Bandung trip

I am not in my best health to write about my recent trip to Bandung but I really need to get my thoughts out before I forget them.

Hello. If you have been following me on Instagram, you would have known that I had just got back from a family trip to Bandung. It was a really spontaneous trip - wanted to bring my parents for a holiday for quite sometime now and alhamdulillah, Bandung had treated them so well.

That is proven through my Dad's constant usage of Indonesian language and referrals. It's hard to get them out of the country because my Dad is always super busy (not complaining, I know he has such a huge responsibility) and he is always skeptical about being in a foreign country; unless of course, if I tagged along.

It was definitely a weekend well-spent. Living across the ocean from your parents is never easy and I got used to it anyway but whenever they are in the city, I always try to make time for them despite how little it is. I get really emotional going in depth about this so I shall not proceed with that. Let's just focus on Bandung, shall we?

I cannot express just how much I love their food! It's crazy - the amount of sambal I ate in the course of 4 days. Of course I regretted my action because I am now suffering from my reckless eating but Allah is fair, I shall really treat my body accordingly next time. I miss being healthy but inshaAllah this shall stay as a good reminder.

I have never been to Bandung before so I didn't know it was going to be chilly. It reminded me of Gold Coast but alhamdulillah it was nothing my body couldn't handle. 

One thing I truly learned about Bandung is definitely Indonesia's truest form of patriotism. It kind of embarrasses me in a way because carrying a Malaysian name, I sometimes feel like we are just over our heads sometimes. Claiming originality in certain things and yet we failed to show ownership by just owning it. For example, them batik. Now I don't feel like claiming its ownership anymore because I see batik everywhere in Bandung. Every freaking where. Whilst here, we only wear it on some days, we even pay homage to it during fashion shows - making it seems like a sacred treasure once rediscovered again when in fact the other country has been wearing it proudly on a daily basis. I'm not referring to wearing it as your kain tido whatsoever you know? Do you know what I'm trying to say here? Haha.

But then again, it is always good to be back home because nothing feels like home, isn't it? There are many other things that I'm grateful for. Sometimes I wonder why didn't Allah put me in a middle of Russia (nothing brutal about it, it's one of my dream countries just so you know), or why didn't I get a job somewhere in Singapore? But when I visit the countries I've visited - I understood why. I did fall in love with some of these countries but if I were to admit, I wouldn't trade my homeland for any other place. 

Wait, how did this post get so patriotic all of a sudden? Haha, I didn't mean to do that. I am really in the midst of recovering now, I want to gain my full energy before my parents are back in the city again. Both of them are now in Terengganu for a few days and this is such a crucial week for me because I'm about to be separated from one of the most important people who had been shaping me work-wise and I think I need sometime to digest that.

Although I don't really have much time now. Will write more soon, inshaAllah.