My last post was on 30 December 2023, about why my family decided to “downgrade” our life and move back to our hometown, Bengkulu. I closed it by saying I hoped we made a good decision, but only time will tell. Well, it’s been almost 3 years now. Time to collect the answer, haha.
So what happened in those 3 years?
1. The House Is Done, and We Live in It
Back then the house was still just a plan. Alhamdulillah, it’s built now and we live in it, just the 3 of us: me, my wife, and the kid. No more sharing one bedroom at our parents’ place.
It’s in the city proper. My wife’s office is close. The airport is close. The only mall Bengkulu has is close too (yes, still just one, lol). Pretty much everything we visit often or buy regularly is a short drive away.
The one thing that’s a bit far? Our parents’ houses. Both live on the outskirts, so a trip there can take 30 minutes. For Bengkulu standards that’s a long way. In Jakarta, 30 minutes barely gets you out of your housing complex, haha.
The land is pretty spacious, so I can grow a few things and proudly call it our backyard garden. A family-sized garden, not a plantation.
2. The Kid Is in Kindergarten
She’s in kindergarten now, and so happy to play with kids her age. Every morning I take her to school. At lunch break I pick her up and drop her at daycare, because school doesn’t last until 4 PM, which is when my wife finishes work and picks her up to go home.
This small routine is exactly what we imagined when we decided to move back. Working remotely means my lunch break can double as a private driver shift, lol. In Jakarta traffic, I’m pretty sure this would have stayed a dream.
3. News from My Siblings
In my last post I wrote that my younger brother “still needs some fixing”. Good news: he’s doing much better now. He studies game development at Batam State Polytechnic (Politeknik Negeri Batam). Kind of fits, with his big brother working at a game company, hehe.
My youngest brother, the one who went to Gontor (a well-known Islamic boarding school in East Java), is the one who got sidetracked this time. I won’t go into the details here. We took him out and put him in a regular high school here in Bengkulu, where we can look after him ourselves.
And my younger sister, the one I said might start her career as a lecturer? She got the position! Guess where. Batam State Polytechnic, the same campus as our game dev brother. So now there’s another pair of eyes on him over there, haha. She’s married too, and Insya Allah (God willing) our family is getting a new member soon.
4. Our Last Grandparent Passed Away
This one is not happy news. My grandma from my mother’s side, our last surviving grandparent, has passed away. Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un (to God we belong and to Him we return).
The call came in the middle of the night. Family told me she was gone. The next day I helped carry her keranda (the bier we use to carry the body) to her last resting place.
One reason we moved back was that our parents and family are getting older, and we wanted to be near them. That night I was grateful to be there in person, and not just hearing the news over the phone from Jakarta.
5. Air and Health
Bengkulu has its share of pollution now, mostly smoke from forest fires. But it’s nowhere as bad as Jakarta.
If you read my last post, you know I have asthma and used to see a doctor nearly every month. Now? I rarely get sick. Usually only right after I come back from a Jakarta trip, lol. I think my body is just allergic to Jakarta.
6. Still at Tripledot
Same company, Tripledot Studios. I’ve changed bosses a few times already, but the projects keep being interesting and I like working here. It’s a profitable group company that keeps growing. We build our own products and market them ourselves.
In 2023 I went to the Barcelona office, and in 2025 to the London office. Amazing experience for me. Usually I only meet the European team in Slack chat. This time it was in actual Europe, real people with their own voice and personality. Feels very different.
Over these 3 years team members came and went, but most stayed. That’s how I can tell this is a healthy, balanced and growing company. Not a perfect one, though. But good enough for me to keep staying here, so far.
7. In the Middle of a Messy Economy
The tech industry is a mess right now, and the Indonesian economy is not doing great either. In the middle of all that, we feel lucky we can still do pretty much everything the same. Eating out, playing with the kid, shopping around, and other small things we usually take for granted.
But we also prepare for the worst. And that’s another benefit of living in a small city: if we had to, we could shrink our costs down to the absolute minimum. I hope we never have to.
So, Was the Downgrade the Right Call?
So far, my answer is yes. Not because everything went smoothly. There were sad moments, and some headaches too. But when something happens, we’re close to family. And our kid gets to see both of her parents every single day.
Alhamdulillah.
Written in Bengkulu, this time from our own house. If you’re ever in Bengkulu, my friends, let me know and let’s grab a coffee.