On a quest

Hi there,

How are you? Let me introduce myself.

I’m a girl who has the privilege of having a history-loving father, whom is very passionate about Indonesia and the world. He’s like a moving encyclopedia – and I’ve always been proud to think that I kind of inherited his traits: by the age of 7, I already knew and memorized the names of all the world’s countries & their capitals; and in high school I was always the top of my class in History & Geography exams.

So in theory, I love history. But do I really understand history? Especially Indonesian history?

Like other Indonesians my age, I live at the era of globalization and social media – where foreign cultures can roam even more freely inside our minds and invade almost all aspects of our daily lives. We look up to the world’s superpowers – Americans, British, Japanese, and most recently Koreans – with their gorgeous celebrities and high-tech products.

I can’t (and won’t) speak on behalf of my generation, but I know for sure there are people like me out there – we bad-mouth our own country with its corruptions, catastrophic traffic jams, and never-ending wonder of “Why can’t Indonesia be like those amazing, well-developed countries?”

In short, I’m not proud of my country. I don’t love Indonesia. What is there to be proud of? If before I was born I could choose my own country, I’d choose USA or Japan. Damn I love those countries.

But then it hit me. What do I know about Indonesia, really? Hell, I know other countries better than my own country. I’ve also proudly visited museums and historical landmarks of foreign countries – in Singapore, Japan, even as far as Spain – but I’ve never been to Lubang Buaya, for example. Or maybe I was, when I was in kindergarten. But then it doesn’t count because I don’t remember a thing.

So yeah, now I’m determined to make up for my indifference all these years. I want to know about Indonesia, I want to really understand about Indonesia. And what better way to start than visiting the museums and historical landmarks where the history really did happen?

I’m gonna propose a quest on myself: I’m gonna start getting to know my country by exploring at least 50 museums and/or historical landmarks in my hometown - the capital of Indonesia - Jakarta! Let’s explore them together by visiting this blog :)

Let’s hit it!

-redPacker