Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog. 

Food is one way to know other culture, and today, I am going to introduce you to my favourite local foods. Please note that I have not tried all of my country’s signature dishes because there are a lot of them. Now let us begin!

1. Bubur Ayam (Chicken Porridge)

Just as most European countries eat bread or cereals for breakfast, we have our main dish for breakfast, chicken porridge. It is rice congee with shredded chicken meat served with some condiments, such as chopped scallion, crispy fried shallot, celery, tongcay (preserved salted vegetables), fried soybean, Chinese crullers (youtiao, known as cakwe in Indonesia), and both salty and sweet soy sauce. Sometimes it is topped with yellow chicken broth and kerupuk (Indonesian-style crackers). 

Like I already mentioned before, most of the time, people have it for breakfast, especially office workers, since they do not have time to make breakfast. One can find this food in every part of Indonesia. Usually, this food sold from street vendors and, normally, it only costs 10.000 Rupiah (0.67 cents).

2. Soto Ayam 

Soto ayam is our special chicken soup. It is a spicy yellow chicken soup with turmeric as one of its ingredients, which adds the yellow colour. It is served with chicken and noodles, and can also be served with hard-boiled eggs, slices of fried potatoes, Chinese celery leaves, and fried shallots.

This is a traditional soup commonly found in Indonesian cuisine. Just like the chicken porridge, one may be able to find this soup at local street vendors. This is also a type of food that will be served at weddings or special occasions. I prefer to eat this during the rainy season because the soup can make me feel warm. 

3. Martabak

Martabak is a stuffed pancake or pan-fried bread which was commonly found in the Arabian Peninsula and Southeast Asia countries. In my country, there are many variants of this martabak; however, my favourite variant is martabak telur (martabak with eggs). Now, maybe one may think that it is kind of weird, but trust me, it tastes so good. It is made from a mixture of eggs and meat and will be eaten together with vinegar soup. People usually have this for a late-night snack, especially when there is a family gathering or just friends hanging out at home.

4. Ayam Rica-Rica

Rica is a type of Southeast Asian hot spice mixture found in Manado cuisine of North Sulawesi, Indonesia. It uses a lot of chopped or ground red and green chilli peppers, bird’s eye chilli, shallots, garlic, ginger, and a pinch of salt and sugar. In Indonesia, a lot of people love chilli, therefore they cook this rica together with chicken, seafood, and meat. For this food, they cook rica with chicken. It could be very spicy for some people who are not used to eating spicy food. Therefore, I recommend to eat this food with rice, thus it will be less spicy. 

5. Rendang

For the last one, I will be presenting the best food ever, rendang. If I have to choose between these five foods, I will definitely choose rendang. It is an Indonesian spicy meat dish originating from the Minangkabau region in West Sumatra, Indonesia. It also became popular in our neighbouring Southeast Asian countries. It is a piece of meat, most commonly beef, slow-cooked and braised in a coconut milk and spice mixture until the liquids evaporate and the meat turns dark brown, tender, caramelized, infused with rich spices. 

It is usually served on special occasions. However, nowadays, people can easily get this at a local restaurant. I usually eat this during Ramadan when I visit my Muslim family in another city. It is perfect when eaten with rice. Just like Ayam Rica, this is also spicy, therefore, never eat this alone if one is not used to eating spicy food. 

Now, that was my top five favourite local foods. Although there are more of them, sadly I cannot write all of it here. This could be your chance to try our other local foods, perhaps you can try my recommendations for a starter. 

Thank you for reading and see you in my next one!

Hello and welcome back to my blog. In today’s post, I want to write about health insurance in my country, what is the advantage and disadvantage of it. First of all, I want to be honest by saying that I rarely get sick. Thus, I do not have that much experience with hospitals, insurance, etc. 

Now, let us get into the topic. In Indonesia, we have national health insurance called BPJS (Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial Kesehatan) or as being translated into English as Health Social Security Administration. It launched by the government on January 1, 2014, and by 2019, 83,94% of the population, or 221 million people, are registered the National Health Insurance and Healthy Indonesia Card (JKN-KIS) program. 

Since its inception, BPJS Health has reaped many pros and cons besides bringing fresh air for public health insurance. Though right now, I am not going to write about the public’s opinion and experiences; on the other hand, I am going to write about my experience with it. 

In 2019, I went to the dentist clinic because I had some problem with my teeth. Since the dentist needed further analysis of my teeth, he suggested me to go to the hospital to do a Rontgen. I then went to the hospital to do my Rontgen and later, I found out that I had four wisdom teeth, that were not in the right position and needed to be removed. 

Because I was using the BPJS, the administration process was much longer. I had to come very early to get a lower queue number. This is one of the disadvantages of using BPJS since there are a lot of people using it too. After the administration process, I had to wait again until I can see the dentist. 

After I did the Rontgen, the dentist suggested me to do a surgery for all of my wisdom teeth since they were already not in the right position anymore. Afterwards, I had to do all the administration thing and also do a couple of Rontgen again. Three weeks later, I did my surgery. 

