Indonesia Expat – issue 144

I S S U E N O. 14 4

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J A K A R TA • J AVA • B A L I • LO M B O K • K A L I M A N TA N • S U M AT R A • S U L AW E S I • W E S T PA P U A

W W W. I N D O N E S I A E X PAT. B I Z

PALM OIL: CAN IT BE SUSTAINABLE? THE GOLD RUSH: THREATENING LIVES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

MEET LORNA DOWSON-COLLINS TRAVEL: ECOTOURISM ON A BORNEO RIVER

LOOKING FOR BORNEO: MARK HEYWARD

THE

Kalimantan ISSUE

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Dear Readers, species of trees, 221 species of terrestrial mammals and 420 species of resident birds – that we know of.

Editor in Chief

Angela Richardson angela@indonesiaexpat.biz

Editorial Enquiries

If the forests are at the heart of this island, the rivers are its veins. A source of life to so many natives, called the Dayaks, a visit to these rivers is a unique experience not to be missed while living in Indonesia.

From these rivers you can still witness peat forest, orangutans, hornbills and so much more.

letters@indonesiaexpat.biz

Management

Edo Frese edo@indonesiaexpat.biz

Sales

Dian Mardianingsih ads@indonesiaexpat.biz

Distribution & Admin

Juni Setiawan admin@indonesiaexpat.biz

Graphics

Frederick Ng Katarina Anindita

Finance

Lini Verawaty finance@indonesiaexpat.biz

Contributors

Stephanie Brookes Bill Dalton Senja Dibali Annali Hayward Heru Nainggolan Simon Pitchforth Erma Syawal Putri Eamonn Sadler Antony Sutton Kenneth Yeung

In the second edition of our regional series, we focus in on Kalimantan, or Indonesian Borneo. At 743,330 square kilometres in size, Borneo is the third largest island in the world, and the largest in Southeast Asia. Approximately 73% of the island of Borneo belongs to Indonesia, while Malaysia has 26% in the northwest and Brunei 1% in the northeast.

But of course, where there is so much life, there is always much destruction with many people exploiting the region for its bountiful natural resources. Overtaking the rate of deforestation in Brazil, between the year 2000 and 2010, Borneo lost 12% of its forests, with peatland forests increasingly becoming oil palm and pulp and paper plantations.

What makes this region so special is its ecology and culture, which has interested brave travellers since the 1800s. The rainforests in Borneo are 150 million years old, making it one of the oldest ancient rainforests in the world, home to 15,000 species of flowering plants, 3,000

In this issue’s feature story, we discuss palm oil plantations in this region, including the Government’s recent plans of ‘sustainable palm oil’. Find out what this actually means on page 6-7. We also have an in-depth story on illegal gold mining, which is rampant on the rivers

of Kalimantan, also leading to illegal logging and deforestation.

Sadly, with greedy people only thinking in the short term, the future looks bleak for Kalimantan – not to mention the world’s remaining forests. Protecting these ancient rainforests should be on the forefront of the Government’s plans, but typically it is the NGOs who fight this battle. I had the pleasure of meeting Lorna Dowson-Collins, a lady who has been working hard to protect the forests and cultures of Kalimantan for many years and is now doing so through a social enterprise in Palangkaraya. Find out more on page 12.

As we enter into the Muslim holy month of Ramadhan, we wish our Muslim friends selamat berpuasa (happy fasting) and may we all use this time to reflect on our impact on the environment and how we can each do our part to protect it for generations to come.

Angela Richardson Editor in Chief

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Events

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Published by

PT. Koleksi Klasik Indonesia Graha Eka Formula Building 3rd floor, #302 Jl. Bangka Raya No. 2 Kemang, Jakarta T: 021 719 5908 (sales/editorial) 021 719 3409 (admin/finance) F: 021 719 3409 Office hours: 09.00–17.00 Monday–Friday

Dear Editors,

Dear Josh,

I’m writing to say I thoroughly enjoyed the latest Scams in the City article titled The Fake Rice That Never Was by Kenneth Yeung.

Thank you for writing and sharing your story with us. We value your readership.

My house helper actually brought this particular scam up in conversation the other day, expressing her genuine fear over fake or ‘plastic’ rice. She explained that she washes her rice over and over until the water runs clear, as she’s afraid of digesting any plastic that is in the rice.

We are very happy to hear you enjoy reading Scams in the City and that you shared the story with your staff. Hopefully she can rest easier knowing there is no plastic in her rice!

INDONESIA EXPAT IS PUBLISHED BI-WEEKLY BY PT. KOLEKSI KLASIK INDONESIA. OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS PUBLICATION ARE THOSE OF THE WRITERS AND THE PUBLISHER DOES NOT ACCEPT ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY ERRORS,

All The Best, IE Editorial Team

I showed her the article and explained what it meant and she seemed stunned at how the media turned this into such a big scare without any proof. I told her not to believe everything she hears or reads.

OMMISIONS, OR COMPLAINTS ARISING THERE FROM. NO PARTS OF THIS PUBLICATION CAN BE REPRODUCED IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN PRINT OR ELECTRONICALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER. ALL TRADEMARKS, LOGOS, BRANDS AND

I look forward to each edition of Indonesia Expat, particularly because of Scams in the City – its dark stories are well-written and researched, which is quite the opposite of the stories the mass media churns out to scare-monger the public – just like this particular plastic rice story!

DESIGNS ARE COPYRIGHT AND FULLY RESERVED BY PT. KOLEKSI KLASIK INDONESIA.

Kind Regards, Josh (Kemang)

The Cover

Cruising down the Rangun River in Central Kalimantan

by Angela Richardson

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Issue 144

Contents

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Feature Story Indonesia Looks Toward Palm Oil Sustainability in Kalimantan

08

Expat Business

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17

Meet the Expat Mark Heyward: Looking for Borneo

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Scams in the City Greed Is Great

Featured Illegal Gold Mining Operations in Kalimantan Threatens Lives and the Environment

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Business Profile Tauzia: Indonesian-Born Hotel Brands and Management

Sports Pitchers Prepare to Mount the Mound in Jakarta

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Worthy Causes Remote River School, Kalimantan

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Meet the Expat Lorna Dowson-Collins: Business as a Driver of Change

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Announcements

24

Light Entertainment When All About You are Losing Theirs

Food & Drink The Clandestine Critic: Social House

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Humorous Observations Psychogeography for Beginners

15

Travel Cruising on a Borneo River

26

Events

16

Culture Going, Going, Gone: In Search of the Ultimate Longhouse

27

Business Directory

28

Classifieds

14

Expat Outreach

Expat Lifestyle

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FEATURE STORY

Palm oil factory by Marufish

Indonesia Looks Toward Palm Oil Sustainability in Kalimantan

By Senja Dibali

Palm oil plays an important economic role in Indonesia, but also destroys ancient forests and wildlife habitats via deforestation. The Government hopes to make it more sustainable.

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alm oil is one of the world's most produced and consumed oils. The low-cost, efficient, and stable oil is used in food, cosmetics, and hygiene products. It can also be used as a fuel source. Palm oil production is championed by Indonesia and Malaysia.

Together, the two nations account for 85 to 90 percent of total global palm oil output. Indonesia is the largest producer and exporter worldwide.

As the resource is quite versatile, Indonesia has shown an increased level of interest in upping its own production. Palm oil already plays an important role for the archipelago’s economy, more so than most of its other export commodities.

Palm oil is sometimes referred to as ‘green gold’, as it can be particularly lucrative.

Crude palm oil (CPO) comes from fastgrowing plants called oil palm trees. The plants are easy to farm, and CPO is present in more than half of the products typically found in supermarkets. Food products such as noodles, chocolate, and cooking oil almost always have some level of CPO, but so do products like soaps, shampoos, and over-the-counter medicines.

Companies around the world that produce biofuel and biodiesel also hunt for bulk deals on palm oil.

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After petroleum resources, palm oil serves as a very important pillar for Indonesia.

Indonesian CPO exports rose to 1.8 million tonnes in January, up 15 percent from the same time last year, according to the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI).

This was despite slowing demand from India and China, two of the world’s largest CPO-consuming nations. The deficit was recouped by a large uptick in demand from Pakistan, which imported around 126,000 tonnes in January. Overall CPO exports to the Middle East rose to nearly 190,000 tonnes in the same month.

In recent years, local production has grown by as much as 11.3 percent annually.

In 2008, palm oil plantations covered 7.3 million hectares in Indonesia. That number rose to more than 10 million by 2012. According to the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, palm oil plantations currently occupy nearly 11 million hectares across the archipelago, with a total production of 32.5 million tonnes of CPO and derivatives annually.

Indonesia also aims to increase palm oil production to 40 million tonnes by 2020.

Palm oil in Indonesia is produced by the private sector but also by the Government.

Additionally, independent farmers and smallholders account for a sizeable portion

of the industry, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In Indonesia, palm oil plantations are the prime movers of agribusiness developments.

About 75 percent of palm oil plantations in Indonesia are located on Sumatra and Kalimantan, according to the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

An ecological disaster

Scaling up palm oil farming operations will have devastating effects on Indonesia’s environment and ecosystem. NGO studies show that monoculture palm oil plantations are sources of ecological disaster in Indonesia. Krystof Obidzinski, a scientist at CIFOR, says at least half of all plantations have been developed via deforestation. According to him, this is the main problem with the industry.

As a result of deforestation, the level of biodiversity plunges in clear-cut areas, meaning that the variety of living things becomes significantly diminished. The World Wildlife Federation (WWF) says deforestation is considered to be a major contributor to climate change and threatens the extinction of local species. In Indonesia, this namely includes the orangutan, whose natural habitat is often the space needed for palm oil operations. WWF Australia estimates around 300 football fields worth of forests are cleared every hour to make way for palm oil production.

Rising commitment for sustainable palm oil

There is a slew of environmental campaigns from activists and NGOs that encourage

consumers to choose environmentallyfriendly products over those made with CPO. The main idea is that shoppers should check product labelling first to see if CPO was used in the manufacturing process.

However, there are certifications that indicate consumer products were manufactured sustainably with CPO. The Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a non-profit organisation that brings together stakeholders from several different sectors of the palm oil industry: producers, traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks, investors, and NGOs. The goal of the initiative is to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil production. In recent years, the Swiss organisation has attracted more than 1,000 members from more than 50 different countries, many of whom are Indonesian.

The RSPO lays out a list of principles and criteria that constitute responsible palm oil production. The list includes are variety of boxes that companies must tick in order to get certified. These include but are not limited to the removal of pesticides deemed hazardous by the World Health Organisation, conservation of natural resources and biodiversity, and the responsible cultivation of new plantings.

“It is a commitment form for the palm oil companies to comply with the sustainability aspects,” says Fadhil Hasan, executive director of the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association. Additionally, the Indonesian Government also has its own label of sustainability that it places

Senja Dibali is a freelance writer and traveller currently based in Jakarta, covering a variety of issues. For more information, visit www.copycollision.com.

This means the space for palm oil plantations will get smaller despite the nation’s plan to double its current CPO output to 40 million tonnes annually while reducing emissions by 26 percent come 2020. on consumer goods called the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification.

In 2014, it became mandatory for all local palm oil producers to get an ISPO certification.

However, according to Hasan, only 90 companies actually applied for an ISPO certification last year, and there are more than 680 more palm oil mills to go.

“Maybe it will be too late. It takes time and resources,” says Hasan. For companies that don’t meet the ISPO requirements or fail to get certified in time, the Government claims it will impose sanctions. “Sanctions can include revocation of business licenses,” says Hasan, adding that it’s also left up to the Government’s discretion on how best to deal with palm oil companies, case by case.

The Indonesian Government has also renewed a moratorium on logging permits necessary for clearing prime forests and peatlands. This means the space for palm oil plantations will get smaller despite the nation’s plan to double its current CPO output to 40 million tonnes annually while reducing emissions by 26 percent come 2020.

"To change the system of an industry, it’s not just the private sector but also all of the related stakeholders,” says Juliarta Brahmansa Ottay, Central Kalimantan project manager for the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI). “We need to provide a model that is comprehensive enough to enable all stakeholders to know what it would look like and its impact [sic].”

A few examples of possible changes in the palm oil sector include ensuring plantations are situated on appropriate lands, employing best business practices and modern agricultural methods, better integrating smallholders into supply chains, and making sure nearby communities also benefit from the business activities.

For smallholder farmers with limited resources, these big changes are easier said than done. Because of this, the CPI says that an integration model for large companies and smallholder farmers to work together is necessary in Central Kalimantan to achieve sustainable palm oil.

Oil palm nursery by Lian Pin Koh

In the private sector, large multinational firms like Unilever claim that their palm oil supply chain is now free of deforestation.

In terms of policy, the CPI is also working with the Ministry of Finance to see what fiscal incentives they can swing to make a large-scale shift to sustainable palm oil feasible.

While it’s difficult to quantify for sure if the palm oil industry in Indonesia can actually reach a true level of sustainability, the Government and stakeholders seem to recognise that it’s at least an issue worth addressing.

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EXPAT BUSINESS FEATURED

Illegal gold mining operations in Kalimantan threaten lives and the environment

business people. Some of the miners also act as the subcontractors of large-scale mining companies,” says Ismawati.

Illegal mining activities also occur in four other provinces across Kalimantan.

According to a study by the Borneo Research Bulletin in 2012, there were an estimated 43,000 small-scale gold miners in Central Kalimantan. Together, they produced 13.3 tonnes of gold in 2008, worth roughly US$292 million based on today’s currency conversion.

By Heru Nainggolan

This money is only a fraction of the US$6.1 billion estimated to be lost annually due to illegal gold mining activities that have spread throughout the archipelago over the past few years, according to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. The ministry came to this conclusion after learning the volume of national gold production was 66 tonnes annually, while the estimated amount of illegally mined gold could reach as high as 130 tonnes per year.

Ismawati also points out the economic impacts of illegal gold mining in Kalimantan. According to BaliFokus, it was estimated that every miner could produce 5 to 10 grams of gold per week.

