If You Don't Drive on the Right Side, You Don't Drive Right.

Please excuse the bad grammar of the title. It's just true. And putting all the traffic problems, honking, lack of obedience to traffic rules, and polluting vehicles aside, I've come to the realization that this is true.

Erin and I reserved a car to go to Bandung on Saturday for 6 AM, specifically requesting a driver familiar with the Bandung area. We didn't get confirmation until late Friday night that they had received my bank transfer, but he showed up on time Saturday. We had reserved that time specifically so we could get in all the activities we wanted to do that way and avoid the traffic-jammed city of Bandung, instead skirting around it to make the most of our time. We explained this to the person we reserved with and tried to explain to the driver.

So, to our suprise, we encounter no traffic on the way there, and two hours later find ourselves in the center of the city of Bandung. We then drove around for TWO AND A HALF HOURS before reaching our first (and, turns out, ONLY) destination because the driver had no idea to get to where we wanted to go--he stopped and asked for directions five or six times. Add to that the growing traffic and the fact that this is the biggest tourist destination outside the city and can you see our frustration?

So, we saw Tangkuban Perahu, hiked around for a couple of hours, ate some jagung bakar, and returned home. A little anticlimactic, probably not worth $30 each, but nice to get out of the city.

Check out us and the volcanic crater: