Bandar Lampung

fastpitch17

Well-Known Member
Charter Member
Cager
Joined
Jul 19, 2016
Messages
4,197
My city is Bandar Lampung, the capital of Lampung Provence on the Southern end of Sumatra. Not a major city in size as Indonesia’s bigger cities go but is growing. It is a great starting out point to explore Lampung Province which has abundant things to see and do. Vast farm land producing many different crops. Well known for it’s coffee, pepper, rice, copra, cocoa, and cloves. Water recreation like surfing, fishing, and diving flourish here. Swim with dolphins and view the splendor of Krakatoa, or Anak Krakatoa. It’s textiles which started during the Buddhist period here is best known for the songket. Something that if you find an old one you have a valuable collectors piece since it was threaded with silver or gold threads. Bandar Lampung is the home of Nestles and their coffee is grown and processed here. It is also home to Coca Cola.

Tourism is not a big money item yet but they want to build on it. Especially in the sleepy Tanjung Setia/Krui area where surf is big and it is absolutely beautiful and unspoiled. Beaches go on and on and are pretty much deserted except for weekends and holidays. Right now it is a haven for just so many Australians that know about it and pack the surf camps from March to November. Many like to keep it a secret but Indonesia wants to promote it now. They also stop at the elephant reserve, Way Kambus where elephants are nursed back to health after being mostly abused by farmers and villagers in Sumatra.

Transport
Bandar Lampung is easy to drive in compared to other larger cities. No traffic jams like you find in the bigger cities and traffic when heavy seems to keep moving. Drivers here are no different than other parts of Indonesia so you need to stay alert at all times. The biggest obstacle for driving is if you are on the Sukarno Hatta highway that starts at the Ferry Terminal on the Southern tip of Lampung and will eventually run the full length of Sumatra. It is loaded with truck traffic to and from Java making sure people are fed. There is passenger train service from Bandar Lampung to Palembang with stops in between. Economy tickets run about Rp40,000 one way to Rp200,000 for Executive. Bench compared to seat. Bandar Lampung has two taxi companies. The biggest is Seiger who uses a lot of Avanza sized vehicles. A trip to and from the Airport is Rp150,000 preset. All fares are preset and it really doesn’t matter which driver you get, they all quote the same price and don’t haggle. Fares are probably close to Jakarta’s for distance but you get there 10 times faster here. There is also a bus line. Trans bus with preset routes. They are not bad to ride on and are kept up. Like so may small buses, they do want to pick up everyone they can no matter where they are standing. Ojaks galore and can be found anywhere. Ankots which are on the most part junk run their routes and are probably the biggest threat on the city streets.

Climate/Geography
Before we moved here we were told that Lampung was very hot and we would hate it and not last for long. It’s cooler then Jakarta was and there is normally a breeze. In the Southern part of Bandar Lampung, Panjang, it is hot and no breeze. It sits right on the water but it is the most heavily populated area and is the industrial area here. Houses built on top of each other stopping the natural airflow. People keep coming to that area and now they have been building on stilts over the shallow bay. The rest of the city starts going up in altitude and is nicer. Nights are actually cool sometimes.

Food , Entertainment & Malls
Bandar Lampung has some older malls with the likes of Matahari as their main tenate as well as stand alone stores like Sogo and Informa. The latest mall is Kadaton Mall with modern facilities and a lot of stores including Ace, and a lot of different types of restaurants with-in it. It is still adding on. Groceries you will find the leader, Chandra Stores, Giant/Hero, SuperIndo, and a couple others. Most have large stores to more convenience sized facilities. Bandar Lampung has fastfood too. McDonalds, Pizza Hut, A&W, and KFC are the most well-known names. There are other fried chicken places that are pretty good too.
Not a big nightlife area but the nice hotels do have bars as well as some of the nicer stand alone restaurants. There is a number of Karaoke places through out the city if that is your cup of tea. The city does have a few festivals every year and the tourism powers want to build on them and add more.

Hotels
Bandar Lampung has a nice selection of hotels. From high end to place to just put your head at night, it can be found here. The Emersia, Novotel, and 7[SUP]th[/SUP] are a few of the nicer places and rates are normally pretty low. Anywhere from Rp300,000 to Rp 700,000 per night. Or, if you like, there are some places where Rp100,000 will get you a bed.

