Cross-Cultural Couples: Edward and Chi

By: Diana van Oort

Our family of mixed couples is growing bigger and bigger. The Latitudes Cross-Cultural Couples series is a testament to the intermingling of cultures that makes this world a more interesting and colorful place. Are you a mixed couple and would you like to be featured on Latitudes? Do you have an extraordinary tale of love that surpasses cultural boundaries and geographical borders? Then e-mail us at info@latitudes.nu!

This time we meet El Salvadorian Edward and Vietnamese who live in Saigon, Vietnam. During the interview the couple constantly comment on and complete each other’s sentences. They seem very much in tune with one another, like they have known each other for decades, but still maintain their own characters and quirks. After studying together in Switzerland, they now run a restaurant. It’s a nice place with good food. This is their story.

In the Mix: Meet Danny Smith, part Vietnamese/Japanese, part American

By: Emma Kwee

Time for another instalment of In the Mix! In this series we talk to people with a mixed background. Have these colorful roots entangled them? Confused them? In what way has their heritage formed their identity, how they look at the world and the world looks at them? Feel free to join in and tell us about your mixed roots. Just e-mail info@latitudes.nu and we'll send you some questions!

Today we meet Danny Smith, a guy with  common last name, but less common roots. A wonderful mix of Vietnamese, Japanese and American genes add spice to his life, as well as his palate.

Mixed Marriage – Is it About Love or Economic Benefit?

by Jacobus E. Lato

I boarded a worn-out, noisy bus in Tawangmangu, hoping for a decent seat where I could relax and take a nap on my trip to Solo. But, within minutes, the woman next to me started chattering in my ear and my idea of getting some rest rapidly vanished.

“My son is dating a girl from Brunei Darussalam”, she said proudly and proceeded to tell me all about him – how he works in a motorcycle shop in a tiny, wealthy state in north Borneo, makes good money in his after-hours job and is now about to take part in an intercultural marriage (with prospects of a possible larger fortune).

“My neighbor married a Dutchman and they have been living next door for more than five years,” she continued. Her following comment irked me. “Before her marriage, she had nothing. Now she owns several houses and land, some of them in Tawangmangu”.

A Schengen Visa for Asia

The team behind evisaasia.com are based in Malaysia. It all started when the team began developing an online visa system for the government of Cambodia 6 years ago. Eventually, it led to the creation of this project, which encompasses more than 20 countries in Asia and provides secure and reliable visa services for travelers worldwide.

Alternative Travel: Sumbawa by Motorbike

By: Ed Caffin

Apart from the legendary surfspots at Maluk and Lakey Peak, few see more of Sumbawa. Mostly, it is only observed from behind the window of a bus, speeding over the trans-island highway to the eastern side, just in time to catch the ferry to Flores. The odd traveler that spends more time to explore the island, finds himself lucky enough to enjoy it’sbeauty in relative solitude. His sole companion might preferably be a motorbike.

Public transportation isn’t very good on Sumbawa, which is probably the main reason why most travelers never make it here. Thus, renting a motorbike seems a great way to explore Sumbawa. A sepeda motor is never hard to find anywhere in Indonesia. On Sumbawa, rental bikes tend to be more expensive (around 75.000 Rupiah per day), so if you’re on a tight budget, get one on Bali (around 35.000) or Lombok (usually around 50.000) and take it across with the ferry.

Pagar: fencing off life in Indonesia

By: Ade Tanesia

[caption id="attachment_30611" align="alignleft" width="300" caption=""Jakarta" by Ppart"][/caption]

Between the lanes in the heart of Jakarta, my childhood friends strove to spy over the highest house fences. It’s still fresh in my memory; they called them rumah gedongan (mansions). Our image of a ‘rumah gedongan’ was a high-fenced house, closed, so that we could only see the roof. Certainly a house like this would be owned by someone rich. To the eyes of children, the rumah gedongan was something mysterious, so naturally we tried very hard to scale or peep through the gaps in the fence to see what lay beyond. Often a guard dog would start barking when we tried to approach. These houses sometimes had warning signs posted on the wall—“Beware: Vicious Dog”. The dog need bark only once and we’d run, scrambling and laughing, from the scene. When I was a bit older, I often heard cynical adults gossip about people who owned houses with tall fences. “People who live in gedongan houses are sure to be Chinese, tuh. They don’t want to mix. Arrogant. Hard to get money from them for the Independence Day celebrations.” This is the empty chatter that I frequently heard from the mouths of Jakarta housewives.

THE ABC OF BANDUNG: Aroma Coffee, Batagor & Ciwalk!

By: Andri Suryo

Get ready to explore one of Indonesia’s most bustling cities: Bandung! Bandung is the capital city of west Java, the Indonesian answer to Paris or as we like to call it ‘Parijs Van Java!’

Bandung is not the most tourist friendly city out there, as public transport is hard to figure out and information and facilities are haphazard to say the least. Yet, there is plenty to explore. If you're in Bandung for just a day, nothing beats these fundamental principles of Bandung, THE ABC OF BANDUNG!

Traveling Vietnam by train: The ‘Reunification Express’

By: Ate Hoekstra

They sometimes call it the ‘Reunification Express’, the train that connects Hanoi in North-Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh City in the south. And it it’s without any doubt one of the best ways to get to know Vietnam and one of the best train journeys you can make in the former Indochina.

“Why would you take a train when there’s a night bus?” one of my friends asked when I told him I was about to take the train from Hanoi to Nha Trang. “The bus is more comfortable than the train and it’s faster.”

Good question. Why take a train in Vietnam when there are so many bus companies? And why take a train when there are so many cheap budget flights connecting one city to another? The answer is quite simple: it’s the best way to get to know the country in a short period of time. That goes for any country that has trains and it certainly goes for Vietnam.

Wae Rebo: Flores’ Traditional Manggaraian Houses

By: Reyhard Matheos

Have you ever imagined living in a house with more than 6 families? Seems a bit crowded and uncomfortable right? Yet, the traditional Manggaraian houses in Wae Rebo house up to 20 people, in a spirit of togetherness.

Far away from the hustle and bustle of the city of Eastern Nusa Tenggara, there’s a village with seven traditional cone-shaped houses standing in a half-circle formation. Wae Rebo is a part of Satar Lenda Village located in Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. This place is something of a tourist hotspot, since it’s the only place which still features mbaru niang, the Traditional Manggaraian House.

Wae Rebo is quite remote and to get there, you need to take a few hurdles. It takes up to six hours by car from Labuan Bajo to Ruteng—the capital of West Manggarai Regency (transportation costs around IDR 60.000/person). From Terminal Mena in Ruteng, you take an oto—traditional passenger truck--to Denge village for seven hours. It’s cheap at only IDR 20.000/person. The Oto is operated twice a week, only on Tuesday and Friday and leaves at 10.00 a.m.

Parkour Jakarta: Survival of the Fittest

By: Ario Triwibowo

Parkour, the trend that has become a lifestyle, originated in France. Parkour (or PK, for short) is an activity of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body. It is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anything in the surrounding environment. No wonder this art of movement found its way to Indonesia, where obstacles are part and parcel of urban life. In the 2000s Parkour was one of the most viral and inspiring physical art forms worldwide. Parkour touched base in Jakarta around 2007, slowly developing into several regional sub-groups in other areas of Indonesia. Now, all over Indonesia dedicated communities practice the art of survival in a concrete jungle!