Win+ a Step further!

Dear Win + friend,

Since a year and a half now  Latitudes.nu provides information for everyone who feels connected to Indonesia and Southeast Asia. We bring news, interviews, as well as highlighting welfare initiatives from all over Southeast Asia. We strongly believe in the exchange of information, opinions and culture. With the Win + section we support initiatives concerning welfare, sustainability and green development. Visitors of the website and members of the online community can support the Win+ projects by sharing their knowledge and network with these projects, to be the link to a better world.

Indonesian Parties: From Awkward to All Smiles

By: Emma Kwee

I find most Indonesian parties and celebrations starting off pretty awkward. People seem to be hugely uneasy around people they don't know. Case in point is when you invite someone over. Chances are they will first enquire who else is there. More often than not they will bring an (uninvited) chaperonne to accompany them. Sniffing each other out, newly aqcuainted guests will then spend the first hour or so chit chatting: Where are you from, what do you study, where do you live (no exactly where? 'do you know that statue in the shape of shoe? Yes, the second on the right and then next to the warnet). Only once common ground has been reached (this might take several meetings) will people delve into more personal stuff. Politics, religion, dislikes and likes are often kept to oneself for as long as possible.

Because Indonesians don't often drink (publicly), they can stay tight lipped all night long. Even though always friendly and talkative, actually nothing much is being said. So what breaks the ice? Karaoke and food. But to get there, first there is the hurdle of who starts first.

Phnom Penh’s culture of authenticity

Weird is so very in style these days, and chic in many places.  As an Austinite (as in Austin, Texas...”Keep Austin Weird”, South by Southwest, ACL Festival) weird is nothing new to me.  Candidly speaking I am not sure I could live without some degree of weird.  There is something to be said for out of the ordinary, your rules are so illegitimate to me it is pathetic, yes I am a man cycling through downtown wearing only a thong, attitude.  To be sure this thong wearing cyclists is not me, but he is quite a gentle man and very secure with his very tan body.

So how in the world does a quirky Arab-American from Austin, Texas end up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and why in the world does he like it so much here?  I am so glad you asked.  Grab your coconut and straw and pull up a...well, here, sit on this.  It will do.

An Early Morning Exercise of Butt Clenching on the Toll Road

By: Emma Kwee

Me and my inlaws were going on a trip to India. Mother in law found a cheap ticket to New Delhi and since she always wanted the Taj Mahal as the background for her next portrait, the 5 of us would travel to India for 5 days.

At the ungodly hour of 4 in the morning the house was in disarray, people were packing, showering, searching for stuff, walking into each other for no apparent reason with feverish eyes, but at 5 we were all neatly pressed into the Gran Max, a minivan that is as uncomfortable as it is hemat (economic).

The van usually does service for their catering company, so the interior smelled of shrimp and ikan teri. Mother in law had arranged for a driver. It soon turned out that this driver had a not so secret deathwish, as he steered the rickety vehicle in 4th gear onto the the tollroad doing 120 km an hour (for those of you who have never driven a car in Indonesia, people seldom reach 120 km an hour, but do usually know how to shift gear). By that time my dreams of a beauty nap vanished, as I prepared myself for yet another one of those butt clenching rides that make you say: "I will never step into a car again in Indonesia"!

Peace & Quiet On Gunung Salak

galunang & kuningan

Leasing Culture: from Cars to Sunglasses

By: Emma Kwee

Malls are the playground for most Indonesians. families, teenagers and couples spend their free time increasingly indoors, (window) shopping, lounging around at foodcourts or loitering around at arcade halls. It's not just window shopping though these days. Those who have visited Indonesia recently will probably have noticed the shiny, spanking brand new wagonpark that cruises the cities' congested thoroughfares. Small Japanese hatchbacks overtake imported 5-door Mercedes Benz, while bajaj (the traditional three wheeled taxi) seem to have become a rare sight.

What has happened? Have Indonesians suddenly all become rich?

Nyepi The Balinese New Year

Mixed Marriage? Try brokerage!

By: Sita van Bemmelen

There are a thousand ways of falling into the abyss, dividing people of different cultures. But you can also view being of different countries and cultures as an opportunity and try capitalizing on it. Over the years in Bali, my husband has become a trusted partner of several Dutch businessmen or people who wanted to build a villa in Bali. Oka has five assets that make him ideally situated for this role: his accounting skills, his mastery of the Dutch and English language, his Indonesian way of dealing with people who work for him, his access to the Indonesian bureaucracy (partly due to his family background) and, last but not least, his honesty.

One often finds, that foreigners like to work with locally based foreigners because they are inclined to trust a fellow-country man or woman more than a local. However, foreigners rarely possess all five assets mentioned. Of course, at first foreigners do not always realize the benefit of working with a local person like Oka. It takes time and word of mouth to build a good name. I do not know whether the fact that Oka has a Dutch wife, has helped him gaining trust. But I am sure, that it has not played a significant role, because I have never been part of his projects with foreigners, let alone interfere with it.