Language/People
Lampung is a mix of cultures with 75% of the population arriving through the various Transmigration programs since the Dutch were here. Lampung does have it’s own language and alphabet and is taught in the schools yet. If you speak Bahasa Indonesia you can’t understand Lampunian. Yes, people originally from here do speak it to each other. Everyone also speaks Bahasa Indonesia or Malay which is widespread throughout Sumatra. You can even find a Kampung Bali near the Southwestern part of Lampung. In recent years there has been an influx of people from Palembang it seems. Mainly poorer families that in all likelihood could only make it this far to begin with and now their relatives.
I was personally surprised at the number of people here that try at least to speak English to me. Much greater then I found in Jakarta. Most larger business people and a lot of Government people speak some English. The University here has English programs and host two English competitions annually for high school and college students from Lampung, South Sumatra, and Riau.


Medical
There are three main Hospitals and a number of smaller ones including Muslim only facilities staffed by personnel trained in Muslim schools. The three main ones are RS Immanuel Way Halim, a Christian run Hospital serving everyone, Rumah Sakit Advent, another Christian run hospital serving everyone, and RSIA Belleza Bandar, a public hospital. All are full service with Labs, eye doctors, dentist, and full service clinics. Hospital rooms run from Rp150,000 for a ward room with up to six patients to a vvip room for about Rp1 juta a night includes kitchenette. For Rp650,000 a night you can get a private vip room. The city is not loaded with those 24Jam doctor’s offices like you see in Jakarta but do have quite a few homes converted to or shared as medical offices. Most hospital doctors have private home offices too for their off hours.

Before moving to Bandar Lampung we were told by a few people not to because it is so hard core Muslim and the people were not welcoming to outsiders. Nothing could be farther from reality. We were accepted with open arms. Sometimes even felt like celebrities. There are quite a few various Christian churches here and none have had any problems from others. Buddhist and in other parts of Lampung Province, Hindus live side by side with everyone else. Are there some nut cases? Where isn’t there.

While I have complained a little lately about Immigration here, for the most part they try their hardest to take care of the things you need. State and local governments can be more challenging but I blame that on having to deal with so few expats and not knowing what they require.

All in all, we like this area. Come visit and stay awhile. The only native English teachers here are one may still be at a private school and another has opened his own business. There is a need here for native speakers.

I’m sure I missed a lot but it’s a start.
 
Another thing that is attractive to us is the cost of property rental. You can get very nice 3 to 4 bedroom homes with 2 and three western styled baths for anywhere from Rp15 juta to 25 juta per year. Unfurnished. There is one section where the rents are higher but really, not anything more to offer then what the rest of the properties have except a nice name. We have 120 Square meter living space with a total of 240 area. 3.5 bedroom with 3 baths. it includes separate quarters for a housekeeper outside the main house with access to the kitchen and one bath is for her and utilities. Satpan with single entrance and exit, close to Alfamart and Indomaret, quiet streets, 2 minutes from major roads, 15 to 20 minutes from the latest Mall, and very nice neighbors. Sets us back around Rp22 juta a year. Most contracts here are two year.

We have nothing to really tie us to one area or another since we no longer work and live on our fixed incomes with pensions. While we could live anywhere, we decided after checking out various places that we really couldn't afford Jakarta or Bali. Well, we could but we thought it would take too much to do so. Bali yes, Jakarta to us is to be avoided at all cost. Here we can just jump on the motor and go anywhere we please in a decent amount of time. Jakarta, we would spend a lot more time in the home.
 
Good morning Fastpitch,

You may or may not have seen other posts where I am looking to find affordable house leasing along the lines you have indicated but would like to get somewhere within walking or cycling distance to a beach and ideally with clear-ish water. Are there any residential areas near the beaches that you mentioned in your opening post?

Yours tropically, Harry
 
Good morning Fastpitch,

You may or may not have seen other posts where I am looking to find affordable house leasing along the lines you have indicated but would like to get somewhere within walking or cycling distance to a beach and ideally with clear-ish water. Are there any residential areas near the beaches that you mentioned in your opening post?

