Job Discussion Forums

[Winmarr]

Why did you folk choose wherever it was you ended up in Indonesia? I went to teach in Bandung because my aunt was teaching there for a few years, so I'd been there for holidays a number of times before moving there to work. I'm also curious as to why so many people end up in Jakarta!

[guruengerish]

There must be many reasons why one moves around. I started off in Jakarta and taught there for two years. However, I found that I was going to Bandung more and more to enjoy the cooler air, the forests hearby, and yes, I had a good friend there.

I ended up moving to Bandung and was there for a year, but the traffic drove me crazy. Going down Jl Dago to school each day, all one could see was an ocean of green angkotan2. As we all know how much folk there like to walk, the angkotans were stopping and starting every 20 metres, as a passenger's house was reached. A good fleet of buses , some bus bays and bus stops would do wonders for that city. Sadly, they solved the problem for a couple of years by cutting down the lovely big trees planted by the Dutch, and widening the road yet again.

The exodus to Bandung on Friday nights by the wealthy owners of 4WD Toorak tractors was crazy, and by Saturday afternoon, the streets would be clogged with the "B" number plated cars, and restaurants and Chinese eating houses full to the ceilings.

It was certainly nice to move to quiet little ol' Jogja on half the salary and almost half the rent.

Poverty then moved me on to Malang, where I doubled my pay and could travel again. but Malang is the most boring city in Java. It's no wonder the Balinese can't stand the East Javanese!

I would have to say that IMHO, Jogya was the most interesting place I lived in, in Java, and certainly the nicest people.

A few photos for those who are interested is at:

http://www.geocities.com/adrianyogya/

[uilleannpiper]

I chose Semarang initially because I had spent most of my time in Central Java prior to working there. I also liked the Colonial history of the city and enjoyed going around and looking at all the old Dutch buildings. There's a great Dutch website at

www.semarang.nl

which has loads of old colonial photos of Semarang.

Trouble is, the Indonesians don't seem to appreciate the historic value of such buildings and now they're going to ruin. They should do what the Indian government has done, ie, get over the sense of injustice of the colonial past and see the positive side of having historic relics in their own backyard. What a tourist drawcard they could be. I'm sure there's more than a few public servants who could spare a bit of their un-earned cash to fund it.