Attraction at Padang Food Restaurant

It’s been awhile since I've posted to this blog. The post-Ramadhan celebrations and work are the main reasons why I haven't written. In the mean time, Indonesia has been a hot topic internationally due to the devastating earthquakes in Padang.

Padang is the capital city of West Sumatra province. The ethnic tribe of the area is called Minangkabau. I've never gone there, although I often eat Padang food. Padang food is well-known throughout Indonesia (even in Singapore and Malaysia). The foods are often spicy using lots of coconut milk (in Indonesian: "santan"). Its best-known dish is probably "rendang".

In a "proper" Padang food restaurant, the dishes are all served and laid out on the table. This means if the restaurant has 20 types of dishes, all those types will be brought to your table. But of course you don't have to eat all of them. Customers are charged only for what they eat. The untouched dishes will then be served to the next customers so don't play with the food, just take what you want :)

Serving 20 dishes will take awhile of course if you take only two at a time. Now this is what I admire about waiters in Padang food restaurants, they can carry many many plates on one hand. So those 20 dishes may all be brought at once. This of course needs lots of training to master.

Not all Padang food restaurants do this nowadays. However, there have been special plate carrying competitions held called "Manatiang Piriang" which hopefully will keep this tradition alive.

"Manatiang Piriang" competitions

The dirty plates are carried in the same way

Photo source from top to bottom :

http://menulisaja.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/makan-padang/

http://khairulhamdi.wordpress.com/2008/11/27/masakan/

http://www.minangkabautourism.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=76%3Alomba-manatiang-piriang-di-pekan-budaya-sumbar&catid=1%3Aterbaru&Itemid=54&lang=in

http://jsriyono.blogspot.com/2008/08/akrobat-piring.html

Survival tip: Know your "mouse streets"!

Jakarta is well-known for its traffic jam. In my opinion, it gets worse every year. So to save time, it is helpful to know Jakarta's back streets, what we call jalan tikus (meaning mouse streets).

Jalan tikus are narrow often winding streets, usually only fit for one car, which go through dense neighbourhoods (usually mid-lower class). Jakarta is full of these small streets, creating a maze that can get you from point A to point B whilst avoiding the traffic jams on the main roads. Because they are actually residential streets, they are usually only packed in the morning & evening, when Jakarta's traffic jams occur. For the rest of the day, the jalan tikus is relatively empty.

So why don't people use it more often?

- First of all, not every one knows a particular jalan tikus. Sometimes the streets are so small and winding, they're not on the map. Or there are lack of street names/ road signs so you can't use a map to navigate through. That is why you usually only know the ones that relate to your everyday life. I know the ones that will get me quicker to my office/ home but I have no idea about the jalan tikus in North Jakarta.

- Second, it is narrow so a bit difficult to maneuver, especially if you have a large car. Some people just don't feel comfortable driving through it.

- Third, you can get stuck. Jalan tikus is usually a two-way street although it can only fit one car. So you must know the "appropriate direction" people are using at that time. For example, in the morning, a jalan tikus will be used to get from point A to point B. But in the evening, the traffic will be from point B to point A.

I once got stuck for half-an-hour before we were moving again. You can't go forward because of the stubborn car that is defying direction and you can't go back because there is already a line of cars behind you. All you can do is wait until someone (usually local teenagers who live there) voluntarily helps direct the traffic. I glared at the driver who caused it once he passed by, and I bet you I wasn't the only one.

The best way to stumble upon a jalan tikus is when you take a taxi. Good taxi drivers know Jakarta's jalan tikus. Another way is just to follow the cars in front of you. If you see a couple of cars turning away from the main road, it may be because they are going to use a jalan tikus. But then again, it may be they are just heading home.

Going through a jalan tikus

Nearing the end of the jalan tikus

Friday Jakarta Blasts - Two sides of a story

I first knew about the Friday bombings while on my way to work. A colleague texted me that she was going to be a bit late because bombs had exploded in JW Marriott & Ritz Carlton. My office is not close to these hotels but they're visible from our 17th floor office window.

I thought there might be panic & traffic jam, which made her text me to tell me she would be late. But luckily enough, I had no trouble getting to work. The streets were quite normal. Later on, she told me she was late because she wanted to watch the news on tv, not because of any traffic jam.

The rest of the day was quite hectic, but it had nothing to do with the bombings. Currently we have many projects going on, especially product testing which need to finish before the Ramadhan (fasting period) begins.

