Bandung

Locally known for their name “Kota Kembang” or the City of Flowers, Bandung is the capital city of West Java and also the largest metropolis after the nation’s capital city, Jakarta. The city topographies are cradled in fertile volcanic terrain which makes Bandung overflowing by the lush greenery and tea plantations on the hillside. Bandung resides on a plateau 768 meters above sea level with a cool climate throughout the year than most other Indonesian cities.

Although the city is home to over two million residents, the pace of city life is slower than Jakarta’s. Still and all, Bandung offers travellers a blend of modernity, history, culture and natural scenery. The city’s rich history, culture, and the plethora of historical architecture sites are what showcases the uniqueness of the city—while standing alongside the city modernity that arises with the variety of chic and modern malls, cafés and restaurants which has helped give its famous epithet, the “Paris of Java”.  The one momentous public buildings include the Merdeka and the Dwiwarna, the place where the 1955 Bandung Conference of African and Asian countries took place to promote a strong stance against Western colonialism by any nation.

As the cultural hub in Indonesia, most people that compose the surrounding province of West Java are ethnically Sundanese—making it the centre of the Sundanese culture with Sundanese language often spoken as a first language for communication in streets, school, work, and markets.