The ASGM sector could produce about 65 to 130 tonnes of gold per year, bigger than the national gold production, which was 46 tonnes in 2013.

Illegal mine operators on the Rungan River, Central Kalimantan. (Photo by Angela Richardson)

Illegal gold mining is ubiquitous in Kalimantan.

It poses threats to the environment and health risks to indigenous people. It also costs the nation millions.

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must obtain a legal permit from the local government agencies, which in this case is the Mineral and Coal Agency at the regency level, according to Ismawati.

n Thursday May 22, around noon, Bulungan police chief adjunct commissioner Eka Wahyudianta, along with 90 officers, took a one-hour drive to Sekatak Buji village in North Kalimantan, the youngest province in Indonesia. When he arrived, he saw around 100 illegal miners working hard to extract gold from a pit.

P. Widjaya, illegal mining is especially prevalent in the regencies of Bengkayang, Landak, Ketapang, Sintang, and Kapuas Hulu in West Kalimantan.

Apart from the lack of technology, many people in Kalimantan resort to illegal gold mining because of its nearly impossible-toobtain permits from the local government.

“And then get the environmental permit from the Environmental Agency in the forms of an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) document, environmental management and monitoring plans. The permit for small-scale gold mining, IPR (Izin Penambang Rakyat) of Community Mining Permit, should be allocated inside the WPR (Wilayah Pertambangan Rakyat) or community mining area,” says Ismawati.

“Some of them ran away [when they saw us] and 30 of them were arrested. After screening them, eight who possessed evidence were immediately brought to the precinct police station,” Wahyudianta told the local paper.

“In reality, these permits could only be obtained by large companies with big investments, while existing small-scale mines, including those in regions with high mineral deposits, do not have the ability to obtain the permits,” explains Widjaya.

Some regencies had already issued the WPR for gold mining but without supporting regulatory framework, notes Ismawati, adding that they still have a lot of homework if they want to provide a proper regulatory framework for ASGM activities.

Police raids like the one he describes are common on Kalimantan. The largely unpoliced island is known for its widespread illegal gold mining operations, which are also often referred to as ‘wildcat mining’.

Ismawati echoed his statement, saying that even if a small-scale miner owns the land, he or she would still be subjected to illegal mining offences, depending on the landuse plan and allocation set in place by the local government. To mine the gold, one

“The illegality of the mining practices seems to be maintained by some powerful institutions and officers to their advantage.

Corrupt officials, thugs, collaborate with financiers – some of them are foreign investors, some are local or Indonesian

“Kalimantan is one of the oldest Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) hotspots. The operations have been practiced on the island for centuries since the Dutch colonisation era,” explains YuyunIsmawati, a Goldman Prize-winning environmental engineer and senior adviser at the local environmental NGO BaliFokus.

“As a result, some abandoned gold mining sites in Kalimantan are well-known as the moon face areas, and can be seen from above using Google Maps clearly.”

ASGM refers to informal gold mining activities carried out using low technology and shoddy machinery. According to the Indonesian Forum for the Environment West Kalimantan chapter director Anton 8

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“The thing is that once the sector formalised, all gold produced from this sector should be sold to the Indonesian Central Bank. The bank should see this opportunity to increase the national gold reserves and partly sell it to the market,” says Ismawati.

Aside from the economic impact, widespread gold mining activities have also caused pollution and environmental destruction, as mercury is often used to leach gold from ores.

A joint study titled Global Mercury Project by the Global Environment Facility and the United Nations found that mercury in fish in Central Kalimantan around an ASGM site ranged from 0.09 up to 1.6 parts per million (ppm). This, along with several studies conducted throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, found high mercury concentration in the rivers, soil, and fish all across Indonesia, including Java and Sulawesi. The studies also concluded that mercury presence was indeed negatively affecting the health of the miners and the nearby communities.

A BaliFokus study in several ASGM hotspots found mercury in the air also considerably high, ranging from 20 nanograms per cubic metre up to 55,000. It also found mercury in the food chain, namely in rice and fish, risking the downstream populationand nearby community’s health.

Mercury in water and sediment in several ASGM sites ranged from 0.6 ppm up to 4 ppm, which is 600 to 3,000 times higher than what the World Health Organisation deems safe.

Mercury can cause direct or indirect intoxication, depending on personal sensitivity and susceptibility.

Miners mix the mercury into the water and squat all day long to extract gold in an abandoned ASGM hotspots. (Photo by BaliFokus)

Many of the diseases that occur due to mercury intoxication are neural deficientrelated diseases. If mercury has been deposited into the body of a pregnant

Heru Nainggolan is a Jakarta-based freelance writer and journalist that's been covering a variety of issues since 2011.

woman, the foetus is at risk of birth defects and malformation. If a child is exposed to mercury at birth, it may spawn neural deformity later in life. This deformity comes gradually and increases with the age of the child.

Neural deformity can also affect adults that have direct contact with mercury, especially those that consume food or water that’s been contaminated. One of the worst things about diseases related to mercury is that – except for some skin disorders on people that have a hypersensitivity – some can take 10 years before clinical symptoms even appear, and will inevitably worsen as time goes by.

High blood pressures, upper pulmonary disease, heart disease and strokes, nervous system disorders, skin diseases, and digestive disorders are the top five mercury-related diseases.

In the case of mercury poisoning, the local health workers do not understand the symptoms, and consider the illness a strange disease and tell them to go home. On the way home, some of them die helplessly.

According to Widjaya, the risk of people getting poisoned by mercury is extremely high in places where illegal gold mining is rampant. This is plainly due to irresponsible mining practices. “In land mines, illegal miners create holes and tunnels and they use mercury. The same thing happens in rivers and riverbeds.

In results [sic], all residue will flow to rivers in which people still depend on for livelihoods,” he says. It’s common to see river streams in Kalimantan bearing traces of gold mining with muddy and brownish water.

Unfortunately, local health centres often failed to associate the extreme or severe cases of these diseases with mercury exposure from gold mining and extraction activities, Ismawati says. “Health services are not available on the site, and it might take more than three hours to get to the closest health centres ... Moreover, in the case of mercury poisoning, the local health workers do not understand the symptoms, and consider the illness a strange disease and tell them to go home. On the way home, some of them die helplessly,” she explains.

A miner pours mercury on top of a sluice box on the dredging platform in the middle of a river, Central Kalimantan. (Photo by BaliFokus)

Unlicensed mining also often leads to accidents and deaths. “The main problem is that these local mines are controlled by financiers and common people only serve as workers … Safety aspects gets thrown out of the window, which causes accidents,” Widjaya says.

In January, an illegal gold mine in Boma cave in the Bengkayang district of West Kalimantan collapsed, killing eight people.

Another illegal gold mine collapsed in Bengkayang district in October last year, killing 18 workers.

“There is no official data on how many miners die in the mining sites but the leaders of the illegal mining groups would have known it well because they have to send the bodies [of their workers] back to the villages and send the condolence money to the victims’ families,” Ismawati speculates.

Looking ahead, Widjaya argues that cracking down on illegal mining activities would not be efficient without the Government educating its people.

“So far, the approach [to tackle this problem] is only by police raids. This strategy results in resistance from miners because this is their livelihood,” he says.

Consequently, former deputy environment minister Masnellyarti Hilman proposed that regional administrations should provide technical assistance and permits to illegal miners who meet the requirements, then ban the use of mercury in gold mining.

Such a ban could take effect in 2018, in line with the Minamata Convention.

“It would be better for regional administrations to legalise this activity.

Besides obtaining income from gold mining, the Government will not be burdened by costs to restore former mines,” she told The Jakarta Post.

All artisanal and small-scale gold miners extract gold using mercury. Mercury stays behind and contaminates the environment and the food chain. (Photo by BaliFokus)

According to Ismawati, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has already issued a National Action Plan to eliminate mercury in ASGM and improve the ASGM sector in Indonesia as mandated by the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

The Ministry of Trade has also issued a Ministry Regulation (No.75/2014) to ban mercury imports, trade, and use in gold mining activities. “Several local governments also already issued relevant regulations but enforcement is still far away,” says Ismawati. issue 144 indonesia expat

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EXPAT BUSINESS BUSINESS PROFILE

TAUZIA

Indonesian-Born Hotel Brands and Management

By Angela Richardson

What drove you to become an entrepreneur after having worked at Accor for so many years? What is it like being an entrepreneur in Indonesia?

I didn’t like the idea of retirement and I was over 50 at the time. I wanted freedom to be creative. In large corporations, the more senior you are, the better your package, which is something you become more and more concerned about – rather than your freedom. I didn’t want to be constrained by the system.

Being an entrepreneur in Indonesia is the same as anywhere else in the world. You need to be daring and have the courage to start from zero. Working for someone else you are like a bird in a cage – fed and watered and comfortable, but stuck.

If you’re outside the cage, you’re free to discover your own world, but you have to find your own food, which I preferred to do.

Let’s talk about your hotel brands: Harris, Pop! and Yello Hotels. What is the difference between these brand concepts?

First, we had Harris, which was a 3-3.5 star investment with five-star service.

My aim was that all my employees would be confident and efficient; if your staff are confident, the customer will ultimately be happy.

TAUZIA Hotel Management is best known for its four-star Harris Hotel, as well as budget hotel Pop!, and next month will see the opening of its first ‘netizen’ hotel, Yello. Born and raised by French entrepreneur Marc Steinmeyer, his vision is to export his Indonesian-born brands to other Asian countries.

Why did you choose Indonesia as the base of TAUZIA Hotel Management when it was born in the year 2001?

Previously I was with Accor as CEO for the region in China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia. I left Accor in 2001 to set up my own company in Indonesia.

I was quite aware of the region and I had two options to venture into to start a big domestic network. In 2001 there was a big hospitality rush to China and as I like to go the opposite way of people, I crossed China off the list. Then I had the choice of

India or Indonesia, but I was concerned about unpredictability of acquiring land rights in India, which can take years sometimes. In Indonesia, the downside at the time was that the country was off the economic radar, but I thought this was an interesting point and I decided to see this as a positive. It was the new era of Indonesia – democracy was on the rise – and due to a large percentage of the population being below 35 years of age, and I saw this as a huge potential.

I felt there was a big market for a local budget hotel, so I started Pop! Hotel.

Budget hotels look simple but are even more complex than four-star hotels.

The lower the star, the more there is a transfer of responsibility to the corporate office. In five-star hotels, 90 percent of the responsibility is with the hotel itself.

With budget hotels, 80 percent is with the corporate office.

To fill the gap between Harris, the 4-star hotel, and Pop!, the budget hotel, I created Yello. The first hotel will be opened this July, with 12 hotels in construction. I believe people buy products due to the image that the product carries, which applies for hotels. My target is under 30 year-olds, and I see how Indonesians are technology addicts, so this hotel will be focused on this. I call it the ‘netizen’ hotel.

My dream will be for guests to be able to download their own television content

and music and include gaming in the rooms as well.

Where did the idea for the iconic green and orange theme of Harris Hotels come from?

Orange is a positive and energetic colour and we wanted to revisit the ‘60s. Green is not the main colour, but we needed to find the balance. If orange is the yang, then green is the yin.

You must have around 100 hotels across Indonesia now. Where are your key areas and where are you developing?

Yes, we have 110 hotels. Initially we focus on the quality of the relationship with the owners. Out of 110 hotels, we have only 30–40 owners. We focused on Jakarta, Bali, Surabaya and Java at the beginning and slowly, step-by-step, we went beyond this with the owners we already worked with. With this system, there is more understanding and less cultural borders.

We have developed into Kalimantan but not in Eastern Indonesia.

Where in Kalimantan do you have hotels? What kind of hospitality industry development are you seeing in this particular region?

We have Harris Hotels in Balikpapan, Banjarmasin and Pontianak, with Samarinda opening next year. Indonesia is used to making its money from commodities, which ultimately has a shelf life and expiration date, and relying on commodities is not sustainable. The consequence of this is that those people who have made a lot of money out of commodities have had the time to shift to the property business.

Indonesia’s growing middle class, a majority population below 35 years of age, and budget airlines are spurring a local travel trend at the moment. Do you foresee this as further growing?

The trend will continue, but in the hospitality business over the last 5–6 years, there has been a tsunami of budget hotels. I think from this overexcitement of the budget hotel will start to go down.

There are too many brands. The market will still grow, but the dream of the owners or developers in terms of how quick the return on investment (ROI) is was a bit

BUSINESS SNIPPETS

Indonesians on a budget this Ramadhan The Muslim month of Ramadhan – which runs from mid-June – will see more thrifty shoppers due to widespread job losses, a spike in inflation and lower earnings from commodities.

The unseasonable thriftiness of Indonesia's 250 million inhabitants, who usually spend US$500 billion a year on goods and services, is another obstacle in the way of President Joko Widodo's promise to lift economic growth to 7 percent.

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Because private consumption accounts for more than half of the gross domestic product, even a slight slowdown in spending has an impact on overall growth, which has slipped into its most sluggish pace since 2009, with consumption at a four-year low of 5 percent in the first quarter.

To stimulate demand, the government is considering raising the income tax threshold and the central bank plans to relax rules on lending, including mortgages

of overexcited because the land is too expensive, the costs are increasing, so the profitability ROI cannot be as good as you were dreaming about, unless you have an exceptional location.

You’re an advocate for bettering people’s lives. Tell us how you do this through your company.

I think Harris has the responsibility to develop the awareness about healthy living to all our customers. From a marketing point of view, we should fight like hell to educate people about eating well, starting with our own employees then educating customers.

We also promote the arts in Indonesia through our brands. In Harris, we focus on photography and in Yello we will be focusing on street art, providing platforms for artists to display their work for everyone to see. We run a lot of competitions and will continue to do so to provide photographers and artists a chance.

Many people living in Bali are not happy with the massive scale of new hotels popping up everywhere. What do you think the real problem is here? Does supply overcome demand now in Bali?