With this, I can say that I am satisfied with the treatments that I got, although the administration queue is very long. Nevertheless, I sometimes hear and read about the unpleasant experience of other people. In my opinion, BPJS is a good alternative for health insurance, especially for poor people. However, I hope that they will do a better change for the administration because I can not imagine if I am in pain and have to wait for a couple of hours only for my name to be called. 

To summarize, BPJS is one of the profitable government breakthroughs in the last few years. Though it is still lack of something, I wish that in the next few years the system will get better and it can be beneficial for everyone.  

Welcome back to my blog!

In today’s post, I want to write about the differences between Germany’s tourism and Indonesia’s tourism. Before we begin, I would like to tell you that this post is written based on my own opinion and experiences; therefore, I would like to apologize first if I write something offensive.

First, I want to write about my experiences with tourist attractions in Germany. My family and I used to live in Germany from 2014 until 2016. In those times, we managed to visit some of the tourist attractions, most of them being natural tourism sites. The reason why most of the places we visited are in nature is because my father loves it. He prefers to visit natural landscapes rather than the city.

One of the places is The Bastei located near Dresden in Saxony. Bastei and the Bastei Bridge are the highlights of the German Saxon Switzerland National Park area. The place is so beautiful; I would like to visit it again if I have a chance. I like everything in this place, from the landscape to the services in it. I want to focus on the issue of cleanliness. The place is clean and there is no single trash on the ground, as far as I can remember. The toilets are also clean. What I want to point out is that they are taking care of the place.

This is also the same at other tourist attractions that I have visited in Germany. In addition to the cleanliness of the place, they also provided facilities for handicapped and elderly people. I do not know if these facilities are being provided all over the place, but most of the places are always equipped with these accommodations. This is something different from my country.

In my country, we also have many natural tourist attractions. We have diving sites and numerous national parks. However, I do not want to say that they have the best facilities. Some places always charge for toilet fees, normally only 12 Cents (2000 Rupiah), but even though they charge the visitors fees, the toilets are mostly unclean. That makes me wonder, where does all the money go when the place remains neglected.

One more thing is also the facilities for handicapped people. I noticed that our tourist attractions are still lacking of these kinds of facilities. That makes it harder for everyone to visit those tourist attractions.

I hope that the government and also local people will take these issues seriously. I believe Indonesia already has great potential in this tourism world, but I think they should look more thoroughly into accommodations for visitors. Perhaps they can do more evaluations, so they can know what can be improved.

Please also note that I am writing this not to point out my country’s flaws, but I believe every place has something that they can improve upon. By comparing Indonesia with Germany, I do not want to say that Germany is the best and Indonesia is not. I believe Germany also has its own kind of deficiencies in its tourism industry.

I think that is all for today’s post. I hope you enjoyed reading about this other side of Indonesia’s tourism through my eyes and hopefully, it does not stop you from visiting Indonesia. Thank you for reading and see you in my next post!

Welcome back to my blog. In today’s post, I want to write about one of Indonesia’s folktales. Indonesia has many folktales due to its various traditional cultures; one of them is Malin Kundang. It is a folktale about retribution of an ungrateful son. It is also one of my favourite folktales because of its moral story. 

Now, let me start the story. Once upon a time, in the Air Manis Beach fishing village in Padang, West Sumatra, there lived a widow named Mande Rubayah along with her son, Malin Kundang. She dearly loved her son and eventually spoiled him. Malin was a diligent and obedient son. Because Mande Rubayah was already old, she was only capable of working as a cake seller to meet the needs of her family. 

One day, Malin was terribly sick, almost losing his life. However, due to Mande’s hard effort of making him healthy again, he became well. After he survived his sickness, Malin is more deeply loved by his mother. They were a happy family, who loved each other. 

After several years, Malin grew up and became an adult man. At that time, there was a huge ship docked at the Beach and Malin was attracted by it. He wanted to go with the ship and go abroad to the city. He then asked for permission of his mother; told her that he will go abroad in order to change their family’s fate. With a heavy heart, Mande Rubayah let his only son go and provided him with food. 

Day by day, Mande Rubayah went through her day alone. Every morning and afternoon, she would go to the beach and asked herself, when will her son be coming back. She also prayed that Malin will always be safe and come back home soon. During his years abroad, Malin never sent letters nor any kind of messages to his mother. Until one day, Mande got news from a captain, that took Malin with him that day. He told Mande that Malin is safe and already married to a beautiful and rich noblewoman. Mande was so happy and was certain that her son will come to her soon. 

A couple of days later, the villagers gathered at the beach because they saw a beautiful large ship and thought that it must belong to a noble person. Mande was so happy and thought that it must be her son. The ship slowly began to move closer to the port and on the deck, people could see a young couple standing on it. When Mande saw the young man on the deck, she was certain that it is her son. Before the village elders had welcomed them, she approached Malin first. She immediately hugged him tightly, she was afraid of losing her child again. 

