First days in Bandung

The first days of my journey have passed - time for an update 😌:

I have spent the last days in Bandung in the D&D Backpackers Hostel where I met many fellow travellers from the Netherlands 🇳🇱, Germany 🇩🇪 and even one guy from Norway 🇳🇴
The staff was super friendly, took us to many local food places in the city and arranged a full day tour (14 hours) for us to explore the southern region. The tour was really exciting. Early in the morning we slipped through the heavy Bandung traffic (piggybacking on the motorbikes 🏍️ of our drivers). After approximately 2 hours we reached „white crater“ (the very visible trace of an active volcano 🌋 in that region) which offers some unusually colourful and beautiful views due to the high sulphur concentration in that area. I was also surprised that I would find mountains with such high altitudes here in Indonesia 🇮🇩 (the area is about 2300 m above sea level). This also allows people here to grow tea leaves 🍃 for green and black tea on one of the many fields nearby (over all they cover up to 3500 hectares).
After some mei goreng (fried noodles) for lunch 🥗 we visited a leisure park where we hiked to a waterfall and got some much needed refreshment in its cold water 💦 (probably not more than 20 degrees Celsius).
Next up were the hot springs which are also very common for this volcanic area. Getting into the water required a little bit of will power since it’s temperature was around 40 degrees Celsius. But once I was in, it felt pretty good 😊
We were in for a treat that day. So before getting into the hot springs, we took a mud bath (which is supposed to be good for your skin). However, removing the mud was anything else than easy since it pretty much stuck to my skin. It would not even surprise me if I did not completely got rid of it by now. 😅
After sunset we drove for an hour back towards our hostel and went for dinner 🍲 at another local place which served many little dishes on small plates to share among our group (perhaps the Indonesian version of tapas). The food was again excellent. My favourites were the coconut flavoured chicken wings 🥘 and the curry style jackfruit 🍈.
After dinner we again had to squeeze us (for another hour or so) through the now even heavier Bandung Saturday night traffic. I really don’t know how our drivers can put up with this day in day out. Traffic is really horrible here (at least for Europeans, I guess). I wouldn’t even think in my dreams about driving here 😂
Anyways, at around 9pm we were back in the hostel. And that gave me at least a little time to arrange my onward travel to and accommodation in Yogyakarta. After some beers with my fellow travellers, I went packing/preparing everything for today’s journey. The night was short (only 4-5 hours) but that way I could catch the early 7am train and I will be approx. at 3pm in Yogyakarta. I wonder what I will encounter there during the next 4 days … I will keep you posted ☺️Read more