Yes, there is an oversupply. The Government is busy with many other things. I think banks can play a role, because if they’re stricter on giving loans, this can slow down development. When money is too easy, this can be dangerous.

Until 2010, the scars of 1998’s economic crisis still remained, and from 2010 we saw a healthy investment. From 2015, we’ve started to become over-confident and have forgotten the crisis of 1998. So now there will be some cleaning; bankruptcies, sales, but some people will survive. I think we will survive, however there will be some damage.

Can you tell us how Pop! Hotel utilizes solar power and reduces the consumption of paper and plastic? What else are TAUZIA and its brands doing to be environmentally responsible in these modern times?

We are doing as much as we can do at our level – it’s not easy to build an eco-friendly hotel in Indonesia, as the Government does not subsidize like they do in many foreign

countries. Here, each time you try to do something that is environmentally friendly, you pay double the price. Nevertheless, we have buildings that reduce the heat from outside to inside. We also use solar panels to heat the water in the hotels and have proper water treatment systems. We don’t reach 100 percent because it is difficult to convince some of the hotel owners to adapt this method due to costs, but we never give up to fight for what we believe.

In the hotel we raise awareness about the environment to our customers. I believe the rubbish problem is a disaster and we have to educate our customers about this.

People can also bring their used batteries to all our Pop! Hotels for recycling.

What is your company doing to continue to keep on top of changing trends in the hospitality industry?

We were the first ones to charge a nett rate at Harris, as well as charging for room only without breakfast. We do our best to think ‘out of the box’ – to be daring – but it’s not easy to keep up because people are very conservative. We want to create trends and not follow them.

And finally, what is your vision for the future – both personally and professionally?

Professionally it’s easy – I wish to expand our Indonesian-born brands to Asia. In the backdrop there may be a French flag, but the main mast is Indonesian. We see a lot of foreign hotel brands in Indonesia, but if we can be the first exporter of Indonesian hotels, I would be very proud. That’s my mission.

Personally, it’s the question of how I pass the baton to other people to share my knowledge and wisdom. I prefer to remain a good advisor and mentor in the future so that I am not running the company anymore. If I have energy, I would like to fight for the environment. I’m so sick of seeing what’s happening in the world in terms of the environment, so I would like to have enough spare time to focus on this.

To get in touch, please e-mail: yosua@tauzia.com

and auto loans. But, with inflation rising and the Rupiah at a 17-year low versus the dollar, cutting interest rates isn't an obvious remedy.

Consumer lending has recovered a little after sinking to an eight-year low last September, but is still only growing slowly.

Sales of cars and motorbikes dropped by 16.3 percent and 21.5 percent, respectively, in January-April from a year earlier, and in the first five months of 2015, sales-tax collection was down 6.1 percent. issue 144 indonesia expat

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EXPAT BUSINESS MEET THE EXPAT

…the bottom line is people and the environment, then profits. needs and how to train community people to be able to voice those needs. It was a very exciting time because there was lots of change going on.

What is social entrepreneurship?

Social entrepreneurship is something I’m really interested in. It’s like creating enterprise, but what’s really important is that the bottom line is people and the environment, then profits. Not that profit is what drives everything. A social enterprise needs to be profitable, but not at the expense of the community or the environment. I became interested at how business could become a driver of change instead of the big baddie.

Lorna dowson-collins. photo by david metcalf

Business as a Driver of Change

Meet Lorna Dowson-Collins Lorna Dowson-Collins is Owner of Kalimantan Tour Destinations, an eco-tourism company based in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan. She has been involved in various sustainable community development projects in Kalimantan over the years, including REDD, USAID and AusAID before embarking on her own social enterprise, Kalimantan Tour Destinations. We talk to her about her passion for Kalimantan and social entrepreneurship.

By Angela Richardson

How long have you been living in Indonesia?

I first came to Indonesia in 1968 and I grew up here. I was a JIS student. I went back to the UK for 20 years, went to University and got married, but the whole time I was in the UK, I missed Indonesia.

I would go back and do consultancy work on forest, climate and community empowerment and then finally I had a big life change in 2003, allowing me to return to Indonesia.

Did you always love Kalimantan?

The first time I went to Kalimantan in the late ‘80s I didn’t like it! I was raised in Java, which was all about the rice fields, mountains, refinement and beauty, and the first time I went to Kalimantan, it was hot and there was nothing there. I hadn’t gone to the forest yet – I was just in Palangkaraya – and I thought, there’s nothing here! I had a friend working on a development project, which I got involved in and I started to enjoy the Dayaks and their way of life more and more.

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Tell us about ‘bottom-up planning’ and how you brought it to Kalimantan?

I was working with the local communities so that they could identify what their needs were and then articulate that to government authorities enabling them to listen to the community. What often happens is the Government sends out trees to villages to plant which are not suitable for the area – not understanding the real needs of the local people. We turned it round so the local people began to identify what it was they needed to progress and articulate this.

This was the start of bottom-up planning in Kalimantan.

You previously worked with the World Bank on the Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Mandiri Perdesaan. Tell us about this project.

This was one of their incredibly successful programmes. I helped with designing some of the training programmes that would train facilitators so that they would know how to facilitate working with the community to really begin to identify the

How and why did you start your company, Kalimantan Tour Destinations (KTD)?

With my partner Gaye Thavisin, we entered a competition in the Netherlands in 2006 called Business in Development Challenge, with over 1,600 participants worldwide, and we were one of the winners! We won some money, which was enough to set up our company, and I strongly believe it was the business plan that we created during this competition that prepared us for everything we experienced while setting up and running the company.

The whole idea was that we would have a river cruise for guests to experience the wonderful culture and nature that Central Kalimantan has to offer. We work with local communities to ask them what they would do to host guests at their village and how they would like to do that.

What changes in the area have you noticed through your social enterprise?

Sangar, which are the local dance groups, were dying off as tradition started to fade, but we were able to get young kids relearning the dances, as they are performed for our guests on every trip.

The bone houses also started to be preserved as we pay a fee to families who keep them. We use canoes from the local villagers, renting directly from them rather than buying our own. The villagers were able to make money directly from our business and every year we negotiate new prices with them, so there is never any haggling.

What is the most important message you try to convey to the Government through KTD? People come to Kalimantan to see nature, which is becoming harder and harder to find in the world. Palangkaraya is so accessible and we tell the Government that they have such an asset if they keep the forest intact.

What factors are you seeing influence the dying off of Dayak traditions and beliefs?

The idea of getting to a Dayak heaven is really expensive, as seen in their extravagant funeral ceremonies, whereas a Muslim or a Christian heaven is much cheaper, which has led to the culture disappearing.

In your experience, what happens when the Dayak people are given ownership of forestland in Kalimantan?

It depends in which area. In the part of Kalimantan that we were in, close to the city, a lot of the talk was that if we give the rights to the Dayaks to be the caretakers of the land, they will look after it, but actually what was happening was that once they got rights to the forest, they were looking for buyers to sell the land and make money.

That kind of sense of looking after the land has been eroded. The Dayaks would say, “Since the 1970s, outsiders have come in and taken everything from our land, and we have just stood by. If we don’t take something, then we’re not going to get anything.”

When I was with Indonesian Forest and Climate Strategy (IFACS) with US Aid as Kalimantan Advisor, I was taken to West Kalimantan, where the outlook was really quite different. In Gunung Palung, wanting to look after the land and the jungle was still very much a part of their culture and they had very sustainable farming ways.

Is President Jokowi doing anything to protect the forests of Indonesia?

Jokowi has announced the Merauke Integrated Food & Energy Estate (MIFEE), where he wants 1.2 million hectares of rice fields developed within three years. He’s not looking at the suitability of land, which most experts say will be just like the Mega Rice Project, Suharto’s failed project in Kalimantan, where 1 million hectares of peatland were cleared to make way for rice, which was unable to grow in the region.

A weak leader thinks that if he makes decisions like this, it makes him sound strong and proactive, where actually it’s likely going to be a huge disaster.

What does the future have in store for you?

I would like to pass on to others how to create a future through enterprise. You can be in control through business planning and looking at the resources available to you, providing good customer service – that’s what I like to spread to others.

I want people to understand that through having a clear vision and an awareness of who’s there to help will make things better.

Thank you, Lorna.

To get in touch, e-mail: lornadc@gmail.com

issue 144 indonesia expat

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EXPAT LIFESTYLE

FOOD & DRINK Our Clandestine Critic has dined all over the world, everywhere from threeMichelin starred restaurants in Monaco to street stalls in Shanghai – so this discerning palate has pedigree. The quest for truth and the elimination of mediocrity in Indonesia’s emerging dining scene is finally here!

The Clandestine Critic

Social Climber Our expert epicure continues an undercover operation to bring you the truth about Jakarta’s dining scene. No spoon is left unturned in the quest for honest, balanced reviews, from longestablished favourites to the hottest new tables in town.

This month, young crowd magnet Social House

G

astro geeks everywhere will have noticed the recent trend towards a more relaxed, casual approach to dining. Escoffier may well be turning in his grave at the thought of Jason Atherton’s Pollen Street Social in London, or the speakeasystyle eateries of today’s Manhattan. No starched linens, no trolley service, no waiters in tails. A restaurant is no longer a formal beacon of good cuisine. It is a meeting place.

A co-opted office. A concept: eat, yes – but socialise too.

Social House, darling of cool-kid restaurant group Ismaya, is Indonesia’s answer to the social-eating scene. A hipster joint like this wouldn’t be caught dead in a mall in New York, but this is Asia, so the east wing of Grand Indonesia is a fitting location. Trekking your way through the shops makes for a slightly less-than-glamourous entrance, but once in you are rewarded with an open and welcoming space. The pale wooden décor is offset by trees and bits of shrubbery bedecked with fairy lights. In true social style, the space is sectioned into functional areas: there are private rooms, a bar, a raised dining area and even a wine shop (with decent choice and average prices).

As all civilised socialising should, we began in the bar.

There is an extensive list of particularly imaginative, if not always tempting, cocktails. I always think anyone who needs to dress their alcohol up as dessert (vodka crème brûlée, anyone?) doesn’t actually like drinking, and therefore probably shouldn’t. The wines by the glass, though lopsided with four reds and two whites, were reasonable quality and adequately priced. But since they have a wine shop, they could afford to add a few more whites to the list at least. We sampled a classic Californian, Robert Mondavi’s Woodbridge Cabernet Sauvignon at Rp.104,000, which was very agreeable, and through the course of dinner, both whites on the list, Alexis Lichine Sauvignon Blanc (Rp.85,000) and Domaine Chandon Chardonnay (Rp.144,000), which were fine.

Moving into the buzzing dining area, we saw almost every table was full, largely of groups of friends, chatting, laughing and generally making merry. So far, so social.

spiced, rich Malaysian sauce perfect for scooping up with that flaky, pastry-like bread. Successful.

Have conviction in your cooking and in your diners’ tastes, pick what you’re good at, and leave globe-trotting gastronomy to the hotel buffets.

If the mission here is to simply provide a place for the Jakaterati to have a moderate amount of chilled fun in funky surroundings – job done. But to truly emulate Atherton and co.’s Michelin-starred international socialdining successes, this place will need to impress with more than just atmosphere. The quality of the food, and the service, are key.

Alas dear readers, therein lies the rub. Because unfortunately Social House couldn’t help itself. Like a kid in a sweet shop, it just had to go for that allencompassing catch-all of a menu, ‘international’, or as I like to call it, ‘indecisive’. Here, the food concept ranges from sushi, sashimi, noodles, fajitas, pizzas and pastas to the ubiquitous steak.

Restaurateurs of Indonesia: why, why, why, must we try to please everyone? You know as well as I do it’s impossible anyway. Yes, you’re located in a mall with a great variety of taste buds with fat wallets walking around in it. But that doesn’t mean you can successfully cater to them all. Have conviction in your cooking and in your diners’ tastes, pick what you’re good at, and leave globe-trotting gastronomy to the hotel buffets.

Still. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. So we did – and in part, we were pleasantly surprised.

Alongside this was a tuna maguro tataki with crispy garlic and ponzu sauce at Rp.75,000. The portions are not large, but the fish was convincingly fresh (though of course, not that spankingly, just-off-the-boat fresh you get in Japan), and the ponzu was tasty enough.

Finally, ‘fresh’ spring rolls with shrimp, chicken, egg and vegetables (Rp.69,000) were a little boring and under-loved.

It just goes to show that trying to do too many cuisines under one roof is eventually going to produce some losers.

For something more substantial, we split the Wagyu beef burger with Brie, Emmental, eggplant, rocket, sundried tomato, Social House special sauce and fries. The burger patty itself was actually juicy, though the onion rings could have been crispier. Overall this was not a disappointment at Rp.165,000.

What was a let-down was the service. Disorganised, forgetful, and just a bit too casual (even for the social-dining concept), overall the team came off as essentially inept, albeit friendly. Like lots of places in Jakarta now, their hiring policy is evidently based on the coolness of your haircut rather than any sort of ability to get the job done.

I don’t need to restate that I prefer my steak without a side of sushi. But since nothing will change the sheer breadth of this menu’s dithering, we’ll put that issue aside, because Social House does have its good points. Yes, there are improvements to be made in the kitchen, and most certainly to the service, but all in all, I admit I would go back – most likely with a group of friends, and an emphasis on conversation rather than consumption. After all, even I have been known to socialise.

To whet our whistles on this international gourmetgallop, we started with ‘small plates’ from a couple of culinary canons. First up, crispy roti prata with thick seafood curry dip (Rp.69,000) was both an original idea and, frankly, quite moreish. The ‘dip’ was a medium-

Social House Restaurant & Bar Grand Indonesia East Mall 1st Floor Jl. M. H. Thamrin, No. 1, Jakarta 10320 Phone: (+62) 21 2358 1818 Web: www.ismaya.com/socialhouse

Food Drinks Service Total

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Rp.374,000 Rp.437,000 10% Rp.941,000 (inc. taxes) for two

EXPAT LIFESTYLE

TRAVEL

Sampling betel nut in Kanarakan Village

Kesi, the rescued and rehabilitated orangutan with one hand on Bapalas Island in Central Kalimantan

Cruising on a Borneo River There is a special feeling that Borneo invokes. There really is no other experience that comes close to cruising on a tranquil river in Central Kalimantan surrounded by lush peat rainforest while watching rehabilitated orangutans frolicking in nature reserves.

