Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine February 2015 | Page 109

Travel | Bandung

New venues like the food market
at Paskal Hyper Square (with more
than 50 eateries) have helped to make
Bandung one of Indonesia’s
street-dining capitals.

107

Vintage Shopping

Coffee is part of the staple diet
for the people of Bandung. A sign
at Paskal Food Market offers one
dubious advantage of drinking
even more coffee.

Clothing
If you are up for a one-of-a-kind
shopping experience and don’t mind
a rather dingy place, then head to the
second-hand centre in Gedebage,
Bandung. Must-have vintage dresses
and skirts abound, and keep your eyes
open for authentic leather jackets
for less than US$15!
Jika Anda ingin merasakan
pengalaman berbelanja yang unik
dan tak keberatan memasuki tempat
yang tak mewah, Anda bisa langsung
menuju pusat barang bekas di Gedebage,
Bandung. Banyak dijual baju vintage
dan rok, dan jangan lewatkan jaket kulit
asli dengan harga di bawah 15 USD!

I hope they might be a
warning to young Sundanese
not to forget their
architectural treasures.

near Pasar Baru. “With new technologies there
are often ways to cheat and do things quicker.
But, in the long run, we’ll learn that we should
always do things the best way possible.”
Aroma Coffee has been made in this way for three
generations and – judging by the queue of people
waiting to buy the famous packages of arabica
and robusta with their Dutch labels – it’s a
time-proven system that certainly seems to work.
But it’s not coffee or cakes that have carried
Bandung’s reputation as ‘the Paris of Java’ into
the new era. Bandung is one of the world’s
rag-trade powerhouses, attracting thousands of
fashion-crazed visitors from all over the world

(especially from Singapore and Malaysia, where
people are aware that haute couture can be
found here at a fraction of the usual street price).
“Many local girls are also confirmed fashionjunkies,” says Adita Laila Salam, a guide from
Bandung Trails who is showing me around the city.
“Going to the mall is a social occasion,” her friend
Laras Martalita adds. “They get all dressed up in
the latest gear to go to Paris van Java or Trans
Studio Mall. Then they buy more clothes. Next
week they wear these clothes to the mall…
and so the cycle continues.”
Paris van Java is perhaps Bandung’s chicest mall,
boasting mock-Parisian streets complete with
romantic balconies and wrought-iron streetlamps.
You can drink teh tarik (pulled tea) in retro-styled
kopitiams or sip café-au-lait at a pavement table in
a patisserie that wouldn’t be out of place in
Montmartre. And with big-name brands such as
Paris Hilton, Mango, Zara and Quiksilver,
there’s always that urge to be better
dressed than you are.
‘If loving fashion is a crime, then we plead guilty’,
yells a hand-painted sign on the wall of one shop.

Records
DU 68 boasts a vast collection of
cassettes and vinyl records from various
genres of music. The prices vary
depending on the year, quality and
scarcity of the item. Located on the
second floor of Graha Visi on Jl. Dipati
Ukur 68, Bandung, this humble shop is
a treasure chest for music collectors.
DU 68 menawarkan banyak koleksi
kaset dan rekaman dari berbagai musik
genre. Harga bervariasi tergantung
tahun, kualitas dan kelangkaan
barang. Berada di lantai dua Graha
Visi, Jl. Dipati Ukur 68, Bandung, toko
ini bak peti harta karun bagi kalangan
kolektor musik.