10 do's and don'ts in Indonesia

My very good friend Isi inspired me to today's post. I met Isi only 2 months before. Do you know the feeling just meeting a person and it fits from the first second on? She is definitely one of those people to me.. She lives in the same building like me with her boyfriend, comes from Germany as well and lives partly here, in Germany and Switzerland. She put a list of do's and don'ts in Indonesia on her webside and I would like to share it with you.

10 Do's

1. Go surfing! Especially if you come to Canggu. And do it with our friends Jungleboys

2. Be always nice! How many times we had the situations with foreigners treating local people disrespectful

3. Rent a scooter! It's cheap (approx. 3 Euro/Day), it's easy, you are flexible and you save a lot of money for taxi

4. Spend time with local people and get friends with them! This is the way you get really into the culture. Just visiting a temple is not enough

5. Eat at warung (small local eateries)! Mie and Nasi Goreng, Nasi Campur, Bakso and Lalapan, it's delicious and it's very cheap (approx. 1 Euro per dish)

6. Attend a beach clean-up! All of us like to go to the beach, and we enjoy it more if it's rubish- and plasticfree

7. Learn bahasa Indonesia! Even if only some words or sentences.You will realize that your stay here it's going to be much easier and the local people appreciate it very much. Btw, the language is super easy to learn.

8. Watch as many sunsets as possible. On the beach, with friends and a coconut (or a bintang)

9. A coconut a day keeps the doctor away! Seriously. Coconut cures everything (see my last post :-))

10. Support as many local places as possible, instead to just spend time at fancy bule (foreigner) places, spend your money rather for local food at the warung instead of making the rich richer, and btw the authentic food at warung tastes miles better.

10 Don'ts

1. Walking, driving and going to warung in bikini or only in boardshorts/no shirts. This is super disrespectful to the local people and hand on heart, you wouldn't do this in you home country, would you?

2. Driving the scooter without helmet, racing around like crazy, only because you CAN do it here, but you don't have to. Too many accidents happened here already, especially foreigners who don't know their limits.

3. Leaving all your rubbish at the beach. Due to raising tourism and sometimes a lack of education cause already too much rubbish here.

4. Buying a Bintang Singlet! Please don't. It's ugly

5. Complaining about everything! Especially the Europeans. You are not in Europe and no they don't have european standards (even if the locals really give the best to do so). But this is what we love here so much. It's the simple but real life.

6. Being scared about everything! Go for it and finally leave your comfort zone

7. Bargain too much. Of course you should do, but think about what is a fair price for you and then pay it. The local people have to survive and feed their family and it's still so cheap for you.

8. Entering the houses or shops with shoes/flipflops! You don't have to do it everywhere, but if you recognize shoes in front, do the same, please.

9. Getting lazy! Nothing wrong with that, you should come down, but don't get used to it. It happens too easy here :-)

10. Don't worry :-)! Be just happy