Lunch is served on the Rahai'i Pangun

Text and photos by Angela Richardson

I

nspired by the virtually untapped tourism potential of Central Kalimantan, two British ladies, Gaye Thavisin and Lorna Dowson-Collins, converted a traditional Kalimantan riverboat known as a rangkan into the comfortable cruise boat we now know as the Rahai’i Pangun. Their venture brought the first jungle cruise to the Rangun River in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan.

Ecotourism is at the heart of Kalimantan Tour Destinations. This social enterprise is a way of protecting the environment and creating alternative livelihoods in the region.

Through this river cruise, they are able to demonstrate that business can be a vehicle to support development problems by demonstrating there is a different value for the forest, while supporting local inhabitants of the region.

Our journey onboard the Rahai’i Pangun began at 8.30am when we were picked up from our local hotel in Palangkaraya and brought by car to the river harbour. Here you can see how the river is a source of life to so many living along its riverbed; canoes with engines traverse up and down its waters, locals fish, bathe and find their livelihoods here.

Stepping onboard the Rahai’i Pangun, you feel instantly rejuvenated. It is a floating marvel with five bedrooms, an open-air dining area and living room with a large observation deck. All rooms are airconditioned with en-suite bathrooms, and although not five-star luxury, the rooms are certainly comfortable.

The boat departed from the harbour at 9am and we began cruising upstream on the Rangun River. The first half hour or so we passed through villages and fishing boats with friendly locals waving at us.

Then the forest engulfed us and after a couple of hours, we reached the island of Kaja, a 25-hectare sanctuary where rehabilitated orangutans live, still fed by rangers watching over them on the opposite side of the river. The sight of three furry, orange friends hanging out in the trees was breathtaking – but there were many more orangutan encounters to follow over the next couple of days.

As we continued upriver, the sights and sounds of rich, forest wildlife, complete with hornbills flying overhead, were a sensory delight. But every now and then we would pass an illegal gold-miner, working on mobile gold-sifting units along the river, expelling smoke and loud noises from their engines. Our guide told us the river water is brown due to these illegal miners, churning up silt all along the river. “I will take you where the river is black tomorrow – that is the real colour of the river,” he said.

A delicious lunch was served on the boat before we stopped at Kanarakan – a traditional Dayak village. Children welcomed us curiously and we were given a traditional Dayak welcome ritual to cleanse our spirits, ensuring no harm would come to us during our visit in their village. I must admit, I fell in love with the children, and walked through the village with a chain of girls holding my hands the entire length of the tour.

“As we continued upriver, the sights and sounds of rich, forest wildlife, complete with hornbills flying overhead, were a sensory delight.”

One of the highlights of visiting this village was sampling betel nut, the region’s equivalent to South America’s coca leaves.

The taste is foul and bitter, but the kick you get rivals that of coffee. It’s no wonder villagers chew the nut throughout the day, resulting in darkened gums and teeth.

After a couple of very insightful hours spent in the village, we returned to the boat and a delicious dinner was served as we continued on upstream. The food onboard is certainly a highlight of this weekend – fresh and sourced locally, with the ability to cater to different dietary requirements.

The next morning, we departed on smaller boats at 7am to an island surrounded by black water. Cruising through thick, dense jungle on either side, we felt reassured that there was still hope in the world. With these

Bapalas Island is a 14-hectare national park home to around 25 rehabilitated orangutans.

One in particular caught my attention, whose name is Kesi. She was missing one hand. It turns out she was rescued from a palm oil plantation, where the plantation manager mutilated her.

The Rahai'i Pangun

Invited into one of the villager’s homes to sample local coffee, it was clear that this social enterprise puts the locals first and foremost. After every visit, the local representative is given a receipt, thus earning them a livelihood from hosting and entertaining tourists. Ecotourism at its finest.

canoes-like boats, we were able to get much closer to the orangutans on Kaja Island, this time spotting seven in total; relaxing, grooming and playing with one another, quite oblivious to our curious eyes.

After lunch, back on the Rahai’i Pangun, we fell into a gentle nap on the deck on the comfortable sofas to the sound of the soft breeze blowing through the jungle leaves.

Feeling rejuvenated, we hopped on another, larger canoe complete with a canopy and cushions – all the local villagers’ initiative – to Bapalas Island, another reserve, where 10 orangutans were hanging out.

KALIMANTAN

Palangkaraya

JAVA

Fast Facts Country Province Capital

Indonesia Central Kalimantan Palangkaraya

Population Land size

2,368,654 (2014) 153,564.5 km2

How to get there Daily flights with Garuda Indonesia and Lion Air to Palangkaraya. To catch the river cruise with Kalimantan Tour Destinations, you can either fly in on a Friday night or take the first flight with Garuda on Saturday morning, which gets you in at 7.30am What to bring Long trousers, jumper, sun block, hat, mosquito repellant, camera, a good book

50 percent of rescued orangutans in the region are found on palm oil plantations, going astray when wondering into these areas as they continue to encroach on the orangutan’s natural habitats. Plantation workers are often frightened of the creatures that they consider pests and order their staff to kill on sight.

Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) work hard in the region to rescue and rehabilitate these beautiful animals. Their sanctuary in Palangkaraya has a capacity of 500, currently over capacity with 600.

The rehabilitated orangutans live on Kaja or Bapalas Island until they are ready to be taken individually by helicopter to Bukit Petikap in North Kalimantan, a region where ancient rainforest is still intact and they will hopefully find a forever home.

Seeing these stunning animals in the wild, albeit rehabilitated and protected by rangers, is both a hopeful sight and one with a poignant reminder – that our continued development threatens their survival. Participating in a sustainable social and environmental enterprise like Kalimantan Tour Destinations is a responsible way of seeing the orangutans up-close, while giving back to the people and ensuring traditional cultures in the area are kept for many more generations to follow. issue 144 indonesia expat

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EXPAT LIFESTYLE

CULTURE

Photo By David Metcalf

Going, Going, Gone

In Search of the Ultimate Longhouse Along with blowpipes, traditional tattooing, mastery of plaiting crafts, canoe-building and the custom of wearing huge bunches of metal earrings to elongate earlobes, the longhouse is now beginning to disappear.

Photo B

y David M

etc alf

By Bill Dalton

I

hoped the boatman knew where he was going.

Using mangrove trees, mud banks, stumps, and other natural features as markers, he navigated with the same confidence that I would walk to the corner minimarket on Bali. This was comforting because I could never find my way out of here.

detail including scales and feathers. There are even carved lessons in sex education.

I felt safe, as if sealed away in a cocoon.

I had only a week – from start to finish – to see a longhouse.

Most of the native Dayak people of Kalimantan, almost half the territory’s population, still live deep inland along the banks of rivers and tributaries.

One narrow longhouse door faces east, in honour of the sunrise and its association with life. Interior partitions separate family groups; distant relatives may live at the other end of the building. Floor slats bounced and slapped as people moved around and worked. A loft upstairs is used for storing rice, baskets, stacks of woven mats, fishing nets and firewood.

I took a longbot (longboat) from Samarinda up the Mahakam River in East Kalimantan with more than just the usual baggage. I was also burdened with an excess number of preconceptions.

Mind you, there was no lack of preparation, which was turning out to have been the fun part. I had begun my course of anti-malarial pills a week before. As there are no banks or moneychangers in the interior, I had collected bundles of rupiah in small denominations. A traveller had told me that the head of a longhouse appreciates gifts like sunglasses, western t-shirts, coffee, cigarettes, sugar, salt, and flashlight batteries. Pencils, pens and notepads go over big with the kids.

As a courtesy, I removed my shoes, climbed up the ladder and entered. Looking around me, it was obvious that the spirit of cooperation among relatives and between longhouse members was very close. While their parents were away in the fields and gardens, old women looked after the children and did the domestic chores. Old men sat around gossiping, smoking, repairing fishing and farming implements. Children played on the building’s long veranda and down in the shallows of the river.

All these, and more, I carried. Later I was to learn that the Dayak’s kindness and hospitality are overwhelming, and I had no use for these items. Even minor government officials in remote areas were unexpectedly helpful. Pak Udin, downriver at Muara Muntai, even introduced me to a family who put me up, fed and entertained me.

Collaborative Habitation The most salient feature of Dayak society, longhouses (lamin) are ridge-roofed structures that can reach up to 150 metres long and 9-18 metres wide. Several longhouses, each with 50 or more families and as many as 200 doors, may make up a Dayak village. Villagers, working cooperatively, can erect a new one in less than a week.

Due to rapid tropical decomposition, lamin usually don’t last more than 15 years.

The longboat is specially designed for river travel, decorated with painted bloodshot eyes to guide us safely through treacherous waters. During heavy rains, the river could double in size within hours. We tried negotiating several branches of the river in order to reach untouched longhouses, but turned back because of strong currents.

The skies were darkening; the boatman speeded up. Beyond Tanjung Isui, my heart quickened as we rounded a bend and I saw my first working longhouse in Mancong village. We pulled ashore; our boat squeezing in amongst others nestled like pick-up sticks along the embankment. I scurried up the steep, muddy path and the villagers led me to an old longhouse beside a courtyard of carved wooden posts and statues. Although this was known as a ‘tourist longhouse’, it sure looked like the real thing to me.

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A covered veranda, the communal living area, runs the full length of the building, usually facing the river. This space is used for loafing, child care, visiting, repairing implements, and hanging fish traps, boat paddles, weapons, and other articles of daily use. Clothes are hung out to dry here.

Most longhouses are raised one to three metres off the ground on wooden piles, which are easier to replace than rotting floorboards. Kitchen scraps are pushed through the floorboards to feed pigs and chickens foraging underneath.

The current of air below the structure reduces vermin and prevents dry rot. Stilt construction also provides protection against snakes, floods and – in former times – enemies.

Longhouses evolved in a time of constant intertribal warfare.

Dayak longhouse architecture and craftsmanship can be magnificent, with many parts of the structure – doorframes, galleries, posts – decoratively carved. Teakwood railings are fashioned into dragons, snakes, demons, or birds, with fine

It was raining now. I staked a place on a mat in one corner of the veranda. The newcomers were brought over-sweet hot tea and biscuits. I could see high up in the rafters a few blackened old baskets. I imagined they contained skulls – still revered totemic objects, thought this wasn’t likely.

Old skulls had been turned into the authorities long ago.

At nightfall, dinner was served, the usual Indonesian fare of omelettes, nasi goreng, curry soup and banana fritters.

Dutifully, silently, a long line of children, no older than six or seven, carried the pots, bowls and plates to a large woven mat. They cleared the after-dinner dishes away just as efficiently and just as wordlessly.

Near midnight, the talk subsided to barely audible whispers.

I could hear rough, flexible ladders being pulled up, keeping the building free of animals, insects and other intruders.

The air was heavy with a fecund door of a tropical rainforest and of acrid mosquito coils smoking invisibly. Completely enveloped in darkness, the screaming and clatter of cicadas and other insects was deafening. Within the huge structure, the only interior sound was that of the soft breathing of slumbering bodies around me. I felt safe, as if sealed away in a cocoon.

What will be lost when the longhouses go? A whole way of life. In the two nights I spent in the creaky old longhouse, I knew that nothing could replace the sense of community one feels inside of one. The whole building seemed to expand and contract, as if at one with the forest, indivisibly part of nature. This is a quality that a row of modern cement blockhouses with corrugated iron roofs cannot ever replicate.

EXPAT LIFESTYLE

MEET THE EXPAT Bill Dalton has been writing travel features, book reviews, interviews and guidebooks about Indonesia for more than 40 years, starting with his groundbreaking Indonesia Handbook first published in 1976.

Looking for Borneo

Meet Mark Heyward Traveller, musician, educator and author of two books on Borneo talks about life in Indonesia, his epic journey across the island and other past and future adventures.

By Bill Dalton

A

ustralian Mark Heyward is an unlikely travel writer and a jumble of contradictions. Generally reserved in nature, he becomes passionate when talking about Indonesia. Though he has lived over 20 years in the country and holds a doctorate based on research in Indonesia, he can be sharply critical of what he sees as flaws in the national psyche. The man is almost Indonesian, yet remains proud of his Tasmanian roots. He works as an international education consultant but is also a rogue musician and songwriter. Not exactly bookish, he is an avid reader and an accomplished author of two books on Indonesia.

Crazy Little Heaven (Transit Lounge Publishing 2013) is a lyrical record of Mark’s journey across Kalimantan, the lower Indonesian three quarters portion of the island of Borneo. But the book is much more than just a travel book. The story of his expedition coalesces with the author’s longer journey into the complex heart of Indonesia. His coffee table book Looking for Borneo (Creatavision Publishing 2014) is a remarkable collaboration, combining Mark’s previously published writings, the stunning photographs of David Metcalf and quirky artwork of fellow Tasmanian, Khan Wilson.

In prose and pictures, Looking For Borneo is a celebration of the island of Borneo, its forests and its people. At the same time it is a plea to preserve this very special place.

Tucked inside the back cover is a copy of Mark’s CD, titled Crazy Little Heaven, with 14 songs about life and love in Indonesia. Wearing a t-shirt and jeans, a shock of out-of-control grey hair, heavy rimmed glasses and a wry smile, Mark spoke with me recently about writing, music, life and travel in Indonesia.

Let’s start at the beginning. What brought you to Kalimantan?

Well, luck I suppose. I was a school principal in Tasmania when a chance came up to work in a small school in a mining town in East Kalimantan in 1992.

I came to Indonesia that first time looking for adventure.

Like many others, I was smitten by what I saw and felt.

I never really went home again.

What was your field of study in Kalimantan?

I studied the way people learn about culture in a crosscultural mining town. I noticed that some people seem to move easily between cultures, while others struggle.

