Business Trips & Identity as Indonesian: Reflections from My Journey to Belgrade.

Dobré !

I have always love to travel and i truly enjoy and need these business trips in my life's rhythm. Beyond the professional goals, these trips offer me space — space to reconnect with myself, to do the things I love, and to observe where I am in my personal journey.

As i dropped my daughter todat this morning at 8:30 AM, I thought, "What a nice way to start Monday." I got to kiss her goodbye and kick off the week by traveling, doing the job that i actually love and meeting partners that i appreciate. The start of the day was a perfect picture of my current life : a woman trying to balance her career and her role as a mother.

This time, I am flying to Zagreb for the fourth time and yet i still don't know anything about Zagreb. That’s often the reality of business travel: you touch down, check in, head to meetings, and only ever see a city through hotel lobbies, taxis, (in my case) a lot of malls and retail stores and some dinner tables. I knew toda will be no different — it’s checked in and checked out in less than 24 hours. Btw, i recommend this hotel Art’Otel by Radisson Blu to stay. They are really center and the room is perfect for resting.

The next day, we are heading to another town on the east by 9 am before finally heading to Serbia. Just like that, 3 cities in a two days span.

This rhythm is fast, but it has also become a kind of space for me. These trips feel like a trance : always moving, always connected, yet never fully arriving. I often experience new city through people you observed on the street, their retail structures, food (a lot of them) and often,I am being reminded that i am currently living the things i have wished for before.

As i discussed with young Croatian students and fresh graduates and they all get dreamy when they know i live in Paris. It makes me smile - that used to be me. You’ll always have Paris they say. It is indeed a magical place to be, exotic too because you hear french and their love of baguette et fromage. I have lived in and about in Paris, that sometimes i forgot, i used to be that young, dreamy student. This trip reminds me not to be blazé of the things i have, just because it has became a routine now, especially when you're raising a small kid with the long hours you put your baby in childcare or in pre school ( 8.30 - 18.30) that probably won't happen if you live in Indonesia.

These thought about living in Paris as an expat from South East Asia, lead me to notice another layer of my experience when travelling outside EU : Identity and how sometimes, i still get that sides eyes from any country where i need to show my Indonesian Passport + The French Residence card.

There’s always a duality in these moments. A tiny part of me felt judged, discriminated and perhaps insecure? when i am reminded of my passport and its limit. And yet, when i watched a Filipino worker in a fancy hotel being spoken harshly by his colleague, i thought :“if i feel this way, what about those with less privilege than me?”

This is often reminds me to stay humble and grateful for my upbringing - with its own mix of opportunities, privileges and contradictions - shaped who i am. I am recalling my dinner meeting last night in Thyme Belgrade ( amazing food, please run there if you ever visit Belgrade) that sometimes when you are born with privilege as a western Europe, it might create a kind of “laziness” / “blindness” to others. Wherease in younger nations, shaped by war, colonization and rebuilding, there’s often a deeper sense of hard working, pride and patriotism.

In between all these realities, i ask myself “What kind of values do i want to pass on my daughter? ” - She is half French, half Indonesian, growing up with two worlds inside her. A childe whose mother still (sometimes) gets side-eyed at borders. A child whose mother often has to prove herself twice as hard.

It’s a duality that i need to embrace and a duality she will inevitably, inherit.

Hvala Belgrade, for these reflexion ! Bisous !

PS: If you are heading to Belgrade, check my free mini city guide here :)