Monthly Archives: October 2010

Pesta Blogger

This is the first blogging convention I’ve ever attended, so I didn’t know what to expect.  The event took place in a new building near the Rasuna apartments, behind Pasar Festival on Jl Rasuna Said.  I was surprised to notice a café in this building, called Kopi Luwak, or something similar (warung luwak? Well, Luwak [...]
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Travelling in Java

Just to let you know, I’ll be travelling through Java for the next two weeks.  Well actually I’ll only be going to two cities, Jakarta and Kediri – for a week each and in that order.  The important reasons are at the beginning and the end of the trip, first to go to Pesta Blogger [...]
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Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Vocanoes Don’t Scare Us

The world’s newspapers and news sites seem to be filled with stories about a series of natural disasters that Indonesia is currently suffering.  Earthquake and tsunami in Sumatra, volcano erupting in Yogya, floods in Jakarta.  I’ve seen a YouTube vid of a US pastor who says it’s the end of the world.  Well, it’s not the [...]
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Jakarta Street Food: Kebab

An easy but important mistake which tourists to Indonesia often make is when they see food being offered which is familiar and/or healthy.  Firstly, what is familiar to Westerners is often unfamiliar to most Indonesians.  They may not be familiar with the proper way to handle unusual (for them) types of food. Secondly, salad or any uncooked vegetable is a [...]
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Magic Goat or Animal Cruelty?

I touched a raw nerve when I sent this clip to Ana, Aboutindo’s resident translator, for comment.  I knew she’s a dog lover, but I didn’t realise her empathy extends to goats too.  Anyhow, here’s her response: This clip is ridiculous! That goat was one of the poor animals selected for Idul Adha sacrifice at Jombang, East Java. [...]
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Jakarta Street Food: Dawet Hitam, Wedang Ronde and Kupat Tahu

This clip showcases three delicious dishes, I’ll discuss them in order of appearance. Dawet Hitam The basic ingredient is glutinous rice flour.  The black colouring is merang, which is made from burnt rice stalks.  A green variation of this dish is coloured using pandan or suji leaves.  As you can see in the clip, a great deal of [...]
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Indonesia’s ‘Black Dutch’

Jakarta’s African residents are easy to spot, they’re taller and (of course) much darker than everyone else.  There’s quite a large community, mostly in Sabang and adjacent areas of Central Jakarta.  Most of them are from Nigeria and associated with the oil industry.  They suffer more than their share of prejudice from the locals, who [...]
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Reggae at the Disco – Meriam Bellina

This clip comes from the film “Bumi Bulat Bundar” which means “Earth Round Round” which doesn’t make sense.  The actions on the clip don’t make sense either, which is at least consistent.  He starts off enjoying a glass of wine with a lovely girl, then he’s… well he isn’t kissing a bunch of beautiful girls, [...]
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Mapping Indonesia’s Religions

Indonesia is often described as a Muslim country.  This is wrong on two levels.  Firstly, the constitution specifically recognises five religions: Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism and Buddhism.  Secondly, there is a segment of the population which holds beliefs other than Islam.  This non-Muslim segment has much greater influence than its numbers indicate.  Moreover, there are large areas where [...]
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Quite Interesting Facts About Indonesia

The Telegraph has an article listing a few interesting ‘facts’ about Indonesia.  There were a few things that I didn’t know before, such as where the name came from.  There is one significant non-fact, where the reporters say that Indonesia is a NATO country – except that they probably meant to say it’s an OPEC country [...]
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