Indonesia Bandung 2024 Day 4 Whoosh to Lembang!

Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Indonesia Bandung 2024 Day 4 Whoosh to Lembang!

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Indonesia 2024 Day 4: Whoosh to Lembang!

Jakarta-Bandung 2024 Day 4: 11th July (Thursday)

? Small Group (Non-cycling) Tour of part of the West Java (Jakarta, Lembang & Bandung), Indonesia;
Day 4- Whoosh to Lembang!:

YELLO Hotel Harmoni (Jakarta)>Grab Van>Halim HSR Station>Whoosh HSR Train>Padalarang>Private Van>Sapulidi Resort (Lembang)>Private Van>Sari Ater Hot Spring>Private Van>Sapulidi Resort.

This is page 4 of a 7-page blog, Click Here To Go To Title Page.

< D3: Jakarta Attractions | Go to Other Days | D5: Lembang Fun >

Route recommendations, here're some tips on travelling in and around Jakarta:

1. Traffic Directions!

Traffic in Indonesia is right-hand drive, so drive/cycle on the left. The same thing applies when crossing the road, take note of the direction from which traffic is approaching!

2. Immigration & Customs Requirements

Submission for customs e-clearance is advised for getting past the airport customs without a fuss. E-submission can be done before leaving for Indonesia. Click here for to access and fill up the Indonesian E-CD (Electronic Customs Declaration) forms for approval. Upon successful application, a QR Code is given, save this to your phone and show it to the customs officer upon arrival. With a quick scan, one is cleared to enjoy one's holiday.
OR upon arrival, one can scan the QR codes posted along the arrival halls & corridors and fill up details accordingly and an individual approval QR code will be given.

Immigration entry is via digital gates which scan one's passport and take a facial photo, so put on your best smile 😊.

3. Getting to and around Jakarta & Lembang.

Getting around Jakarta is easy, just install the Grab Van e-hailing app and conveniently hail a ride. Within Central Jakarta (and perhaps some outskirts), autorickshaws called bajaj (pronounced baj-ai) are a convenient way to get around, do negotiate a price before boarding though.

From Jakarta, we took the new Whoosh HSR Train to Padalarang at a fare of IDR225k per pax. We boarded the train at the Halim High Speed Railway Station. the train ride just took thirty minutes. By driving or the normal train, it would have taken 2-1/2 to 3 hours! (Note: Free entry to some local attractions, within the Greater Bandung Area, is given to the Whoosh ticket-holders.).

WHOOSH is short for Waktu Hemat, Operasi Optimal, Sistem Hebat - meaning 'Timesaving, Optimal Operation, Outstanding System'). Presently it serves up to Bandung (Tegalluar Station) but in the future it will be extended up till Surabaya.

Click here to purchase tickets for the Whoosh HSR Train, one should arrive at least 30-minutes before departure. Ticket prices remain dynamic and are dependent on passenger density levels, as well as the train schedule.

From Padalarang, a hired van took us to and around Lembang and Bandung. Private van contact: Enc. Budi Rukana mobile/WhatsApp no. +62 813-2111-6869.

4. Accommodations

At Jakarta, we stayed three nights at the YELLO Hotel Harmoni Jakarta (GPS: -6.16422, 106.82125), booking two rooms for two nights without breakfast & two rooms for the third night with breakfast, because we must leave early to catch the Whoosh Train). They upgraded us to a Family Suite on the 29th floor for the first two nights with a great view of the city. It came with a living hall & dining room. The hotel is located in Harmoni, a locality in Central Jakarta.
At Lembang, we stayed two nights booking two rooms at the Sapulidi Resort. (GPS: -6.81255, 107.59823). Although the rooms were older, the resort is located in a very green setting with some rooms facing a small lake. It also has an excellent restaurant - Tuangeun Restaurant.

5. Places & Things of Interests

Enroute were several places of interest, some of which we visited and others we did not for lack of time (Note: click on GPS coordinates for a directional map to respective places):

a. YELLO Hotel Harmoni Jakarta (GPS: -6.16422, 106.82125) with an interesting yellow-coloured scheme.

b. Harmoni Exchange Shopping Mall (GPS: -6.16425, 106.82097).
c. The lush, green grounds of the Sapulidi Resort (GPS: -6.81255, 107.59823).

d. Sari Ater Hot Spring (Mata Air Panas Sari Ater) (GPS: -6.73841, 107.65316) in Ciater.

e. Vipassana Graha Theravada Temple (Pusat Meditasi Vipassana Graha Lembang) (GPS: -6.81179, 107.5988).

f. Orchid Forest of Cikole (Orchid Forest Cikole) (GPS: -6.78000, 107.63494).
g. Strawberry Hill (Bukit Strawberry) (GPS: -6.80843, 107.63675).
h. Tea plantations, eg Sukadwana Tea Plantation (Kebun Teh Sukawana) (GPS: -6.77690, 107.5839).

i. Kawah Putih (White Crater) (GPS: -7.16666, 107.40372).

6. Meals

a. Breakfast: Inclusive Western & Indonesian buffet at YELLO Hotel Harmoni Jakarta (GPS: -6.16422, 106.82125).
b. Lunch: Javanese & Sundanese Fare at Gubug Makan Mang Engking (Mang Engking) (GPS: -6.81052, 107.62712) in Lembang. There are individual dining huts around a stream/pond.

c. Dinner: Sundanese fare at Tuangeun Resto in our hotel, Sapulidi Resort (GPS: -6.81255, 107.59823). Not to be missed is their Bandrek Tea (ie ginger tea with coconut flesh & cili) and the Olahan (karedok), a local salad similar to Gado-gado).

