Bandung Day 3: Tangkuban Perahu + Natural Strawberry Farm & Resto

My last post about Bandung, Indonesia was on Ciwalk and the vicinity. Do read!

It was Saturday and Gaya, my enthusiastic host and tour guide had a whole day off to bring me around! I hired a driver to bring us around because Gaya told me that it was more convenient and economical that way. So the driver was hired for 12 hours (8.30am- 8.30pm) for RM150. He would bring you to wherever you want and may even suggest places of interest to visit.

My driver wasn't the talkative and very friendly type. He's more introvert but that's okay because he drives safe. Probably he was fasting so he wanted to conserve energy by not talking much:S

First destination,

Tangkuban Perahu

Volcanic crater at Tangkuban Perahu

Tangkuban Perahu is an uphill cooling sightseeing place. It took us about 45 minutes to reach (I was staying near Paris Van Jawa). I reached at about 9.30am and it coooold! Very much like Cameron Highlands. Very very clean and cooling air, it was great!

I love places with cool temperature because obviously the place that I come from is hot and humid all year long. Bandung town's temperature (about 23 degree Celsius) is my favourite optimum temperature! You wouldn't have to wear a jacket around, just plain t- shirt to enjoy the cooling weather. It's like natural air con! (Except when it rains then I'll have to snuggle under my blankets)

The temperature at Tangkuban Perahu is much colder than the town's so I had my jacket on. However, in an hour's time there suddenly the sun came out of no where and it became warm LOL I had to take off my jacket. So grateful that I could experience the coolness of Tangkuban Perahu!

Tourist picture at Tangkuban Perahu

I find the story behind Tangkuban Perahu very fascinating and a little disturbing. So the story goes like this: Once upon a time, there was this lady who sent her son away because he did something wrong. This of which made her very sad. I mean who wouldn't feel sad especially since her husband wasn't in the picture.

So the Gods (I think) took pity on her and grant her eternal youth i.e. she never grows old and soggy. One day many years later, she met this charming man and they both fell in love. Both were about to get married till she found out that her prince charming is... .... ... HER SON!

OMG.

I told you the story was disturbing.

So she had to stop the wedding! She told her prince charming aka her son that he had to build a dam on the river and a boat that can cross that river before sunrise. When her son was almost completing her request, she managed to fool him by thinking that he had run out of time.

The guy aka son was so pissed off that he kicked the dam and flipped his boat resulting in the creation of Tangkuban Perahu which literally means "Overturned boat".

Spot the boat. I couldn't LOL

Around Tangkuban Perahu, there are many sellers trying to sell you stuffs like key chains, fan etc. If you are interested in getting a souvenir from that place, fret not because they have a row of shops that offers variety of souvenirs. I'd rather buy them from Pasar Baru but I did get two keychains for my sisters and a wooden duck for myself here.

Carving my sisters' name onto the keychain using hot stone- tipped pen, I think it cost about RM4 per keychain.

Creative clocks for sale 

More shops

Stalls selling wooden handicraft

Wooden animals

I find the wooden crafted animals really interesting because their patterns and prints are naturally from a wood called "Kayu Batik". As you can see in the picture below, the man removed the outer layer of the wood and you can see patterns appearing inside!

Slicing Kayu Batik

The guy was very nice because he have me the bits and pieces that fell off for free! Tada, patterned wood!

Flakes of Kayu Batik

It was also at Tangkuban Perahu that I had my first (and only) street snack!! As mentioned in my previous blog post, I really fancy the vendors selling various types of food along the roadside but you would need a local stomach to withstand the consequence of eating those food.

I wasn't allowed to have any street food throughout my stay, for my own good of course lol, but I keep pestering Gaya to allow me to try the fried tahu at Tangkuban Perahu!

And she agreed! Hesitantly. HAHA.

Piping hot tahu (beancurd), 3 for RM1

LOVE LOVE LOVE the tahu in Indonesia!!!! 

So fresh and natural tasting!

My first street snack!

I was ecstatic when the seller was packing my tahu. Gaya made sure that it was the tahu that came out immediately from the hot oil just to decrease the probability of it being contaminated LOL 

Enjoyyy

Gaya said I looked so happy finally getting my tahu from the street :D

FYI, Tangkuban Perahu is a must go for tourist but the entrance fee was slightly pricey. It was all worth it though for the scenery and the tahu hehehe. Following was the breakdown of the cost per entry:

• Foreign visitors: IDR 75,000 (RM22.70)
• Local visitors: IDR 17,000 (RM5.60) | If you are a foreign student in Indonesia, that counts too.
• Vehicle: IDR 10,000 (RM3)

On the way up to Tangkuban Perahu, the driver, I think we call him "Pak Supir" around here suggested for us to go to the Strawberry Farm. So we did on the way down from Tangkuban Perahu. I'm not a big strawberry fan so visiting the farm was optional but since we had so much time and we were to passby anyway, I decided to go ahead.

Natural Strawberry Farm & Resto

For more info

The entrance fee was IDR 10,000 (RM3) per person. You will be given a basket to store the strawberries that you had plucked and a free strawberry drink voucher to be redeemed on the way out later.

The strawberries that you plucked will be charged according to weight. I think for every 100g it cost RM8. Not too sure though because I knew I wouldn't be picking any.

Me and strawberries, a bit disappointed to only see four of them

Super red strawberries

I thought most of  the plants didn't had fruits...

... till I turned to the other side and... wala! Whole row of fruitful strawberry plants

Borrowed someone's basket of strawberries LOL

How sweet to look at!

How sour it tasted LOL 

Yup, I kinda took a piece of strawberry to try without... paying HAHA Gaya encouraged me to do so, and I did, Opps. Then on the way out, I redeemed my free strawberry juice! The strawberry in the juice tasted better than the strawberry that I 'took' from the farm.

Slurping up

Instagram-ing

I think they sell Kopi Luwak too, a very expensive coffee. Coffee beans collected from a racoon looking animal's poop.

Ending my post with a picture with a smelly horse! They have horse rides outside the strawberry farm too. I wasn't interested in a horse ride but the guy was so nice and told us that a picture with his horse is free! So Gaya quickly help me snap a pic or two. 

The horse felt so warm and velvety, I like! But so smelly, like he haven't had a shower for a long time.

Gaya, the very caring host was worried if the horse gets violent so she quickly escorted me back to the car later. That's because she witness (in hospital) a case of this boy being bitten by a horse! :O

Smelly horse shivered (or wriggled) suddenly, I got shocked!

Of course, I did go to many other places with the hired driver so do keep a lookout for more updates! Too many places to blog about, I'm splitting up the posts:)