Some seem to understand the differences and know intuitively how to deal with them. Others complain about the apparent lack of reason and the incompetence of the ‘other.’ My question was how is it that some children and adults can learn to be successful in a cross-cultural context? What are the skills, the values, the attitudes and identities that make the difference? And how can an international school help kids to learn those skills, to become what I like to call ‘interculturally literate’?

This was the basis for my doctoral research.

What is it that keeps you in Indonesia?

It began as an adventure, but over time the things that were exotic become normal. I learned the language.

I learned about the cultures and the way things are done here. And before I realised what had happened, I was in love. A marriage, a new religion, a new career and eventually a home and a family.

My question was how is it that some children and adults can learn to be successful in a cross-cultural context?

Why do you write?

Much of my professional life, my research, involves writing. But I also like to write for pleasure. I write for myself. It is by writing about life and writing about the Indonesian culture, history, politics and about my own spiritual and physical journeys in this country that I begin to understand it all. Writing is a way of ordering experience. Like painting or dance or architecture, writing is about making some meaning out of the chaos.

This act of creation – making something from nothing – is intoxicating. When I sit down to write I never know what will ultimately appear on the page. I don’t know what I am thinking until I have written it down.

You are essentially a travel writer, are you not?

My published writing is travel writing of a sort. My first book, Crazy Little Heaven takes the tale of a trek across Kalimantan as a kind of framework on which to spin a much richer yarn. The travel story becomes a bigger story; a story about the environment, religion, and social change.

And it becomes a personal story. A story of love and loss.

A story of growth in understanding. Of friendship, mateship, marriage and family. These are the things that motivate me. These are things that matter.

Travel is a way to tell that story.

And the music, where does that come from?

I grew up singing in a church choir and listening to the Beach Boys. My brother and I had a folk band. I wrote songs when I was a kid. I still do. It’s just another way of entertaining myself, of ordering things and of communicating something. My songs are ballads, little stories, snapshots of life. I try to create an image with each song, something recognisable. There must be some emotional content. And I hope the songs are entertaining. I was lucky to fall in with a bunch of very talented musicians from Lombok and Bandung. Together we made the CD. It may not be commercial but it’s authentic. The style? It’s been referred to as ‘kampung rock’.

What’s the next project for Mark Heyward?

Well, I just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

My wife and I are forever making plans. They never quite work out. I plan to continue consulting for some years.

It is important work – and it pays the bills. My two boys are in high school and that’s a project, too. Eventually I’d like to have more time to spend in Tasmania and in Lombok. My wife has a beautiful eco-friendly resort called The Studio in the hills above Senggigi. A perfect place for a writer.

So, can we expect another book?

I am working on a book on travelling through the islands of Eastern Indonesia. Nusa Tenggara is such a fascinating area. I lived in Makassar for a few years. I’ve also lived in Flores. Lombok is now my base in Indonesia. And I have done a number of trips on wooden schooners in the East.

I am writing about all this. It’s tentatively titled ‘The Glass Islands’. But my first book took 10 years to write, so don’t hold your breath!

Crazy Little Heaven and Looking for Borneo are available at Periplus (www.periplus.com) and Ganesha bookstores (www.ganeshabooksbali.com)

issue 144 indonesia expat

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Greed Is Great

I

Celebrities were among thousands of Indonesians tricked into investing in a fraudulent tissue business that offered unfeasibly large profits. The name of the tissue brand? God Is Great.

Another victim, Venus Jean, said he invested Rp.101 million and was promised a return of Rp.1 trillion over 5,000 days (13 years and 8 months). Instead, he had so far received Rp.10 million back on his investment.

magine investing a mere Rp.1 million ($75) and then getting your money back after just 41 days, as well as a daily bonus payment of Rp.200,000 for the next 1,000 days. You would collect Rp.200 million ($15,000) in under three years.

That’s what was promised by a man named Kamal Tarachand, whose company PT Bintara Eximindo started the God Is Great tissue business in November 2014. It looked like a classic Ponzi scheme, in which funds from new investors are used to pay dividends to earlier investors – although it seems no one received substantial dividends.

Asked if the promised profits were too fantastic for a tissue business, the long-haired Venus said it had appeared possible on paper. He had been attracted by the concept of advertising on tissue packs, as it was “much cheaper than traditional ads on television and billboards”. But many ads were never printed, he said, because Kamal claimed that draft advertisements had to be submitted within 10 days.

The scam was reminiscent of an old South Park episode in which so-called Underpants Gnomes (who steal underpants) outline their meaningless business model: Phase 1 – Collect underpants; Phase 2 – ?; Phase 3 – Profit. The gnomes never explain how their activity will generate profits.

Netizens showed scant sympathy for the celebrities, saying they deserved to be scammed for being greedy. “None of them used their brains – how could they expect Rp.1 million to pay a commission of Rp.200,000 per day for 1,000 days?” read one comment on detikcom online news portal.

The God Is Great scheme was equally ridiculous. Phase 1 – Buy tissues; Phase 2 – Print advertisements on packs of tissues; Phase 3 – Astronomical profits. Or more accurately: find gullible people and take their money.

The celebrities at least realised they had been conned. "Initially [Kamal] said it was not multi-level marketing,” said Rizal.

“But later the model turned out to be like that, and all these actors were also lied to and realized it.”

As a slogan on the God Is Great website says, “Who said becoming a billionaire requires hard work?” The website, which solicits new investments, was still accessible last week, whereas the Government is quick to block sites deemed harmful to the nation’s collective morality.

Police on June 3 arrested the alleged scammer, Kamal Tarachand, while he was dining at the Holiday Inn Jakarta Kemayoran in Sunter, North Jakarta. Two days later, police raided his office in nearby Kelapa Gading and seized nine boxes of evidence, mostly computers and tissues. Investigators said the scam had claimed at least 3,131 victims across several provinces over recent months.

Celebrities duped by the swindle said Kamalhad claimed to be an owner of the Bank of India and a nephew of Raam Punjabi – a famous film and soap opera producer of Indian descent.

He also boasted that his business license was issued by Jakarta Governor Basuki ‘Ahok’ Purnama. He had shown a faked photo of himself posing with ‘Ahok’ – actually one of the scam’s victims, actor Rizal Jibran, with Ahok’s face superimposed.

The God Is Great concept was to feature paid advertisements on tissue packaging – thereby generating profits from both tissue sales and advertising. Investors were told they could also advertise their own businesses on the tissue packs.

Targets were invited to invest from Rp.1 million to Rp.513 million. This would be used to pay for tissues supposedly made 18

indonesia expat issue 144

Sexy actress Nana Khairina is waiting to invite you to become a millionaire through tissues. How can that be? in a factory in Pasuruan, East Java. The retail price for a pack of 50 tissues was put at Rp.1,000 to Rp.1,350.

Among the celebrities recruited to endorse and invest in the company were soap opera actresses Novita Sari (52) and Nana Khairina (34), and actor Rizal Jibran (37). Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of them.

They were offered differing payments and returns, all too good to be true. Novita said she mortgaged her house and invested Rp.471 million because she was promised a return of Rp.200 million per day for 5,000 days.

Rizal said Kamal had promised him Rp.22 billion to endorse the business for 1,000 days but had so far paid him only Rp.5 million. Nana said she was hired as a marketing spokeswoman for the business and had been promised tens of millions of Rupiah per month.

The company’s website features a photo of Nana captioned: “Sexy actress Nana Khairina is waiting to invite you to becomea millionaire through tissues. How can that be?” Readers can then click on a link to an article on rimanews.com, in which Nana claims that people investing Rp.1 million will receive Rp.50 million to Rp.100 billion. Rimanews.com is yet to take down the nonsense article.

Rizal said Kamal had repeatedly broken his promises and refused to discuss the matter with the investors, leaving them with no option but to report him to police.

Lawyers accused Kamal of fraud under Articles 372 and 378 of the Criminal Code. They also want him charged under the 2014 Law on Commerce and the 2010 Law on Money Laundering.

The tissue company’s website, which features stock photos of a smiling, suited Caucasian male offering a handshake, claims the business has “empowered 1 million Indonesians”.

The site contains lengthy spiels boasting the company can rescue uneducated people, and even the physically disabled, from poverty and unemployment.

There are also links to newspaper articles praising the scheme.

One even says the tissues will “help the world to go green because they are environmentally friendly” and “will help the Indonesian economy”. The truth is that Kamal’s scam will only help Indonesia if it teaches the media, politicians and schools to educate people to stop believing in fantastical getrich-quick schemes.

Kenneth Yeung is a Jakarta-based editor

Yayasan Total Indonesia Foundation | Preserving Cultural Heritage in Kalimantan culture, but also to help them promote their culture to the public by marketing their products,” explains Djamhoer.

Established in 2008, Yayasan Total Indonesia (Total Indonesia Foundation) focuses on unearthing, preserving and disseminating to following generations Indonesia’s rich cultural heritage, namely handicrafts and artforms.

Stemming from Total Indonesia’s insight into disappearing traditions in the region of Kalimantan, the charity was born with the aim of preserving traditions quickly dying out in the region.

Ongoing programmes include the establishment of a conservatory for Dayak handicrafts, the sponsoring of the publishing of cultural books in English, a yearly wayang (Indonesian puppetry) festival, a yearly Melayu Kutai traditional dance and music festival, as well as supporting the Indonesian Museum Programme and the Badjo Project.

Focusing on the conservation of Dayak plaited arts Yayasan Total Indonesia works in North and East Kalimantan to preserve the tradition of plaited arts, working together with seven different ethnic groups in this region.

“The Dayak people make these beautiful plaited arts for daily activities, not for decoration,” explains Agus Djamhoer, Chairman of Yayasan Total Indonesia. He is concerned at how modernisation is causing the Dayak people to let go of their traditional wares, turning to plastic items rather than creating the complex yet beautiful plaited handicrafts they have been making for centuries. “It can take two weeks to make one handicraft. Today, it is much

In Balikpapan, the charity has a large gallery where these handicrafts are on sale to the public. Products range from woven carpets, hats and baskets to rubbish bins and wine holders – the support from the charity always ensuring items made are of use to potential buyers. In Jakarta, Yayasan Total Indonesia has a small gallery at their offices in Sudirman and the team also exhibit the handicrafts at events. Items that are no longer in stock can be ordered through their extensive catalogue. The charity also works together with local traders to market the handicrafts to members of the public. easier for them to just buy one,” he continued.

The ethnic tribes Yayasan Total Indonesia works with are significantly difficult to reach due to infrastructure and their remote locations. In the Nunukan District of North Kalimantan – where the Dayak Lundayeh and Dayak Kenyah live – it can take two days to reach these villagers, highlighting the difficulties this charity faces when transporting and training locals to reproduce their plaited arts.

our skilled artisans, and we give motivation through the promise of something in return for the Dayak people in our programme,” he explains.

Motifs represent a story and the intricacy of creating plaited arts means it can take two months to create one tikar (woven carpet).

Many people have lost the ability to create these handicrafts as they are no longer essential in daily life, and Djamhoer believes it is critical to save these artforms from disappearing. “We provide training through

In order to carry on Yayasan Total Indonesia’s support of Dayak artisans in Kalimantan, the orgainsation must help to sell and market these villagers’ handicrafts to members of the public, where they will truly be appreciated.

Money is not always a motivator or a driving force behind the Dayak people recreating these plaited arts. Djamhoer recounts an experience where they were far more interested to recreate the plaited arts in exchange for solar lamps rather than money.

In total, the Yayasan has trained around 200 artisans in Kalimantan to reproduce these beautiful plaited arts. One field officer and four senior artisans are employed to provide training. Basketry Class Training is also provided in Balikpapan to school children as an extracurricular activity to introduce this art form to the young generation. Photo By David Metcalf Photo By David Metcalf

Yayasan Total Indonesia is available to promote these handicrafts at events, where a demonstration can also be made.

Please email yayasan.ti@external.total.com for further information and to find out how you can help them preserve the beautiful Dayak culture for many more years to come.

“Our mission is not only to give the Dayak people the opportunity to preserve their

issue 144 indonesia expat

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EXPAT OUTREACH SPORTS

Pitchers Prepare to Mount the Mound in Jakarta

Antony is a freelance writer based in Jakarta.

Please send comments and suggestions to antony@the-spiceislands.com

Baseball arrives in Indonesia as the Hit Factory hopes to take the game to another level.

By Antony Sutton

T

hink of baseball and Southeast Asia and the chances are most people will suggest the Philippines as the true bastion of this oh-so American sport. And they would probably be right; the US interregnum as colonial master certainly left its mark with pitchers and mounds on the archipelago.

Baseball has made its mark in Indonesia although to a much lesser degree than its north-eastern neighbour. Weekends see the keen practising in Senayan while the nation has made ripples on the international stage with a silver and two bronze medals at the regional Southeast Asian Games between 2005 and 2011.

The Hit Factory is a Singapore-based baseball academy that is set to open its doors in Jakarta in June. They estimate 30,000 people play the game and they see an opportunity to bring their brand to the country and tap into that interest. It will be no easy task. A number of football academies, linked to big name European clubs, have found Indonesia a tough nut to crack but Anthony Bennett, head coach in Jakarta, is confident the Hit Factory has what it takes.

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“Through our market research and understanding of the demographics in the baseball and softball community in Indonesia, we are aware that there are a lot of expatriates looking for competitive baseball and softball opportunities, especially in Jakarta,” he says. “Our Singapore facility, which has been open since August 2013, has players from the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, China, Malaysia, Korea and the Philippines.”

With the academy to be launched early June, Bennett feels The Hit Factory has enough to offer everyone from keen beginner to the serious hitter. “Our programs cater to beginner, intermediate and advanced boys and girls, starting from the age of 5,” says Bennett.

Despite being a new setup, a lot of time and effort has been spent creating a positive environment where players can hone their skills with a state-of-the-art indoor facility, professional coaches with collegiate and Major League Baseball (MLB) experience and training equipment such as pitching machines, batting cages, pitching mounds and video analysis.