7. Communicating with Each Other

When travelling in a group it's important to be able to communicate with each other, especially if one gets lost from the rest. We bought online China Unicom pre-paid 8-days 16GB (2GB per day) phone sim cards through Hello 1010. It was delivered to our home/office within a few days, and we installed it into our phones upon arrival.

Most hotels, motels, homestays, restaurants, and airports have free Wifi; but do note that public free wifi may not be secure and registration may be required. But one can save on one's mobile data by using these, especially for uploading or downloading videos.

8. Communicating with Locals

At favourite tourist destinations, locals may speak fairly good English. At the smaller towns, locals speak some rudimentary English, so knowing some basic Bahasa Indonesia will come in handy and also warm one up to the locals.

9. Weather

Average day temperatures in Jakarta in July is around 33°C, while mean night temperature is around temperatures 23°C. While in Lembang it's much cooler with day temperatures in the low 20s and night as low as 12°C.

Useful weather forecast sites for the Indonesia is AccuWeather. For more detailed weather, including cloud cover and wind speed, use Weatherspark and Ventusky.

10. Navigation

I used MapMyRide to track our routes and stops. Geo-tagging of places of interest was via FaceBook or Google Maps.

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PRELUDE

Yesterday we played tourists, we kicked off by visiting the Sunda Kelapa Harbour followed by an interesting, nice lunch find, and then continued on to see more of Jakarta Attractions.

Today, we speed up our holiday to a faster pace .... 350 kph faster!

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DAY 4: WHOOSH TO LEMBANG!

Small Group (Non-cycling) Tour of part of the West Java (Jakarta, Lembang & Bandung), Indonesia; Day 4- Jakarta to Lembang:

(Click here for the Whoosh! to Lembang Route Map)

Most of the posts below are linked to my Facebook postings during the trip and are embedded here with some comments. (NOTE: Click on respective posts to link to the FB post to read more details. If you can't see the posts, please log out from your Facebook first)

Good Morning!
And it's off to a nice hotel breakfast. It's a buffet with lots of choices. With several manned stations serving specialty food including on-the-spot cooked curry noodles. I had to refrain from taking too much of the curry, as will be on public transport for a while and don't want my tummy acting up and spoil the journey.

10:30 am - Grabbing to Halim Station to take Whoosh HSR Train to Tegalluar Station, Padalarang.
Traffic was alright as we were off the peak hours.

Halim Station is a relatively new station with several shops within the waiting area. To play it safe, we arrived 45 minutes earlier (although the recommended time is 30 minutes).

WHOOSH!
The check-in train staff had taught us the Whoosh stance: one arm outstretch with palms open and point away, the other hand with pointed palm held close to the chest!

The girls looking cute on board the train.
We won't be travelling all the way to Bandung and will get off at Padalarang as we will be staying a couple of nights in Lembang.

348km/h indicated, close to the maximum operating speed!
Whoosh (train model KCIC400AF) is the first high-speed railway in Southeast Asia, and the Southern Hemisphere. It runs at a maximum operating speed of 350 km/h with a designed speed of 420 km/h - making it the second fastest commercially operating railway network in the world. The travel time between Jakarta and Bandung averages forty-five minutes, down from three hours on the existing railway line.
Each row of seats is equipped with a power point (two USB & one standard socket) for charging phones etc. There is a cafeteria coach, and staff also sells F&B from a trolley going along the aisle.

Although travelling at a high speed, the train runs smoothly with minimum vibration; and one can calmly enjoy the rustic scenery passing by.

Arriving at Tegalluar Station; time for a selfie before the train whoosh off!

It's a beautiful train with a sharp stream-lined nose.

Outside, Budi and his van were waiting for us.

There is a traffic jam getting to and out from the station; the surrounding infrastructure isn't up to speed yet to cater for the increased traffic volume.

1:30 pm - Arrived and dropped luggage at our hotel, Sapulidi Resort, before continuing to lunch and later to the Sari Ater Hot Spring.
The drive from Padalarang to Lembang had taken just more than an hour.

Streamside Sundanese lunch at the nearby Mang Engking restaurant
(Click here to watch the FB Reel Link of our lunch: https://www.facebook.com/reel/409113458168060)

Patrons dine at these huts situated next to a stream and pond. Although the ambience is good, the food was just average.

Heading to the hot spring, we made our way uphill. And as it got cooler, along the way other attractions, such as the Strawberry Hill and several tea plantations.

The Sari Ater Hot Spring, the steam can be seen rising up as the water trickles down waterfalls. The main pools were crowded with people.

Lush greenery leads to .....

... the secluded and more private Inas Hot Pool. Here there were hardly any other people, and we had the place to ourselves to enjoy.

While the girls continued soaking, I walked around to view other eye candy such as these life-like sculptures of a rhino, a small dinosaur and a large frog.

Back at Sapulidi, we had a delicious dinner of Indonesian/Sundanese fare at Tuangeun Restoran. Not to be missed is their Bandrek Tea (ie ginger tea with coconut flesh & cili) and the Olahan (karedok), a local salad similar to Gado-gado

The Bandrek Tea were served in these small steel mugs. At Lembang, the weather gets much cooler, these hot, spicy tea with ginger gave us an oomph and kept us warm. Another version includes fresh coconut flesh.

The grounds of the hotel are very green, and the chalets have interesting local names. The one we stayed at was a chalet with adjoining rooms called Karémbong. It means baby-sling, so hopefully we will be sleeping like babies tonight!

The chalets here have a nice rustic exterior, and the interior, although a bit old, is cozy.
It does get rather cold in the early morning (down to 12°C), so this AhPek woke up several times for pee breaks

ZZZZZZZ

& ppppppp
😖😏

(For more photos of the Day 4, Click Here)

This is page 4 of a 7-page blog, Click Here To Go To Title Page.

< D3: Jakarta Attractions | Go to Other Days | D5: Lembang Fun >

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