Bandung — Scooter Goes Vroom Vroom

We stopped at Bandung for a single day. As our train approached the city I started looking online for a scooter rental to make the most out of the day. I found this place called "Rental Motor Bandung | NEO" with 5.0 stars on google maps and didn't think twice, as soon as the train stopped off we went to rent our scooter.

Arriving there with our grab rides it became painfully obvious that these guys bought all the 1660 perfect reviews, because it was a tiny operation — they had just one bike that they'd rent out of the tiny backyard of their family home, at the end of a narrow alleyway. The cherry on top — the bike was Doraemon themed!

A lovely grandma offered us some fried banana pastries that we devoured while the rental guys hesitantly accepted my Portuguese driving license and prepared the paperwork.

I jumped on the scooter with Vasco behind me and very clumsily took off under the worried gaze of the rental guys. With my jerky driving, we soon melted into the traffic heading north. The bike was easy enough to maneuver and I was starting to gain confidence on the road when rain started pouring in big fat drops. We got our rain jackets on but couldn't continue driving on the wet asphalt, and so we took refuge under a tree at the side of the road.

With the weather not giving, we went looking for lunch. After a long time walking back and forth, completely soaked, and not finding a working ATM, we had to have lunch at a KFC as it was the only place around that accepted card payments.

The rain finally gave in to a hot and sunny day, and in minutes the road, that minutes before was starting to look like a river, became completely dry. There were no signs that it ever rained.

We continued our journey towards the floating market first, where I had a strange fried banana with cheese and chocolate as a snack, and to the tea plantations after that. Both were very pretty.

We came back to Bandung already after dark. The family renting the bike was extremely kind. The grandma offered us more food, we took pictures together and the guys even offered us a ride to the train station that we happily accepted.

Moved by their hospitality, we left the city on an overnight train to Yogyakarta.Read more