Bandung Trip 2014 : Kampung Gajah & Dusun Bambu

Heeeelllooowwww... :D!

Time for my next (which also happens to be the last) Bandung Trip post (but i still have some posts about some interesting things we did in Jakarta so this series is not actually over!)! This was on the third day and we finally were able to go out with LL and her family! Today's destination : Kampung Gajah and Dusun Bambu! (Warning : Like most of my travel posts, it's very photo heavy!)

Us in Dusun Bambue. And yes, apparently we also have a hot air balloon ride locally!

But let's start from the beginning. We heard about Kampung Gajah Wonderland from TV and internet, sounded interesting so we decided to check it out.

Welcomed by fugly Bart Simpsons (wonder why Indonesian's interpretations of famous characters' costumes are always so horrible T.T), and let me remind you that the little girl is Gw, my niece. Not my daughter, i only have one kid (some people seems to think that i have 2 kids somehow)

Honestly, we were quite taken aback since the first step into this "wonderland" (which turned out to be quite an "awfuland" LOLOLOL). It's nothing like the beautiful promotional pictures (check out the website and you'll know what i mean). We knew that this park's more of a water park, but since they claimed to have other attraction we thought it would... well, at least better than this place. LOL. The main non-waterpark area's quite small (actually the place's quite huge, but most of them are still in progress i think) and there's nothing much to do there. Oh well, we're there already (and paid the for the entrance ticket) so we had to check out the place a bit not to waste the money completely!

Onto what the only area you can roam to if you have no intention to play at the waterpark or ride the overpriced buggy/segway/ATV

The kids got mesmerized by the tiny train that goes round the pond (true to their waterpark style even this area's around two ponds where you can ride a few water related rides)

The bumper boats seemed quite interesting so we tried to salvage our almost ruined day by riding it (who knows it turned out ruining my day even worse T.T). I guess i didn't think it through because.... There were me, hunny, Baby Boy and Gw and being one of the adult means I would have to drive the damn thing! Remember i told you i couldn't even drive a tracked car ride? I didn't know what made me think i could handle this ride instead!

LL and her hunny looking all happy

I might look quite happy too but soon it's about to change

Do you know what happened there? I couldn't control the frigging stick and we went round and round and round in circle, never leaving the entrance area FML T.T. Seriously WTFFFF.... It was even more traumatizing (and embarrassing since apparently everybody in the little park saw it, even my 'rents who were waiting quite faraway talked about how i went round and round like a crazy dog chasing its own tail WTF) than the previous day's driving ordeal! Not to mention i literally felt sick and almost puke all over my stunned Baby Boy. Never again, seriously. Never again.

Appeasing my equally panic-stricken Baby Boy by letting him ride the little train he was so mesmerized by

The little pond where i made a fool of myself, i barely able to make one round of the stupid thing towards the end

There's a stretch of traditional food stalls for you to get your munchies too

Hunny immediately got his fave Betawi snack (although we're still in Bandung WTH, i guess he couldn't wait..), Kerak Telor

While the kids ride horses and play around some more

One of the most interesting thing i saw in this place was this old Chinese guy (and by Chinese i meant Mainland China, not Chinese descent like us) with a huge net dancing around creating the most amazing bubbles ever (he's selling them of course, but we were busy admiring him and playing with the bubbles i'm not sure anyone bought any bubbles FHL)!

Look at those happy kids ^^

The bubble guy preparing the next round of bubbles

WOWWW

We immediately snapped a pic, of course

Gigantic bubbles that kept failing because naughty kids kept on bursting them...

LL was attracted to this traditional lolly maker's stall

Love these! Were they unicorns? I think they're pegasuses with tiny wings hahaha

LL and her candy pacifier

What attracted LL to this stall was that flower with long stem, the seller would actually fill the flower with chocolate milk that you can drink from the stem!

Problem would be with hygene... He's using his bare hands... LOL. My mum repeatedly reminded me not to buy anything, but LL actually bought the flowers for us to cam-whore with hahaha

LL drinking the chocolate milk, can you see how the part with the milk is darker than the actual candy itself?

