General Info

[Ryo Saeba]

If you are Donald Trump, you can grab them by the pussy. But most of us will either shake their hand or give them a simple harmless hug Hello, at most.

Thank you!

[Smoothy]

So my question is: in order to present yourself as friendly yet proper, what's the best way to greet a "regular" Indonesian girl who you're meeting for the first time in a public place?
Kiss on the cheek, handshake, respectful distance, somersaults?

If you are Donald Trump, you can grab them by the pussy. But most of us will either shake their hand or give them a simple harmless hug Hello, at most.

[Ryo Saeba]

Hello Indonesian experts,
I'll be visiting Bali again next week after a long long time, and in the process of setting myself up with the chance to get to know Indo/Balinese culture better, I struck a few Tinder dates with girls who are not prostitutes (at least according to my p4p-sense and/or what they say about themselves).

So my question is: in order to present yourself as friendly yet proper, what's the best way to greet a "regular" Indonesian girl who you're meeting for the first time in a public place?
Kiss on the cheek, handshake, respectful distance, somersaults?

If it matters, I'm a younger looking 39 years old and they're in the 24 to 32 age range.

You can count on me posting a full report of my experiences,
thank you,
Ryo.

[SteelBaton]

Not sure if this will help the OP, but Telkomei has a pretty good app that will allow you to manage everything from offshore. You need to be in country to activate the app, but once that's done you can add credit with a credit card, buy internet package, buy SMS package, Phone package. You can obviously check your balance etc.

Works great. I generally confirm my internet balance is still active, if not buy a package, buy an SMS package and talk package just before boarding my inbound flight. This way I can put the SIM card in and even before the plane has finished its taxi at the Jakarta airport I'm texting my girls and downloading emails.

It pisses me off that I can't buy a multi-day SMS package, they all seem to expire at midnight. Then if I send a couple without the package, it costs a ridiculous amount. Any solution to that?

I use Telkomsel as my phone carrier in Indonesia and one way to extend the validity of my number is to top up the credit. I would guess adding 100,000 rupiah to your account would get you through July at least although that probably depends on which carrier you use and which phone package.

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Good luck and let us know if you get this worked out.

[LA Guy 5]

I am visiting Jakarta in two months and have a SIM card I bought in Bali in March. It has credit on it now but how can I keep it active for when I arrive in July? I want to step off the plane and start calling straight away. Any help appreciated.

I use Telkomsel as my phone carrier in Indonesia and one way to extend the validity of my number is to top up the credit. I would guess adding 100,000 rupiah to your account would get you through July at least although that probably depends on which carrier you use and which phone package.

If I'm outside of Indonesia, I sometimes have a friend add the time, which can be done using a mobile phone and the phone number of the phone to be topped up. On the other hand, a google search yielded this company which seems to provide an alternate method of topping up, although I can't vouch for their services as I have never used them. https://teleponindonesia.com/buy/mob...or%20Telkomsel.

Good luck and let us know if you get this worked out.

[Stykler]

I am visiting Jakarta in two months and have a SIM card I bought in Bali in March. It has credit on it now but how can I keep it active for when I arrive in July? I want to step off the plane and start calling straight away. Any help appreciated.

I've had the same problem. I think these sims go inactive after a period of time of no use, I think 3 months. I stand to be corrected. Short of sending the sim to someone connect to the network it in Indonesia I think you are stuffed. Good luck.

[Eszpresszo]

I am curious if anybody can give me direction to any ONLINE lessons in Bahasa Indonesia, where you videoconference with a tutor. I know such programs are abundant when it comes to Spanish language tutoring. And cheap too. But, I am having no luck in finding anything in Bahasa Indonesia.

Why do I want to learn Bahasa Indonesia? Well, it isn't because I am about to go the Indonesia. It looks like a change of job is around the corner and that will put it off for at least a year. But, that give me time to learn. But, to the point, Bahasa Indonesia is supposedly one of the easiest languages to learn. Hence, if it is easy to learn, then why not? I tried to learn some Thai before I visited Thailand, but that was a challenge. Thankfully, Bahasa Indonesia uses the Latin alphabet, as well as ample cognates of Western words. Or uses Western words outright. There is no gender, no irregular verbs, no conjugation and pronunciation is not precise because Indonesians from different regions will pronounce words a bit differently.

