Overview
Costs
Food
Hotels
Money
Mobile phones
Internet
Weather
Health
VISA
Security
Recommended
Avoid
Getting around
Photos

Part 1: Introduction





8.8: Singapore -> Bandung
9.8: Bandung -> Kawah Putih -> Bandung
10.8: Bandung -> Jakarta
14.8: Jakarta -> Kuala Lumpur






Overview and overall impression
This was a brief trip to Indonesia consisting of a weekend spent in Bandung followed by four days in Jakarta. I chose Bandung because it has a direct rail link to Jakarta and the city and environment sounded sort of interesting. Bandung itself, if you restrict yourself to the city centre, is a pleasant place with a couple of things to see. The region to the south with the lakes and volcanoes is pretty and well worth a daytrip.


Costs
Costs were overall relatively moderate, if compared to Malaysia and Singapore.



Food
Here I relied on a mix of standard restaurants and fast food restaurants. One supposedly good restaurant, the Sindang Reret, was a disappointment



Accommodation
I stayed in two high quality hotels, of which one (the Gatot Subroto) is part of a "business low cost" hotel chain, offering high quality accomodation for business travel at moderate prices.




Money  / Exchange rate (August 2014)
1 Euro = 15600 IDR
1 Euro = 1.32 USD 
For current exchange rates check the Universal Currency Converter.

ATMs are everywhere, so that you can easily get cash with a Cirrus/Maestro ATM card. 



Mobile phones and prepaid cards
I bought a Telkomsel/SimPATI SIM card, paying 152000 IDR. This contained a 50000 IDR mobile data package with 1.5GB of data and about 100000 IDR of airtime. With the 01017 prefix international calls are quite inexpensive.



Internet access
Here I relied on the smartphone (which I used as a modem for the computer) to access the Internet.



Weather
Mostly sunny with a blue sky, with little clouds and rain.



Health / Vaccinations
The usual set of tropical vaccinations. I didn't refresh any immunisations for this trip.



VISA / Entry requirements
A visa on arrival costing 35 USD is available for tourists of most western and developed countries. 



Security
No issues here.



Recommended things
  • The daytrip to the lakes and volcano south of Bandung.
  • The train ride from Bandung to Jakarta is very scenic, as it passes through mountains and valleys with rice farming


Things to avoid
I had no bad experiences on this short trip. It's a good idea to avoid driving from Bandung to Jakarta, as the road can be congested.



Getting around
I chartered a taxi for the daytrip to Kawah Putih, which was necessary as public transportation is not available. Then I used the train to get from Bandung to Jakarta. Although not too fast, the train is a comfortable way to travel between these two cities, because you avoid traffic jams on the road.






Copyright 2014 Alfred Molon