LL's hubby, the next victim. Look at his father in law (LL's dad, of course) looking at him in amusement hahaha

My hunny's turn, and now it's LL's mum's turn to look at him in amusement hahahaha

LL and I, LOVE this pic! And we dressed in stripes without plans!

LL's daughter little CH is always so painfully shy, it's nice to see her starting to warm up towards Baby Boy (and Gw)

Cheeky little Gw who insisted on taking pic with this super fugly Teletubby (i hate teletubbies so do not expect me to know its name okay)

Cute kiddies

More cute kids... With moi hahahahaha. Btw, hunny's camera died right after we snapped this pic (WTF, he never listens to me! I kept on telling him to charge his camera but he keeps on insisting that it's still full! Full my arse...)

My mum read somewhere that there's also a strawberry garden where you could pick your own strawbie (and pay of course) and insisted we checked it out. Oh yeah, we also rode some delmans because they told us they could stop by at the strawberry garden PFFFFTTTT, clearly just a ploy to get us on that stupidly overpriced ride (coz nobody else's buying it) coz it just made a full round and back where we started zzz. Saw some games like flying fox along the way and it seemed quite fun, and we got to see a glimpse of the actually huge area too so it's not a total loss i guess...

LL's parents looking lovey dovey :D

The view was pretty amay-zeng

The garden? Not so much. LOL. It was very unnattractive and small so we decided to go to Rumah Stroberi instead

But first, camwhore. LOL

Arriving at Rumah Stroberi

Sadly it's either we're very jiong (not fated) with strawbies that day or maybe we're jiong with Rumah Stoberi (this is the second time it's happening WTH) coz we immediately spotted the writing stating that their strawbie picking is closed GAHHHH

BUT i spotted a little stall selling strawbie accessories which were so cute and so CHEAP, we ended up having a bit of a shopping spree there *LOL*. Bought the bag, matching cosmetic pouch, necklace, hairpin for Gw and a headband for less than IDR 100.000 *LOL*

My and LL's parents bonding while waiting for us camwhoring hahahaha

I just realized that the hubbies dressed matchy matchy accidentally as well that day!

The next place we went to was actually not on the schedule, on the actual day itself LL got a recommendation from his friend to have a meal in this place called Dusun Bambu. I'm sure glad we went there because it ended up being the highlight of the day! Dusun Bambu is actually a new(ish) family leisure park that aims to educate and introduce Sundanese traditional life.

Super green view that greeted us as soon as we arrived in Dusun Bambu

You must ride one of these colorful pickups to reach the inner part of Dusun Bambu

Our group hogged one pikup, naturally-with the two grandpas being designated to sit in front with the driver hehe

I find it real cute that they use golf balls as holder!

As it was our very first time to Dusun Bambu and had no prior information about the place, we didn't know that there are several eateries with different concepts to this place. We were dropped in front of this food court style place called Pasar Khatulistiwa so we immediately assumed it was the only restaurant there hehe. You have to buy some vouchers to be able to buy food in this place

Truly love the green and cozy ambience of this place, so peaceful (despite the fact that it's actually packed!)

Lots of cute spots to camwhore at

Charming decor and design

Saw this pile of fake veggies and fruits, we couldn't help ourselves!

Thx for the bunch of flowers, hunny... Oh wait, izzit chives and lettuce?

GNOM!

Rabbits in da house

Want to buy some cloths from us? Btw, i saw some real cute sweaters but almost got a heart attack when i peeked at the price, then i bounced FTL LOL

They're mostly selling traditional food and snacks in Pasar Khatulistiwa (i only snapped a few pics, but there are actually quite a lot of stalls to choose from), with ridiculously high price! Most of them are around twice the price (at least! Maybe even triple) in other places

Spotted our childhood bubble gums and hunny immediately bought some

Strangely even though we had to pay using the "fake money" for our food, we could only pay with real money for drinks!