Occasionally someone checked the internet and told us the latest news about the bombings, which stirred some conversation before we were busy in front of our computers again. Specifically when we heard MU had canceled their trip to Indonesia due to the bombings, a colleague shouted out: "Oh no...I've bought tickets!"

A rumour had also spread that certain political parties may be behind the bombings because they were not satisfied with the presidential elections held on July 8th. These rumours came about after SBY (our current president who, based on quickcount, seems to have won the election and will lead another period) made a statement about the bombings while showing his picture had been used as target practice. When I heard this, I thought: Isn't it normal for a president to receive some kind of death threats? Oh well, what do I know...I've probably watched too many episodes of 24.

After work, many hesitated to go hang out at the mall. I thought it would be better to go straight home too, although the next day I had to go to check a mall intercept study.

At home, finally, I could watch the news to get the details on the blasts. Hmm..quite strange, while the local tv channels were busy focusing on political conspiracy and SBY's statement, the international channels were mentioning about Jemaah Islamiyah (a group lead by the Malaysian fugitive, Noordin M. Top) being behind the attacks.

Just as my day had been quite normal while others were heavily affected by the bombings, watching the local and international channels made me feel like I was looking at different worlds.

Well, I guess there are 2 sides of each story... Hopefully those behind the bombings are captured and such tragic events will never ever happen in Indonesia again...

Obama pizza

I am amazed with Indonesian food. There are so many to choose from, reflecting the diversity of cultures Indonesia is made up of. And so many of them are absolutely delicious. However, I cannot lie. All the Indonesian dishes cannot beat a pizza, my most favorite food (I blame my childhood for this).

Luckily, there are many pizza joints to choose from in Jakarta. You have the international brands such as Pizza Hut (of course, they're everywhere), Domino's (just recently opened) and Pizza Marzano, and then there are a few local brands : Papa Ron's, Fast Eddie's and Izzi pizza. Although these 3 are local brands, all of them are actually founded by foreigners.

Yesterday, I went to Izzi pizza & found out that they had a special menu called "Obama pizza".

Obama-mania certainly hit Indonesia during the campaign period, where the local media kept emphasizing that Obama went to school in Indonesia. After the elections, there was a small incident where Obama answered in Indonesian during a state department visit. This incident was also quite talked about...and now that I've seen this pizza, I can't help wondering: Is there an SBY dish anywhere?

SBY = Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's current president

Religion in Indonesia

When it looked like I had to go to Semarang, I was quite excited because it would be my first time there. I googled Semarang's places of interests and found out that most of the places mentioned were places of worship (more on this in my next post). But to my surprise, unlike usual, where a city had either a famous mosque or church noted as worth seeing, in Semarang, all the major religions in Indonesia were in the list of "places of interests".

In Indonesia, it is uncommon for someone to not have a religion.

Please note though: although you identify yourself with a certain religion, it doesn't necessarily mean that you practise that religion. That is why some people may joke around and say that their religion is "Islam KTP" (KTP is an abbreviation of Kartu Tanda Penduduk = ID card...remember, Indonesians LOVE their abbreviations), which means that their Islamic practise is only limited to it being stated for ID purposes.

Having a religion is not only needed for your ID card, but it is intertwined in almost all of life's activities, for example, you are required to state your religion on your CV. Your religion may even affect your marriage plans since inter-religious marriage in Indonesia is not allowed.

So what are the major religions in Indonesia? Well, around 80% of Indonesians are Moslems, however besides Islam, I was taught in elementary school that there are 4 other main religions formally recognized in Indonesia: Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism & Buddhism. Nowadays, Confucianism is also recognized again as a formal religion in Indonesia (correct me if I'm wrong).

Lumpur Lapindo (Lapindo Mud)

After being in Surabaya on business trip for the "I-don't-know-how-many"-th time, I decided to stop by the Lapindo Mud area on my way back to the airport. This is a newly famous "tourist object" in the subdistrict of Porong, Sidoarjo (just a few kilometres outside of Surabaya) which is a mud volcano that has been overflowing since mid-2006 until today (2 years of non-stop mud flow!!).

You can see from the pictures below (courtesy of CRISP - National University of Singapore) that the mud has now covered a huge area of what used to be villages.

2005

October 2008

The cause of this tragedy is still uncertain, but a recent Geologists' conference in Cape Town voted in favor of the view that the mudflow was induced by PT Lapindo Brantas' drilling in the area. The Indonesian government has concluded that PT Lapindo Brantas (which is owned by Bakrie Group) must compensate hundreds of people affected by the mud (these people have lost their homes & occupations). However until now, the company still hasn't paid the full compensation fee.

