Another map!

This is a map showing how to get to D'omah in Tembi which is pretty accurate, and the top is North!

Food

• Indonesia is a food paradise! Enjoy, be diverse - Indonesians are!

• Eat local food as Indonesians are generally crap at cooking foreign food.

• Eat anything you want, but avoid salads unless you are sure that they washed the vegetables with purified water!

• Being vegetarian is actually quite easy as Indonesians eat lots of rice, tempeh, tofu and eggs. However, you might have to be a bit relaxed about fish sauce, because this is not thought of as meat.

• Indonesian hygiene rules are different to western rules, instead of based on Christianity they are based on Islamic/Hindu beliefs

  • Think Chakras... they progress from your feet to your head, getting more purified as they go

  • Food may be prepared on the ground, then moves up to be cooked, then moves to the table (which can be a mat on the floor)

  • Everything is dirty until cooked

  • Only westerners and fools eat uncooked food

• All tap water and ground water in Indonesia is heavily contaminated with Giardia and E.coli, only drink boiled or bottled water

  • Avoid ice unless it is "ice shaped" – this tells you that it was made where it is served. Ice chipped from a block is still made from boiled water, but the transportation process is dodgy and can contaminate the ice.

  • Ice made freshly at the restaurant or bought in ice shaped blocks is clean and ok

• Chili kills bugs... eating hot food is cool

• Eat stuff that is freshly cooked at time of purchase

Bathrooms (no more on toilets...)

Indonesians have completely different bath/shower culture than western. Most Indonesian bathroom are wet, not dry as western bathrooms. Most westerners who come here think that there must be a leaking pipe in the bathroom, but no, it’s only because Javanese people like to wet their bathroom and the system of bathrooms here are different. They don’t have a bathtub and a shower. Instead, here they have “bak mandi” which is a big bucket made of concrete to fill up with cold water from tap.

Here having a bath with cold water is more common than having a hot shower. Its more expensive to have a water heater and most people (especially from a village) prefer to have a cold bath because it feels fresher than having a bath with hot water. Bathing with hot water is only for sick or ill people. Therefore, if you book into a hotel, especially a small or cheap one, it is worth asking if they have hot water as this may not be standard.

People usually use a small bucket/water dipper/bailer to put the water from the “bak mandi” to their body. Most people in Indo don’t feel like they are clean enough if they don’t use as much water as they can, and that’s why a shower is not popular. And Indo has plenty of water sources so people don’t think they have to save water. 

A similar bucket and bailer system is used for most toilets in Indonesia.

Gestures

• Do:

  • Bow slightly when you pass someone as a sign of respect.

  • Eat with right hand when you have to eat the ‘traditional way’.

• Don’t:

  • Call someone with your palm up.

  • Talk with someone with your hand on your hips, it’s considered you’re telling the people you talk to that you feel superior

  • Yawn while talking to people

  • Wink; even to those you considered as close friends, unless they are familiar with European culture; or you’ll be considered hitting on them.

  • Touch someone’s head unless you’re really close to them, even kids.

Health

If travelling for a short time, health insurance makes sense

The best hospitals in Indo are Jogja, Bali and, Jakarta, but they are still not that good. However, they are cheap.

Dave knows a good dentist and very cheap.

Your biggest health threat is a motorbike accident so keep it slow

Don't drink the water! Bottled water is everywhere and cheap. Called “air putih” (pronounced ayeer pootih, means white/clean water) or “aqua” (brand name of common bottled water). Using tap water to brush your teeth, however, may expose your body safely to some of the local bacteria and help to build up your immunity, thus reducing your chance of getting the trots.

The trots

• Most tourists will get the trots at some stage!

• This will NOT kill you, just inconvenience you

• Collodial silver or charcoal tablets work very very very well!

• If using either take a high initial dose! Don’t muck around, get amongst it.

• Keep up your liquids and avoid eating until cured

• Use GastroStop if you have to catch a plane

Malaria etc are rare in Jogja, Bali, or Jakarta, but very common in eastern Indonesia

• Avoid being bitten by first mosquitoes at dawn and dusk to avoid malaria and during day time to avoid dengue, in the middle of night is just annoying

• Dave does NOTHING to protect himself as do many friends and they have been fine for 6 years 

• Indonesians think of Malaria as we think of Pneumonia, annoying, could be bad, but fairly normal, we only think of it as bad cause we don’t live in the tropics

• Hence worry less about all of the above

Use condoms... it’s not the practice in Indonesia, aids is very low but growing.

Tampons are not easy to come by - you can get them in Bali, or in chemists and there isn't much option for brands. Best to bring them with you.

Babies question

I was asked what of the following can be bought at the supermarkets (or equivalent) in Jogja:

• disposable nappies
• wipes
• baby food in jars or tins
• baby snacks
• bottled water
• formula for babies and toddlers

Hmmm...

Well disposables are easy here - they are called pampers or diapers to everyone, and as far as I can tell everyone uses them. You do not seem to have the upper end of choice we have in Australia, and not the same brands, but they are here. Wipes are easy.

You can get baby food and snacks. Though, I got to say I can't guarantee it will be the same as at home. Chances are it will have more preservatives, sugar, salt...

Bottled water is everywhere and cheap as even the locals don't drink from the tap.

Formula you can get, though it isn't cheap - over 100 000 rupiah per can. I don't know how much it costs at home. Everyone here breastfeeds so it's probably not in great demand. In the supermarket I went to the other day they had display cans in the aisle that you couldn't remove - you had to go to the cashier and ask for it. I was told this is because of the risk of it getting stolen.

While we're on the topic... I was worried about breastfeeding, given the muslim dress code of covering shoulders and knees, but turns out it is more accepted than in Australia. You never ever get anyone looking uncomfortable, or looking away as you might at a cafe in Australia. It is just completely normal her.

Road rules

• In Bali, the road rules are strict, in Jakarta very very strict, while in Jogja they are very relaxed, so don't drive yourself in Jakarta and be careful in Bali.

• However, across Indonesia the rules are the same:

  • Obey traffic lights in daylight hours and/or when police are present

  • Do anything you like as long as you do it politely, smoothly and slowly – never do anything suddenly, ever. Like, ever. That's how accidents happen. But riding along at 10kph on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic is perfectly acceptable.

  • Give way to everything in front of you, ignore things behind you (i.e. a little old lady pulling out of a side street has right of way and WILL NOT LOOK, hence appearing suicidal)

  • The socially biggest person pays in an accident so unless you hit a bus or a rich person, that’s you!!!