There's no such thing as a free lunch...Or is there?

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It's official. The next president of Indonesia is former army general Prabowo Subianto. Quite how the next five years will pan out is anyone's guess but hopefully the foreign pundits who always bring up his dodgy human rights record will be proven wrong. Nonetheless, on policy making, Prabowo's popularist move to literally offer the poor 'a free lunch' every day of the week does not augur well for the future. Such a policy - if it ever came to fruition - would cost a phenomenal amount of money and likely lead to huge inefficiencies (food waste) and poor incentives (make people lazy). Another concern is Prabowo's strong nationalist bent. Thus, in the possible event that he finds himself with his back against the proverbial wall in the face of stern economic challenges, there is a big chance that he will simply scapegoat foreigners. But he will have to be careful. Construction of the new capital city, Nusantara, for example, is highly dependent on foreign in

40 things to do in Indonesia before you die

Do You Realize - that everyone you know someday will die
And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round…

> The Flaming Lips

Life is short and there is no point in pissing it away so I thought I’d make a list of things you should do in Indonesia before you die. It would of course be a lot easier to compile a list of things you wanted to do, but that would be cheating. All the things on this list I’ve compiled from experience. Ok, so here’s the first part of the list:

40. Watch a football match. Forget the premiershits and take in some “real” football instead. The league games in Indonesia are unpredictable, farcical and often extremely violent – the soldiers aren’t there just to enjoy the game – so leave your personal possessions at home. The national stadium at Senayan is hugely impressive and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Lazio play there many years back - even though the crowd in the upper stands did take to throwing piss-filled aqua cups onto the unfortunate spectators below. As for the MU debacle, well that was a huge disappointment of course – I would have loved to see them get turned over by an Indonesian XI!

39. Eat an entire durian yourself. Definitely an acquired taste, the English writer Anthony Burgess wrote that dining on this fearsome looking fruit was “a lot like eating vanilla custard in a latrine”. Nuff said methinks.

38. Visit the Badui. Just a few hours drive from the bright lights and polluted skies of Jakarta are an ancient tribe who, incredible as it may seem, eschew the modern world entirely (no handphones, IPods, electricity, machinery or even vehicles!). Houses have no water and bathing is done in the nearby stream. All good fun – well at least for a couple of days!

37. Smoke a 234 Dji Sam Soe non filter cigarette. With nicotine and tar levels well off the radar screen, these cigarettes are a two-fingered salute to the politically correct health fascism of the West.

36. Visit the Golden Mosque. Drive through the wastelands of suburban South Jakarta and eventually you will see the most incredible sight: a gold domed mosque! In Indonesia it’s known as Masjid Kubah Mas, or otherwise as Masjid Dian Al-Mahri, and it’s built on a plot of 80 hectares surrounded by fruit trees and a few other large and luxurious buildings. Amazingly, all the domes, pillars, chandeliers and other ornaments are covered by pure 24 carrat gold. Food for thought, considering all the poverty outside!

35. Feed a Komodo a chicken. These humongous-sized lizards evoke the dinosaur age and despite their large size (average length of 2 to 3 metres), they are bloody fast and can pounce on their prey in an instant. Only found on a few small islands in Indonesia; pay Rp20,000 for a chicken and feed it to a komodo in their natural habitat. And if you can’t be arsed to make the arduous trip to Komodo Island, simply visit Ragunan zoo in Jakarta, where the friendly zookeepers will let you feed these awesome beasts.

34. Attend a ngaben cremation ceremony in Bali. A joyous celebration of life over death, even the most hardened atheist cannot fail to be moved by this emotionally charged ceremony. At the beginning of the ceremony the body of the deceased is placed in a sarcophagus made in the form of a bull (Lembu) or in a wooden temple structure called a Bade. This is then carried - on a crisscross of bamboo poles - to the cremation site. Here prayers are said and other rituals performed. The sarcophagus is then burnt. Later the ashes are taken to the sea and the whole cycle is complete. In 2008 I was fortunate to attend one of the largest ngaben ceremonies ever held in Bali: a great experience.

33. Swim from one island to another. Not as difficult as it sounds as there are somewhere in the region of 18,000 islands in Indonesia and a fair number of them are within swimming distance of each other (like the idyllic
Gili islands off the west Lombok mainland for example). Wear fins to make it easier and - for obvious reasons - do NOT try to make the crossing unless you are being shadowed by some sort of boat or you could easily end up having a very grisly death.

32. Wear a durian flavored condom. Fruit flavor condoms are a hit the world over, although the durian flavor (made by
Simplex) might be just a bit too much of a mouthful for some!

31. Plummet down the speed slide at waterbom. The speed slides at the
waterbom parks in Jakarta and Bali are bloody fast and the feeling of shooting down the steep drop at what feels like 250,000 miles per hour will either have you coming back for more or heading off to the nearest bog to puke your guts out.

Comments

  1. I'm sorry durian flavored condoms?..hey don't stop there...do try our salak flavored condoms or rambutan flavored condoms depends on the season or duku flavored condoms...just a random thought i wonder if they have pete flavored condoms?That doesn't qualify as a fruit though but nonetheless I am curious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I must solemnly state that durian's one of the best flavours I know of even though I never tried one with a condom.

    ReplyDelete
  3. coffee&cigarette9 January 2011 at 12:55

    i think the taste of gudang garam merah cigarette stronger than dji sam soe 234, maybe you should try :)

    *for youre information, gudang garam merah is soekarnoe (our first president) fav`s cigarette hahaha

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh man! If I'm a girl and hate Durians, what would become of me? Hahhahaha.... can't wait for the rest of the list.

    @coffee&amp, really? Great info.

    ReplyDelete
  5. watching football is a MUST...and try to watch not only national team in senayan...be more adventurous by watching divisi utama (first division) match in tangerang (persikota) or in tanjung priok (persitara)...
    if you like standing terraces, raw and hard game...and learn some Indo "f*ck or b*stard"...
    dangerous tho...hahaha...leave ur cellphone or wallet at home...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh no I lived in the Philippines once and I know there is no way I would eat an entire durian.

    ReplyDelete

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