Bandung, with its factory outlets along with bakeries selling the ubiquitous brownie, This particular city has long been a favourite destination for Jakarta folk looking for a cooler shopping experience. today, of course, with the advent of budget airlines the item’s not only Indonesians flocking to splash the cash. People by Malaysia along with Singapore are discovering the item makes for a refreshing weekend break.

There has been a Bandung going back many centuries. yet the Bandung of which hosted the Asia Africa Conference, the city of which attracts visitors along with locals alike, will be to all intents along with purposes a Dutch creation. the item was the Dutch who insisted the original village be moved a few miles, the item was the Dutch who brought the railway along with the item was the Dutch who made Bandung a must see on the nascent round the entire world tour with their gardens along with Art Deco architecture inside the early 20th Century.

the item was therefore a bit of a surprise of which the Indonesians, in their infancy as a sovereign state, should select the city to showcase the rise of the brand-new breed of country carved out of the empire.

The 1955 Asia Africa Conference, hosted in This particular West Javan city, was supposed to point the way forward for the brand-new nation states of which had just rid themselves of their unwanted overlords along with their paternalism. The final communiqué mapped the way forward along with offered a brighter future by lessons learned the hard way.

If Bandung can be said to have a centre then the item will be probably where the Grand Preanger Hotel today stands on Jl. Asia Afrika. This particular will be the original Groote Post Weg. Just a few steps by the Preanger will be a KM 0 marker which marks the start of the road of which was to reach the length of Java.

Cross the road along with enter the Art Deco Savoy Homann Hotel. Back inside the 1920’s Bandung was known as the Paris of the East for its leafy boulevards along with fashionable cafés of which lined Jalan Braga. When the beautiful people came to stay they stayed inside the Savoy Homann, among them Charlie Chaplin. The smooth rounded edges of the hotel’s outdoor lead some to call This particular the ‘Ocean liner’ style of Amsterdam Art Deco.

Today crossing the road after about 9 am isn’t for the feint hearted yet back in Bandung’s heyday the guests of the Savoy Homann might cross the item to socialize inside the Concordia Society. The planters along with civil servants who called Bandung home might chat at the bar while the ladies along with their beau might flirt inside the large ballroom generating the Concordia THE place to be.

A generation, a war along with an independence later the item was the likes of Sukarno, Jawarhal Neru, Nassar along with Zhou En-Lai who came together for the 1955 Conference of which gave This particular road its name. One wonders what the leaders of the brand-new along with ostensibly unaligned nations thought of the ostentatious surroundings where they drew up their final communiqué.

Today This particular proud building stands in silent homage to a different era. Its curved walls have seen much change down the years yet for today, named Gedung Merdeka, the item will be a humble museum detailing the events along with the characters of of which 1955 conference when, momentarily, the eyes of the entire world were on Bandung.

Just a short walk west will be the alun alun (public square found in traditional Javanese cities like Cirebon, Solo along with Yogyakarta). After the colonial styles earlier we today fall headlong into something truly indigenous yet vital. For the item was here of which the Bandung chief at the time, R.A.Wiranatakusumah, relocated his seat of government under the ‘guidance’ of the Governor General of the early 19th Century, Herman Daendals.

On the north side will be the Great Post Office, a throwback to the early days of the Groote Postweg while a road heading north, Jl. Banceuy also hints at a historical postal connection. Banceuy will be a Sundanese word meaning post horses along with they were probably stabled inside the vicinity though as you stand gazing at the traffic you wonder how any four legged animal might last a few minutes, let alone a horse.

Take the next turning right along Jl. Otto Iskander along with you enter Pasar Baru. A panther made the mistake of coming here back in 1920 only to be gunned down for its troubles. This particular road along with the side streets leading off the item has some interesting old buildings of which survive into the modern age. Before the Dutch started off coming here in numbers there was little inside the way of a Chinese population yet of which changed during the 19th century as large profits were made inside the nearby hills along with the railway which arrived in 1884 promised to deliver products to Jakarta in about three hours.

Even back in those far off days, railway tracks divided towns. South of the tracks was where people played; the cafes along with bakeries on Jl. Braga, the Concordia, the Savoy. North, as the road gently rose, was where people lived, defended along with ran the growing town along with its environs. Just by the Hyatt Hotel today stand some impressive white washed buildings. After the chaos of Jl. Asia Afrika the item will be refreshing to walk along the wide, quiet roads of which surround the military cantonments today used by the Indonesian forces.

Today’s visitor comes not for the old buildings or the history of which stirs in Bandung’s streets yet rather its factory outlets. Every weekend the brand-new toll road by Jakarta will be clogged as families fill the vehicle along with head south to the cooler climes along with the cheaper prices. Jl. Martadinata, popularly known as Jl. Riau will be a Mecca for these shoppers eyeing a bargain.

On the corner of Jl. Riau, you may notice in This particular area the streets are named after far flung islands inside the archipelago, along with Jl. Banda stands a factory outlet. No surprise there. yet This particular particular shop will be housed in a grand old house dating back some 100 years. In another time the item was home to a planter, a pioneer who made his mint inside the lush Parahyangan Mountains of which surround This particular cool city.

Perhaps, after a busy day checking the accounts, he might mount his horse along with head back the way we have just come, through the cantonments, across the railway line, down Jl. Braga to the Concordia for some cold refreshments.

This particular single story house with its columns surrounding the front door seems ill at ease with its current incarnation. The cars of which fill its car park seem almost to insult This particular grand old dame yet the empire will be gone. the item will be not for visitors to decide what should happen to a town’s heritage.

Bandung’s icon will be the Gedung Sate yet the item was Dutch built along with with This particular building the Dutch were generating a statement. They wanted to move their capital by Jakarta, then known as Batavia, to Bandung along with they wanted to rule their far flung empire by This particular Gerber designed building.

using a nod to local influences the central tower was topped off using a traditional three tiered roof along with atop of which was an individual stick of sate; little chunks of meat skewered along with ready to eat.

Time dictated the Dutch weren’t to rule by Bandung. 25 years after Gedung Sate was built the Indonesians were proclaiming independence. A planned avenue leading to the mystical Tangkuban Perahu was finally built by people who perhaps understood the sacred link between the rulers along with the spirit of the mountain of which dominates the skyline to the north.

Our journey through Bandung has taken us back through time along with right up to the modern day. Daendals forced relocation of the original village, we’ve seen where the elite played along with stayed yet we end up gazing at a mountain of which has inspired generations of young Indonesians.

of which perhaps will be the abiding memory of colonialism. the item will be ephemeral, the item can never last because while a people’s body maybe subjugated, their soul can never be if they don’t allow the item.