Indonesians are the friendliest people

One of the really nice things about living in Jakarta the past few weeks is the people. Everyone seems happy — not just happy to provide service as might be the case in many places, but people seem genuinely happy. I haven’t tried saying “good morning” (or “selamat pagi” in Bahasa) to people I pass on the street, but unlike in most US cities I think it would get a positive response. Everyone likes hearing “thank you” (“terima kasih” in Bahasa), and it always gets a smile. Julie has learned enough Bahasa to greet all the people in the hotel, taxi drivers, shopkeepers, etc — who all appreciate her efforts.

We were out shopping on Sunday in Mayesik (a mall I mentioned in an earlier post, with about 8 floors of clothing, tailors, etc). It’s filled with hundreds of small stalls, each about 10 feet by 10 feet, mostly selling clothing, and each with a person working there. I’m bigger than the average Indonesian, so I find it hard to find clothes that fit me — in the US I usually wear a large, but here I need XL or XXL. One stall had a few items that I liked, but not in my size. I was struggling to communicate with the person working in the stall, so she motioned for one of her competitors a few stores down, and he came and spent half an hour helping me find the right clothing — all without complaining for a moment that I wasn’t buying anything from him. He must do this a lot — he commented that in addition to some English, he also speaks some Japanese, Arabic, and several other languages to help with customer needs. Eventually I found several shirts I liked, but not in my size. So the shopkeeper called someone and they showed up with the right size. (I found out later than this particular company seems to have one of these 10x10 stalls on each floor of the building.) Interestingly, they don’t seem to have tags or labels, so instead of saying “style XYZ” they must describe the pattern — and there are thousands of them. The net result was that I bought 4 long sleeved Batik shirts for 900,000 rupiah (about $58). I now have more batik than I can reasonably justify, so I need to stop shopping! But I won’t tire of the friendliness of everyone I meet.