Paris Van Java, Bandung

a shop at Jalan Braga

BANDUNG, PARIJS VAN JAVA Bandung is the capital of West Java in Indonesia, 180 kilometers southeast from Jakarta. Bandung is the third largest city in Indonesia and a centre of industry and traditional Sundanese arts – with plenty of cultural performances for tourists – though it suffers from traffic pollution and uninteresting modern developments. Called Parijs van Java (Paris of Java) by the Dutch, its high altitude location makes the weather pleasantly cool. Its European ambiance and sophistication, Bandung shares with Miami a fine legacy of Tropical Deco architecture dating from the 1920's. The Dutch spotted the potential of this lush, cool plateau and its fertile volcanic slopes in the mid-seventeenth century, and set about cultivating coffee and rice here. Several relics from the city's colonial era remain, including some of the elegant shops along Jalan Braga, and some fine buildings on Jalan Asia-Afrika. Bandung is Parijs Van Java, apparently attributed for the fact that Bandung offer all the comforts for a city for lovers: beautiful mountain side scenery, the cozy nightime atmosphere, as well as the shady trees that grace at the road sides.