Compare that to Hungarian, where slight pronunciation of a word will result in nobody understanding what you are saying. No room for error with Hungarian, as a point of reference. I was married to a Hungarian woman for 13 years, and all I learned was the profanities, as Hungarians are the most profane people on the planet (and proud of it). And they can curse using their 14 vowels for minutes on end and never use the same profanity twice.

At someone's suggestion, I did find the book "Making Out in Hungarian" and it is pretty cool, as you tells you practical phrases like "Aku Klimaks" (I'm coming) or what to say when you are in a street fight with a local. But, I think I need to have some active conversations with a native speaker to get a handle on it.

[Kodja]

I am visiting Jakarta in two months and have a SIM card I bought in Bali in March. It has credit on it now but how can I keep it active for when I arrive in July? I want to step off the plane and start calling straight away. Any help appreciated.

[Kodja]

For the majority of Indonesians Bahasa Indonesia is not their native tongue. It is rare to meet an Indonesian who is not fluent in her or his native tongue as well as the national language.

Unless they were born and raised in Jakarta.

I know so many "Jakartans" that only speak Bahasa Indonesia and only a little of their parents native tongue.

[UsPete]

It's a shame they are picking up our butchering of the English language rather than a more proper form. Thanks USP for the response.

Styk you need to consider that Bahasa Indonesia is a lingua franca (language of the Franks / Farangs) and moves very very fast, Dutch trading phrases that were heard commonly only 15 years ago are now redundant while you can hear the same Hokkien words for Me and You being used throughout SE Asia whether in Jakarta, Singapore or Bangkok. Fortunately the internet has created a virtual media for these sweet olive girls to communicate with you.

For the majority of Indonesians Bahasa Indonesia is not their native tongue. It is rare to meet an Indonesian who is not fluent in her or his native tongue as well as the national language.

[Stykler]

{Snip}

So the girl is providing a modern friendship greeting without touching lips! AbFab phrases are a great example on how the underground bencong community in Indonesia which worship UK shows like AbFab, Little Britain and Graham Norton have introduced words and phrases into the Indonesian lexicon or what is termed "gaul".

{Snip}

It's a shame they are picking up our butchering of the English language rather than a more proper form. Thanks USP for the response.

[Stykler]

Sounds like " mau " it is used in the affirmative. Like "would you like to meet me later" ? "Mau". It means yes I want to.

Thanks O / S. Most useful.

[UsPete]

Sounds like " mau " it is used in the affirmative. Like "would you like to meet me later" ? "Mau". It means yes I want to.

Hahahah, it's bahasa Abfab! Commonly heard when Edina and Patsy meet up! = Mwah, mwah, mwah, darling. Is this Prosecco? No, where's the CHAMPAGNE. Darling.

So the girl is providing a modern friendship greeting without touching lips! AbFab phrases are a great example on how the underground bencong community in Indonesia which worship UK shows like AbFab, Little Britain and Graham Norton have introduced words and phrases into the Indonesian lexicon or what is termed "gaul".

Now if you are still following this, this is where fellow mongers will face problems learning Indonesian. As we spend all our time with indo. Girls and have little interest in speaking to indo. Men we start mirroring and replicating how girls speak. During the '90's whenever I spoke to anyone on a land line in Indonesian for the first time, they would guess I was a Betawi gay. This made me "genit" or what roughly translates as coquettish.

The youtuber Sasha Stevenson makes the same mistake, when she uses Indonesian, she uses many phrases or slang commonly only used by men which makes her come across as a bit of a tomboy.

[Offshore Swell]

I'm hoping one of the Indonesia experts here can help me with this.

Sometimes when I engage with Indonesian women they often use the term "muah"(sp??) . A search of what this means on Dr Google indicates it's something to do with kisses, but that doesn't make sense to me in the context I feel it is being used.

Can anyone help me out here, I'm curious?

Thanks.

Styk.

Sounds like " mau " it is used in the affirmative. Like "would you like to meet me later" ? "Mau". It means yes I want to.

[Stykler]

Can you give a sentence as an example? It can be a contraction of two words. Like "can't" that actually is "can not".

Thanks Menteng. Perhaps some context would be of more benefit. By example, an Indonesian lady friend of mine when she first met me was on her scooter. She used the term "muah" when I first pointed her towards a close motor cycle park. I'm not sure if the "muah" was for me, or for the fact that a safe spot for her scooter was handy.

I feel quite stupid asking the question actually, but I do wonder what the term means. I think it is affectionate??