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Epic Java is a non-narrative film that will take the audience to spectacular moments happening from East to West part of Java Island
EPIC JAVA adalah film non-naratif yang akan membawa penonton ke momen-momen menakjubkan yang terjadi dari timur hingga barat Pulau Jawa
~Febian Nurrahman Saktinegara
This is a VERY special post, hence I have to share it in both English and Indonesian language. Not all of them tho…only the words from the filmmakers will be shared in both language.
Before you read more, I will let your eyes see the beauty of this film through this teaser
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Right this moment, all twelfth graders are having national exam…so I think it’s perfect to talk about year book as they will all soon graduate from high school.
The closer the twelfth graders to their graduation day the more they get busy with their year book, apart from being busy with national exam and university entrance test. We don’t have prom here because it’s not our custom to have a dancing party of sort. However, just like Halloween and Valentine, Prom has slowly gaining more doers. But the proms are mostly hosted by students without school’s involvement. Since they don’t have to think much about prom, they use their creative mind to create the best theme for their year book.
Here in Indonesia (like most Asia) , we don’t use moving class yet. The students are put in one class for the whole year, they got to know each other pretty well for that year. To be honest, I like this arrangement more because it gives chance for students to learn to be a member of community, their class community. This small community will them put their head together to come up with an idea of how to share their class on their year book. Read more of this post
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I have been meaning to write about this since last year but I have a lot of second thought because it might sounds a bit dirty or inappropriate to talk about this…but the more I think about the idea the more I feel like it’s an okay idea to share it.
Anyway…If you are feeling uncomfortable with talking about Toilets, please close the page 
A year a go, I saw Starter For 10 and there is a scene of a college boy was saying that in Asia, he used his hand instead of tissue to clean up after pooping. Ever since that day, I wanted to share a bit about Indonesian toilets and the manner we have inside it.
The Toilets
Photo doesn’t belong to me, I found it through Google
Most Indonesian still use squat Toilet instead of flush toilet in their home.
Back then on my school days, I still remember that flush toilet was a rarity, nowadays I see it everywhere, in the mall and houses…however Malls use it the most. Only few Indonesian uses flush toilet in their home. To be honest, I prefer finding squat toilet when I am in the malls unless the malls provide tissue.
Most Indonesian are like me, we don’t trust flush toilet in public that much because the toilet is used by so many people with their thighs touching the toilet…when using squat toilet, only their feet (which also cover with sandals or shoes) touching the toilet, so it’s much safer and cleaner that way. Read more of this post
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This month, I want to share transportation in, more specifically in Jakarta. I am not going to share the common ones you can find easily in your country, like train, taxi and bus (although our bus is very different to developed countries)…I will only share the ones you can find only in Indonesia (or maybe in other developing countries).
I will share five kinds of transportation this time and maybe one day I can share more transportation.
Becak
I think rickshaw is the right translation for Becak. It’s a tree wheeled vehicle where the driver sit on the back and the passengers on the front. Becak is a short distance taxi with human energy as its fuel Becak’s driver has to be strong because he has to paddle the becak. If the becak’s driver is already our regular, we don’t need to discuss about the fee…but if we come to a new place or to a farther distance, we have to discuss the fee first.
Becak no longer exist in Jakarta because they caused traffic jam, but we can still see becak outside Jakarta.
Photo belongs to JungleAviator
Ojek
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As Indonesian, I am really proud of my national language, Bahasa Indonesia, because not all countries in this world have their own language. Look at the closest country to Indonesia, Australia doesn’t have Australian language, they used English…so does America. Many countries in South American used Spanish, another borrowed language. Indonesia has its own language and I believe it’s something to be proud of.
Although I am writing my blog in English but that doesn’t I don’t like my language…I just want my blog to be read by people all around the world, not only in my country. I still have another blog with my National language.
The reason I wrote this post (I have been planning to write this since last year but never really get around it till today) is because of the children in the education center I work for. There are some children of the age 3 to 5 years, they are very fluent in English. At first I was amazed…and then I asked them, “Can you speak Indonesian?” and to my surprise they said they can’t!!
What the hell? << this is my first reaction when they said they CAN’T speak Indonesian language…their own mother’s language!! How can that be?? Read more of this post
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As I have said last year, although Halloween is not an Indonesian tradition and those who are now celebrating are people who had been influenced by the western world…but in the spirit of Halloween all over the world, I like to share a bit of Indonesian ghosts.
Last year, I introduced the most famous ghost in Indonesia, Kuntilanak. I do believe she is exist…you might think it’s ridiculous but can’t help it not to believe her existence.
Kuntilanak is a woman dressed in long white dress. She has really long hair. She often stays in tree and sometimes wondering here and there. From the description I give you, if you have seen Ringu (not the American version, The Ring), Sadako reminds me so much of her…and that’s why I was freaking out the first time I saw that movie. She has this special cry that can chill anyone who heard it. What’s so special about her cry is that if you heard her cry so close to you that means she was far away from you, however if you heard it as if it came from so far that means she was so close to you.
What I am about to share next is something I myself don’t believe…but the story has grown so big that sharing it feels like a must. What I wrote here is 100% based on my memory of what people said to me, I didn’t do any comparison with other site in the net because the this kind of story tends to changed from mouth to mouth.
Here in Indonesia, some people who are too lazy to work or at least want to get money as much and as fast as possible, they tend to go to the other side. I will tell you about Tuyul and Babi Ngepet. Read more of this post
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This post is related to previous Indonesia banget post called The Floor Sitter. This is a very short Indonesia Banget post
Here in Indonesia, you can easily find people who enjoy eating with their hand instead of using spoon and fork. Spoon and fork are used after the Westerners came to Indonesia, chopsticks are used after the Chinese and Japanese came to Indonesia…long before they came, we use our hands. Till this day, many people are still using their hands.
I am going to exclude the overly rich people because those people already feel that using hand is disgusting.
When I say using hand, I mean RIGHT hand. The custom is left hand to wipe your ass and right hand to shake hands and to eat. NO ONE EATS WITH THEIR LEFT HAND, with or without the help of spoon. It is considered impolite and dirty to use left hand to eat. Read more of this post
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This is the second year of Indonesia Banget, I would love to thank everyone who keeps coming back to read bits of Indonesia. I am not an expert of my own country, but by writing this monthly post, my nationalism increases bit by bit. There are so much to be proud of from this country.
The first post I ever made for this monthly post is called 17 Agustusan where children are competing in many competitions as a way to celebrate our Independence Day. Last year I posted history of our struggle to gain Independence in a post called The Day We Proclaimed Our Independence. This year, I will share about the flag we have been using since 17 August 1945 (the day we gained our freedom from colonialism)
Majapahit Kigdom Army
The colour of Indonesian Flag are Red and White. Based on wikipedia The color red-white has been used since Majapahit Kingdom. Throughout our history, many kingdoms had used red-white flag as their symbol, such as Kediri Kingdom and Bugis Bone Kingdom. Even the great Pangeran Diponegoro (Prince Diponegoro) used red-white symbol when fighting against Dutch army.
The Red-white flag was then relived by the intelligent youth in 1928. This youth organization was college students who tried to free Indonesia from Dutch colonialism. During the colonialism, the flag was banned from being hoisted. The flag was finally used when President Sukarno proclaimed our independent.
We can also find stories of how the heroes of our country ripped-off the blue part of Dutch flag during the war. It is said that the blue part represented the aristocracy of blue blood. The red part represented the blood that the people of Indonesian had shattered to gain their independence and the white to represent the pureness of Indonesia. Read more of this post
Image belongs to cool-tery.deviantart.com
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