Malin was surprised because he was hugged by an old woman in tattered clothes. He could not believe that the woman was his mother. Before he could even think of speaking, his beautiful wife spat while saying, “This ugly woman is your mother? Why did you lie to me before!” Hearing his wife’s words, Malin threw his mother off of him and said that he did not know her. Mande was shocked and began to cry heavily. Again, Malin was ashamed and did not want to claim her as his mother. 

Mande cried heavily and passed out on the beach. When she woke up, she realized that the villagers are already gone and she could see Malin’s ship farther away. Knowing her son already changed, her heart ached and hurt. She then prayed to God asking for his righteousness, if Malin is indeed her son. Suddenly a big storm came, hitting Malin Kundang’s ship, then a thunderous bolt of lightning came. At that moment, the ship was smashed to pieces. Then the waves carried it to the beach.

The next day when the morning sun appeared on the eastern horizon, the storm had stopped. At the beach, visible pieces of ships that have become stone were seen. That’s the ship of Malin Kundang! A rock that resembles a human body appears. That is the body of Malin Kundang, who was a son of disobedience, who was cursed by his mother and became a stone. Between the stones, small fishes swim, such as mackerel. That said, the fish came from the fragments of the body of his wife who kept looking for Malin Kundang.

The moral of this folktale is to never forget our parents, who already raised us ever since we were a child and to not be blinded by the richness and the luxury. Today, it is possible to see the stone in Air Manis Beach, Padang, West Sumatra. It became, in fact, one of the tourist attractions in Padang.

That is all for today’s post; I hope you enjoyed reading this kind of story and see you in my next one. 

Hello readers! Welcome back to my blog. Today I want to write about a mover and a shaker from Indonesia called Kartini one of the faces of Indonesian women’s emancipation. 

Firstly, let me write about who Kartini is. Raden Adjeng Kartini, or for short Kartini, was a notable Indonesian national heroine from Java. Kartini was born on April 21, 1998 in Jepara, Central Java. She was born into a noble Javanese family in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, and that is the reason why she had ‘Raden Adjeng‘ in her name. She was listed as one of the leaders towards emancipation in Indonesia. She mainly fought for women.

During the Colonialism Era, women got positioned below men in the social caste. They were not allowed to pursue higher education, and even today, it became a stereotype that women are not supposed to aim for higher education. They also are being forced to marry someone chosen by their parents, especially noblemen; thus, they can raise their social status. This kind of situation was also experienced by Kartini and that made her want to change it. 

When Kartini was a kid, she got a chance to attend a Dutch language primary school, and in this school, she learned how to speak Dutch, an unusual achievement for a Javanese woman. She attended school until she was twelve years old but later she was secluded at home. Seclude, or pingit in Javanese, is a common practice among Javanese nobility, to prepare young girls for their marriage. During seclusion, girls were not allowed to leave their parent’s house until they got married; however, Kartini’s father still gave her privileges, such as embroidery lessons and occasional appearances in public for special events.

Kartini also never stopped educating herself. Because she can speak Dutch, she managed to have Dutch pen pals; one of them is called Rosa Abendanon. In her letters, she wrote her concern not just about women’s emancipation, but also about the problems of the society, especially the condition of native Indonesian women. 

Kartini read European books, magazines, and newspapers and that made her thinking similar to European feminist thinking. It also made her desire, to change native Indonesian women’s condition, for the better. Kartini’s desire to pursue higher education in Europe also was expressed in the letters. Many of her pen pals tried to help her to make her dreams come true, but sadly her plan and her desire got abandoned because she was going to be married. 

She got married on November 12, 1903 to Joyodiningrat, the Regency Chief of Rembang, who already had three wives. Although she got married, her desire to improve the conditions for women did not stop. Thankfully, her husband understood her goal and allowed her to establish a school for women in the east porch of the Rembang Regency Office complex. The school was set up inside her father’s home and taught girls a progressive, Western-based curriculum. To Kartini, the ideal education for a young woman encouraged empowerment and enlightenment. 

Other than building a school, she also wanted to write a book, but sadly she did not manage to write one due to her premature death at the age of 25 on September 17, 1904, a few days after she gave birth to her only son on September 13, 1904. Seven years after her death, one of her correspondents, Jacques H. Abendanon, the Minister for Culture, Religion, and Industry in the East Indies, published a collection of Kartini’s letters, entitled  Door Duisternis tot Licht (Out of Dark Comes Light.) The publication of Kartini’s letters drew the Dutch’s interest, and Kartini’s ideas began to change the way the Dutch viewed native women in Java. It also inspired notable Indonesian figures in the fight for independence. 

In 1964, President Sukarno declared Kartini’s birthday, 21 April, as “Kartini’s Day,” an Indonesian national holiday. Though Kartini is not with us anymore, her spirit remains in today’s women’s heart. 

That is all for today’s post! I hope you enjoyed reading this post and see you in my next one.