Dear tourist, here are what you need to know about angkot (public transportation) in Bandung

Angkot is stands for Angkutan Umum or it means a public transportation by car. Inside the car there will be one driver and their personal assistant. One car can bring up to 7 people.

What makes angkot different is the car usually will bring you too many places but they have limit route. Such as when you see angkot with blue yellow green color, they will bring you from Sadang Serang to Caringin. It means your starting point is from Sadang Sarang until Caringin. Every color has different route so you need to be careful and make you are in the right angkot. You can easily check the route behind the car like this.

Route : Sadang Serang — Caringin

Before online transportation was existed, angkot is the cheapest one and become people’s main choice public transportation. The main reason is because its low budget with minimum payment Rp 2000 or less than 1 dollar.

Remember, it will be expensive if you ride angkot for long journey. If you are a tourist and curious enough to use angkot, no worries, angkot is still exist and people are still using angkot. Here I’ll give you several tips about what you need to know about angkot in Bandung (I emphasize Bandung because angkot in every city has different characteristic):

1. The only way to reach angkot is stop them beside the street by waving your hand. The car will automatically stop beside you.
2. If you are not sure about the route, just ask the driver where you want to go. They will give you details information.
3. Be aware of unexpected behavior from the driver. We often call it “angkot rules” because most of the time they will drive according to their rules such as unpredictable time to stop their car because someone’s waving their hand or because someone inside the car already arrived at their destination. Another worst case is when they are waiting for customer for long time until you the car is full. So if you are in a rush, do not use angkot. It will mess your time schedule. And always, always pay attention to your belongings. I highly recommend you to not using your phone while in angkot.
4. Be ready to fit in the car for more than 7 people because the driver want their car full. So they will push customer to sitting closer until you feel packed
5. When you reached your destination, just say “left, left” (Kiri kiri). Then your angkot will stop according to your command.

Please note that not all angkot driver are bad. I had experiences to meet a very kind and nice angkot driver. If you already tried angkot, please share your experiences here.. Thank you :)