Bandung, with its outlet stores and bakeries selling the ubiquitous brownie, this city has long been a favorite destination for Jakarta people looking for a cooler shopping experience. Now, of course, with the advent of budget airlines, there is no Indonesians flock to splash money. The people of Malaysia and Singapore are discovering that makes for a refreshing weekend.
There was a Bandung that dates back centuries. But the Bandung which hosted the Africa Conference Asia, the city that attracts visitors and locals alike, is for all purposes a Dutch creation. It was the Dutch who insisted the original village to move a few miles, it is the Dutch who brought the railroad and it was the Dutch who made Bandung a must on the nascent world tour with their gardens and Art Deco architecture in the early 20th century.
So it was a bit of a surprise that the Indonesians, in their early days as a sovereign state, the city must choose to highlight the rise of the new breed of cut countries outside the empire.
Asia Africa Conference 1955 held in the city of West Javan, was supposed to show the way forward for the new nation states who came to get rid of their unwanted overlords and their paternalism. The final communiqué has mapped the way forward and offered a better future lessons learned the hard way.
If Bandung can be said to have a center, then it probably is where the Grand Preanger Hotel is now located on Jl. Asia Afrika. This is the original Groote Post Weg. A few steps from the Preanger is 0 KM marker that marks the beginning of the road that was to reach the length of Java.
Cross the road and enter the Art Deco Savoy Homann Hotel. Back in Bandung the 1920s was known as the Paris of the East for its leafy boulevards and trendy cafes that lined Jalan Braga. When the beautiful people have come to stay, they stayed in the Savoy Homann, among them Charlie Chaplin. The rounded edges smooth outer lead of the hotel some call this style 'Ocean liner' Amsterdam Art Deco.
Today, cross the road after about 9 hours is not for the feint heart, but back in the heyday of Bandung guests of the Savoy Homann would cross socialize in society Concordia. Planters and officials who have called home Bandung to discuss at the bar while the ladies and their brother were flirting in the large ballroom making Concordia the place to be.
a generation, a war and later independence was the likes of Sukarno, Jawarhal Neru, Nassar and Zhou En-Lai who gathered for the 1955 Conference which gave the road its name. One wonders what the leaders of the new and ostensibly unaligned nations thought the showy environment where they have developed their final communiqué.
is just a short walk west of alum alum (public square found in traditional Javanese cities like Cirebon, Yogyakarta and Solo). After the colonial styles earlier, we fall headlong into something truly native but essential. For it is here that the Bandung chief at the time, RAWiranatakusumah, relocated its seat of government under the "guidance" of the governor general of the early 19th century, Herman Daendals.
On the north side is the Grand Post Office, a return to the early days of the Groote Postweg then a road heading north, Jl. Banceuy also hint at a historic postal connection. Banceuy is a Sundanese word for post horses and they were probably stabled nearby but you stand to watch the traffic you are wondering how a four-legged animal would last five minutes, let alone a horse.
Take the next turn right along Jl. Otto Iskander and enter Pasar Baru. A panther made the mistake of coming here in 1920 only to be shot for his troubles. This road and the side streets leading off, it has some interesting old buildings that survive in the modern era. Before the Dutch started coming here in numbers there was little in the way of a Chinese population, but that changed during the 19th century, large profits were made in the nearby hills and the railway arrived in 1884 promised to deliver products in Jakarta in about three hours.
Today's visitor does not come for old buildings and history that arouses the streets of Bandung, but its factory outlets. Every weekend of the new toll road in Jakarta is clogged that families fill the car and head south to cooler climates and cheaper prices. Jl. Martadinata, popularly known as Jl. Riau is a mecca for those buyers eyeing a bargain.
At the corner of Jl. Riau, you may notice in this area, the streets are named after the remote islands of the archipelago, and Jl. Banda is an outlet store . No surprise there. But this particular shop is in a big old house dating back about 100 years. In another time, it was home to a planter, a pioneer who made mint in Parahyangan lush mountains that surround this cool city.
Perhaps, after a busy day audit the accounts, he mounted his horse and head back the way we come through the cantonments across the railway line down Jl. Braga in Concordia for some cold refreshments.
This house of one level with its columns surrounding the front door seems uncomfortable with his current incarnation. The cars that fill her car seem almost insulting this lady, but the empire is gone. It is not for visitors to decide what should happen to the heritage of the city.
Bandung icon is the Gedung Sate Dutch but it was built and what the Dutch building have made a statement. They wanted to move their capital Jakarta, then known as Batavia, Bandung and they wanted to govern their empire far thrown Gerber designed this building.
With a nod to the local influences of the central tower was crowned by three traditional levels and roof above was a single stick sate; small skewers pieces of meat and ready to eat.
The time has dictated the Dutch were not to exclude Bandung. 25 years after Gedung Sate was built Indonesians were proclaiming independence. A planned avenue leading to the mystical Tangkuban Perahu was finally built by people who perhaps understood the sacred bond between the rulers and the spirit of the mountain that dominates the skyline to the north.
Our journey through Bandung took us through time and up to modern times. Daendals forced relocation of the original village, we saw where the elite has played and stayed, but we end up watching a mountain that has inspired generations of young Indonesians.
This is perhaps the respectful memory of colonialism. It is ephemeral, it can never last because while the body of a people may be subjugated, soul can never be if they do not allow.
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