Job Discussion Forums

OzBurn · Joined: 03 May 2004 Posts: 199

I'm in Vietnam at present, but am considering various destinations (contract expires in December). Is there a city or large town in Indonesia that is cooler (i.e., in the hills or mountains)? I spent a few days in Singapore, once, and a few days in Bali, and found the Singapore climate (this was in summer) insufferable. Bali was tolerable, esp. in the highlands. (The island itself was, of course, delightful, weather notwithstanding.) But I would prefer something milder.

Saigon is okay, now, during the rainy season, but I hated Hanoi's weather.

Can anyone help?

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

How about something in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia. Beautiful and much cooler than anywhere around there. I have no idea if there are schools there though.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

Bandung is up around 1000 meters, and has a cooler, more mild climate than most of Indonesia. There are a few language schools there and some universities.
It's a nice place too; for Indoneisa it's relatively clean, with a more chilled, laid-back atmosphere than say Jakarta or Surabaya.

JosephP · Joined: 13 May 2003 Posts: 445

Bukittinggi on Sumatra? I've never been but a quick google reveals a rather attractive city at an elevation 920 metres. Anyone here been there?

gugelhupf · Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 575 Location: Jabotabek

Bukittinggi is a lovely place to live but unfortunately lacks any EFL teaching opportunities. Nearest employers are in Padang (hot and wet) or Pekanbaru (just hot). I've never been there, but what about Malang in E Java?

Winmar · Joined: 11 Feb 2003 Posts: 125 Location: Melbourne

That's a shame about Bukittinggi, because it is indeed a lovely place.

Bandung is the other place that springs to mind. The weather is one of its main features.

I've heard Malang is a tad boring....

guruengerish · Joined: 28 Mar 2004 Posts: 424 Location: Australia

As suggested, Bandung is the coolest place I could think of. The station is at 703 metres, and you go uphill from there.

Most teachers live further uphill above the schools, and the evenings are very pleasant.

Weekends are pretty awful though, as the Jakarta rich arrive in droves, and fill every restaurant and road.

There's plenty of other interesting places in Indonesia. Malang is nice but dead boring. For cooler asian climes, you might try China.

Their conditions and accommodation requirements are laid down by law, and seem to provide a lot more than EF Indonesia.

Tiger Beer · Joined: 08 Feb 2003 Posts: 778 Location: Hong Kong

Don't fall for the Bandung or Malang is cooler that gets so often passed around. Its true that it SLIGHTLY is.. but its still FREAKIN HOT HOT HOT just with a slight few degrees drop (which still equals HOT HOT).

I went specifically to Bandung and Malang to check them out for the same reasons - I love Southeast Asia but hated the immense heat. Unfortunately, neither of those two cities are the places.

In addition.. Malang is downright annoying and small and real boring. Annoying in that its grimy ugly dirty and everyone notices you everywhere you go. Bandung is also dirty grimy dirty.. but for some reason some expats really like it a lot. I really gave it a good chance.. but just wasn't a real enjoyable city.

Now Jakarta.. that city is a lot of fun. Still grimy, dirty and smelly.. but fun.

I also went to Vietnam.. loved absolutely everywhere I went in that country. If you really want to go somewhere with nice spring/fall climate.. try Kunming in China. I loved that city.

guruengerish · Joined: 28 Mar 2004 Posts: 424 Location: Australia

Thanks for your comments. I agree that Bandung can be hot, but my house was up the road ina valley, and was heaps cooler than in the city. I think I must have been another 250 metres above the station at least.

However, Bandung is getting so crowded, and with a new toll way leading into it, it will be a nightmare soon.

I was in Yogya for a year, and rented a house outside the city on the edge of a forest. Lovely area, nice people. The school had air con so the climate didn't bother me at work.

Good suggestion about China. I am looking, and this sounds pleasant.

Where I am now, in tropical north Australia, we're experience a delightful winter of 24C each day and 20C at night. Summer can be hell though!

cheers,

Adrian

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

Tiger Beer · Joined: 08 Feb 2003 Posts: 778 Location: Hong Kong

Yeah, that would be huge.

I never had that much variation when I was there.

I just checked the weather right now.. its 29c in Jakarta and 27c in Bandung right now.

If there were long stretches of a constant 10-degree difference in celcius all the time.. that would be incredible. It was just a a few degrees different during the 4-5 weeks I was job hunting around Java.

Winmarr · Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Posts: 115 Location: Melbourne

It is Asia after all, and it's all relative. Bandung is hot compared to Europe, Canada or southern Australia, but cooler than most other places I've been to in Indonesia. If you don't like even moderate tropical heat, don't go to Indonesia!

When I first went to Bandung (well, my first few trips) I almost never wore trousers because it was too hot. However, once I spent a decent amount of time there (while working) I acclimatised and found it no problem much of the time. Once on my motorbike on my way down from Lembang I was shivering, I was that cold.

gugelhupf · Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 575 Location: Jabotabek

Thanks to the great god of air conditioning I don't find the heat here a real problem. So long as you don't walk about much outside in the middle of the day - use a motorbike instead - and if you do strenuous things during cooler parts of the day it shouldn't be an issue.

When I lived in Padang, which is damn hot, the only problem was exercising without overheating but even then I found a gym with a/c while swimming was good exercise as well.