I. Java: Java is really quite big for an island, one of the biggest in the world. The slides also told us that Indonesia is the 4th largest country, which is bullcrap.
II. Banten province: Is recently separated from the province of West Java, and occupies the western tip of the island. Across the Sunda straits from Banten is the province of Lampung in Sumatera. In the straits of Sunda lie the remnants of Gunung Krakatau, the site of THE most hiong volcanic eruption in recorded history. This is one tidbit they never granted us so that we may sleep in peace.
III. Serang and vincinity: Serang is 2~3 hours west of Jakarta, and is the main town of the province. Campsite is ~20 minutes northwest. The town of Cilegon is ~2 hours west from thence, and the town Anyer on the Sunda straits is still further.
Relax. There's none too much tourissy places to be seen apart from the malls. Oh, and Anyer's beach.
IV. The Kopassvs: The Kopassvs were our hosts for our stay in Serang. Warmhearted and polite as hosts, they assuaged our frustrations whenever something went wrong in the programme. "We apologise for any inconvenience you have met. Please, take away only the good memories, leave the bad ones behind!" This has happened 3~4 times.
V. Form: footdrill commands are screamed, and usually (if not always) end with a crisp "gerak", and differ quite a lot from the Malay commands used in Singapore. The first step of a quick march is made by chopping your left heel onto the ground. In parades, commanders hopped back and forth the parade stand. You acknowledged an order to spread, squeeze and hop around by slapping your tum. And then there were other oddities.
VI. Getting around town: The bumpers of Kopassvs tonners are painted red. Why's that so? It's for intimidating the civilians who clog up the streets, and to hell with camouflage! And we've got metal rams up front, in case you're not intimidated. And we've got sirens as well, in case you don't know that we're nearby.
There was once a random car was mauled just for fun. The victimised driver pulled obligingly to the shoulder, and didn't raise anything more than murmured incomprehension.
We were discouraged from leaving our assigned mall and roaming the streets outside, and for good reason.
VII. Outfield: Camouflage is not needed at night, and neither are helmets and all those stuff kiasu Singaporeans bring outfield. No way! All you will ever need for 3 days is a groundsheet and a week's supply of instant noodles.
Sleep like a log in the night! Make the jungle your home; build your basha with foundations, lay out your sleeping mats, take out your shirt and jungle hat! Hells bells, go ahead and lepas your senjata as well if you like, but only when komandan is not looking.
Keep your spirits high; cheer at the enemy when contacted! WHOO
VIII: Jungle survival: You could cook with a hole in the ground, a few tiers separated by banana leaves, and rocks heated by fire or sunlight. Tapioca is decent if prepared thus, and the daging is quite damn heavenly.
Daging babi is also good for eating, said my Indonesian friend. If one is desperate, perhaps.
We were also shown vicious booby traps of the sort reminiscent of Chinese/Korean historical dramas and the Mel Gibson movie Apocalypto.
IX. The Indonesian language: Have a basic grasp of key words and learn the rest of it as it comes. Carefully introduce a foreign accent if you are not confident or they will mistake you for a native speaker and you will be bound invariantly for malu-ness.
The soldierly lexicon used in the past fortnight prominently included--
Averse elements: nyamuk - mosquito; panas - hot (weather); hujan - rain
Everyday stuff: makan - eat; tidur - sleep; kencing - piss
Military terminology: senapan - rifle; latihan - exercise; upachara - ceremony
Other soldierly terms: cewek - girl; berapa - how much?
Note that the following kinds words are not easily learnt through the usual method of hand signals, and need to be picked up by the learner himself. e.g.
Expressing time: besok - tomorrow; kemudian - afterwards; kadang-kadang - sometimes
Linking words: kalau - if; untuk - for; tetapi - but
Prepositions: dekat - near; sampai - until; sejak - since
and so on.
X: Parachuting: The jump sites were accessible to visitors from around the area. On the day we landed in Gorda cross, the spectators helped to pack the chutes for the newly-landed. It was quite hard to refuse, because they insisted on doing so vehemently. And then they waited vehemently for the tip.
When Dom landed, he was swamped with a throng of tip-hopeful children. I landed in padi, and so was spared much of the swamping. Winston landed in the swamp.
A story goes that Cliff took out 30.000 rupiahs and asked the guy who helped him "You want berapa?" and had it all snatched from him, no answers needed.
XI: Malls in Jakarta:
Come all ye to Mangga Dua Square, for here be all the clothes at dirt-cheap prices.
Come all ye to Pondok Indah- well, it's rather more like a Singapore mall, except that its scale is American.
Postscript: Consolidation of the Mother's Day present:
For Mom's coin and notes collections-
5 Rp, 25 Rp, 50 Rp with image of Komodo dragon - rare coins I got for doing a social suicide stunt
Current 50 Rp with image of a bird named Kepodang
Current 100 Rp with image of a cockatoo
1978-minted 100 Rp with image of house on stilts
Current 200 Rp with image of a Bali mynah
Current 500 Rp with image of a plant named Bunga Melati
Recently obsolete 500 Rp with a different design and yellow tint
Notes of 1000, 5000, 10.000, 20.000, 50.000 and 100.000 Rp
Postscript 2:
See earlier post.
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