When arriving near the site, you can smell a bad odour apparently coming from the gases that accompany the mudflow. Dams and barriers have been build to prevent the mud from overflowing an even larger area.

To see the mud area, you must go on top of the dams. The local people have made steps from bamboo in order to get to the top. The "entrance fee" is Rp. 3000. If you are not content at looking from a distance, you can also get an ojek (motorcycle transport) that will take you nearer to the source. But of course, they will charge you more.

Since I had little time & also I had heard of news that there had been sudden eruptions that killed a few people, I was satified with the view from the top. Unluckily, I realized that my cell phone's battery was dead so I couldn't take any photographs. The following photos are from a few blogs I found :

(left: The dam/barrier, source : Ajnatz's blog; right : Steps made of bamboo, source : Denmas Rul's blog)

Lapindo mud (source: Denmas Rul's blog)

Stop Useless Consumption

Translation :

Do : If you have to go to work, this is a useful tip. Make a fake doctor’s note and take sick leave for 1-2 days.
Don’t : Don’t write down a serious illness, otherwise you might actually end up with it!

The above picture is part of an ad by Metro department store announcing its big sale. It ran in Kompas (one of Indonesia’s top national newspapers) on October 16th.

I was astonished when first reading it : The ad actually encouraged people to lie about being sick so that they can go shopping instead?!

The whole ad was a 5 half-page full color ad with the tagline : "Do what you have to do! Prepare and execute your best strategy for Metro’s Big Sale."

Each ad contained tips on how to “prepare & execute” the strategy. Some tips were actually decent such as “Memorize your closet. Survey the store first so that you’ll already know where to go and what to get”.........but then.......you have tips such as in the above picture which encourages Indonesians to prioritize shopping above all! I wonder whether the people who go actually need half of the things they buy....

Of course purchasing and consuming things in excess of what you need has been done since ages ago, however considering Indonesia’s situation (many low educated consumers, many people are not even getting the basic needs for living) and the age we live in (natural resources are depleting fast, global warming is on the toll), we should be more critical to our consumption patterns.

Although recycling has now become a major movement, I am more in favor of the view that the best way is to prevent the need of recycling in the first place. In other words : Reduce consumption, Consume wisely.

I am not going to get into this seriously since my blog is intended for leisure reading, but if you are interested to know more about consumerism issues, please have a look at these links :
- Anup Shah, Consumption and Consumerism, GlobalIssues.org, Last updated: Wednesday, September 03, 2008
- Why overcoming consumerism?

I thought I would try to tackle this issue by starting with myself. This is my pledge :

1. I recently just bought a new mobile phone & I will not buy a new one for the next 4 years.

2. I know I currently have all the shoes I need for every kind of situation, therefore I will not buy any shoes for another 6 months.

3. I also have all the blazers I need : I will not buy a blazer for another 6 months.

4. I’m going to wake-up earlier so that I don’t need to take a cab to work just because I’m running late.

5. When buying small things, I will just put it in my bag. No need for a plastic bag.

Now that I’m willing to consume less, are you? If you are & you have a blog, please post your list up & we can exchange links. Maybe your list will inspire new ideas for me to add to mine!

Also, for anyone of you who has a facebook account, please join the Stop Useless Consumption Cause & invite your friends to join also. On this application is a link to the video “The Story of Stuff”. Although I’m not quite sure whether all the facts & figures presented are correct, but it is inspiring to watch.

Let’s make people aware of this issue! :)

Indonesians & Chit-chat

I had just read Bram's post on an article titled "Small Talk ala Indonesia" and although I don't agree 100% with it (I don't think that sex is a topic that Indonesians talk freely about; being married (or in my case, not yet married), having kids are on the other hand common topics), I must admit that it does give a quite representative picture of small talks that we must tolerate here in Indonesia. Just hours later, I found myself in a similar bothersome situation as mentioned in the article.

Setting : 2 o' clock in the afternoon. I'm feeling sick, so I ask my boss for permission to leave work early. I go to the taxi stand at the back of my office building.

