I did this on a trip a year ago. I wanted to go somewhere just because I was having a tough time at my new job and it was my birthday week. It was between Koh Lipe in Thailand or Bandung in Indonesia. My friend decided on Bandung so I started planning. Flights were too expensive to Bandung so I opted for an alternative route. We fly to Jakarta then take a train to Bandung. Here's a rundown on the amazing experience.


Tickets can be bought online or at the station. I bought ours online at Tiket.com. Easy to use website. Straight forward. Search the two stations (Gambir in Jakarta and Bandung), enter dates and you're presented with the different times the trains are running as well as prices based on classes. As it's a budget trip, we got the cheapest ticket at IDR 70,000 for the journey from Gambir to Bandung while the journey back at IDR 80.000. That's cheap right? Super cheap. Once you're at the station, if you bought tickets online, there will be kiosks to print the tickets. Wait for your train to be announced and then enter the boarding gates according to the platform mentioned.

Printing our tickets before the journey

The journey takes about 3 hours and 20 minutes between the cities. For the journey to Bandung, we were booked in what seemed like an old train. The economy car setting actually looked like a bus. You have a long cushioned bench for 3 people, each row facing each other and air-conditioners like those you install in a room in your house. The car never got cold because the main door was always unfastened and kept opening and closing at every turn the train makes. I was sweating the whole journey.

Am I in a train or a bus?

Every moment is an experience so I wouldn't say it's totally bad. You'll learn to tolerate eventually. Trying to take our mind off this little unpleasant experience, we just enjoyed the view going through the towns, paddy fields and forests along the journey. We crossed a few bridges between hills that were picturesque. I've seen these in pictures on the internet and it always reminded me of the train journey Harry Potter took to Hogwarts. Wish I was able to take pictures though.

Bandung station greeting us

Going back to Jakarta, I was prepared to face the same experience but was pleasantly surprised when our train was a new one with different setting! It had individual seats, was properly air-conditioned and there were staffs serving you. I didn't realize the IDR 10,000 made a huge difference in which train we got. The journey back was so much more comfortable and it went by faster. It was easier to move around the train as there were more space. We even got to watch the sunset as the train approaches Jakarta.

The beautiful train back to Jakarta

I just looked back at the Tiket.com website and I see that ticket prices have gone up and there are now subclasses for economy. Maybe they've replaced those old trains with the new ones? Did you guys have the same experience as well? I'd love to read about them.