Bandung visitors only there to shop

Bandung visitors only there to shop

T. Sima Gunawan, Contributor, Bandung

Once called Parijs van Java, Bandung has various tourist
attractions from rich arts and culture to beautiful panoramas.
But for Jakartans who often visit the city, the main attractions
of Bandung are its numerous fashion shops and food outlets.

Shopping and eating are indeed two things they like to do
best. They are not interested in watching traditional Sundanese
wayang golek (wooden puppet) shows or traditional music
performances like angklung (bamboo instruments) recitals or
kecapi (fiddler) and suling (flute) shows. They also do not
really care about other things like Gedung Merdeka, the museum
that keeps records of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference, and the
Museum of Geology, where important geological and archeological
artifacts such as the remains of the ancient pre-human species
Pithecanthropus erectus are on display.

The West Java capital of Bandung, which is 750 meters above
sea level and is like a huge bowl surrounded by mountains, has
long been a favorite place for Jakarta residents to unwind. And
domestic tourists may come even more often now because of the
opening of the Cipularang toll road in April following the last
Asian-African Summit. From Jakarta it used to take at least three
hours to ply the 180 kilometers to Bandung, but today, it takes
only two hours. It is also easy to get there by train.

On weekends, many Jakartans drive to Bandung. Traffic jams are
a common experience here, and many cars can been seen bearing "B"
number plates, indicating that they belong to Jakartans. Shops,
restaurants and hotels enjoy a thriving business.

"I like going to Bandung just to enjoy a different
atmosphere," said a Jakarta resident who often spends her weekend
at a Bandung hotel with her husband.

According to the West Java province's tourism office, the
province annually attracts some 45 million visitors, mostly
Indonesian, with estimated spending of Rp 9 trillion. Seventy-
percent of the money goes to Bandung, which gains its biggest
revenue from the tourism sector.

Being a great place to shop, Bandung is popular for its
"factory outlets"; shops offering latest fashion clothes at very
cheap prices. These shops can sell products at cheap prices
because the items, including overruns and seconds on export
garments, are brought directly from factories. But today, what is
called an "FO" does not necessarily follow that concept, merely
emphasizing that the clothes are trendy and low-priced. Items
with international brands such as D&G, DKNY, Channel, Esprit and
Gap are also available at bargain prices, even though they might
be fake.

One of the great places to go shopping is Jl. Cihampelas.
Scores of stores are found on both sides of the street, offering
various kinds of fashionable clothes for children and adults
alike. Prices are reasonable. For example, you can buy a tank top
for just Rp 10,000, an "Esprit" T-shirt for Rp 40,000 or a pair
of denim trousers for Rp 70,000. There are also a few street
tailors who are ready to serve customers who find their newly
bought trousers a tad too long.

Jl. Cihampelas experienced its heyday in 1980s as a jeans
center. In the 1990s several factory outlets opened on the
street, coinciding with the mushrooming of such shops in various
other parts of the city.

In order to attract visitors, shop owners erect not only huge
billboards but also giant dolls, like those of superhero
characters Superman and Spiderman. Last year an old building
dating back to 1917 with Dutch architecture was turned into a
fashion house called Parijs van Java.

But the highlight of Jl. Cihampelas now is Cihampelas Walk, or
CiWalk, a shopping attraction with an open-air concept that
opened last year.

It covers a total of 3.5 hectares with only one third of the
area used for buildings, including the main three-story shopping
mall, while the rest is used for parks, pedestrian walkways and
parking space. It has a total of 150 shops, including cafes,
restaurants and a movie theater, a game zone and a children's
playground. A combination of modern shopping malls and a green
view, it allows visitors to stroll and have fun in the compound,
enjoying a different atmosphere. You can find big old trees and
can breathe fresh air that will make you forget for a while the
busy traffic up the street.

The walking paths are named after streets in Western
countries, such as Broadway, and various kinds of Western food
are also offered in the many restaurants and cafes of Cihampelas
Walk.

If you want to buy traditional cakes and snacks on Jl.
Cihampelas, the best place to go is Karya Umbi, which produces
various kinds of chips made from tubers like cassava, yams,
potato, sweet potato and taro. The shop, which opened in 1965,
also sells other traditional snacks like dodol (sweet cake) and
sale pisang (banana cake).