We all have a home, and im not quite sure where mine is. I just moved to Bandung a couple of months ago. I was born and raised in Batam, an island located near Singapore, and i had lived there for 16 years. Everything seems so new to me here, the atmosphere, traffic, food, language, and people. Well, I can say that Bandung is very different from Batam.
The first thing which I notice is that Bandung is very crowded compared to Batam. This may also be the cause of the bad traffic we are having here. In Batam, there was no such thing as traffic. The only good thing I can take from the traffic is the public transportation, which is much more reliable than the one in Batam. Even though most of the times these public transportations are very annoying because they would just stop in the middle of the street for the sake of getting passengers. The climate's here is almost the same like in Batam, it's devilishly hot in the afternoon. The night time makes the difference. Sometimes it can get really cold here at night, yet back then I need an AC to put me to sleep.
The language here is also different. Even though Bandung is a part of Indonesia, people tend to use Sundanese more frequently. To be honest, sometimes I am having a hard time understanding conversations. I never studied Sundanese, because I never thought that it'll be important at some point before due to that I speak Indonesian and English back in Batam. The people are more kind and respectful here compared to the ones in Batam. This is maybe caused by mixed cultures and lifestyles of foreigners and us Indonesians in Batam. There are also plenty of Chinese people in Batam, and they fill most of the population there.
Putting everything aside, there is one important thing about Bandung which I love so much. The food is amazing here! Its like a culinary paradise here, I can easily find mouth-watering exquisite meals everywhere. I can say that the foods here are much more delightful than the ones in Batam. There are also some tourism places which can be found here, not like in Batam where there is none.
There are a lot of things which I have to adapt to, and I can see that it will be worth it. I am living in a beautiful city, filled with great people and places. I miss Batam a lot, but now I know that it is no longer my home. My home is here, in this one and only city, Bandung.
