Having been to Bandung a couple of times (and most recently just earlier this year) and being rather familiar with the city, I arranged a family trip to this small Javanese city right smacked in the middle of the volcanic mountains. Tickets booked just a couple of months out on SilkAir was actually cheaper than AirAsia and thus it was a no-brainer to fly SilkAir.
Checked in at 6.30am at the very bustling Terminal 2 due to the holidays season, and the FAST check-in was not that fast either, with the baggage drop queue needing an almost 15-20min wait.
It was very busy early in the morning at Terminal 2, with tons of regional flights departing within a span of 1.5 hours.
Plane spotting, with the majority aircraft being Scoots or SilkAirs. UA's B789 spotted as well.
Departure Gate E24 for our flight.
02 December 2017
SilkAir
MI 192
Singapore (SIN) - Bandung (BDO)
A320
9V-SLP
Economy Class
Flight Time: 1H30M
9V-SLP basking in the morning sunrise.
Boarding commenced.
On this flight, we would be seated at the forward emergency exit row, with huge legroom but no recline. No worries as it was only a short flight.
Boarding completed. The flight seemed totally full. Flight time was approximately 1h35m as announced by the pilot.
Inflight magazine (SilkWinds) and inflight shopping (KrisShop). Apparently starting this month, SQ and MI has combined their inflight shopping catalogue into a single KrisShop catalogue. Hence, both SQ and MI now offers largely similar inflight shopping items.
Newspapers and refreshment towels were offered.
Pillows and blankets were also available upon request (or get it yourself from the overhead bins).
Safety video played via dropdown monitors.
Started the taxi to the runway.
Passed the brand new Terminal 4, which is seriously under-utilised with only a couple of CX aircraft at 2 of the 4 wide-body gates. The 17 narrow-body gates were totally empty apart from a couple of MI aircraft using the gates as remote stands. This is a stark difference from the very crowded Terminals 1-3 during the morning peak. I believed Changi has made a mistake in dedicating majority of the gates to narrow-body aircraft as it restricted the attractiveness of the terminal to major airlines operating wide-bodies, plus Changi failed to attract the core LCC players (Scoot and Jetstar) to the new terminal due to their feeds to/from the parents SQ and QF.
Next in line for departure.
Takeoff from Rwy02C.
Breakfast service started 20min after departure.
We were offered a choice of Frittata or Seafood Mee Siam Goreng. The meal tray came with a warm roll and butter and a cup of water. Full range of beverages were available but hot beverages could not be offered as the pilot turned on the seatbelt signs due to minor turbulence. The seatbelt signs remained on for the rest of the flight with no real turbulence encountered.
My sis had the frittata with chicken sausages, wedges and tomatoes. Portion looked good and taste was not bad as well.
Thinking that the asian choice could be better, I opted for the Mee Siam Goreng with seafood. It turned out to be a bad choice as the mee siam was very dry and the portion of seafood was little. It was basically a casserole of dry and spicy carbo…. Luckily I had some juice to wash it down.
There was barely any turbulence but seatbelt signs remained on.
Silent entertainment shown on the drop-down monitors. Did not watch anything on the wifi-streaming Silkair Studio as there was not much choices of interest even though the selection has been enhanced.
Basic lavatory with the necessities.
We were soon approaching Bandung.
Surprisingly, unlike my previous trips, there was no hold for landing and we descended directly towards Bandung city and the airport. Landed well ahead of schedule.
Backtracked down the runway and taxied to the parking stand.
Parked beside a Citilink A320 which was being boarded.
Disembarking.
No aerobridges at Bandung airport and it was a short stroll across the tarmac to the immigration hall.
Being seated towards the front, we cleared immigration quite fast, but there was a bit of wait at the single baggage belt for luggage delivery.
And visited Situ Pantengang, another crater lake, instead.
Views of Situ Pantengang.
We stayed at the 4-stars Grand Tjokro Hotel and had a rather huge and comfortable family suite.
Mee Bakso dinner
The hotel has an extensive buffet breakfast, and even had a children's corner on Sundays.
View from the hotel rooftop.
Sunday was spent shopping at Rumah Mode factory outlet, as well as massage/spa session at Zen Spa.
Dinner at Sagoo restaurant at Paris Van Java Mall.
After dinner and a quick walk around the mall, we noticed that there were suddenly quite a number of security personnel around in the mall. Thinking that it was some VIP visiting, I did not give much attention but much to my surprise when the VIP entourage walked passed me, I noticed that it was Indonesia President Jokowi! The entourage actually went into the restaurant we were in earlier for dinner! Spot President Jokowi in the picture!
Quite surprised with (one) picture from new International Arrival area. Hope to see your Singapore bound FR's and some of the newly renovated international terminal of BDO pleaseee. Keep the good work!