Bandung 1-Day Trip [RM Boemi Joglo, De Ranch, Warung Lela]

Where were you last weekend? My Saturday was actually quite busy. Me and K went to Bandung for a short day trip as a result of a spontaneous decision that we made with our friends on Thursday via our whatsapp group chat. 

And so that Saturday we met for breakfast at Starbucks Citos as our meeting point. I had a choco croissant with a tall cup of Peppermint Mocha Latte (my most favorite Starbucks drink so far! - which unfortunately it's one of Starbuck's christmas season drink >>> which means it only comes out once every year around christmas time !! Boo..).

So anyway after we enjoyed our little breakfast we then hopped into our cars and off we go in to the highway, up along the road to Bandung which is a small town about 2 hours away from Jakarta. Bandung is the capital city of West Java. I actually went to college in Bandung so it is basically my college city ^o^ 

...and it's always nice to go visit it every other time, especially when you're with a good company.

We stopped by at one of the highway's rest area ( I think it's around Km70...). I never stopped at this rest area before because we always stopped at the one with the Starbucks in it which is around Km23 or something...if i'm not mistaken). But this rest area in Km70... is actually quite nice, it's not too crowded, it has lots of trees and green bushes so it's easy for the eyes. And the little cafes looks really nice and inviting, I put a mental note on my head that next time I went to Bandung I will stopped at this rest area instead ^o^

From there we drove non stop to Bandung. About two hours later we finally arrived and went straight to Dago Pakar area which is the upper (hill area) part of North Bandung. There are many restaurants and places to visit in Dago Pakar which offer great panoramic views of the city below, I remember there were not these many restaurants back in my college days. One of our friend, Shilla suggested Boemi Joglo for our lunch that day. She said it serves Sate Maranggi which is one of West Java's culinary specialty. Sate Maranggi or Satay Maranggi is a typical satay served in skewers made of beef or sometimes goat meat. It also has a distinctive marinade sauce which is different from the common peanut sauce. Satay Maranggi usually use a marinade made from soy sauce, green chili sauce, and a little vinegar, and then served with sliced ​​red onions and fresh tomatoes sprinkled above it.

The satay were very yummy, and the other dishes we ordered (nasi liwet ikan asin, pecel, tumis kangkung, tempe mendoan were all delicious).

The Nasi Liwet Ikan Asin is rice cooked with milk, served with crushed salted fish and other various toppings.

Pecel according to wikipedia is an Indonesian sauce based on chillies, peanuts, tamarind and coconut sugar, commonly served over boiled fresh vegetables.

Tumis Kangkung is stir-fried water spinach, cooked with red chillies and chopped garlic.

Tempe Mendoan is according to wikipedia is a thinly sliced tempeh, dipped into spiced flour dressing and then deep fried in hot oil. You ate it with a special sauce.

Overall, the food were great, the place was also great (the overall decor and atmosphere of the restaurant makes me feel like I'm eating in a rustic small village in the middle of a thick jungle with all that shady green trees, stoned paths and stairways, and traditional wooden gazebos. It's a really nice family restaurant, worth to try incase you're in Bandung. The road to the area were not easy though, you might want to rely on a specific map or asked your friend to guide you.

Next stop is De'Ranch at Maribaya, Lembang. This is an outskirt area of Bandung, not that far from Dago Pakar. Lembang has always been the vacation and recreational place for people who lives in Bandung. Although Bandung is colder than Jakarta but Lembang is way more colder because it is in the upper hill.

picture from De'Ranch website

De' Ranch is a family recreational place where you could experience a cowboy's lifestyle. Although it's impossible to really experience a cowboy's life from just visiting De Ranch but the whole area was beautifully landscaped with green fields, horse track, horses stables, even with some wagons and wooden furniture that depicts rural cowboy's life. There are also cowshed and cow pastures where you could actually milk cows as an experience. The black and white cows are the second thing I see after the wide green landscape, and of course I was drawn straightly into the cowshed! I.LOVE.COWS! But only the black&white ones or the dairy cows!

If there's a dairy cow, no doubt I will take pictures with it ;)

Hello Mrs.Cow, can I take you home?

The purpose of De' Ranch is as simple as providing a place for families to play together through a safe and enjoyable activity out in the open. So there are many activities on site, especially for children alike. There are some fun activities such as archery game, cycling track for kids with Indian teepees in sight, horse riding (or pony riding for the younger kids), wagon ride (for family or parent + child), even professional horse riding class.

There is also fun boat:

And cookie making class:

...which I lately realized that the class was actually more intended for kids, but I didn't realized it and signed up anyway (and I'm wearing my friend's daughter's headband - so the cookie class staff must think that I'm overly immature so she teaches me how to make cookies like I'm a 4 year old ;p)

But my cookies turned out good ^o^ 

Me and my friends ate all of it in just 15 minutes ;p

So yeah we had a lot of fun in De'Ranch, and I enjoyed the view most importantly. We sat in one of the picnic table in the skirt of the open field. Some of my friends ordered roasted coconut drink and noodle glass meatball soup. I only ordered a cup of hot coffee with milk since I'm still quite full from the big lunch.

And then we all decided to be immature too and jumped up and down like crazy in the open green field:

Hubby K's frog jump pose!

From there we went to one of my friend's family rented villa in Lembang to take a little rest before we continue our culinary trip. We bought some fried tofu on our way to the villa. Bandung area is also known for their yellow soft tofu. The deep fried tofus that we bought had a special spicy sauce for dipping, but some of us prefer to eat it with green chillies that were also provided.

At around 18:00pm we drove back to Dago Pakar area to have dinner. This time we went to another restaurant called Warung Lela (or roughly translated as Lela's Little Stall). My last visit to Warung Lela was maybe 10 years ago during my college time. I remember I had one of the most delicious noodle there, and the place was really pretty too. And so I was ecstatic when we decided to have dinner here. The place was still the same although some minor things have changed a bit. We ordered their noodles variation, I had the Mie Yamien Manis (noodles with sweet soya sauce topped with chopped scallions, shredded marinated chicken, and served with a bowl of meatballs soup) and hot lemon tea. The noodles were as good as I remember, and the atmosphere were very very nice with rustic traditional wooden furniture, old vintage prints framed on the terracotta wall, soft warm lighting, and a traditional Javanese roof style called "joglo" (as you can see in the pic below):

And that nice dinner is where we ended our day trip!

Okay I've been blabbering a lot about this day trip, I'm sorry if I bored you or anything, I just thought I'd share some stories of the places we visited :) 

I hope you had a great weekend too! I won't mind if you tell me some stories too :D

See you on my next post!


To see my other trip/travel series click here and keep scrolling down once you're there.