Sleeping in Indonesia

Last week I was given the task to buy bed linen as a wedding gift for my friend at the office. Since I have no idea about buying bed linen (ashamed (but content) to say, my mother still takes care of those things for me), I thought I would browse the internet to find some info.

Who would have thought that I actually was more confused after that? I went to Target's & Debenhams' website and a list of words came up : bed skirt, fitted sheet, flat sheet, comforter, duvet, quilt, pillow sham, throw, etc.

It took me quite a while, but after going to wikipedia & a couple of online dictionary sites, I think I understand what they mean now.

Luckily, here in Indonesia, sleeping is not such a complicated thing. A bed linen set typically consists of : pillow cases, bed sheets (usually flat sheets ;) ), and a guling cover.

What is a guling? It is a long tube-like pillow (a bolster) that is used by hugging it. It is a common & essential bed accessory for Indonesians, although if you stay at a hotel here, you won't find them on your bed.

Because of the tropical weather, blankets are not necessary. However, many mid to upper class people sleep with the air conditioner on, therefore duvets (in Indonesia the common term is bedcovers) are quite common. I myself don't have air conditioning in my room, but I use a batik cloth as a blanket (I'm going to write further about this in my next post).

Btw, it's almost 2 in the morning now. Time for me to go to bed!

Rambutan - the "hairy" fruit

I recently read in the newspaper that Barack Obama misses several Indonesian delicacies : Nasi goreng, Bakso and Rambutan. Well, he better hurry up because it is currently the harvest season for rambutan!

Rambutan is a fruit the size of a golf ball. The skin is "hairy", thus its name "rambutan" (rambut=hair). When it is ripe, the skin's colour turns from green to red. It then has a very sweet taste. However, there is a kind of rambutan that is known for its sweet taste eventhough it is still yellowish : Rambutan Rapia.

Luckily, I have a Rambutan Rapia tree in my backyard and since it is rambutan season, today we were plucking away!

Left : Hanging on the trees; Right : Hitting the branches with a bamboo stick so that the fruit falls down

Rambutan rapia has thicker hair compared to other types of rambutan

To eat the fruit, you must open the skin. Opening the skin can be done just by using your hands

JiFFEST 2008

I have been soooo busssyyyy the last couple of weeks, I haven't had the time to update my blog while in fact, I already have a couple of topics in mind I want to write about. Hopefully I'll have some free time next week.

In the mean time, because of my tight schedule, there is 1 event in Jakarta that I will probably not be able to go to : The 10th Jakarta International Film Festival

This year it will be held from December 5th - 9th, 2008.
To see the films that will be shown, please go to their website : http://2008.jiffest.org/

For those of you who are going: Have fun!

Wish I could go to :(

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)

Heroes Season 3 - Shadows by Nidji

I am a bit ashamed to admit this, but I'm not that fond of Indonesian songs. Everytime I listen to the radio & an Indonesian song is coming up, I immediately change the radio station. However, this does not mean that I don't have any favorite Indonesian songs, but there are only a handful of Indonesian artists that I like. One of these artists is an Indonesian band called : Nidji

It is a relatively new band, but every time they release a new single, it becomes a #1 hit.

If you have STAR World Asia on your cable subscription, nowadays you can hear them on the Heroes season 3 trailer. The background song is by Nidji, called "Shadows". This is the second time that their song has been used by STAR World as the background for a Heroes ad. Previously, their song "Heaven" was used.

Nidji Rocks!