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If you ever decide to drive a motor vehicle in Indonesia, do bear in mind that Indonesians drive on the left side of the road, like in most Commonwealth countries, but even if this is familiar to you, the local conditions, driving habits, traffic laws and road signs are not.
Traffic patterns are much like ours, but the unwritten rules of the road are somewhat different. They were, as near as I could notice:- The drivers often ignore traffic laws.
- The largest, fastest vehicle automatically has the right of way; all others must get out of its way.
- Lanes? What lanes? The lines on the road, including the double-yellow ones, are merely there to give someone a painting job. They have no other function.
- Arbitrarily pull out in front of other vehicles.
- Passing with little room to spare (is the national sport of Indonesia).
- Tailgating to do when not passing.
- Seatbelts, they are absolutely unnecessary.
- Honk every few seconds to let other drivers know you’re there.
- Lights rapidly blinking can mean many things, including “OK to pass now” or “dangerous to pass now” or “get out the way”.
Some people may have eye to eye contact and some may not. What's wrong with the last mentioned? It’s really quite interesting how few people are able to maintain eye contact in face-to-face dialogue.
Eye contact is actually a very intimate form of communicate and is vital in Western cultures. Everyone has heard the expression, “The eyes are the windows to the soul”.. This may be a good explanation as to why so many people find it hard to develop good eye contact in their discussions with other people.
Did you know that it’s an unspoken rule that you can’t talk to people while riding public transportation? If you do speak, everyone stops and stares at you as if you’ve just broken commandment number one. People read their papers, listen to their Ipods, stare out the window at a tunnel of darkness and absolutely never ever make eye contact.To me, making eye contact is a sign of strength in a person…
I love rice, especially fried rice. I could have just that for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Or even, you could wake me up at midnight for fried rice. Well, actually anywhere in Indonesia you will find excellent Chinese reastaurants and thousands of street side stalls with fried rice only with egg and small pieces of chicken or with all seafoods on it. And surely the taste is delicious. I suddenly crave for it…
During my holidays in Indonesia, often feel forced to look to hot gossip programs on TV that showed the case of divorce among Indonesian celebrities a.o. the present cases of Gusti Randa and Nia Paramita or between the Cendana family and in the past the case of Bang Haji Rhoma Irama and Angel Lelga.
Marriage is supposed to be something which is holy and it can only be done once in a life time. Some couples have a long life marriage not only because the love that they still have with each other, but it is also because of the sense of togetherness and it is because of the tradition.
However, some couples are totally different from the first one, these couples once they thought that their marriage cannot be ork out anymore and if both of them are strong headed, they will think that the best way to settle the problem is by getting divorce or even once the think that they do not love each other anymore, they will just get a divorce. Last mentioned type of couples happened mostly on celebrity.
Celebrity divorce is very common in ‘tinseltown’. I think it has even arrived at a point wherein divorce is actually a norm. Some couples are even worse because they want to get a divorce in order for publicity or to promote their movie.
They do not think of what will happen to the child, all that they want is to get divorce because they cant cope with each other. It has became a trend in Indonesia that the celebrities are getting divorce without thinking of the consequences. Some even divorce without giving reasons. It seems that they can just go to Pengadilan Agama to get a permission for divorce whenever they want. I am wondering on how many celebrities can the judges in that court meet through out these time.
Is marriage becoming an easy thing to do and the holiness of marriage has gone for a long time? It is true that divorce happened mostly in western country but that Indonesian celebrity still live in Indonesia which can be said as one of the conventional country in Asia, then they are supposed to act in that way ie they should show a good value to their fans. Alot of celebrities, after they have divorced from their spouses, they will date another person.
Marriage, nowadays seem to be something that once you want it to be done then you do it but once u do not want it anymore, you will just throw it away. Of course, all these celebrities, will show their pity faces on what are the problems that they are facing now in order to get attention for public.
Next to coffee, “Havaianas (Portuguese for Hawaiian) are the quintessential flipflop and the most democratic product in Brazil and could be Brazil’s most famous export”…
They were created in Brazil in 1962 and take their inspiration from the traditional Japanese zori sandal’s minimal two-strap design. Great for running errands and perfect to throw in your bag for a vacation! They go with everything! Men and women alike will love the perfect simplicity of these shoes! They remain the favoured footwear of fashionistas, beach lovers, travellers and designers now using them in their runway shows.
During my holiday, while walking around to the Kuta beach, I spotted a store on Jln. Pantai Kuta which sells Havaianas flipflops in all styles and shapes which was really cool. So many to choose from, with every outfit a different color. I adore flipflops. I live in them, even in cool weather, so I bought the dark blue ones, they have the flag on it, and I own now about 6 pairs.
Flipflops are on every foot, at every event, in every style…
I’m back from Indonesia, my holiday there is quite good. I get to visit friends, to meet new friends and to visit relatives there. So, now my holiday is over. I think it’s time for me to haul my ass out of my self-imposed hiatus from blogging. So here’s a quick run-down of how I spent the past seven and a half weeks:Amsterdam – Singapore - Jakarta- Sunday, 31 April 2006, my holiday started; flew to Singapore and transited to Jakarta- Wednesday, 14 June 2006, my holiday ended; flew back to Singapore and then transited to AmsterdamJakarta- visited Jakarta from 1 May 2006 thru 5 May 2006- hang out with friends till dawn- took a trip to Pulau Kotok, Thousand IslandsKediri - Malang- reunited with family and old friends- met new friendsBali- visited Kuta and Nusa Dua from 12 May 2006 thru 21 May 2006- bought a property at Kerobokan and spent much time to council the relevant papers a.o. debenture and proprietary- on the last day went to the beach for a quick dip- before back to Holland, visited Dreamland and Kuta again from 9 June 2006 thru 11 June 2006Solo- visited Solo from 22 May 2006 thru 24 May 2006- met new friends- met pedigree- visited Solo again after earthquake from 5 June 2006 thru 7 June 2006- visited the areas surroundings Klaten and Yogja, which were damaged by the earthquakeYogja- visited Yogja planned from 25 May 2006 thru 28 May 2006- moved out from Novotel Yogja because of a major earthquake struck on Saturday morning; in the afternoon evaquated to Solo and in the evening went back to KediriSurabaya- depend on not on trip to another place and when stay in Malang, every Sunday visited Tunjungan Plaza, this time especial looking for the Indonesian version of the novels from Dan Brown- Friday, 2 June visited the office of Singapore Airlines at Tunjungan Plaza, to extend the departure time from 5 June to 14 June
If you ever decide to drive a motor vehicle in Indonesia, do bear in mind that Indonesians drive on the left side of the road, like in most Commonwealth countries, but even if this is familiar to you, the local conditions, driving habits, traffic laws and road signs are not.
Last month’s earthquake in central Java killed more then 5.800 people and more then 50.000 were injured, far fewer than the hundreds of thousands killed by Indonesia’s Tsunami and Pakistan’s recent earthquake. Is now calculated to have destroyed more houses than the Tsunami did in Aceh in 2004.
According to Bappenas, Indonesia’s National Development Planning Agency, two factors combined to make Yogyakarta’s tragedy one of the costliest earthquakes ever - poorly constructed housing was densely packed into one of the world's most populated rural regions.
Country Director for the World Bank in Indonesia calls it was one the world’s worst natural disasters of the last 10 years and said that international support for reconstruction is vital…