Driver : Good afternoon
Me : Good afternoon. To ...... (I say the name of my street)
Driver : What kind of office is there?
Me : (A bit surprised that he asks this question, but then again, it is still working hours, so I quickly think nothing of it) No office. It's my house. I don't feel well.
Driver : Why don't you feel well? Maybe you work too hard.
Me : Maybe.
Driver : Yeah...probably you often don't eat on time.
Me : (Getting annoyed) Don't know.
Driver : Do you usually work late? Maybe you have caught "masuk angin"?
Me : (Terribly annoyed) Hmm.
Driver : This street...is it near the Bajaj workshop?
Me : Yes
Driver : I have a friend over there. I was meaning to stop by.
Me (Replying) : Oh.
Me (Thinking) : I'm only answering with 1 syllable words. Can't you take a hint, I don't feel like talking?!

We are now approaching Sudirman street. The driver turns and takes the slow lane, while actually it would be better if he had taken the fast lane.

Driver : Yesterday I was taking a passenger, a girl, to that area. Had a nice long talk but I was kind of suspicious about her.
Me : (in an attempt to stop him from talking) So what, it's her life. Don't think much about it. Anyways, why did you take the slow lane? Is there traffic jam on the fast lane at this hour? It doesn't seem so. It would've been better to take the fast lane, or not?

Driver gruntly replies something and then doesn't talk the whole trip home. Mission accomplished.

Sorry Mr. Taxi Driver, that I had to bite your head off, but hey...I already told you that I didn't feel well. Did you expect me to endure having small talk with you?!

Traditional Indonesian Bathroom

I recently got a query from my colleague overseas who is drafting up a questionnaire for a multi-country study on bathing habits. Because of this, I was aware that our bathing habits may be quite unique.

First of all, it is common to shower at least two times a day : in the morning (before you start your activities) & in the evening (after you get home). Many of my friends who study abroad, can't get rid of this habit. That is why they still shower twice a day even though it is winter. They often think I'm nuts when I don't shower that day because I think the weather is too cold. But of course now, I always shower twice a day.....afterall......it is hot here in Indonesia!

Second, the bathroom itself is a bit different. It is now common to have a bathtub or shower in the bathroom, especially for the higher social class. But the majority of Indonesians still use a water container & bucket to bathe. You use the bucket to get the water from the water container & pour it on yourself (you don't get into the water container, don't think that it is used like a bathtub!)

Sit-down toilets are more common than showers/bathtubs, but still squat toilets are widely used. And then of course, you have the issue of us not using toilet paper. Yes, we use water, not toilet paper. (what is weird for you, is common for us..... And what is common for you, is weird for us :P)

So maybe now you are wondering how a traditional Indonesian bathroom looks like? Well I got this picture off the Internet (sorry, I forgot to write down the url).

Be rest assured though, that the majority of well-established malls & hotels have the standard toilets/ bathrooms like in the Western countries :)

Small things I love about Indonesia

*Sigh*....another week has passed. It is still very hectic at the office & it is going to get worse, with 3 projects kicking-off this coming week & 2 CLT projects over the next 2 weekends :(

But among the nerve-recking situations at the office, these 2 small things help me deal with the stress....*I love Indonesia :) *

- There's a maid in the house
It is very comforting to come home after a busy day and find that everything in your house is spick & span because you have the maid doing your housework! Your laundry is done, there's food on the table & your bed is made up. All you need to do is relax....

It is a common thing for middle-class Indonesians to have a maid. The more wealthy households even have their own driver, nanny for the kids, gardener & security guards. A survey done by my office showed that 27% of people in emerging markets pay someone else to clean their house, while only 12% do so in developed markets.

Quoting my Executive director for Consumer Insights, Mike Sherman :

In the same way that money cannot buy happiness, affluence does not necessarily mean access to life's luxuries.

Although Indonesia needs to catch up economically, but cheap labour has its benefits!
- In a country where you have to sweep & mop the house everyday because of the dust, having a maid is a tremendous life luxury! -

- Pampering yourself at the salon is cheap
This is yet another consequence of the cheap labour cost in Indonesia. Hair salons, besides providing cutting & styling services, usually also provide various treatments such as hair conditioning treatments, manicure, pedicure, foot massage etc.....at a cheap price!

Just for an example, last weekend I went to the salon to get a hair conditioning treatment (we call it having a "cream bath", where they also massage your shoulders & back while waiting for the hair cream to settle in), manicure and pedicure for only Rp. 120.000 which is about 12 USD!

Of course you have the high-end salons that cost just as expensive as abroad, but why go there when you can get something similar at a far lower price....and just a small note: tipping the hair dresser is a "not must, but expected" thing to do.

A little geography lesson

I was browsing the net yesterday & came across these pictures (so sorry, I forgot to write down the URL).

You can see that Indonesia is quite big!!