In addition, Bennett explains, “We wanted to build a facility for families, teams and individuals who wanted to experience the enjoyment and appreciation of baseball and softball while enhancing their skills. We want to be the place where players go when they get home from school or work or where they go in the off-season to keep in shape.”

We wanted to build a facility for families, teams and individuals who wanted to experience the enjoyment and appreciation of baseball and softball while enhancing their skills. baseball career overseas. In addition to his coaching role in Vietnam, Bennett established a physical education curriculum at the Hanoi Academy.

Coaches play an important role in the success or failure of academies and the Hit Factory are convinced they have attracted the right breed to develop a love and passion for the game and the coaches reflect the eclectic appeal of the game throughout Asia.

Reuben Eduardo has been a fixture in the Indonesian baseball scene for more than a decade and brings a wealth of experience to the startup. Nicknamed Argee, Reuben has also coached a number of national youth sides as well as boasting extensive overseas experience.

Bennett himself has spent the best part of two decades coaching the game he loves internationally in nearly 10 different countries. Originally hailing from California, he spent time in the Milwaukee Brewers organization and played in multiple independent leagues in the US before getting itchy feet and embarking on a

Natsuki Maeda comes from Japan.

Nicknamed CJ, he picked up the game while studying in the US, playing high school and college in the Los Angeles area. The left-handed pitcher also has his own academy in Japan and worked as hitting coordinator for a side in the Japan Boys League.

Overseeing operations is Owen Reid, a onetime pro who played the game in Europe and Australia. Since hanging up his glove, Reid has worked as Player Development Manager and Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for Perth Heat in the Australian Baseball League as well as strength and conditioning coach for the Baltimore Orioles in the US. Going forward, the Hit Factory is planning to send teams to compete in competitions across Asia, the Middle East, the US and Europe.

Of course no one is suggesting success will come quickly and easily to the Jakarta operation but for now it is early days and Bennett says he is looking forward to welcoming many players, young and old, old hand or newbie to the academy’s facility.

“Our facility is conveniently located in the Permata Hijau area, where our standalone, 20,000-square foot indoor facility features programmes seven days a week and throughout the entire calendar year,” Bennett says.

So there you have it. There may be no Bull Durham, but perhaps lurking somewhere out there in the gangs and kampungs of Jakarta is a Bull Tebet waiting to be discovered, waiting to slip a stick of gum in his mouth, chew and glare menacingly before sending in a sweeping curve under the lights.

Contact info Facebook: www.facebook.com/thehitfactorysg

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issue 144 indonesia expat

21

EXPAT OUTREACH WORTHY CAUSES

Words by Stephanie Brookes | Images by David Metcalf

I

sat on the wooden floor of Fery Irawan’s humble home. I held my hands out in the receiving position to accept the water blessing from one of the village elders. I felt honoured to be part of this sacred rite and, as I was situated two degrees off the equator, it was a bonus to be showered with holy, blessed water – both spiritually and physically.

“I am very committed to helping the children in this village and I want to see the programme grow and extend to other villages in Kalimantan,” said Metcalf.

“These local people are on the edge of poverty,” he said. “Their land is feeling the impacts of palm oil production and the rivers are becoming more and more polluted from the acid run-off and toxic by-products of illegal gold mining. The village chief told me the cutting down of original forests in his local area is causing issues with flooding.

The average income in the village has been drastically reduced because of these environmental factors, and impacts the local fishing industry. Often the first thing impacted is education, which is considered a luxury by many villagers.”

I was visiting Putuk Katimpun Village in Central Kalimantan and the children were eagerly awaiting my visit. I had come armed with 50 books – big, bright, colourful comics and picture books about the environment, sustainable farming practices and caring for our world in an eco-friendly way.

These books reflect the vision of GreenBooks.org. Petr Hindrich, the founder of the organisation, was with me and explained how a donor had given USD$200. Petr used this money to purchase the 50 books. Green-Books.org is an organisation providing environmental education and books to schoolchildren across Indonesia. Schools and yayasan apply for the books, and Green-Books.org runs a crowdfunding campaign to make this happen.

Wheeling the airport pull-along bag on the rickety wooden stilted platform was a tricky act. The narrow, wooden slated jetty serves as the main thoroughfare of the village. Petr bought the books all the way from Bali, where Green-Books.org is based and was very excited to be meeting the children and handing the books over in person.

Putuk Katimpun is a Dayak Ngaju village located on the Rungan River, around 15 kilometres from Palangkaraya, the main town. The access road to the village is via a rough track. You have to negotiate your way for five kilometres down a bumpy, dusty, rock-strewn road to get to the village, which often floods in the rainy season. The other way to get to the village is by boat from Palangkaraya.

There are about 600 people living in the village and this wonderful project called Ransel Buku (meaning ‘books in a backpack’) has been helping the village for 15 months now. It was at the instigation of Aini Abdul, a local Ngaju Dayak, that this programme started. Abdul is a schoolteacher by profession and was working as a tour guide on riverboats.

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indonesia expat issue 144

In the village of Katimpun, the Government provides elementary schooling, however due to some unseen circumstances, the education delivered and the teaching hours available are very limited.

Abdul was really affected by the poverty she witnessed in the poor villages she passed and wanted to do more for the children.

Abdul completed a survey, which confirmed the poor literacy levels in the village and the economical realities of most of the children never making high school. It costs USD$250 to enrol a child in three years of high school plus ongoing costs for books, uniforms and transport.

Those costs are unachievable for most of the villagers, as around 70% are fishermen and the average income is between USD$100 - $200 per month.

Abdul was determined to help the children reach a higher level of study. She held poetry nights in the town of Palangkaraya in coffee shops (a fashionable evening activity) and then would ask for donations from the group of poets and writers gathered. Sometimes she would collect USD$10 off each person, and this went a long way to funding the purchase of books and stationery. Abdul also purchased books with any extra tip money earned from her job as a tour guide and delivered them to the village on her weekends, in her backpack.

Ransel Buku is a grassroots project. It has an honorary treasurer, administrator, and Abdul at the helm. Ransel Buku now has a ‘Support a Child Programme’. Metcalf, like Abdul, has a passion and drive to spread the word about the yayasan. Metcalf is an author and a professional photographer and seized an opportunity in Jakarta in 2014. Together with Tugu Kunstkring Palais Restaurant and Gallery in Jakarta, Metcalf held a photography exhibition for one month, supported by his publisher.

A generous donor came along on the opening night, contributing USD$2,000. This went towards hiring a second teacher in another local village, Bukit Rawi.

For this charity to continue and extend its work to benefit outlying poorer villages along the rivers in Central Kalimantan, more funds are needed. Every donation goes a long way, and if you wish to sponsor a child, for USD$35 a month, this is the greatest gift you can give. School reports are regularly sent, plus ongoing student contact via postal mail delivery (there is no internet in these remote villages).

Please contact Aini Abdul by email if you wish to arrange a visit to the village, as this is a wonderful way to show support. And remember to bring a backpack.

For more information: www.green-books.org Visit Ransel Buku’s Facebook page: www.facebook. com/RanselBuku and a Go Fund Me site for donations. Please help out and visit www.gofundme. com/ranselbuku or e-mail ainiabdul@gmail.com

The Traditional Dayak Dance Emphasising Recycling

By Erma Syawal Putri

The dancers entered the stage wearing traditional Dayak attire, moving their hands beautifully.

The hornbill feathers on their heads completed their look as the symbol of Dayak culture – the natives of Borneo.

The Berasih dance is a combination of various traditional Borneo dances. In the olden days, most of the dances were performed as part of a sacred ceremony, praising the Gods as an appreciation of a good harvest or request for healing. The ancient dance has been preserved to this day, along with the traditional musical instruments. Today, these dances are usually performed to welcome guests at formal events.

Various dance movements are used to deliver the message of cleaning up in a way that both tradition and the message of the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) blend together.

The dancers begin in a circle, a common formation in Dayak dance.

The peak of the dance is when the dancers pick up different kinds of trash, with two dancers placing them in the recycling bin, while the other dancers watch. Soon enough, the other dancers do the same thing.

After another dance routine, the dancers circle around the big rubbish bin and take out the recycled goods, which have turned into creative and useful things, such as soft toys, flowers made of paper, lampshades and much more.

This dance reminds the audience, and us, that what people can do to help save the environment is to make recycling a part of our daily lives.

What’s your Dua Tangan Cukup action? Send them to letters@ indonesiaexpat.biz and we’ll share them here to inspire others to help clean up the environment and make a change!

Actions From Across The Archipelago

Petr Hindrich founder of green-books.org

In the village of Katimpun, the Government provides elementary schooling, however due to some unseen circumstances, the education delivered and the teaching hours available are very limited. The good news is the children are very enthusiastic and want to learn. About 18 months after Abdul started delivering books on weekends, she met a foreigner, David Metcalf, who changed all that quickly. He supported the setting up of Ransel Buku as a registered charity, donating his own money. Metcalf started a crowdfunding campaign and sought support for the project posted through Facebook, social media and networked through his extensive friendship network.

The crowdfunding campaign raised enough money to hire a private teacher to work fulltime in the village for one year.

tari berasih

Dua Tangan Cukup

Remote River School, Kalimantan

Stephanie is a professional travel writer and co-author of 'Indonesia Hidden Heritage'.

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Drones target tax cheats in palm oil plantations

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Indonesia sees a lack of HIV and AIDS medication

INDONESIA Above the vast forests of oil-palm and rubber trees in Sumatra and the tin mines on islands to its east, the Indonesian Government is flying unmanned aircraft to catch cheats who under report the size of their plantations or the extent of their mineral extraction.

"Mines and plantations make good profits just taking stuff from nature," said Samon Jaya, head of the tax office in South Sumatra and Bangka-Belitung islands. "But they don't pay enough tax.

This has to stop."

Out of a population of 250 million, only about 900,000 Indonesians submitted a tax return last year, and the country's tax-to-gross domestic product ratio of about 11 percent is below the Asia-Pacific region's average.

The aerial spy takes photos every five seconds that are computed into a map. Unlike the satellite images available to the Government, which are often obscured by clouds or not detailed enough, the drone images show the exact extent of the plantations and can see whether the trees are old enough to bear fruit. The data is then compared with tax returns submitted by smallholders and companies.

INDONESIA The Indonesia AIDS Coalition (IAC) has been receiving complaints about the lack of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs available to treat HIV and AIDS in the country. Antiretroviral therapy is used to suppress the HIV virus and stop the progression of the disease. In the last three years, there have been at least 10–15 cases yearly of a lack of ARV supplies in local hospitals.

Ambon and Klaten are the two current places in Indonesia with this alarming situation.

According to the IAC, the shortfall is due to errors in calculation within the Ministry of Health. Irwandy Widjaja, ARV monitoring officer in IAC, says that the Government puts

quantity before quality in handling AIDS, targeting a few thousand people to be tested and medicated, not giving enough attention to the lack of supply of ARV.

Indonesia’s first Property Agent Awards

The Government spends 300 billion Rupiah yearly on ARV with the aim of reducing the mortality rate of HIV and AIDS sufferers. The current shortage suggests that funding goes to waste, considering a pause in ARV consumption lessens the benefits of the drug. The critical situation calls for a deliberation between the Government, local hospitals and HIV and AIDs sufferers to formulate a better mechanism to prevent an ARV deficit.

Source: Indonesia AIDS Coalition

TAUZIA Hotel Management signs on as official hotel sponsor of Indonesian Rhinos Team for the Asian Rugby Championship 2015 “We’re truly excited to take part in this prestigious programme as we will be on the forefront in pushing forward the growing Indonesian rugby family and in supporting its rapid development through promotion of the game,” said Yusuf Ijsseldijk, TAUZIA’s Corporate Director of Sales & Marketing. “Furthermore, sports and a healthy lifestyle have always been in the vein of Tauzia hotels. So it seems like a perfect fit that we join in this fun ride.”

INDONESIA TAUZIA Hotel Management is proving itself an avid rugby fan with the exclusive appointment as official hotel sponsor for the Asian Rugby Championship 2015 — Division 3 East Tournament, providing accommodation for the Indonesian Rhinos as the national rugby team.

Source: Bloomberg

The team is staying at POP! Hotel BSD City – Tangerang and will be welcomed with top-notch amenities upon their check-in; from comfortable bedding to free WiFi access, cable TV to complimentary Morning Bites and a hot ‘rain’ shower – all provided to ensure the sportsmen’s comfortable stay and good night sleep.

INDONESIA For the first time in Indonesia, property agents brought home awards for their achievements. 21 main awards and nine special awards were presented by Rumah123.com last month.

With more than 458,000 prospects, approximately 4,000 properties are sold monthly through the website. Rumah123.com has agents from various property brands operating throughout Indonesia.

The 21 main awards are primarily based on major areas in Indonesia, with characteristics such as Most Popular and Most Favourite Property Agency.

Rumah123.com went beyond the general awards and appreciated the agents with nine special awards. Among these were the Young and Dangerous Award, dedicated to an outstanding new agent. Other than the trophy, winners were rewarded with certificates and prizes from sponsors.

Raetedy Refanata, the Head of Marketing Development of the website said that there has been a positive response from voters. Voting is open to the public and each nominee’s company profile and details of achievement is listed for the voters to choose from. With 2.2 million visitors each month, there were more than 10,000 voters within the 3-week voting period.

By Erma Syawal Putri

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When All About You are Losing Theirs

* Answers in the next edition!

LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT

CROSSWORD

By Eamonn Sadler

The crew of the B-24 bomber that crashed on Borneo. Survivor Dan Illerich is second from left

N

ear the end of World War II, an American B24 bomber was shot down by the Japanese over North Borneo, but seven of the brave crew managed to parachute to safety and spent the rest of the war in the dense jungle.

Borneo is the third largest and one of the least-inhabited islands in the world, where steep mountains, impossible trails, scant civilisation, vest-drenching humidity and rainy seasons that could drown a giraffe tend to dissuade even the most hardy of adventurers – so it couldn’t have been easy.

