reality!
Til next post people!
OhDearRia 
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