22 was the glory year of my life—not that perfect, but I achieved some of my goals in that year of age. So the fact that I had to finally moving on from my favorite age was kind of a sad thing. It felt like when I finally turned 23, I had to leave all the good things behind. I wasn't mentally prepared myself from that. 

So I wasn't really feeling my 23 year old self on its first day. I woke up, I knew my family would give me the not-so-surprising surprise which they did. Then I just did my daily routine as the usual. I got some birthday messages from friends and family which were lesser and lesser as I'm getting older, but I knew life is all about gaining and losing, so it doesn't really matter. 

But things got more exciting when I received a call from an unknown number at work. I never really accepted a call from stranger, so I rejected it. Then it sent me a message, said that it was from Gojek and someone sent me something. When I went downstairs to see who was this person, it turned out to be Chika— a really good friend of mine who I thought I was having a fight with, cause it had been ages since the last time she actually talked to me. She bought me a cake, I blew the candles, then I went back to work. Short surprise, but left a big impression on me.



I also got a surprise from my co-workers. It was kind of 'formality' in our office to make a birthday surprise for the workers, but I still felt blessed to celebrate my birthday with new people. I knew they were the people I gained in life this year.





I pretty much spent my first day of being 23 years old with them. (I hope I'd be able to spend the rest of my life with them too.)

This birthday probably went a little bit special because it was a start of something. It's not the time yet to talk about it, but I will when everything goes as I plan.

Until then. 

We went on 23rd December. Despites all the rumors that said it would take ten hours to go to Bandung due to the construction project, it turned out we only need four hours until we arrived at Dimas’ grandparent’s house. We had some times to have a rest before we went to our first destination: Bukit Moko.

It was almost ten PM when we arrived at, turned out, to be Bukit Bintang. The route to Bukit Bintang was crazy, I’m telling you. It was mostly uphills, narrow streets, no street lights whatsoever and some ways didn’t have rails to keep us safe from the cliff. We believed in Luthfi who drove the car and also, fortunately, we used Arfi’s car—The All New Honda CRV with turbo, so going uphill was not a problem (wow, sounds like an advertisement).

Bukit Bintang was so cold, windy but also beautiful. The sea of lights from the houses of Bandung city was mesmerizing— they were blink, just like real stars. We did a couple of photos when suddenly Luthfi came up with this ‘game’ called Kebaikan, which basically we tell each other our positiveness and kindness. When it was my turn, they said I had such a wide knowledge, a good listener and they consider my point of views a lot. It’s so funny for me because when they thought them as something that are positive in me, in fact those are the things I feel insecure the most. Well, it’s true that every cloud has silver lining anyway. 

It was the most intimate moment I’ve ever had with them. I was glad I finally knew what they think about me and I finally could tell them how grateful I am to have them. After some strolling at The Bukit Bintang, we finally went down to have a cup of noodles and also hot tea. At 12-ish PM, we went home and went straight to the bed

Going on holiday with them means no itinerary needed— we only talked about it on the day we wanted to go. So as soon as we woke up, we were planning where we wanted to go while having a cup of tea and banana cake prepared by Dimas' grandparents. I honestly was interested to go to Selasar Sunaryo, so I recommended it to them and they agreed. So off to Selasar Sunaryo we went!

Too bad when we arrived, the art museum was still close, so we only strolling around the art space, took some photos and had a coffee talk at their cafe. 







We had a lunch at Karnivor, I spent almost 100 IDR for its Ribs Jumbo and didn't regret evert single thing of it— it was so big, tender but also juicy at the same time. I wished they would open a branch in Jakarta, though.

So after that, Arfi and Garina wanted to go shopping. We went to Happy Go Lucky. There was a raincoat by Ame that I've been wanting since a long time ago, but it was quite overpriced there, I ended up buy nothing lol. After we went to HGL, we were in dilemma whether we should went back to the house first and went out again at night or we should just continue to somewhere we didn't know yet. Eventually, we continued the trip to Braga Street and Alun-Alun Kota. There were so many people there! And for the first time I saw those "ghosts" on the street. I only saw them from TV before, but to saw them in real life is so fascinating and funny. We took a photo with "Nyi Roro Kidul"

So It Is True When They Said Nyi Roro Kidul Was An Pretty Entity!

Braga street at night was so beautiful, I felt like being in somewhere outside indonesia. After we strolled around at Braga, we had some coffees before we went back to the house. 

DAY 3

The third day means the last day trip in Bandung. We didn't have much plan except going on Arfi's grandparents' house, which we also visited the first time we had a trip to Bandung. FYI: Arfi, Luthfi, Iman and Dimas are Sundanese, so they have their families live in Bandung. Since I joined Luthfi's car, we stopped by Luthfi's uncle house and also Iman's grandparents' house. I think this was one of the reasons why I think of my Bintaro gang as a family, just because we visited each others' families pretty often. 

So yep! We went to Arfi's grandparents' house. It was not only her grandparents, but her whole big family who gathered there. Apparently, they were about to celebrate Christmas. We had lunch there and also harvested some rambutan from its tree. Around 3 pm, we continued the trip of going back to Jakarta, but we stopped by Kartika Sari first to buy some souvenirs. I arrived at Jakarta at 7 pm and went straight to my grandma's house cause I skipped Christmas party that day, hahaha. 

It was a fun trip! Bandung has become the city I held in my heart and to have memories with my friends makes me really happy. But anyway, wherever I go, when I go with these people, a city becomes a home eventually.

Can't wait for another trip with them!