The name of the island is derived from the Sanskrit word Kalamanthana, which literally means ‘burning weather’ – the name really speaks for itself. I always thought it meant ‘ex-time’ – joke there for the Indonesian speakers among you.

Interestingly, in English, Kalimantan refers to the Indonesian part of Borneo, but in Indonesian it refers to the whole island. The area is home to tropical diseases galore and an impressive collection of snakes and ugly insects ready to bite and infect or kill anyone too slow crossing their paths – constant caution is advised. The bomber boys also probably had some vague school-day recollections of The Wild Man of Borneo, so it was surely with some trepidation that they set up camp on their first night.

Little did they know about the Dayak headhunters – if they had it is unlikely any of them would have closed their eyes even for one second that night. But, surprisingly, they needn’t have worried.

The Dayaks believed (and some people argue they still do) that taking the head of someone from a rival group and placing it on a pole in your living room could turn it into a spirit that brings good health and bountiful harvests. The purpose was never to decapitate a specific person or enemy as an act of war or vengeance. The ever-civilised British and Dutch outlawed head-hunting and brought in some good Christians to stamp it out once and for all, but it is always difficult to get the old folk

to give up their quirky habits overnight, so it probably still went on for a while. In fact I’m sure to this day the occasional grandpa still gets caught trying to slip out of his bedroom window in the dead of night with a knife tucked in his shorts, looking for an easy cure when his hip’s playing up.

The seven airmen (plus four others who crashed in the forest nearby) ended up being cared for by the Dayak – heads intact – for the remainder of the war and did not suffer so much as a crafty snick while they were sleeping in the whole time they were there. Why? Because the Dayak are not stupid. They had been living under Japanese rule for more than three years, so when the Americans appeared their first question was "Who's going to win the war?" and the verdict was universal; sooner or later the Japanese were going to get their botties smacked.

Keeping this in mind, the Dayaks didn’t want to have to explain where the obviously imported good luck charms had come from and decided to treat the airmen as respected guests. The story goes that the airmen behaved in a very modest and demure manner, too, and showed great respect for their hosts. I think I probably would have done the same thing in the circumstances.

For six months the Dayaks cared for the Americans in the mountains. They brought them food, clothing and herbal medicine and hid them from the Japanese long enough for them to be rescued. At one point, when Airman Jim Knoch was suffering a terrible malaria attack, the story goes that a Dayak woman chewed up his food for him and fed him like a baby. In contrast to concentration camps, fire bombing cities and dropping massive nuclear devices, the Dayak’s simple quest for health and crop insurance seems almost adorable. Until you find yourself walking through downtown Pontianak during a flu epidemic anyway….

Eamonn has lived and worked in Indonesia for over 20 years but doesn’t understand the country at all and now realises that he never will. He is an entrepreneur, businessman and writer, lead singer with expat band Xhibit A and the owner and operator of The Jakarta Comedy Club and The Bali Comedy Club.

IS MADE POSSIBLE BY:

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DOWN 1. Cut channel — set routine (6) 2. Residue of drink (5) 3. Small residential area (7) 5. City founder — "uncle" storyteller (5) 6. So watch (anag) (3,4) 7. Words of film etc (6) 8. Endorsement (11) 14. Bag (contents unlimited?) (7) 15. Celebration of 50th year (7) 16. Ancient Greek or Egyptian city (6) 17. Catalytic protein (6) 19. Emblem showing membership etc (5) 21. Chef's hat (5)

ACROSS 1. The naked rider (6) 4. Dust-up (6) 9. Partly coincide (7) 10. Car — engine (5) 11. Goddess of the hearth (5) 12. Berry for syrup (7) 13. In immediate proximity (5,2,4) 18. Large flatfish (7) 20. Conductor's wand (5) 22. Decorative ribbon (5) 23. Disgrace (7) 24. Precious metal (6) 25. Harsh — extreme (6)

ANSWERS OF ISSUE 143

ACROSS — 1. Mickey-Mouse 9. Oppresses 10. Ash 11. Extol 13. Annular 14. Equine 15. Bow-wow 18. Impasse 20. Eight 21. Rot 22. Influenza 24. Odds and ends

DOWN — 2. Imp 3. Kremlin 4. Yes man 5. Orson 6. Scallywag

7. Joie de vivre 8. Wherewithal 12. Trumpeted 16. Overuse 17. Deafen 19. Swiss 23. Nod

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HUMOROUS OBSERVATIONS

Psychogeography for Beginners

By Simon Pitchforth

Borneo is a terrific place to visit, however hiking there from Jakarta is perhaps not the best way of setting about things.

B

orneo's mysterious heart of darkness is the theme of this week's actionpacked Indonesia Expat and I've been scouring my increasingly feeble synapses for anecdotes relating to the dense jungles and whitewater rapids of this tropical ground zero. It's been a while since I slept with either an orangutan or a Dayak lady with three-foot long earlobes (they give one something to hang onto) and I'm no Joseph Conrad it would seem.

Admittedly, I did recently visit the pleasant city of Kota Kinabalu on the Malaysian part of the island, however a piece comparing and contrasting the clean, vibrant and organised KK with its moribund urbanIndonesian counterparts would surely only serve to depress the R of I's loyal expatriate readers.

So instead, I thought it apposite to recount the occasion upon which a similarly brain-damaged colleague and myself took it upon ourselves to walk to the city of Palangkaraya in Kalimantan, all the way from the national monument in Jakarta.

Now you can go straight to the top of the class and accept a million rupiah's worth of Anker vouchers (not to be redeemed at your local minimart) if you've correctly surmised that such an epic hike presents a not inconsiderable problem, to wit, the 300-odd-kilometre stretch of ocean that lies between Java and the sun-drenched coast of Borneo.

Admittedly, I have been accused of having a messianic, walk-on-water complex before by a female companion, however I should really elucidate at this point and explain that my friend, Mr. Dan, and myself actually flew across the Java sea in a large jet aeroplane and that the underlying conceit behind our hike/flight was a concept known as ‘psychogeography’.

Psychogeography was first developed by a French theorist called Guy Debord in the 1950s as a, "Study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised, or

not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals." An alternative definition is, "A whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities. Just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape."

More recently, Will Self, a British novelist and spinner of darkly comic and surreal urban yarns, revived the idea of psychogeography (check out his rap at Authors@Google over on YouTube for a detailed exposition). Self notes how modern, urban life isolates us on small islands of existence surrounding home, office, pub, etc. As a result, any visceral feeling that we may have for the urban geography that surrounds us is highly restricted, as travel between these urban islands is largely facilitated passively by means of motorised vehicles that are barely a century old. Thus little sense of geography, relief or scale exists imprinted in our modern minds as mental maps, and processes evolved over hundreds of thousands of years have now been negated.

Self therefore resolved to walk from his home in London to New York. Specifically, he walked from his house to London’s Heathrow airport, flew to New York, and then continued his hike from JFK airport to a downtown hotel. The physically exhausting effects of the walk, coupled with the passive, enclosed down time spent on the plane apparently tricked his brain into believing that he had traversed a single, continuous landmass.

…such an epic hike presents a not inconsiderable problem, to wit, the 300 odd kilometre stretch of ocean that lies between Java and the sundrenched coast of Borneo.

Still with me? Well, always a sucker for an essentially ludicrous idea that’s been dressed up in a patina of intellectual theorising, my colleague Dan and I set out from Monas at 2am one fair evening and began a long hike to Soekarno-Hatta Airport for a midday flight to Palangkaraya.

We elected not to head along the toll road and instead followed the main city artery of Jalan Daan Mogot for a good 20km before hanging a sharp right and trudging the final few clicks to the airport.

The early stages of the slog were a haunting urban night hike fuelled by large cans of Anker (the importance of decent hydration on long hikes cannot be overstated).

Dawn was soon upon us however and we were able to take the full measure of our post-apocalyptic surroundings.

Ammonia wafted across the canal and into our eyes and piles of rubbish smoked carcinogenically while underclass children sporting interesting skin conditions played away among the ruins of West Jakarta. It’s the city that never sleeps folks, which is why it looks so bloody awful the next morning.

The sun rose ever higher in the sky, the juggernauts pounded relentlessly at the asphalt and fatigue started to take its toll on our limbs as we neared Terminal One. The concrete and noodle-packet shantytowns finally gave way to the start of the airport toll road that we joined from the south, along with the airport’s comparatively verdant area of lake and trees that I usually only see through a taxi window.

The final, painful hour of hiking through the now roasting sun eventually carried us into the terminal building. According to Dan’s Charles Babbage, steam-powered GPS device, we had walked 26km and felt a real sense of achievement at having scaled heights of mental instability that few manage to reach. Certainly, incoming social-media comments were unforgivingly harsh in their general assessments of the project.

After a short flight, we recommenced our hike on the lush island of Borneo. The final 3km stroll into town through the bucolic tropical countryside surrounding Palangkaraya Airport was a relative breeze after the purgatorial wastelands of West Batavia. Any sane person would have started hiking from here instead.

It had been a memorable trip certainly, although I should ’fess up here and reveal that the following day’s return leg was not undertaken on foot. So is anyone else up for the challenge? Supping cocktails on a beach in Bali is so 2014.

Mr. P abides.

issue 144 indonesia expat

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If you want your event to be posted here, please contact (+62) 0 21 719 5908 or e-mail: events@indonesiaexpat.biz

EVENTS

JAKARTA Music

Exhibition

CENTRAL JAVA Festivals

Dieng Culture Festival

Maroon 5 World Tour 23 September 2015 Live Nation Indonesia proudly announces the upcoming concert by mu lt i-plat i nu m- sel l i ng , Grammy Award-winning rock band Maroon 5, set to perform in Jakarta in support of their fifth studio album, V. The gig will take place at Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) with special guest act Dirty Loops. Tickets go on sale on 8 May online as well as at Disctarra outlets and major ticket boxes in Indonesia. Get on down there and see if you’ve got your own ‘Moves Like Jagger’! www.maroon5jakarta.com

Oriental Sensibilities Exhibition 23 May–23 June 2015 YellowKorner and TreeHouse Kemang invite you to a fundraising event for the victims of the Nepal earthquake. Together with two world-traveller photographers, SIM F. & TIMUR ANGIN, we collaborate to exhibit and donate their photography works that was captured when they travelled to Nepal. The bid will be the amount above the starting price and the more you bid, the more donation will be given to help Nepal recover from the recent devastating earthquake. Kindly RSVP to Kay (081294026635) or kaytadjoedin@yellowkorner.com

1–2 August 2015 Highlighted with the release of traditional lanterns, a leather puppet wayang show, traditional arts and cultural performances, and a fireworks fiesta, Dieng is an annual community celebration.

The pinnacle of the festival will be the ritual trimming of children’s dreadlocks. In the beautiful highlands of Dieng Plateau, the Rastafarian hair style from Jamaica is not a chosen style but rather a mystifying feature that only occurs in children. According to local belief, these kids are somehow chosen by the ancestors to accept the gift of the dreadlock.

‘Ruwatan Anak Gimbal’ is the r i t u a l c e r e mony w he n t he dreadlock hair is shaven off. On top of the exceptional ritual, there will also be a Dieng Film Festival and jazz performances entitled Jazz above the Clouds. w w w. diengculturefestival.com Performance

We the Fest 9 August 2015 Ismaya Live, the creative, dynamic group passionate about lifestyle and entertainment is bringing international acts to Indonesia’s live music scene. Followed by their successful debut last year, We the Fest is back with a strong line-up of performers such as Cyril Hahn, Darius, Echosmith, Flight Facilities, Jessie Ware, Passion Pit, Rufus, Sheppard, Elephant Kind, L’alphalpha and the YouTube sensation Madeon.

But that’s not all because more local and international artists will be announced on the second phase. www.wethefest.com

Twaalf Uur van Semarang 25 June 2015 Twaalf Uur van Semarang is a film that presents the beauty and diversity of the city of Semarang.

The film is recorded from 6pm to 6am when the charm of Semarang shines brightest, as some say. As the biggest port city in Central Java, Semarang never sleeps. In fact, in places like the port, the market and the train station, activities are at its peak just when most of its citizens fall into their deep slumber. The screening will be held in Erasmus Huis Jakarta. www.erasmushuis.nlmission.org

Ramayana Ballet Performance 1–30 June 2015 Ramayana Ballet is performed where the story was carved a thousand years ago: Prambanan Te m p l e . T h i s c u l t u r a l performance has managed to combine the diversity of Javanese art in forms of dance, drama and music on an open-air stage with the temple lit up in the background. An experience not to be missed! www.yogyes.com

WEST PAPUA

Sports

Indonesia Jazz Festival 2015 29–30 August 2015 Five stages will present bands from different jazz genres this August. The festival is expected to unite people and develop local talents. More than 120 local musicians will participate in the event, ranging from famous Indonesian jazz musicians to new ones. Witness the birth of new talents and enjoy the performances of Indonesia’s jazz legends this August at Istora Senayan. http://indojazzfest.com

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Jakarta Marathon 25 October 2015 The Ja k a r t a Ma rat hon wa s founded by Indonesia’s Ministry o f To u r i s m , s t a r t i n g a n d finishing at the monument of Monas. 50 countries took part in the marathon last year. The international event consists of three categories: full marathon (42,195km), half marathon (21, 10 and 5 km) and a children’s sprint. thejakartamarathon.com

witness this mock tribal warfare.

The festival is aimed to introduce and preser ve the values and c u lt u r e of B a l ie m Va l le y ’s traditional tribes. The tribal war simulation features about 26 groups of 30-50 warriors and the mock battles is accompanied by the Papuan traditional music of pikon. Experience the true meaning of being a Papuan by wearing the traditional koteka.

