I woke up at about 8 a.m. Although I wanted to fall back asleep, I got up and packed everything to leave the hostel. As I mentioned before, there were so many ants on the floor, which completely grossed me out. More importantly, I did not want to use the toilet. That made me want to leave the hostel as early as possible.
The young guys were still sleeping, but because of the noise I made while packing, they started waking up, which made me feel a bit guilty.
I left the room and headed to the front desk. I was sure that nobody would be there. As I approached the door, I heard a voice behind me. I turned around, and a guy who looked to be in his 40s was saying something in Indonesian. I was pretty sure he was asking whether I wanted to check out, so I said yes and handed my key back to him.
After that, I headed to a coffee shop that I had found on Google Maps near the hostel. There was a guy right in front of me ordering something. The coffee shop had plenty of seats, so I found one and began journaling in my personal notebook and updating this blog.
Despite not sleeping well, my concentration was surprisingly good. Since I had a lot to write about in this blog entry, it took me more than three hours to finish it, and I ended up writing over 2,500 words.
After that, I started walking toward the city center. Sitting for more than three hours made me feel stiff, so walking helped refresh me. It was also a great opportunity to listen to a French podcast as part of my French studies.
After about 15 minutes, I happened to find a nice-looking open-air restaurant that advertised bakmi, an Indonesian noodle dish. Although it was a bit expensive by my standards, I ordered what the young waitress recommended: bakmi with meatball soup for 42,000 IDR (about $2.30).
The fact that I had eaten a similar-sized bowl of bakmi from a street vendor for about half the price made me regret my decision a little. Still, I paid, left the restaurant, and continued walking.
This time, I spent about an hour exploring the city center. Eventually, I started getting tired, so I settled down at a random coffee shop.
I think Bandung is pretty comparable to Jakarta. If anything, it feels almost the same. I honestly felt like I had wasted $10 traveling from Jakarta to Bandung.
While sitting at the coffee shop, the lack of sleep finally caught up with me. I was so tired that I did not feel like walking all the way to the place where I was going to stay, so I booked a Grab. The fare was less than $1.
Walking while traveling gives me a lot of benefits. It refreshes my mind, helps me burn calories, and saves money on transportation.
After staying at the cheapest hostel, I wanted to spend a night somewhere more comfortable where I could rest well and take a proper shower. That led me to book Bobobox, a capsule hotel chain in Indonesia. Although it cost me about $10, which was roughly twice as much as a typical hostel, I felt it was worth paying for a good night’s rest.
After checking in both at the front desk and through the app, I realized that this location only had double-bed-sized rooms. I thought it was a great deal considering the size of the room.
After settling in, I felt completely exhausted, so instead of exploring Bandung a bit more, I decided to grab dinner at a FamilyMart near the hotel. I bought UFO, my favorite Japanese instant noodles, two pieces of boneless fried chicken, and white rice for about $2.50.
After dinner, I relaxed for a while and went to bed at 8 p.m.
