Surfnux’s Weblog

Continuation from Life in Singapore, now I will describe on what I think of life in Indonesia.

Since Indonesia is too big, let me focus it more on Riau Province and mostly more on my hometown: Dumai.

So, here is how its like to be living in Indonesia (my version):
1. Live in a big house, big rooms with backyard
2. You get nice home cooked food
3. All you eat most of the time is fish, good fish
4. More varieties of foods
5. Lots of dust
6. You will get dark fast - very the hot
7. Almost everywhere no air-con
8. You’ll have to clean your house/room twice everyday (dusty)
9. Best exercise was early in the morning at 6am (jogging)
10. Evening exercise still ok, but quite hot
11. After morning jog, next destination is always Kopitiam
12. Breakfast varies: lontong, wantan mee (pangsit), kway tiaw, nasi lemak, indomie, mee hoon, lotek (similar to gado-gado/mixed vege + noodle in peanut sauce), half boiled “kampung’ egg, kopi O (black coffee), fried rice, and pastries.
13. All half-boiled eggs are Kampung Eggs
14. You can go around with bicycle, motorcycle and cars
15. If hot weather, go out with car
16. Evening, windy and no sun, go out with motorcycle
17. At night, go out with car
18. Bicycle is when in the mood only
19. Most of the time, you will have spicy foods (chilli chilli chilli)
20. Everyday eat fruits
21. When working, after kopitiam session, back home, shower, watch channel news asia awhile, then go to work. Lunch time at 12pm, go back home eat, rest 1 hour, 2.30/3.00pm go kopitiam again for evening coffee, then go back to work. At 5/6pm close shop, go back home, eat some thing, then shower and dinner.
22. Sleep very early at 9.00pm / 10.00pm latest
23. No malls
24. Only supermarket, for small groceries shopping
25. For shopping, go to Malaysia
26. Holiday? Go to Malaysia/Singapore
27. Cars get dirty easily, dusty and muddy especially during raining season
28. Roads are not good, some have holes, some are like waves
29. When you go out for awhile, your face will be covered with thick dust. Try to wipe with a toner, and you can see the cotton to be dark.
30. Currency is small, but you can earn big if you are good
31. To be employee in this country? No no, it is hard to live with that amount of pay, unless you are very skilled workers, working in MNC company
32. Sports facilities not complete, swimming pools are dirty at some places
33. Internet is slow, and expensive
34. There is black off almost every month for few times
35. Water from gomen is not clear and healthy due to rusty pipes
36. Have yo buy water and store (distilled water/underground water)
37. People drinks AQUA - famous brands of mineral water everyday from the water dispenser
38. You can see a lot of mineral water galons refill center
39. At 9.00pm, the road will be very quiet
40. Not much night life
41. No Cinemas (in my place)
42. The road is not safe
43. If you are chinese, and you met with accident, prepare to loose money
44. Everywhere you go, money talks
45. Life is simpler here
46. You can run to some islands for weekend escapade, to relax and enjoy the suburb
47. Sunday is family time, time to relax, and go out together
48. People mostly work from Monday to Saturday
49. You can be easily identified in this town, and people remember parent’s name
50. Lots of bad guys, and people always like to ask for money
51. Traffic light might be of no use if there are no traffic police
52. There are no speed trap
53. Lunch out are normally Nasi Padang
54. Evening will be coffee and pisang goreng
55. People mostly watch Taiwan TV channels more than local channels
56. Not much online banking yet
57. Cafes? Not much, and there is no Starbukcs/Coffee Bean
58. Fitness First? California Fitness? No no no no, plain simple neighbourhood gym
59. Body Combat? No such thing
60. Most sports played: Badminton, basketball, football, table tennis, jogging
61. Smokers? A lot! Almost everywhere, even in the air-conditioned room
62. No-smoking campaign? Hardly heard of
63. Cigarettes are cheap. 1 Cotton here, is equal to 1 packet in Singapore
64. Export Import business is very the good, best if you have backups
65. Houses are super big, three to four storey
66. Lots of handphone shops, small one to big one, main business is handphone voucher
67. Got trishaw (becak), nice to take a ride on when there is no hot sun
68. Most people trade, IT line is very less
69. Professional hair stylist, with latest Japanese styles/trend? No.
70. Lots of swallow birds flying around, and you can enjoy the birds nest easily for free

But with all these, it is still a pleasant place to stay, as we used to live in this kind of environment, eventhough it is bad, but we can always avoid the bads. Of course there are choices for better towns to lived on, things can always change. There is always transmigration, or even migration.

Some of the points above only applies to my town and some other smaller towns in Indonesia. If you go to big cities like Jakarta, Pekanbaru, Medan, perhaps Batam, they are much better civilized and developed.

Just some of my random thoughts on how’s life like back home. The most important thing is the feel of being home, and with family. Being away from home for more than 9 years is hard, and you will always starve for the love of the family and feel of being home.

written by surfnux

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