Cowbright: Pasar Baru Trade Center


how about a ride?

Sunday after church we decided to try a Chinese restaurant that had been recommended to us. It was in a part of the city we had not seen before. While Ronnie was looking at the navigation on his phone he noticed there was a market in the same vicinity.

sidewalk wares outside the market

So after lunch we asked the driver to take us to the market on Jalan Otto Iskandardinata street. We never actually made it inside the market. The street was extremely crowded (no surprise there) and the sidewalks on both sides of the street were packed with vendors and shoppers. The driver let us out and we walked maybe 3-4 blocks down the sidewalk that runs on one side of the market. Most of the time we walked single file because the sidewalks were so crowded. Drivers of pedi-cabs called out to us for rides, vendors demonstrated and hawked their wares as shoppers bought t-shirts, clothing, snack food items and a myriad of other goods.


some of these snacks smelled reeelly bad

I realize I must sound like a broken record when I say everything is a sensory experience, but I really don't possess the words to describe the sights, sounds and smells of a busy Indonesian market. My brain always feels as if it is on sensory overload. As is usual when we are in public, we are a spectacle with Ronnie getting "halo, Mista!" and people reacting to me with my camera. Ronnie doesn't have the highest tolerance for shopping even in the best of circumstances so needless to say, this was not his cup of tea. The photos you see here are a sampling of what I took during our short jaunt of maybe 20-25 minutes time. Perhaps I will go back sometime on a week day and actually make it inside the market itself.

Since my words are inadequate to describe our little sidewalk adventure, I will post a few extra photos today in an effort to give you some idea of what just the perimeter of a busy market in Bandung looks like.