Fun at Bandung Carnival Land

Bandung in West Java ticks lots of boxes for visitors with its seemingly endless list of eateries, shopping areas and facilities, but my recent visit to Bandung went beyond all that.

Instead of malls and cafes, my trip involved flying chairs and ghouls.

Enter Bandung Carnival Land amusement park, also known as BCL.

BCL is on Jl. Sirnagalih 15, in the Karansetra area next to Karangsetra Waterland, a recreational swimming pool which was established in Bandung more than 30-years ago.

The amusement park’s rides include the Mobil Gila bumper cars, the Sepeda Udara ride, which literally means “air bicycle”, the Kursi Terbang (flying chairs) and a haunted house (rumah hantu).

At night time, BCL basks in the light of its lantern garden, Taman Lampion, which is decorated by characters from famous bedtime stories and cartoons such as Snow White and the seven Dwarfs and The Flintstones.

Although BCL is smaller than the Dunia Fantasi amusement park in Ancol, Jakarta, and the attractions might look a bit weather worn adults and children will still enough there to make them laugh and maybe cry with delight.

Many grown-ups visit the park to soak up its atmosphere and watch while their kids play at the games station, which offers small prizes such as dolls for the victors.

BCL is open from 12 p.m. -7p.m. Monday-Thursday and closes at around 9 p.m. Friday-Sunday.

There are two types of tickets:

-Entrance ticket, available only to enter the park and for one attraction: Rp 20,000 (US$1.80)

-All-day pass ticket, which means you can go on any of the rides as many times as you want: Rp 35,000 or Rp 45,000 on high season.

How to get there

Aside from driving your own private vehicle, the Sukajadi-Ciroyom angkot (public minivan) passes BCL's main gate and the Cicaheum-Ledeng angkot stops the intersection between Jl. Setiabudi and Jl. Sindang Sirna, BCL is only 5 minutes walk from here.