First time having to pay airport tax before coming back. We weren't aware that we had to pay $75 000 as airport tax until our driver told us, lucky we haven't spent all our money yet. You check in your luggage, then go to a counter on the left to purchase the sticker.
2. Visa on arrival.
Singaporeans don't need a visa to enter Bandung. But for those who need to, you can actually get a visa on arrival at the airport. When you enter the building, you'll immediately see a counter on the right. You fill in some forms, then pay cash of USD$25 and you'll be given a sheet of sticker. When you pass the immigration counter, they'll print your information on the sticker and stick it in your passport. Simple and fuss free.
You can pay in some other currencies too other than USD, but make sure your notes are new and unfolded otherwise the person wouldn't accept the notes.
3. Angkutan Kota
The buses comes in different colours like green, blue and yellow. And they also have different stripes. The different colour combinations acts like the bus number, so they're headed for different destinations. These mini vans have no doors and if you stop by the road, you'll be sure to encounter them slowing down to ask you to get on. According to our driver, they can stop you at anywhere along the road, so its quite convenient. But they're not really safe. So if you want to try your luck, do be careful of pickpockets.
4. Bandung's Night Life
There's generally minimal night life in Bandung. At least according to my experiences la. The shops close quite early and whatever remains are all dimly lighted. If you want some activities at night, there are a few beer houses in the city centre, or you can go for massage.
The massage parlor I went to - ZEN family spa and reflexology, was really quite good. Quite impressed with the whole ambience and service. There were also some japanese there when we reached.
5. Renting a car
If you're not familiar with Bandung, like us. And you can spare some budget, I would suggest renting a car. It's only about S$60 for one whole day and if you split it among four person, it's only $15, so quite affordable imo.
Of course, you can travel by cab, but like for our case, we don't speak Indon, sometimes we had difficulty communicating with the driver, and we spent a lot of time on the road trying to find the places that we wanted to go. So a lot of time was wasted walking around, cabbing, or asking for directions (in vain).
Plus, with a reliable driver, you can get local recommendations on where to shop, where to eat, where to play and relax, instead of just relying on overhyped places on the internet.
We only rented a car for the volcano trip, but we all agreed that the trip would have been much better if we had rented a car for the shopping day as well.
Visited Bandung at the begining of March 2008. The elements within this town is cooling which sits about 700m above ocean level. Continued a excursion to Gunung Tangkuban Perahu(also called the Mountain from the Overturned Boat).If you're into volcanoes and trekking than the is nearest you will get to some live volcano.When you're here, do go to the hot springs(helpful information will require you in/out) and check out soaking your ft within the hot springs(they're hot!!) and difficult boiled eggs cooked with Hot Springs(they taste soft and tasty!) The elements within the mountain is cooling, for those who have a while you are able to have a stroll across the fringe of the crater...
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