Recently, I spent about a
fortnight in Indonesia. It was an auvsome experience!
Here are some of my notes
/observations from the travel:
Number of Islands- The places you usually recall when you think of Indonesia are
Jakarta and Bali. So you will understand my surprise when I realized that
Indonesia consists of 1700+ islands. Java is largest and most heavily populated
island amongst these. In fact, Java is island with highest population density
in the world. I experienced some of results while traveling by road in Java-
even inter city roads are choc-a-bloc with traffic. I was also fairly surprised
when I realized there are 3 different tome zones within Indonesia.
Population- Indonesia has 240 million people, making it 4th most populous
country in the world. Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Confucianism, and Buddhism
are amongst its officially recognized religions. Bali (most touristry island of
Indonesia) has around 20 million people (97% of then Hindus). Hindus in Bali believe
in a supreme diety- Shiva.
Transport within the country - Java seems to be only island with a train network in
place. Interestingly even Jakarta didn't have a metro train network. Number of
regional aircraft carriers is mind bogglingly high- I counted till some 10-15. Flight
prices are fairly cheap. That makes sense - if not for flights citizens will
find it fairly difficult to travel across the country quickly.
Tourists – Indonesia is the first country I have come across where maximum
number of tourists are from Australia. Bali is 3.5 hours by flight from
Australia- that's lesser travel time than to some tourist locations within
Australia. At airports in Bali and Java I found full service Virgin Australia
flights. Bali supposedly has a number of auvsome surfing spots. Lombok and Nusa
Tengarra (islands in South Indonesia) have good diving spots, Australian
tourists -with their love for sports supposedly flock to these places.
India and Indonesia - I had read there are historical linkages between India and
Indonesia. I didn’t find mentions of something’s I had expected while I found other
linkages that surprised me.
I found no mention within
Indonesia of Biju Patnaik's dare devilry (on instructions of Nehru) in flying
into Indonesia and evacuating a key leader of their pro-independence struggle.
I did find a few mentions of the fact that India and Indonesia along with a
handful of other countries were creators of Non-aligned movement (NAM).
Everyone seemed to know Shahrukh
Khan. Whenever people realized we were Indians, they started singing ‘Kuch Kuch
Hota Hain’. He seems to enjoy celebrity status there.
At an airport terminal, I found an
Indonesian channel running a documentary on Bollywood. It showed a number of
images from Mumbai-including a wall painting of Amitabh Bacchan in film Deewar.
You can see this wall painting on a wall your left when you are driving down from
Mehboob Studio to Bandstand in Bandra.
I met someone else who could not
stop talking about Priety Zinta. He also shared how on Indonesian TV they show
some bollywood movie everyday.
At Jakarta airport -we heard
criminal (Shahrukh Khan number) being played somewhere.
Bollywood certainly seems to be a
hit in Indonesia. I hear their local pop music is also influenced by Bollywood
numbers.
Language - I have heard that Bahasa is one of the most widely spoken
languages in the world. I realized a few interesting things.
Bahasa Indonesian is supposedly
derived from Bahasa Malaysian. Hence native Malay and native Indonesian
speakers can usually understand each other. Bahasa Indonesian is not the only
widely spoken language in Indonesia. Actually it is most widely spoken in Java.
Bali has a local Balinese
language. Java has a local Javanese
language. There supposedly are more than 700 languages/dialects spoken in the
country.
Indonesian Script is Greek
(English script) - so it is fairly simple for Indians to read.
Indonesia was first occupied by
Portuguese, then by Dutch, and then by Japanese (during WW II). I found a few
words in Indonesian language which seem to have been influenced by Portuguese
at least e.g - gratis means free both in Indonesian and Portuguese (and even in
Spanish J).
Most of the times when I tried to
say a few words in Indonesian, I was greeted with friendly smiles. Terima Kasih
(thank you) and Sama Sama (welcome) are 2 handy terms for any tourist.
Sotos, Goreng, Teh, and Kopi- Nasi Goreng (Fried rice) seems to be a popular dish in
Indonesia. Nasi Goreng actually is quite fried- a little bit too much for my
appetite. You can have different kinds of goreng (fry) in Indonesia. Some of
other more popular ones are ayam goreng (fried chicken) and ikan goreng (fried
fish).
I must make a mention of Soto Ayam
-Chicken Soup with noodles and egg. It's perfect for lunch/dinner especially if
you are feeling drained out by the heat. You can find different kind of Sotos
(Soups) in Indonesia.
At many places, you will come
across Masakan Padang – these are eating joints which run on a Indian Thali
kind of system. The term Masakan Padang itself comes from Sulawesi.
I liked coffee plantations in
Bali. They grow 5-6 different flavors of coffee- I especially liked coconut flavored
coffee. You can also try Luwak coffee
(supposedly costliest coffee in the world) though it was a bit too strong for
my liking. You must read up on how it is produced – pretty different is all I can
say ( J).
I had heard a lot about Java
coffee-it lived up to its tag. Really tasty though I am not sure whether you
could have more than 2 cups a day of ‘strong’ Java coffee. By the way,
Indonesians call coffee as kopi and tea as teh.
Volcanoes and craft villages - All 3 islands I visited (Bali, Flores, and Java), seemed to have
dormant/active volcano and villages organized around trades/crafts. In Bali i
found entire villages of wood workers (Mas Village), silver workers, painters,
etc. Interestingly, wood work is done on 3/ 4 different kinds of woods- sandal
wood, crocodile wood (whatever that means), mahogany, etc.
Flores and Australasians - i must mention about island of Flores and surrounding Indian
Ocean. Some of views are stunning and will stay etched in my mind.
Indian Ocean looks wild and
beautiful. Komodo dragons in Rinca island are awe inspiring. Different colored
corals around Rinca island are eye catching.
Interestingly people in Flores
seem to have more Australasian than Oriental features. It seems there is some
natural line that runs somewhere between Bali and Lombok beneath the ocean -
and that causes stark differences in vegetation across two sides of the line.
I saw some strange and unique
trees and flowers in Labuanbajo (a fishing village in Flores island). It seems a
scientist of Darwin's stature had during Darwin's era investigated in Indonesia
and independently found out about principal of survival of the fittest.
You must also try out the Flores
Bananas (they have a special name that means Maharaj of Bananas) – they are
really big and are very tasty.
This island was supposedly named
Flores by Portuguese who had discovered this island, and had named it ‘Flower’
(in Portuguese) due to the varied colored corals surrounding this island.
Literature- Indonesia seems to have a rich tradition of short stories and
local fables. If you see a Periplus bookshop somewhere, do go and check out
Indonesian books section. I especially found some of the books based on Bali's
past very interesting.
Tradition – Yogyakarta (city of Ayodha) is a cultural hub in Indonesia. Try
out the Wayang Kulit (shadow performance) shows in Yogyakarta. When in Bali, visit Ubud (a cultural hub
again) and try out the traditional dance performances every night (don’t miss
Kecak performance for sure).
Misses –
I could not visit some of the places. I just didn’t have enough time. These
included Tanjung Puting National Park in Kalimantan (for jungle safari to see
oranggutans) and Papua (to visit various tribes there). There also are islands
of Sulawesi and Maluku.
Well! That’s some of the
experiences and memories that I have brought back from Indonesia.
-
Sourav
