Introducing Indonesia
As it often seems to do, the lack of planning still worked out in the end. Now that the trip is all over (I'm trying to catch up on the blog here in the US) Indonesia sticks out as one of the highlights of the trip. It's a tough and frequent question you get back home: "So what was your favorite country?" I don't really like to pick my favorite - kind of like parents don't want to pick a favorite kid - each one is different and has a lot to offer. But if pressed to pick one I'd have to say Indonesia was the best.
Why Indonesia? Aside from Bali the country doesn't get near the travel hype as Thailand or even Vietnam. A majority of its citizens are Muslim, which you would think would limit the late night fun. But what most people don't know is just how diverse the country is - ethnically, geographically, and culturally.
Indonesia is a massive archipelago of over 17,000 islands stretching from Aceh in northern Sumatra to the border of Papua New Guinea (yes I said over 17,000 islands!). These islands support some 240 million inhabitants, making Indonesia the fourth most populous country on Earth. Although most Indonesians are Muslim, minority communities of Protestants, Catholics, Hindus, and Buddhists exist throughout the country. The country's official motto - roughly translated as "Unity in Diversity" - attests to the linguistic and cultural diversity of its population. I could easily have spent two more months there and not seen everything I wanted.
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| Indonesia is absolutely huge, and I could only see a fraction of the country in my four weeks there. |
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I entered the country via Medan, a city in northern Sumatra. Medan has a bad rep among travelers. Some even go so far as to call it the worst city they have ever visited. Considering I wanted to see a lot of Sumatra, Java, and Bali in less than one month I decided simply to pass though. From what I saw the city seemed congested, crowded, and hot, but nothing so atrocious or out of the SE-Asian-developing-city ordinary to earn it the label of worst city ever!
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| Medan, the largest city of Sumatra, is near its northeastern coast. Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is just visible on the tip of Java. |
It was, however, a pain to reach town from the airport. The genius urban developers - or maybe the taxi drivers - decided to put the new airport over an hour outside the city (some 40 kilometers). Luckily a new train line links the two. Unluckily for the those of us arriving at 9 am the next train didn't leave for over 2 hours! The ticket cost 8 dollars (80,000 Rupiah) and I later learned local buses charge less and run more often. Well maybe they would have charged a tourist like me more.
I kid about the price fixing for tourists because it happens frequently, but overall I must say Indonesians are extremely friendly. I'll end up touching more on it in a later blog but here is an example. When I sat down in the train station adjacent to the airport entrance I was planning on jotting down a few key Indonesian phrases to pass the time. I didn't get far before a family approached me to say hello. I was guarded at first, thinking they were going to ask for money or try and scam me.
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| When a group of locals approach you in a tourist area, they are often trying to sell you something - and will also often charge multiples of the normal price |
It turned out they simply wanted to meet me and chat, which I found to be a common theme in Indonesia. Thankfully the level of English competency was higher than in Vietnam. Most people just wanted to practice the little the knew, or even if they didn't know any they still wanted to say hello and meet a foreigner. The family at the station took a few pictures with me (the little girl was too shy to get a photo), talked for a good 30 minutes, then said goodbye. That was it. No conspicuous plea for money. No malevolence. Of course there are exceptions, but I found that to be the case throughout Indonesia. Well aside from Bali, where there are still many friendly people, but the tourism has created an image of tourists as easy cash among some locals, not dissimilar to Thailand.
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| Famed waves, beaches, a unique culture, proximity to vacationing Aussies, and references to Bali in such films as Eat Pray Love have combined to create a tourism boom there |
As I mentioned the locals speak some English, but even if they don't tourists should pick up a bit of the local language. It's definitely easier to do here than in Vietnam or even Thailand. Bahasa Indonesia is the national language of the country. Although spoken as a mother tongue by a fraction of the population, most Indonesians speak it fluently as a way to communicate between their linguistically heterogeneous neighbors.
Pronunciation and grammar in Indonesian are much easier to grasp than most other Asian languages. As I've mentioned before learning even a few phrases can go a long way, not just in necessary communication, but in breaking the ice and putting a smile on a local's face. Asking simple questions such as "What's your name?" and "How old are you?" can go a long way, and can be a big hit with kids - some may be too shy to answer, but it worked on most Indonesians!
I guess I'll make this post a short intro, then move on to the town of Berastagi in my next post.
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