The seats on the first floor were packed so we had to go to the second floor

Lesehan tables

View from our table

Showing you my "Nasi Campur Dusun" (or literally Village Mixed Rice)

Despite the name village (which i associate with cheap prices), this dish actually cost us IDR 60.000 which is very high for mixed rice! Btw the drumstick was not part of the dish, my dad dumped it from his dish without me knowing. Anyway, there were a lot of varieties in this dish it could easily serve 2 persons (you just need to buy one more portion of rice)

Hunny's something2 noodle which looks so so but surprisingly tasty. It's "only" IDR 35.000, making it a cheaper dish in this place. If you're interested to visit Dusun Bambu and unwilling to shell out a lot of money (which can be spent on 3 portions of the same dish everywhere else) then you should try this noodle, which i unfortunately forgot the exact name of T.T

After our meal we decided to explore the place while the parents stay and rest for a bit. I was quite surprised when i saw the hot air balloon and immediately thought of bringing Baby Boy to try it out, but my mum made me PROMISE not to zzz. I told her we already rode one in Hualien and she said "It's okay overseas. Not here! They probably don't even know what they're doing!". I hope she's wrong though, since i know one should have a certificate to handle a hot air balloon!

Hunny and LL's hubby immediately were drawn to the paintball shooting range

They said the bullets were extremely small they couldn't even see where they were going

Or it could just be them not able to shoot the target even once *LOLOLOLOL*

Gahhh got photo-bombed by Baby Boy (now ex) nanny

Beautiful lavender field, sadly it doesn't look as pretty in pictures for some reasons

I find it really cute that they made a little (but very long) river along this area (which we had to cross to get to the hot air balloon and i successfully slipped from the rocks and dipped my feet (with denim shoes+socks) into the icy cold water WTF. Later on my Baby Boy also slipped and landed on his butt LOLOLOL, we're a perfect pair of clumsies really

What's this strange looking building away from everything? Turned out it's a toilet hahaha

We spotted some people taking pre-wed pics there, you can catch a glimpse in the right corner

We were quite shocked to learn the price of the hot air balloon ticket (IDR 300.000/person, which is twice the price of the one in Hualien, WITH the professional pilot!) so we just snapped pictures instead

This picture would've been perfect until i resize it and realized i was blinking!!! There was also another shoot in the Pasar Khatulistiwa's cute stair that wasn't even uploadable because it was completely blurry and i was busy talking and waving my hand! ARRRRFFFGGGHHHH sometimes i really wanted to strangle my hunny

LL and her hubby said they could pose better than those taking pre-wed pics

But seriously, Gw is the cheekiest! Wonder who she inherited that trait from?

Then we saw this stunning view

Went to explore the area which turned out to be Purbasari, a lesehan restaurant where you can have some traditional Sundanese food in their charming little hut! Really regret not eating there instead!

One of the huts that unoccupied and not locked

Bromance forever...

I really like the look of this place and was wondering what the purpose of the place was

Yep, another eating place haha, called Lutung Kasarung!

Cheeky kids at it again. But seeing this pic brings back painful memories zzz. I was sitting at the walls and suddenly a sharp, stinging pain shot up my right palm! Apparently a friggin bug bit me, it was super duper painful and then itchy for a long long time, and it's still very disturbing until now :(... Should i relent and get it checked to the doctor?

A clearer pic of the colorful pickup (the tarpaulin already drawn up since it was no longer pouring. Oh yeah, it's been pouring on and off the whole day! The good news is the temperature was really nice!)

Super cute shot, i love this!

One more. I also love how the angle made us look super tall hehe

It was around 5 when we get out of Dusun Bambu, but the day's not over for me, hunny, LL and her hubby. After settling the kids and the parents (who were too tired to go out some more), we went back to Paris Van Java for some serious shopping spree! LL also met up with her old friend who later tried to bring us to a cafe at Dago area but turned out it was already closed (it was 10.30 or something by the time we got there and it was not on a weekend!) hahaha so we finally called it a day! 

Leaving you with our pic holding the fruit of our shopping spree because that's the only pic we have (PVJ is a very pretty mall and i actually planned to take some pics there but then hunny and LL's hubby disappeared to Starbucks and never returned so we had nobody to take our pics! Such a shame grrrr)!

Thanks for reading!

#Pink