Yours tropically, Harry

Not in Bandar Lampung. Tanjung Setia/Krui is a great place but I seen no houses I would want to live in as an Expat. I find that to get nicer housing you first need good access roads. Once good access roads are in the tourist numbers will go way up with them primarily being local tourist by the truck full on Sundays and holidays. kalianda is one area that would be a possibility. 3 hours from Bandar Lampung. Roads are improving. People from Jakarta also vist that area. Other side of the bay may be good but I don't know about housing. 2-3 hours from BL. Bad road for at least another year. Any shopping for a Westerner would be in Bandar Lampung. Any shopping most anywhere in Lampung would be done in Bandar Lampung unless you think you can survive on Pasar merchants supplying you. Getting to the coast and not the Bay from bandar lampung is 5 hours or more and you are mainly guaranteed to hit some really bad condition roads. Any area that is hilly or mountain are torn up by overloaded trucks on a daily bases. Great ocean areas but no housing if you want to be close.
 
Hi Fastpitch et al.

Thanks for the great detail on BL, that is hugely useful and nicely written.

We're also considering resettling in Bandar Lampung for a year. We're a family from NL with 2 small children 0 and 6 years old.

What would be the best neighborhoods to look for a sizable house (we also need to include an office), are there any schools with an international profile (can't seem to find any on google)?

Best,

Ringo :)
 
Hi Fastpitch et al.

Thanks for the great detail on BL, that is hugely useful and nicely written.

We're also considering resettling in Bandar Lampung for a year. We're a family from NL with 2 small children 0 and 6 years old.

What would be the best neighborhoods to look for a sizable house (we also need to include an office), are there any schools with an international profile (can't seem to find any on google)?

Best,

Ringo :)

Sorry, NL?

Best place to start for housing is http://olx.co.id/ Put in your requirements and take a look at what's available there. We like our area in Tanjung Senang but another area is Citra Garden. There the homes are higher priced and a bit smaller then other areas but are the "image" location for the middle class here. Have you visited here yet? Do you need to be close to something in particular or would prefer to be? There are houses going up spread throughout the kampungs that are fairly nice. As for schools, I'm am not sure since we have no children here but I am at UNILA this weekend judging an English Comp. so will ask around there. I think some of the participants in the past came from National Plus type schools and private schools. Will try to get some information from some of their teachers who come along.
 
The Netherlands. NL is the ISO country code. (NLG used to be the guilder.)
 
I guess it's all agricultural, right? So then the port is crucial of course. But for the rest I don't see any industries that (might) attract ex-pats? Or do Nestlé and Coca-Cola employ foreigners there? I do like Palembang but the family living there told me the smoke clouds are a big problem; does it reach you guys as well?

Luckily they changed the name btw. Try to pronounce the two former city names three times in a row.
 
I guess it's all agricultural, right? So then the port is crucial of course. But for the rest I don't see any industries that (might) attract ex-pats? Or do Nestlé and Coca-Cola employ foreigners there? I do like Palembang but the family living there told me the smoke clouds are a big problem; does it reach you guys as well?

Luckily they changed the name btw. Try to pronounce the two former city names three times in a row.
I have not seen or heard of Expats related to Coca-Cola or Nestle here. I know of a few Nestle Indonesian employees that speak fluent English and travel for the company. Bandar Lampung had a big port but while there is some commodity on and off loading done here, most has moved to way South Lampung in Rajabasa. Bandar Lampung still has the tankers though. North Lampung has a lot of Korean workers but I do not know which industry they are involved with. They must stay there because I never see any. Otherwise, for the most part, agriculture.

We checked out Palembang and wife is originally from there and has a sister still there. I just didn't care for the city itself. To me it just seemed that it was lacking any modernization and was stuck in the past. Yes, the smoke can get pretty bad there and no, we don't get it. Mainly the winds here seem to keep it North of us. I have seen on a couple occasions it in the skies to the North but couldn't smell any smoke.
 
Fastpitch you did a good job writing this. It sounds like you guys did some research before settling into Bandar lampung. Also, you have the option to pretty much live where you want in Indonesia. Do you find it somewhat isolated? Meaning not enough English speakers?
 
