Travelling from Jakarta to Bandung, one must brave the macet ( traffic jam )
Haven for shoppers in Bandung with its factory outlets
Perfect discovery of Reading Lights : just pop-in, order your coffee and browse rows of books
Yes, we went to Bandung again about 2 weeks ago ! Personally it was my 4th or 5th visit to this Central Java city, some say the 3rd or 4th largest city in Indonesia. For many years Bandung has attracted many Malaysians. The city offers excellent ( and cheap ) shopping experience with its many factory outlets catering for the budget travellers and perhaps the rich and famous too. For me, the food scene is great. For nature lovers, there are the hills outside Bandung with its hot springs and tea plantations and for the history and culture buffs, we have the museums and the colonial Dutch buildings to stare at ! The surprise find of the year for me is a used bookstore called READING LIGHTS in the city itself on Jalan Silangwangi. We spent close to 2 hours just sitting around and browsing through their book collections consisting mainly of romance books and other fictions. The cost of those books are relatively cheap and we a bought a couple of those out of print books. It was a good experience at Reading Lights, seeing the decor, the novelties on sale, the relax atmosphere. paintings on the wall and cozy corners makes one just want to be there and forget about shopping in Bandung but instead enjoy the coffee served here while flipping over a 2 year old National Geographic magazine. Sometimes I wonder whether the owner really makes money on this type of business ie after investing in a two- storey corner lot building with facilities like toilets, prayer room and a mini hall for activities to take place and a staff strength of 6 to boot ! Its a boon to book lovers. Perhaps the owner is just happy and satisfied when the readers are happy. They are indeed truly book lovers. We wish them well.
