BootsnAll Travel Community

Anybody here interested in learning Bahasa Indonesian?

We're heading towards Indonesia (4 months) and Malaysia (2 months) next year - and we intend to learn some Indonesian. I just found this new podcast:
Indonesian Podcast

Anybody interested in learning together? It's always better to have a 'class'.

a.

ElAdi

Terah makasi banyak! I already know a fair amount,but here in Florida, don't have much opportunity to hear it or refresh what I know. I just listened to it and will use it to brush up with.

The plus side for you is that Indo is an easy language to pick up - and you will pick it up quicker if you don't hang out around the Westerner enclaves. Mine started hitting me quickly the two weeks I traveled around Sumatra since I met almost no westerners the year I went.

Good luck,
Kendrick

Yeah, I heard that it's not too difficult to pick up. And I'm pretty sure we won't see tourists for weeks, as we plan to cycling around Indonesia. Oh man....I would like to go now. Today. Yesterday. (Damn, stuck one more year.)

Where to you plan on traveling? I've been from Sumatra to Flores?

Bahasa Indonesia is one of the world's easiest languages to learn. It's basically like a form of Esperanto, based on Javanese stripped of irregularities. I was having simple conversations within about two weeks of my arrival in Indonesia.

Bahasa Melayu is a bit more natural and irregular than the variant spoken in Indonesia, but they are mutually intelligible. Malaysians often tend to use Bahasa Rojak, which incorporates a lot of English into speech.

How are you working out your visa for Indonesia? They don't exactly bend over backwards to give visa extensions for tourists, and I heard the visa is down to 30 days now.

Felix: The last time I checked, it was possible to get 60 days visa if you got them in advance. What we'd do is do 2 months, cross into Malaysian Borneo, then get another two months Indonesian visa. Maybe I'm a bit simplistic here...but I hope it will work out that way.

Viaggero: We plan to cycle around - hence our plans are rather rough:
First 2 months stint: Fly to Bali, start pedaling East. Flores would be cool. But at one point we'll have to head North to make it to Malaysia (Borneo) before our visa's run out.
Second 2 months stint: Come down Western Kalimantan, Java, Sumatra. To Malaysia proper from there.

Like I said, these are outlines, as we're not quite sure how much distance we can cover. Usually, somewhere between 2000 - 4000 kms should be possible in two months. But obviously we don't know yet how we'll react to road conditions, stomach conditions, humidity etc. We'll see.

Adi, Flores is the true gem of Nusa Tenggara. (I realize we're jalan-jalan away from the topic, but ...) Lombok would be good for cycling, as you'll always have Rinjani to look at. Sumbawa is pretty dusty and empty - I don't think the place ever really recovered from the Tambora eruption, which is the only natural disaster I know of that caused a language's extinction. Flores is utterly breathtaking, and was easily the most rewarding place I visited in that part of Indonesia. I did a lot of traveling on the island on a motorbike. There's hardly any vehicular traffic, and I encountered a German guy who was crossing the island on his pedal bike. You can fly to Maumere from Denpasar cheaply on Merpati, which might be worth looking into for you.

You really should check into the re-entry situation for your visa. Indonesia is sticky about that, and changing the visa rules all the. I remember a while ago that you couldn't re-enter for a set period of time after leaving the country.

That sounds like an awesome trip.

Is anyone clear on if Indonesia visa's are available for 60 days, can you get them in singapore or KL??

I'm gonna do the unspeakable here...and mention the TT. Some sniffing around there shows, that people actually recommend doing a visa run to Singapore or KL to get your 60 day visa. You'll need proof of onward travel though. I've also found out about a few people who got their 60 day visa in Kuching, which is what we plan to do. As for proof of onward travel, just get a 50$ ticket with Tiger from Padang to KL.

I've also read, that it is now quite easy to extend your 60 days visa by another 30 days (you can do that 4 times apparently). Of course, you'll need to be in some sort of city and probably spend money on an agent.