Tom Pepinsky

Category: Indonesia

  • From the Singapore Airport

    I have a layover of approximately seven hours here in Singapore.  That’s enough time to see some of Singapore, but as I’ve already seen most of the stuff I’m really interested in, and it costs money to grab a cab.  So I just plugged in the laptop, bought some wireless access, and here I am.  It’s a bit annoying to note that ethernet access is free, but that only works if you remember to bring your ethernet cable.  I didn’t even think to do that.

    Now, some follow-ups on Indonesian news.  Riots in Papua, regarding the Freeport-McMoRan gold mine and the recent elections.  So much for my earlier optimism.  In what I believe is an attempt to prove to non-Papuans that the Papuans are wild, the news stations televised some of the rioting, including four (apparently) Javanese soldiers being beaten to death.  They really did not need to show that.  They also showed some other footage of rioters vandalizing the Sheraton Hotel in Timika, a town near Freeport’s mines.  Listening to the sound I was able to hear what seemed to be traditional battle cries as they lobbed huge stones through car windows and shot arrows into tires.

    On a bit of a brighter note, the newest versions of the anti-pornography bill apparently do not criminalize what had been called pornoaksi, or "pornographic behavior" in public.  I’m not sure what exactly this means, but it should protect the ability of Muslim girls to hold their boyfriends’ hands and of Balinese folks to bathe in rivers.

    UPDATE:  Still here.  I decided to treat myself to a foot massage–known around here as "reflexology".  It was a nice option, and I’d recommend it to anyone stuck in Changi for a couple of hours.  I earned big brownie points by speaking Malay to the middle aged woman mashing my toe bones together, earning a free cup of tea.  I also have had fun noticing the big differences between Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia, which I always forget about.  Just in the airport:

    • departure: BI keberangkatan, BM perlepasan
    • arrival: BI kedatangan, BM ketibaan
    • money: BI uang, BM wang

  • Last Day

    Today is already my last day here in Jakarta.  I can’t believe it.  I didn’t get to do as many fun things as I had hoped because I ended up being a bit too busy, but it was fun to be here anyway.  I certainly ate well.

    I figured something out today.  I’ve been seeing signs all over the place at little street-side shops signs for obat hot.  I have always wondered what this means.  Obat means "medicine," but hot is not an Indonesian word that I’m familiar with.  Well, I figured it out.  I was stuck in traffic in a taxi that was next to one of these signs, and was better able to see what else was on the sign.  Underneath obat hot, it said pil biru, and then had a blue diamond with the word Pfizer on it.  Aha!  Pil biru means "blue pill," meaning that obat hot just means "hot medicine."  That means that people are selling either bootlegged or plain old fake Viagra.  I think that all doctors should inform their patients that they aren’t selling them a medicine to cure erectile dysfunction, rather just some "hot medicine."