Visitors can also be par t of a special sege throw ing and a rcher y competition. w w w. event-carnival.com/indonesia/ baliem-valley-festival

BALI Festivals

Party

Ku De Ta White Party 5-kilometre fun run. It is expected to draw over 1,000 athletes from some 30 countries, including more t ha n 500 Indone sia n triathletes. The race will begin shortly after sunrise with a swim in the tranquil waters of Jimbaran Bay, followed by a bike sprint to Nusa Dua and finishing with a road race. Participants can now register online through the official race website. www. balitriathlon.com

15 August 2015 The whole building in Seminyak will be transformed into a huge white set, with DJs aplenty and a theme yet to be announced.

Like white parties all over the world, you are welcome if you come dressed in white. Expect dazzling light shows with multiple projectors reflecting off the white walls, dance floors and, of course, your clothes. www.kudeta.net

Workshops

Bali Kite Festival 18–20 July 2015 Padang Galak, Sanur Beach Bali’s beautiful sky will look even more stunning this July. When you watch the clouds come and go at Sanur beach, expect a myriad of colourful kites in different sizes and shapes. The kites are f lown by teams of kite f lyers from the villages of Denpasar.

They compete at Padang Galak’s rice fields every July, the month with the best wind condition to fly kites. Other than the kite festival, Padang Galak offers tourist attractions such as open stages for both traditional and contemporary art performances and laser light with waterfall as the background. www.disparda. baliprov.go.id

Bali Gourmet Festival 14–16 August 2015 The Ba l i G ou r me t Fe s t iva l showc a ses the best of f ine dining restaurants to an affluent audience. It is an opportunity for chefs from near and far to show their wares. Whether they usually work in five or six-star hotels, or just a little warung around the corner, their food is on offer for you to judge. Held at Bali Nusa Dua Convention Centre, Nusa Dua. http://www. ba ligour met fest iva l.com or contact Ms. Julita Chandra at +62 (0)361 283 356.

The Baliem Valley Festival 2015

Bali International Triathlon

6–8 August 2015 Centred on the Usilimo District, Jayawijaya Regency, all the diverse tribes from the highlands of Wamena and the Baliem Valley w ill congregate to celebrate their annual festival. It will be a spectacular cultural journey to

25 October 2015 Nu s a D u a w i l l b e home of t he eig ht h ‘ Tr i at h lon w it h a Soul’, a race that has won numerous awards, including Best Destination Triathlon. The event comprises a full Olympic triathlon, a half-triathlon and a

Yves V Bali Illustration Workshop 11–22 November 2015 For the first time in Indonesia, Kekai Kotaki, Danny Luv isi and Dave Rapoza will present an international illustration w ork s hop i n B a l i . A g r e a t opportunity for artists to deeply immerse in the spirit and practical k n o w le d g e o f i l lu s t r a t ion .

Beginner illustrators or working profe ssiona ls w i l l have t he opportunity of being mentored by these leading artists. The workshop will improve skills, build connections, which will enable the illustrators to take deeper steps into the industry.

T he r e w i l l b e t w o b a t c he s of work shops w ith 20 seat s each. Send your application to e-mail: application@ illustrationworkshopbali. c om b e f or e 31 s t Ju l y 2 01 5 . baliillustrationworkshop.com

27 June 2015 His productions have grown f rom underg round ba nger s into Beatport chart Top 10 and released on the dance f loor by every major artist from Tiesto to Hardwell. Over the course of his career, Yves V has risen to international standing amongst his peers and global dance fans; his music now fills playlists of the biggest DJs on the planet. After a series of long and successful tours in 2014, he is going to party in Bali. www.yves-v.com

SUMATRA

Festival of the Land of Raflesia

Bali Bonn Dance Camp 31 August–6 September 2015 A six-day dance camp with the world’s best Latin dance coach Ralf Lepehne in Bali, this will be an unforgettable experience.

Have the opportunity of 10 private lessons of intensive study and training with experts and dance personalities. Held in ES studio Bali and open for professionals, amateurs and pro-amateurs. www.balibonndancecamp.com

June 2015 (date tba) Bengkulu The annual event is known as Festival Bumi Raflesia. The icon of the Bengkulu province, the Raf lesia Arnoldi f lower, is the largest flower in the world. The continued preservation of the Rafflesia flower and its careful conservation in its forests is the main attraction of the festival.

The festival will feature a variety of programmes and activities that will present the best of Bengkulu.

Last year, the festival held a mass batik painting event, a triathlon, national off-road competitions, art and cultural performances, s ong w r i t i ng c omp e t i t ion , a t our ism pagea nt , ba za a r, exhibition, and more.

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issue 144 indonesia expat

27

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Adding an image incurs an extra charge of Rp.150,000. Business Listings can only be placed on the Business Listings page (p.30) Send in your classifieds to ads@indonesiaexpat.biz

Jakarta Property

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Open House by appointment, c a l l: A g u s D j u a r t a ~Pa du a Property Agency +62811961763 or v irtual v isit:w w w.rumah. com/listing-properti/disewarumah-bagus-di-jl-laksana-bloks-kebayoran-5621285 Brand New Fully Furnished Studio Apartment at Intercon Tower, Kemang Village in South Ja k a r t a . Av a i lable for rent immediately (minimum 1-year, shorter leases can be discussed).

Fully furnished. Right next door to the conveniences of Kemang Village Mall. Easy access to Antasari, TB Simatupang, CBD Sudirman and Kemang w ith all the hip cafes & restaurants.

Please contact 08777-592-3500 or 08777-5600-414 for further details Small Unfurnished House in the Pinang Emas area of Pondok Indah, South Jakarta for rent immediately (ideally 2 years, but minimum 1-year). 3 Bedrooms, 1 Bath + 1 Maid Bedroom + 1 Maid Bathroom. Carport for 1 car. Great location. Rent Charge paid in lump sum of Rp. 150 million / 2 years. Rp. 80 million / year. An additional 1 month refundable deposit is required. Please contact 08777-592-3500 or 08777-5600414 for further details Jobs Full Time/ Part Time vacancies are now available for experienced English language instructors for corporate courses around Jakarta.

Competitive rates and travel allowance are offered. Please send your CV to recruitment@ kpiconsultancy.com Looking for work Hi! I'm looking for part time job after the office hours. I can do washing, ironing, cleaning and cook. can live in or live out. preferably if you are single and lives in an apartment around sudirman or nearby. pls contact me at 087887736996 or srinles@ yahoo.com.

The Upp er C r u s t ser ve s American Homemade Catering with the finest, freshest, quality foods available. Bakery items are prepared without preservatives and the special lunch box has both asian and western menu.

You can also plan your next special event with The Upper Crust. Food, tables, chairs, waiters, bartenders and everything you need to make the party memorable will be provided. Contacts; 021- 7656082 Learn French the easy way - with a native speaker. Private lessons, tutorial & remedial, For people of all ages. Modern teaching methods from an experienced, dedicated instructor. Available at: JI. RS. Fatmawati No. 52 Wisma Subud No. 22B Cilandak Barat Jakarta Selatan 12430.

Please contact : Phone. 0217690216 Spanish Tutor: Learn Spanish at your place with a DELE-certified examiner from Spain. Most of my students come from International Schools (JIS and BSJ). Please call me (Raúl) +62 (0) 821 1050 2786 Email: unascartas@yahoo.com Staff Available Pak Agus (Driver) - Pak Agus takes his job with pride and has a fatherly outlook to how he takes care of his passengers in the car.

He’s very careful and knows the directions to Jakarta’s mazelike streets and alleys. He takes initiative in taking care of the car’s maintenance and keeps it neat and tidy. His English is basic but this has never been a deterrent to his job. Please contact me at 0812 84877976 or email at jktmove2015@gmail. com if you need further details.

E x c e l l e n t P O O L G U Y/ GARDENER available from 1 July: Pak Purwanto is highly r e c om mend a s a p o ol g uy, gardener and house runner. He has been working for us for 3 years and we are totally happy with his works. He has really good pool maintenance skills He is a

clever and very handy man, takes care all of the small repair works around the house. His schedule is full now, but from 1 July he will be available 3 mornings a week (Tuesday , Thursday, Saturday).

If you are interested, please talk to him directly at 081293815228 to make appointment, or email me at luong.nguyen@me.com for more questions.

English-speaking driver available.

Pak Marius was working for us from 1st March 2012 until March 2015. He knows all the back streets and shortcuts in Jakarta and before working with us he was working for an Australian expat family. As a Christian, he can work any time of the day all year round and always willing to adjust to meet his employer's expectations. Pak Marius runs errands and is always very helpful.

He has helped us many times translating conversations and documents. We are very happy to recommend pak Marius for future assignments. You can call him directly on 0819 0893 5717.

(Maid) Wasi has worked long term for many expat families, she is skilled in adapting to the

needs of each family and can be trusted to run an organized household. Our household is quite busy and Wasi was alway able to keep things running smoothly and she was always hardworking. she is also comfortable with our dog.

She can be reached directly at : 081283034665 or you can contact A nnie, w ith a ny a dd itiona l questions at jakartaexpatsales@ gmail.com.

Pak Nana worked for our family for our nearly 4 years in Jakarta as a gardener, handyman, errand runner, and also assisted in household chores when needed.

Nana was impressive and creative at gardening and maintained our trees, flowers and often planted and replanted in creative designs.

He would also do small repairs when needed if not covered by our complex / company maintenanceI would highly recommend Pak Nana as a fantastic member of your staff. You can contact Pak Nana directly at 0817 6453672 or you can contact me, Annie, with any additional questions: jakartaexpatsales@gmail.com Longevity of employment in the expat world is not always easy

to find. Ibu Yati worked for the family before us for 10 years and the family before that for 10 years as well - it is only because we are now leaving Jakarta that Ibu Yati does not have as long an employment with our family. I can highly recommend Ibu Yati as a maid/housekeeper and she is also able to babysit children. Yati is dependable and honest - she works hard and can be counted on to maintain a immaculate level of cleanliness, order, and a high level of work ethic. I cannot recommend Yati enough. she be reached at 0813 1039 8755 or you can contact me, Annie, with any additional questions: jakartaexpatsales@gmail.com Automotive Toyota Kijang Innova (2006) for sale Navy blue, three rows of seats, reliable, parts plentiful, etc. Tan fabric interior. Used for Jakarta daily use. It shows the typical light wear and tear of JKT traffic. Good service history, with *105,784 *miles on the clock.

Note: *Sold on diplomatic/tax free basis*. Pr ice: (w ithout new paintjob, and available f rom Ju ne 28t h): *$6, 500* Price (with new paint job, and available July 10th): *$7,250* Please SMS 0812 8770 8976, or email: leavingjakartasale2015@ gmail.com Personals 40-year-old expat man looking for some fun. Will take you on fun trips, all expenses paid, and can pay for your apartment. Contact me! jakartalinks@gmail.com

Others We would like to find a trustworthy and experienced nanny for our newborn baby girl. Preferably live-in and able to cook western dishes. Recommendations are necessar y. Availabilit y now.

Please contact us: 0812 9460 586 Or email: annapalmer03@ gmail.com Dear those, who are leav ing Jakarta. I'm leaving also and would like to JOIN a GARAGE SALE on any weekend till the end of june. Catherine, mataramster@ gmail.com Baby Grand Piano for sale. We are selling our beautiful Baby Grand Piano, elegant in shape and with a great sound,located in Kemang. If seriously interested, for more info contact: sara@ musicofemotion.org Excellent tuxedo for sale. Size 35 inches. worn only once, in excellent condition. Tailor made for Rp. 3,000,000 only. Please contact 0812-82085807 Please inform me if anyone is selling a wooden coffee table with glasstop and drawers, size 90x55cm. Also looking for Tefal Actifry in Jakarta - please inform me if anyone knows where to buy from. contact; 081546163861 Expat leaving. A transfferable indiv idual golf membership jagorawi 45holes for sale! Asking Price Rp. 95mio. Price from Club Rp.120mio. Pls email to: hanwa123@yahoo.com or text/ wa to 0812 991 6256

Hardly used headphones: in Good Condition, All with Covers and a 4.5 Rating on net. Extremely comfortable headphones. Bose: Model QC15 (with brand new ear Cushions) Rp. 3,000,000 Sony: Model MDR XB400: RP 450,000 Panasonic: RP HL700: RP 1,000,000 Please contact me 08119265550 For sale; Single bed with mattress and mosquito net, beautiful baby crib with mosquito net, book shelf, queen bed, mattress, side table, drawer and mirror, 2 kid bicycles and more. Contact Elena at 0812 1092 050 Interested in buying a second hand sporty ladies bicycle. I am living in Kemang area. Any offerings please sms me on my mobile: 858 83605499 Photography Equipment For Sa le Fujif ilm X100S Silver.

A s new. IDR 9.9 mil Nikon A F Micro Nikkor 60mm f2.8D IDR 4.1 mil. Contact 0 816 9 76 9 0 7. m e l b o u r n e @ melbournethephotographer.com Free k it tens. 2 k it tens still available! Mother & kittens are inside cats. Friendly and great with kids. All shots are up-todate! shawna.cosgrove@sphsentul.net

Bali Property Award-w inning eco-villa for private sale in Bali. 11 are of freehold property on the Ayung River. Traditional style with modern comfort, designed by

Indonesian A rchitect of the Year (2013). Considering offers over USD 1,5 million. Info: bali. ecovilla.sale@gmail.com; telp +62 81585117108 New western style villa furnished for rent Sanur 3 mins from beach, 1 min. from bypass, 3/bedroom, 3/bath, aircon, w/large pool.

Available on August 1 - October 31, 2015 short term 3 months, with option of yearly or long term. Call directly no commission, please contact Julian at 082247287737 Land 500 m2 hak pakai Ungasan, Bali. Ocean view on 2nd floor if build. 375 million per aro NEGO. Land 1000m 2 leasehold,Great location Canggu, 37 year lease, Complete IMB permit. 8.5 million per are per year NEGO. Contact owner - 08113 956662, Mail gjwleonard@yahoo.com For Lease 1 Bedroom Apartment at Denpasar Residence Ubud Tower 9th Floor. Fully furnished 1 Bedroom Minimalist design apartment with pool view and spacious kitchen. Size 59m 2 . 1 Car park, Security Access Card.

Whatsapp: 0813 8285 8888

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