Fastpitch you did a good job writing this. It sounds like you guys did some research before settling into Bandar lampung. Also, you have the option to pretty much live where you want in Indonesia. Do you find it somewhat isolated? Meaning not enough English speakers?

On the contrary. We have found more people here that at least attempt to speak English then we did in Jakarta. UNILA here has an excellent English Economic Club that puts on English competitions twice a year for various levels and Regencies of which I am proud to be able to lend a hand to. There are small schools that offer English here that are inexpensive and some offer unique teaching methods. Like Connect Lampung who keys on every day normal activities as leaning aids. Unlike schools like English First (who have no native English speakers) and another English school, the smaller ones seem more interested in teaching and only charge up to Rp250,000 per month depending on the level of you school you attend.

I have mainly business people living around my home and it seems that all the children in the neighborhood are taking English classes. Some of them have teachers come to their homes. Of course, on the down side, very few local Government agencies here seem to be able to speak English.
 
Lampung for foodies

Thank you for the valuable info Fastpitch17. My wife (who is from Lampung) and I just opened a cafe' called Jee's Cafe which can be found by the same name on FB and Instagram. I believe we are the first Indian restaurant in Lampung. Nearly all the ingredients used are imported but we have tried to keep prices affordable. The restaurant may be a little difficult to find so you may want to elicit the help of FB or google maps for directions to the place as it is not in the city. Please checkout our FB page Jee's Cafe for further details if you have a craving for Indian food. We also serve many local dishes.

Our rationale for opening the restaurant is because people of Lampung have a keen interest in trying different foods. Hope you can try ours for at least once.:welcome:
 
Thank you for the valuable info Fastpitch17. My wife (who is from Lampung) and I just opened a cafe' called Jee's Cafe which can be found by the same name on FB and Instagram. I believe we are the first Indian restaurant in Lampung. Nearly all the ingredients used are imported but we have tried to keep prices affordable. The restaurant may be a little difficult to find so you may want to elicit the help of FB or google maps for directions to the place as it is not in the city. Please checkout our FB page Jee's Cafe for further details if you have a craving for Indian food. We also serve many local dishes.

Our rationale for opening the restaurant is because people of Lampung have a keen interest in trying different foods. Hope you can try ours for at least once.:welcome:

Being my wife is half Indian (the hot blooded half) I think there is a very good chance that we will be trying your offerings. Out of the city doesn't sound good but will see just where you are.
 
I doubt there's a hospital just for freelance detectives anywhere in Indonesia.
 
Is there a private eye hospital in Lampung?

Not that we have come across. Had an eye infection and was treated successfully by the eye doctor at Imanuel. If you need any serious work you would need to look at Jakarta or even better, Malaysia.
 
Is there a private eye hospital in Lampung?

"Interesting question here Dr. Watson," said Sherlock Holmes reading from his internet search "someone is asking if private eyes have a hospital in a place called Lampung."
"Indeed Mr. Holmes" replied Dr. Watson. "I'm familiar with the one in Notting Hill, and have used it under the National Health Service. It includes Masons as well as Detectives.....but darned if I know where is Lampung and which underground to use."
"No matter' said Sherlock "it appears not too many know where is Lampung, nor why anyone would want to go there!"....:lol:
 
"Interesting question here Dr. Watson," said Sherlock Holmes reading from his internet search "someone is asking if private eyes have a hospital in a place called Lampung."
"Indeed Mr. Holmes" replied Dr. Watson. "I'm familiar with the one in Notting Hill, and have used it under the National Health Service. It includes Masons as well as Detectives.....but darned if I know where is Lampung and which underground to use."
"No matter' said Sherlock "it appears not too many know where is Lampung, nor why anyone would want to go there!"....:lol:

Elementary My dear, Lampung has enough outcast already.
 

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Follow Us

Latest Expat Indo Articles

Latest Tweets by Expat Indo

Latest Activity

New posts Latest threads

Online Now

Newest Members

Forum Statistics

Threads
5,966
Messages
97,385
Members
3,035
Latest member
Les 819
Back
Top Bottom