Indo Shopping Expedition - Day 2

We started the day very early for our Bandung trip. Our 1st stop was Kawah Putih. A volcanic crater south of Bandung, about 3.5 hrs drive from Jakarta. While the rest were sleeping, I was busy snapping photos and admiring the countryside. Despite the bright and hot weather (10am felt like noon), the air was surprisingly cool. And it was refreshing to see lots of greeneries and beautiful strawberry farms and padi fields on the volcanic hillsides.

At one point, the slopes were getting too steep, the car couldn't accelerate upwards. We had to alight before the car could move! haha.. deejavu indeed. We had the same incident at Mount Kinabalu Park in Sabah. So yes, it's definitely not the car. It's just us heavyweights! Lolz

so we huff and we puff up the steep slopes..

After going round and round up the volcano like forever, we finally reached Kawah Putih. Such a serene yet magnificient sight..

The green water was sulphur and we saw gasses evaporating into the air from the lake..

Us standing in the middle of the volcanic crater..

After camwhoring, we walked back to the entrance for some strawberries shopping. The gals bought strawberry dodol (very creative!) and I had strawberry fondue. 3 sticks for only RP10,000 (S$1.50). I bought 2 plates just for myself!

We descended Kawah Putih and made our way into Bandung City. My gawd, the traffic jam was insane! Have you ever been stuck in a traffic jam in KL? Well this was 5x worse..

We reached the Rumah Mode famished! But luckily there was a restaurant and cafe, so we had our very late lunch before shopping..

Now we understand why Rumah Mode is so famous (apparently Kris Dayanti shops there too..). Besides the cheap shopping, the place was clean with beautiful balinese decor and landscaping. Excellent photo opportunities!

Have I mentioned that WE LOVE SHOPPING AT RUMAH MODE! I actually refrained from shopping in S'pore 2 mths prior to our trip and OMG, shopping there was so worth it. Wan bought an original Burberrys jeans for RP170,000 (S$25) and the exact same bangle I once bought from Robinsons at S$30+, was selling at Rumah Mode for S$6. Yes, I bagged lots of accessories! They even have labels like Zara, Esprit, Ed Hardy, Hugo, Gap. Branded but rejected stuff. For example, the top that I bought, the label was sewed to the front instead of the back. No biggie. In all, Wan and I spent about Rp1,400,000 (S$200). We are extremely happy with our purchases!

Unfortunately, we din have time to shop around Bandung and made our way back to Jakarta before it gets dark (Maghrib was around 6pm). Wan till this day has been bugging me to fly back to Bandung one day for a shopping spree.