I googled further, and found out that Indonesia's population of 230 million people makes us the fourth largest country. However, if you look only at the land area, we are ranked 16th overall.

Googling some more, I found out that Jakarta (the capital city of Indonesia) ranks in the top 10 of world's most populated cities. Jakarta's population density is around 12,000 people per kilometer square. I guess this explains why there is macet every day.

Well, these small infos were quite enligtening for me.
I knew that Indonesia was large (afterall...we have 3 time zones), but I never imagined that it was as wide as from Ireland to Russia!

*Have you read more interesting facts about Indonesia in my "Did you know that..." post?

Btw, if you don't know where Indonesia is,the picture below may help you :)

Bahasa Indonesia - The quirks

First of all, why do some people say "I can't speak Bahasa" instead of "I can't speak Indonesian"? Isn't the english word for Bahasa Indonesia = Indonesian?

Indonesia consists of around 300 different ethnic groups with their own language. Therefore, there are about 300 different languages in Indonesia. But of course we need to have a common ground, therefore we use Bahasa Indonesia as the official Indonesian language. The word "Bahasa" actually means "Language"...so when you translate it, Bahasa Indonesia = Indonesian Language. Another point why you shouldn't say "I can't speak Bahasa"...you're then actually saying: "I can't speak Language"...which doesn't make sense...

I never thought much about the Indonesian language, but a Malaysian friend of mine actually thinks that it is an achievement to be proud of. He compared it to his own country, where although they have the Malaysian language as the official language, still many Chinese or Indian ethnicity cannot speak it. This is of course different compared to Indonesia where almost every where you go, everyone can speak the language, although maybe it is not the main language that they use in their daily lives.

Here are a few quirks of the Indonesian language that I have observed :

- Being an A+ Indonesian language student, doesn't necessarily make you fit to survive in Indonesia!

Grammatically, Indonesian has less rules than English. For example, we don't have tenses. If you want to state that something happened in the past, just add the word "yesterday" in the sentence. Simple, right? We also don't have gender distinctions for nouns, unlike European languages. However...eventhough you have passed the highest level of learning the formal Indonesian language, it doesn't mean that you will understand us once you arrive in this country. We actually speak a more informal Indonesian for our daily conversations. For example, you may have learned that "no" is "tidak" in Indonesian. But we hardly use that word in daily conversation, we actually say "gak" instead. So...be prepared to re-learn the language!

- We LOVE our abbreviations ...

When writing something informally, we have lots of abbreviations. For example, the word "tidak" which I have mentioned in the above paragraph, can be shortened by just spelling "tdk". It is a common thing to do, everyone will understand. And there are lottttsssss of other words that we abbreviate. For example, yang = yg, dengan = dgn, etc.

Not just single words are abbreviated, but 2 words are often compounded into 1 word. When I first went to school here, I noticed that most of the subjects were abbreviated. People would say "Penjas" instead of "Pendidikan Jasmani", "Metlit" instead of "Metodologi Penelitian" etc. Even names of malls are shortened : Senayan City = SenCi, Plaza Semanggi = Plangi.

- ... and acronyms

And then you have the acronyms, for example : IPA = Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam, BEJ = Bursa Efek Jakarta, MA = Mahkamah Agung, RM = Rumah Makan etc. I wondered why this is. A friend of mine says that this all started when Soeharto (the military) reigned. Because they are used to acronyms in the military, this habit spilled over into the political arena and eventually into the rest of the system. I don't know whether this is true or not.

Sometimes I think that this love for abbreviations & acronyms is just attributed to the general laziness of Indonesians, always wanting to take the shortcut out :P

Are you Indonesian?

I was cleaning up my mailbox yesterday & found this e-mail from 1998 which made me smile. I've shortened it quite a bit, leaving only the parts that I found amusing.

>Date: Tuesday, May 05, 1998 4:05 PM
>Subject: Fw: are you Indonesian ?
>
>
You might be an Indonesian if :

1. Your stomach growls when you don't eat rice for a day.
2. You believe kecap ABC could turn bad cooking to gourmet food.
11. You carry a 16 oz. jar of sambal to where ever you travel.
16. You are very good at avoiding potholes and other road hazards.
17. Your local McDonald's serves rice and sambal.
18. You think Supermi or Indomie is a staple food.
20. You have ever successfully bribed a police officer.
24. You have ever legally bought pirated software.

==> Now it's DVDs ;)
25. You have ever been forced to memorize UUD'45.
30. The first thing that comes to mind when hearing the word "Jakarta" is "macet".

