Arriving at Bandung train station, the atmosphere was soft and felt peaceful in a way i cannot explain. We live in a peaceful country and a quiet place, but the peace i felt there seemed so "new" to me, and i thought i could see, hear and feel it. 

The city of Bandung is a big and crowded city and traffic gets very busy, yet it has that calm and gentleness to it. It has many big trees along it´s main roads, some old colonial buildings as well as big fancy shopping malls, mosques and a wide circle of smaller towns and living areas that have melted to become the big Bandung. Of course, like in any major big city there are plenty of things to do and see in Bandung. 

Because we were tired upon arrival, and I just wanted to get to know the place without a lot of planning, walking around (a lot), finding great little places to eat and shop was a good way to explore and feel the city.

Important for 1st time travellers that want to use their phones in Indonesia: i didn´ t know that i should have filled out the Imei registration form to register my phone, right at the airport, since it´s very difficult to find a place that can unlock a foreign phone, later. And so we had to ask people to share their internet or use cafe´s with wifi in order to get transportation. It was only in Yogjakarta that we found a shop that was able to still register the phone so it could be used in Indonesia. 

We stayed at Rumah Lereng, a beautiful location with nice wooden shacks and beautiful old wooden furniture, a nice pool area surrounded by nature. Quite far from the center though.

Here is my son´ s story about our first days in Bandung:

When we first arrived i went to sleep,  the next day we decided to walk around the city to explore the area, we found A lot of fake items such as shoes, clothes and much more( of mostly very low quality ),i bought a pair of shoes and after about three days of use they were completely broken.

We mostly wandered around for these four days and there wasn`'t really that much interesting things going on  , at the last day we wandered up to the Tebing Keraton (wich is the moutain in the right of this page),normaly you could also see animals such as monkeys and bats  but as for the time they were already sleeping.

Umien Moritz tours made for 2 wonderful days exploring the beauty surrounding Bandung, towards the end of our trip:

Thoughts on the past and present

I did come to Bandung with a strong sense that my mother was born there, my grandparents considered it their home until they were forced to leave for Holland in 1951. My grandmother an only 15 year old girl with a small baby in her arms, leaving behind her home, her own mother and other family members. So arriving here made me breathe differently, trying to grasp some of that past when it was still like home to her.

But thinking of that time and the time that preceded it,  what really struck me, was the huge dyscrepancy in the intensity with which Indonesia´ s history of colonization is present in the consciousness and public spaces, in Holland and in Indonesia, today. 

I saw the word "merdeka!" (freedom) on many a wall, so many Indonesian flags everywhere, big banners celebrating freedom and independency from the Netherlands (someone said this serves a current political interest nowadays too but surely is expression of a large awareness of that colonial past). Of course i was fully aware it had been a colony and it´s only natural independency is celebrated, but i must say i was surprised by the extent of this celebration. When somehow, those 350yrs of colonization seem to be somewhat forgotten or hidden in and to the public conscience of the Netherlands. This Although it directly influenced much of the Netherland´ s present and was also, for long, a part of many Dutch people´ s live´ s . 

350yrs of colony under the Dutch VOC for economic purposes and later under the Dutch state, opression, apartheid and many surreal facts, interlaced with a living close to each other, and the personal connections this could entail, indo - european descendants (be it from forced, unaccepted relations or marriages), a long time, wow.  

A huge variety of people in different areas of the archipelago, cultures, languages and external factors. Arab, Chinese, Indian, Portuguese, English and other influence´ s that came across the ocean. One language put upon all the islands for easier coordination, Bahasa Malay, or Bahasa Indonesia.  

Even after the colony had been taken from the Dutch by the Japanese during the 2ond worldwar, and after independency, the Netherlands still fought to re - colonize Indonesia or to keep what they had had until recently, in some places until the 1960´ s. 

Yet for some reason, looking back on the years i spent living in Holland, there i almost never noticed a trace of that past. The V.O.C. as far as i remember from public presentations or museums, is still something majestic, to be proud of and of what it brought to Europe. Of course, bravery, hard work, a will, a way, new beginnings and discoveries, spices, trade, the basis of a strong economy was founded. A golden age. Who would want to admit their golden age was golden because they put themselves above others, without questioning, and took what wasn´ t theirs to take? It seems in the past years though, the subject has been brought to life, a little more, in Holland. Also I must admit I didn´ t search for this history when i was living in Holland back then.

I don´ t think it´ black and white, we still live in a world far from perfect, where huge inequality forms the base for a major part of our well fare. Victims may have been perpetrators in the past or may become perpetrators in future generations, it ´s not destined to one people. 

Memories are of completely different quality on different sides, in Indonesia and Holland. "Sorry" is never superfluous, never too redundant, when it comes to alleviating the memory of pain. It can be healing to know that what happened is acknowledged. Of course, being victims doesn´ t start or end with one people either, there are the victims in any violent case, individual suffering is always terrible. On a collective level over time it becomes a collective pain and an oppression and apartheid that lasted for so so long, must surely have left a collective "memory"? For the colonized but also the colonists, and there, the awareness could be much bigger, it seems. This is where i truly started to get interested in what can be passed on through generations, and what that may mean for me personally, too.

For me, that i know and love my grandmother, who is still alive, i deeply feel she has been through a lot, born into a colonial system where she was part of a privileged Indo - European society (although not part of the upper, "Dutch" class). 2ond world war happened when she was just a child, and the Japanese took over from the Dutch. She had to learn Japanese and follow their rules, while many Dutch were put into Japanese concentration camps. Her father died while he was being transported for forced labour by the Japanese and the ship was hit by an English-led air attack. After the worldwar, came the Bersiap and families like hers were at risk of being persecuted and killed by local Indonesians, houses burnt down, it was time for her and the likes of her to go! A very confusing time for her, who was at home in Indonesia, and has Dutch as well as Indonesian descendance. Her story continued in Holland where she had to adapt to a totally different world and faced not belonging, once again. That whole story of Indonesia, and the different times and occupations it went through, the complexity of different groups turning against each other at different times, the racism that was present for so long, it seems so futile now but was and somehow is, harsh reality.

Did the Dutch burn down more villages, kill many many more people in their fights and oppressive conquests? Was my grandmothers first husband, my grandfather, involved in an in-official fight, "to protect his home", a fight already lost? Yes. And against his own people too! It must have been confusing, sad and terrifying. It felt awkward to feel part of that Dutch (colonial) past, more than i´d been aware of, and at the same time, never having felt entirely Dutch when living in Holland and also having experienced how much the Dutch love Indonesian cultural heritage present in Holland. Even more so, because I wasn´ ´t entirely aware of the extent of these facts until I came to Indonesia but felt like I should have been. 

Could those things have been endured or done by me? Had we been alive and going through what people went through, then, as a result of the circumstances, beliefs and the times? It´ s so easy to judge and so hard to tell.

As for my grandmother, i feel for her because i know and love her. Some of her fear and pain was passed on to my mother and to me, not having spoken about most of it, i feel this may have influenced my life more than i knew. 

I wouldn´ t be here if it wasn´ t for her or any of my ancestors and that´s true for all of us, so I try to believe in their qualities even if they were involved in wars (like my German grandfather most certainly was, too, but that´s another chapter). 

Plus, a small piece of Indonesia has accompanied my life from early on, some stories, a distinctive pronunciation when speaking Dutch, smells and tastes, fabrics, a dream of that far away, beautiful tropical land.

This is why i´ m so grateful to have made it to come and see Bandung, with my son. And what a beautiful place it is!