Woaw(?) we're going to Jakarta

After years of planning, my mom and me will finally visit Indonesia together one week from today. We have had plans since 2012, but only now can we finally realize them. 

I should be happy and excited that I can finally show my mother Indonesia, a country I grew to love. But somehow, it feels different this time. 

Maybe it's because of all the changes that have happened over the last 16 years? When I first visited Jakarta in 2006, I just loved how it was a country where people would still socialize and talk to each other and you could see culture and traditions. Another big plus was that smartphones didn't exist yet (I think Yahoo Messenger just became a thing?) and it was so good to be offline for a while.

And although I can still choose to be offline, most people these days aren't. There aren't ojek (motorcycle taxis) in the traditional sense anymore. In the past, you had to find them and haggle about the price. Thanks to "apps", you can just order them now to any place amd although that's convenient, it also makes everything less special

 

In 2006 on my very first visit, I stayed in 'Permata Hijau' (Green Pearl) in a guesthouse owned by a professor in his late 60s (?) and we talked about his country. He had been around for the time of Indonesian Independence and he already warned me/prophesied that Indonesia is changing and not for the better.

At that time, I didn't know the country well yet, but even then a part of me agreed with him. I was never a big fan of fast change. 

See, it used to take 20-30 years or more for society to change drastically. Like when we invented electricity, when we had light, tv, radio, etc. But people had time to adjust.

Now things seem to change every 2-4 years and maybe every decade a decade ago. Where will this end? 

In 2006, I was just amazed by the huge shopping malls (we don't have that in Germany), the streetfood, the traffic, the skyscrapers and the examples of tradition existing right next to modernity. 

That has changed on every subsequent visit and I think it might be why I hear from more and more Indonesian friends how unhappy they have become. 

Gone are the days when colorful ladyboys would loiter at traffic lights, begging for some spare change, of street kids doing the same, of teens hanging out in malls in lieu of the internet. Gone are the days when a simple taxi ride felt like an adventure and the mere smell of the warm air inside the airport made my knees buckle in anticipation. 

Even flying has become more like taking the bus after 400-500,000km. 

Not all of this is the case for Indonesia only, but I think it's why I don't feel as excited and yet very anxious. 

I was hoping to piggyback on the excitement of my mom, being there for the first time (can anything beat a first visit to a new place?), but I am not so sure anymore if I can emulate that through her :(.