==> I think any person that has traveled to Jakarta would think of this word ;) But just imagine, even 10 years ago, Jakarta was famous for being "macet"...
33. You don't mind people being late.
34. You think standing in line is a waste of time.

==> I've experienced improvement in this area...queuing is common now :P
35. You have tried every Monday of your youth trying to avoid upacara bendera.

==> hahaha...memorable times...do schools still do this now?
38. You know what Pancasila is, what it means and know it by heart.

==> Just yesterday, my friends & I were trying out whether we still remembered the Pancasila. Try remembering the forth one....!?
40. Your daily conversation may include enactments of TVcommercials.
41. You have ever consulted a dukun.
42. Your whole class has ever cheated on a test, and gotten away with it.
50. Your clothing has brandnames printed on it that is visible from 50' away.

==> Some improvement here also...I don't see this often anymore...
54. You know more than one music group that stole the tune of Cranberries' "Zombie".

==> Making cover versions of popular songs used to be normal in Indonesia. But now it's not like this anymore... I think we are more interested with our pirated DVD's :P
61. You know more than 10 acronyms/abbreviations.

Annoying Indonesian habits that get on my nerves!

To give you a more rounded picture of life in this country,

below are some things that I needed to get used to when first living here.

They are small things…but they just drive me crazzzyyyy !

1. Throwing litter from your car window

The floods in Jakarta are often associated with people not throwing away litter properly. These people are usually ill-educated because they lack the money to go to proper schools.

But it just furiates me when I see someone throwing litter from the window of his Rp. 300 million car. I often see this in particular at the toll booth or parking booth in the mall. They would just throw away the ticket to the ground.

Hellooo…there’s a trashcan right under the toll booth window. Or even, you can buy a small trashcan for your car.

Yeah…you don’t mind spending hundreds for foreign branded clothing, but buying a trashcan is impossible for you to do!

2. Queuing in public toilets

It always makes me uneasy about the way Indonesians queue at public toilets.
If there are many stalls, they would queue up for each toilet stall, which leaves you at the mercy of the person inside the stall you’re waiting on.

This is different compared to when I was living in Europe. There you queue before the stalls (just 1 line), so that when one of them opens, the first person that was queuing will automatically be the first to go.

It annoys me when I have been waiting long, but then someone after me goes earlier because the stall she is waiting on finished quicker.

But then again, it is nice if I am the one that can go earlier because I luckily picked a faster queue :P

3. Hold the door please

OK, western foreigners are often not associated with friendliness, but I think that they have a certain politeness that Indonesians lack.

When I was abroad, it was custom to hold the door until the person behinds you can take it. Here…they just slam it in your face!

I sometimes hold the door (out of habit), but what do I get? The person behind me would just walk through….& leave me there still holding the damn door.

I’m not a bellboy! I’m still holding the door open so that you can take the handle from me without having it slam in your face!!

Did you know that .... ?

Just some cool facts about Indonesia....

- Kopi Luwak is the most expensive & rarest coffee in the world.
It is made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The civets eat the berries but the beans inside pass through their system undigested. This coffee is called Civet coffee in english.

- Indonesia is made up of more than 17,000 different islands, making it the world’s largest Archipelago. Only around 6,000 of them (35%!) are inhabited.

- Indonesia consists of around 300 different ethnic groups with their own language. Therefore, there are about 300 different languages in Indonesia. Unfortunately, these languages are gradually disappearing since they are often no longer spoken by the younger generation.

- The world’s largest flower is found in Sumatra. The name of the flower is the Rafflesia arnoldi. This is a rare flower that lives as a parasite on the Tetrastigma vine. It produces no leaves, stems or roots. The bud itself takes many months to develop, and once it blossoms (spreading an unpleasant smell) , it only lasts for a few days.

- The Borobudur Temple in Central Java is the largest Buddhist monument in the World.

- The world's largest lizard is the Komodo dragon, which can only be found on Komodo Island in Indonesia.

- Since volcanoes have been documented, Indonesia has been home to two of the world’s most biggest volcanic eruptions based on VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) :

• Tambora, 1815: VEI=7, Tambora's volcanic cloud lowered global temperatures by as much as 3 degrees celcius, creating climate anomalies even a year later (1816), which in the northern hemipshere became known as "the Year without Summer".


• Krakatau, 1883: VEI=6, Krakatau's explosion generated the largest sound historically reported. Its explosion was heard as far away as Perth, Australia.