Here are a few fun facts I gathered over the 3 weeks I spent in Indonesia! I only got to see the capital city Jakarta on the Java island and the southern and central parts of Bali.
•Indonesia is the 4th most populated country after India, China, and the U.S.
•Warung is an Indonesian restaurant meaning “Small kitchen”.
((Photo above shows some of the traditional food served in a Warung))
•People sell petrol on the side of the road in absolut vodka bottles.
((Fill her up with the ABSOLUT best petrol))
((Women selling petrol))
•Motorbikes are everywhere and a great way to get around.
•The cab drivers hate uber drivers so much that they sometimes run into their cars on purpose and physically fight. Uber drivers sometimes won’t pick you at from certain locations because they say it is “dangerous”.
•People drive however they want to. There are no rules and lanes don’t mean anything!
•Circle K is the most popular gas station here.
•Hindu temples and altars are everywhere. Every household has their own temple. The most common statue is the elephant god Shiva.
•They call it Bali religion, not hindu.
•All people (men and women) age 16-17 must do a teeth filing ceremony. They believe it makes them pure. The filing can last for up to 20 minutes and the pain is excruciating.
•Every compound has buildings that represent the head body and feet.
•Head is family temple to the north east (Holy direction, positive energy), shrines for different gods (sun, creator, life, etc)
Body is 4 buildings, NSEW,
East building is used as the ceremony building. They preform weddings, teeth filing, funeral, births,etc.
North for oldest persons in family, highest building, has a kitchen so old people don’t have to leave the building.
West building is for the children. This building is for sleeping and is a meeting point. They will have family meetings on the porch.
South building has a kitchen for rest of family.
The feet building is the washroom/ laundry room.
•Each family has separate kitchens for each wife. The wives will fight over the cooking if they share a kitchen.
•People who die are put in the grave for 3-5 years and then there body is dug up and cremated. The spread the ashes in the ocean and around the family shrine. They believe in reincarnation of family spirits.
•Before they put the body in the grave they wrap in in cloths. It kind of reminds me of mummification.
•Cock fighting happens at before every ceremony. They believe when the rooster dies and a drop of Theo blood his the ground it will protect them from the spirits.
Cock fighting is also used as a way to gamble and make money. Sometimes they will even inject the roosters with steroids to try to insure a win. After a rooster has won he can be sold to make more money.
•They put the roosters in small cages to make them become more aggressive.
•Every person born in Bali gets one of four names. Both boys and girls get the same 4 names. They are given to you in birth order. To tell everyone apart they give you a second name but no last name. Our guide told us there are no family names. So my name, for example, would be Wayan Emily.
•”Suk suma” means “thank you” in Balinese
•There are 725 languages in Indonesia and 24 dialects.
•Bali had their own language.
•Gunung raung temple is the second oldest temple in all of Bali. It is an 11 century old temple meaning mountain cave temple.
((The second oldest temple))
•A white cow and a white bull is Holy.
Balinese just eat pork and chicken, not beef because it’s Holy.
((A statue of the HOLY COW))
•Indonesian people are always early. I should be more like them! Haha
•They seem to take care of dogs but are not otherwise pet friendly. They dye chicks and put them in plastic bags & cage beautiful birds to sell but let dogs roam the streets.
•There is a sacred monkey forest in Bali. Monkey mamas hold onto the baby tails like a child leash.
•Tax + service charge for restaurants is usually 20%.
•The currency is $1USD to 13,000 Rupiah.
•Luwak coffee is the kind from poop apparently it’s lower caffeine and extra filtered. It’s also some of the most expensive coffee in the world.
((A photo of the freshly pooped “crappy” coffee))
•Cars and motos honk a lot. I think they might have there own language.
•Taxi men ask you if you want a ride all the time. “Transport Darling???”
•The cars are mostly Suzuki, Toyota, and Honda.
•There is a lot of iron art work that looks like Nazi symbols. It’s very strange.
((Just one example))
•The traditional Balinese dress is a lace top with tshirt sleeves, a mid calf length sarong and a belt wrap around the waist; on special events at the temple they all dress in white and yellow.
•Bali is Hindu while the rest of Indonesia is Muslim.
•Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world.
•Bali seems like it could be it’s own country separate from the rest of Indonesia.
•The Balinese are very spiritual people.
•In Jakarta you will find prayer room everywhere.
•Most things in public places are divided by gender. Even parking lots.
((Saw this sign in the mall parking lot))
•Yoga is extremely popular in Bali. It is very different than yoga in other parts of the world. In Bali it seems like it’s own religion.
•Hinduism in Bali is different than what I saw in Malaysia. It’s a lot more organic. They use things of the earth to make their temples and offerings.
((One of the many places they put the offerings))
((A priest in full ceremony dress))
((A peek inside the Cliff Temple in Uluwatu))
((Uluwatu— ahhhh))
•The people that practice Hinduism make offerings 3 times a day. Morning, lunch, and night time.
•Once the incense has stopped burning the offering is done and holds no more value. They say it become trash.
•The women weave baskets to put the offering in. The craftsmanship is so beautiful.
•The smell of incense is everywhere. I’m not mad about it! It smells great!
•The Balinese people love Bali. They never want to leave. They even believe that heaven is just a perfect Bali.
•Rice is the main crop besides coffee on the island of Bali.
((The iconic rice terrace))
•They use these orange flowers in all the religious decorating. I love them!
((We found an amazing field of them while on a bike ride))
Overall, Indonesia is a huge country made up of over 17,000 islands. 6,000 of which are completely uninhabited. That really blows my mind! I have only seen a glimpse of this massive country and I hope one day to come back and see more!
Thanks for reading!
Xoxo,
Emily
((Indonesia is my last country with my team “Diamonds”! We went out with a bang in Bali! We got to see some amazing things (such as this waterfall) and experience some really cool culture! I love these girls so much! Thanks for the amazing times, from Africa to SE Asia.))
