by augenguy
I love Indonesia.
There's precious few places left on Earth where you can dodge dinosaurs on the roadways, hang out with Stone Age tribes, have staring contests with wild orangutans, speak seven different languages in 10 minutes and all of then are local dialects, view magnificent natural wonders, get stuck in mind-boggling traffic jams, and finish off your day with a steaming bowl of dog stew, fried bat and cobra blood.
You can dive on some of the most amazing coral reefs in the world, eat 15 kinds of bananas fresh off the tree, enjoy some world-class fishing, tramp through lush tropic jungles, and island-hop after a lunch of steamed shrimp the size of lobsters.
There's dense cities full of people from all over the world, or spots where you'd swear no human had ever set foot...and it might be true. There's flowers six feet across that smell like death warmed over, and spiked fruit that smells like rotten onions stuffed in month-old gym socks, but tastes delicious.
There's places where the only thing the folks wear is mud to keep the sun and mosquitoes off, and other places that are designing and producing the latest Euro-trash fashions. There's bands playing traditional music on hand-made instruments and the latest girl-bands from Korea.
There's live volcanoes and earthquakes and tsunamis and flash floods in the rain season. There's singing house lizards and dancing birds. There's mass demonstrations and gorgeous, friendly women.
Indonesia is really a fascinating and entrancing place. A guy can literally disappear here...forever. Or he can enjoy a crashingly loud nightlife. He can have domestic servants and nearly anything imaginable delivered to the front door. He can get a steaming bowl of spicy meatball soup for 50-cents, or have a $50 wagyu sirloin steak.
A house can still be bought for less than $30,000, and you can find the most outrageous mansions standing cheek-by-jowl with a two-room shack. The streets are endless mile after mile of food stalls, phone credit sellers and mom-n-pop shops selling coffee and cigarettes.
One of the most attractive parts is that it's a libertarian's paradise. It often seems as if laws exist here to give folks something to ignore. There's something like 30 or 40 political parties ensuring the government stays gloriously grid-locked. Every neighborhood has its own sheriff and the nightwatchmen clang the hour on the lamp posts as they patrol.
It really gets my hackles up when people call this a developing country. From what I see, a 'developed' country treats its citizens like terrorists and slaughters millions of innocents in vile and senseless wars. I think this country is more developed than some of the fascist states claiming that title.
Here, families still rule. Folks take care of their own. On any given street, a single family can own half the houses and several generations all live together.
In some parts, there are people who have lived their whole lives with a radius of five miles and have never seen money, nor would they have much use for it. In other parts, folks live in obscenely huge houses with armies of servants and a fleet of cars, most of which they never use.
There's precious few places left on Earth where you can dodge dinosaurs on the roadways, hang out with Stone Age tribes, have staring contests with wild orangutans, speak seven different languages in 10 minutes and all of then are local dialects, view magnificent natural wonders, get stuck in mind-boggling traffic jams, and finish off your day with a steaming bowl of dog stew, fried bat and cobra blood.
You can dive on some of the most amazing coral reefs in the world, eat 15 kinds of bananas fresh off the tree, enjoy some world-class fishing, tramp through lush tropic jungles, and island-hop after a lunch of steamed shrimp the size of lobsters.
There's dense cities full of people from all over the world, or spots where you'd swear no human had ever set foot...and it might be true. There's flowers six feet across that smell like death warmed over, and spiked fruit that smells like rotten onions stuffed in month-old gym socks, but tastes delicious.
There's places where the only thing the folks wear is mud to keep the sun and mosquitoes off, and other places that are designing and producing the latest Euro-trash fashions. There's bands playing traditional music on hand-made instruments and the latest girl-bands from Korea.
There's live volcanoes and earthquakes and tsunamis and flash floods in the rain season. There's singing house lizards and dancing birds. There's mass demonstrations and gorgeous, friendly women.
Indonesia is really a fascinating and entrancing place. A guy can literally disappear here...forever. Or he can enjoy a crashingly loud nightlife. He can have domestic servants and nearly anything imaginable delivered to the front door. He can get a steaming bowl of spicy meatball soup for 50-cents, or have a $50 wagyu sirloin steak.
A house can still be bought for less than $30,000, and you can find the most outrageous mansions standing cheek-by-jowl with a two-room shack. The streets are endless mile after mile of food stalls, phone credit sellers and mom-n-pop shops selling coffee and cigarettes.
One of the most attractive parts is that it's a libertarian's paradise. It often seems as if laws exist here to give folks something to ignore. There's something like 30 or 40 political parties ensuring the government stays gloriously grid-locked. Every neighborhood has its own sheriff and the nightwatchmen clang the hour on the lamp posts as they patrol.
It really gets my hackles up when people call this a developing country. From what I see, a 'developed' country treats its citizens like terrorists and slaughters millions of innocents in vile and senseless wars. I think this country is more developed than some of the fascist states claiming that title.
Here, families still rule. Folks take care of their own. On any given street, a single family can own half the houses and several generations all live together.
In some parts, there are people who have lived their whole lives with a radius of five miles and have never seen money, nor would they have much use for it. In other parts, folks live in obscenely huge houses with armies of servants and a fleet of cars, most of which they never use.
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- March 5, 2012 3:42 pm
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English (US)