Monday, July 31, 2017

Travel Tokens on The Refrigerator or Just Decorations?

When I came back from my Europe trip, I had little amount of new and shiny things. Usually, when Indonesians travel, they comeback home with a load of new goods from brands that you can't find in Indonesia, brands that are too expensive in Indonesia, or goods that way cheap but seemed like good quality. Considering my trip was 35 days and I had two backpacks on me--my day pack in the front for my essentials and one on my back for my clothes, toiletries etc--I didn't splurge. I had to take care of my back, save money till the end of my trip, and save some for after the trip.

But I did buy something almost at every city I visited. Magnets.



My parents used to have a refrigerator door full of magnets ever since I was small. They liked to travel. Actually, because my parents did it, I didn't feel compelled to do the same. I kinda thought it was tacky, until it came to my own trips. It became the reminder that I did visit that place one time in my life. It didn't mean more to anyone else, just me.

Ever since, I've started to stare much at people's refrigerator, both inside and out. Inside because I happen to like the inside of refrigerators no matter what they are, and outside being the magnets on the their doors.

But lately, I've come to see that a few people are selling these magnets in stalls and shops around Jakarta. They sell magnets from popular countries such as Japan, France, Itally, and Malaysia. When there's supply, there's demand. So, surely somebody is buying them without needing to visit the country itself. The question remains. Why?

The most easy and logical answer would be that magnets have become a new accessories for one's home, like a painting or plastic flowers. They're decorative, sometimes colorful, and there aren't many options to decorate the kitchen. Magnets are pretty safe. But the bad side of me things that people maybe would like to presumed to have traveled. Call me crazy if I'm wrong. Right?

My mother was once offered me to buy a magnet she saw at the store. She said it was cute and it was from France. I declined easily. I have no importance for it. Not saying that it should, for how strong is the importance of decoration unless for its owner. For me, it's like buying the same shoes in different colors. No reason that I should. 

Sure. It's the right for anybody to buy whatever they want. But it's not for me and I'd like to remember this for the future. Also, it's interesting to see something that was once a simple token of travel, now possibly becoming a status symbol for people, considering traveling an IT thing at the moment. But anyways... on to our next babble.

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