Things I miss about Bandung:

• Rainy days in Potluck Kitchen, watching the water dripped on the glass window
• Sunny Sunday mornings at Car Free Day, followed by breakfast at Roti Gempol and a cup of tea which was never hot enough, no matter how many times I asked for it
• Baso Bawean and the friendly old man who always asked where I’d been for not turning up for so long
• All those delicious breakfast selections with close proximity, ranging from porridge, lontong Padang Uda Pero, nasi uduk, and so on and so forth
• Basically the food, because it’s a food paradise
• Jalan Banda, Goethe, Jonas, and all those cafés in Jalan Progo, which had witnessed my ups and downs
• Monthly grocery shopping at either Superindo or Riau Junction
• Impulsive fancy dinner with my sister, a guilty pleasure we found hard to resist
• Watching a movie at the latest possible hour, coming to nearly empty parking lot at either Ciwalk or PVJ
• Glistening city lights with dark sky as the background at Dago Pakar
• Going to the campus and remembering how it felt when I first saw it
• Orange-hued sky over the campus at dusk
• Having a cheap massage and spa after a hard day
• Falling in love again and again with the city, at every corner of it, no matter how many times I’d seen it before

Things I don’t miss about Bandung:

• Simpang at rush hour
• Traffic jams which become more and more common
• Stepping on a puddle when I got off of an angkot
• Angkot drivers who seemed to never learn how to use brake (and gas pedal) properly

But actually, I kinda miss those horrible things a bit, so it seems that I haven’t moved on completely. Bandung is like this guy whom I was irrevocably in love with, who kept me attached years after the last time I saw him.

Dear Bandung, I’ll come back to visit. Someday.

P.S. Take a look at my favorite video about Bandung, made by Fikri Gustin, a friend of mine. I have no idea how many times I’ve played this video since I left Bandung, because it reminds me so much of Bandung in a way that I love it.