In Bali I Get the Respect We've Forgotten in Australia

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]After a bit of a stint in Lombok, I'm back in Dempasar again. And today I'm going to have a walk around this area of town which is Jalant Tamarin. I'm out the front of a thing called the Deasar Cinniplex, but it actually looks like a a market of some sort. I might just go inside and have a look what this place is. Another market which I don't know about, but looks very old.

[00:00:22]We'll have a bit of a look around, a little poke around. And then we'll go and find something to eat and bit of a coffee maybe.

[00:00:29]Little clock shop over there. That dude can fix watches and change watch batteries, I guess.

[00:00:34]Lots of clothing. I mean, this is a multi-floor complex in here. Hello.

[00:00:40]And uh I'm sure you can find anything you want.

[00:00:45]Hello.

[00:00:50]Wow, this is incredible how much clothing there is in here. jeans. Like a pair of jeans. How much do they cost? No price. There's just so many different shops here selling so many different types of clothes.

[00:01:03]All different styles.

[00:01:09]I'm not sure if it's wholesale or not.

[00:01:11]It doesn't look to be wholesale.

[00:01:14]A lot of locally produced stuff. And then I can see some Chinese import stuff as well. I mean, it all looks really good quality. I'm sure the prices would be really good as well. They seem to be packaging a lot of this clothing up as well. Uh which I'm guessing they must be wholesaling. Hello. Hello.

[00:01:34]They must be doing wholesale as well.

[00:01:36]I'll just go up these stairs. See if there's anything else up here. Cuz I mean I thought when I was standing outside the cineiplex, it should be like a a movie theater of some sort, but maybe it's not that.

[00:01:50]Oh, that's weird. What have I come into here? Some sort of office area. I was actually going around the back there. I thought I could smell popcorn. And there is a little cinema here. Isn't that pretty cool?

[00:02:04]Oh, old school. I love it. I love this sort of stuff. Wonder what the ticket prices are like. I bet you they're cheap.

[00:02:12]Okay, got the prices. 30,000 for the expensive tickets. That's crazy, isn't it? And the cheap tickets are only 20,000. They do have uh they're mainly actually Indonesian films, but they do have occasionally English- speakaking films in there and same price basically.

[00:02:28]Well, that's cool. There's your Cinniplex. Then I'm back into this market, which is pretty weird. I don't know why it's like that, but that's the story.

[00:02:37]Look at that old clock. That's pretty cool, eh? Anyway, that's um the Tempestar Cineiplex. If you ever interested in going to a cheap movie or even maybe seeing an Indonesian movie and learning a bit of Indonesian, that might be a go as well. And I reckon if you're the type of person who's looking for cheap clothing, that might be a place to go as well. It looks like it's one of those ones. It's a little bit off the beaten track, but we'll have good prices. Wholesaling, too. All right, I'm just going to take a left down this road here cuz I did spot a food place down there that I wanted to check out cuz I'm hungry and I haven't had anything to eat today. Not sure what sort of part of town I've sort of stumbled into here, but it looks really interesting. Like even that structure there, I don't even know what that is. It looks like it's got some sort of temple function, but also some sort of official function as well, like a office, but I'm not even sure. And then over here, Graen. So, Gaja is um church and Christian is Christian. So that is your Abdel Zion Christian Church. That's nice, isn't it?

[00:03:46]Nice stained glass as well. I do see some Chinese writing on that church which may indicate that there are a large number of Chinese Indonesians who go to that church. Not sure though.

[00:03:57]That's just my guess. which is an interesting subject in itself because Chinese Indonesians historically when they came to Indonesia were confucious or Buddhist religions. So you got to have an official religion here in um Indonesia and they'd either choose what they call konguchu confutious or Buddhism and they still are in many parts of Indonesia but in a lot of the cities uh religion has changed with Chinese Indonesians and a lot have either chosen to be Catholic or Christian. Here we go. This is a copyam that I wanted to go to. Let's have a little look what they've got here.

[00:04:36]Small little place.

[00:04:40]So this is copyam style. Um it's like you could you could say panakan but basically Chinese uh style food that is specific to Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. It has a very uh specific feel to it. You have things like the traditional coffee like copio copyc that sort of thing. Um and they'll do small snacky type food. So they'll do your nasi gorang, they'll do your quial gorang, migorang, uh they'll do little bits of dim sum. They've got all that on the menu here. Very easy to to sort of uh go with like dumplings, uh spring rolls, that sort of thing. They'll do kayo toast as well. Not as popular as uh used to be in Indonesia. It sort of declined a little bit in many areas.

[00:05:29]many sort of older school uh Chinese Indonesians have sort of passed away and their family members haven't really taken on those businesses in a lot of cases. You do see this style of business happening a lot more in Singapore, but I think in Singapore it's probably a bit of a dying thing as well. Just getting back to the religion thing between um uh Catholic and Christians here in Indonesia. So officially because the country has six religions, Catholicism and Christianity are classed as two different religions and are treated quite differently as well. Um, a lot of Chinese Indonesians have chosen to be Christians. A lot of chosen to be Catholics. Uh, not as many have become Muslims, but some have become Muslims as well. Um, Buddhism is still pretty strong in some areas of Indonesia. So if you go to a place like Maidan, you'd probably find more Buddhists in Maidan than you would in a place like Bundong, which has most of their Chinese Indonesians converted across to Christianity or Catholicism. So it's quite a regional thing that that that um has happened there. I mean, I don't make any judgment on it at all. I just think it's a really interesting observation, honestly. And for example, my wife Susan, she's a Chinese Indonesian of she's Christian. Um, but it's her greatgrandfather uh that came over to Indonesia from China back in the 19 20s or something like that and brought his young daughter across who is Susan's grandmother who then had Susan's father and then Susan was born here as well. So Susan's connection to China is quite well was not really anything. She can hear some Chinese words but doesn't really speak Chinese language. Um, she speaks the local language of where she grew up, which is Sundanese. Obviously speaks Indonesian as well. And that's quite common across a lot of Chinese Indonesians. But I think it's really important to know that they are Indonesians. They're not Chinese. You know, I think that when I first heard of Chinese Indonesians, I just thought they were Chinese that lived in Indonesia, but they're not. They're Indonesians who have ancestry that goes back to the Chinese days like 100 years ago or more.

[00:07:42]Because it's quite hot today, I'm starting off with an iced coffee. They call that coffee jundle. And the spelling on the menu is the old spelling. Jundle means old-fashioned. Um Jeez, it tastes good.

[00:08:00]So some of the spelling in Indonesia like the the letter J used to be spelled DJ. So Jakarta used to be DJ Jakarta rather than Jakarta. Uh the the letter U used to be O E. This is all from the Dutch days. Um so Jadul was spelled DJ J A D O E L in the past rather than just J A D U L. that was some sort of program I think it was Suharat or Sukhar I can't remember which one was trying to standardize some of the language um across both Indonesia and Malaysia I believe so that's how they came to that but one of the interesting things is that some people's names are still spelled the old way even Suhar itself that name is sometimes spelled the old way um Sukardo the same thing uh spelled the old way and there's a bit of a feeling about it if you have a place that's a little bit older fashioned. You might even title your store with some of those old letters in it to make it feel more authentic. There's my nasi goring that was cooked fresh just now. Um, let's give it a go. Bit of chicken in there as well. That's 27,000 for the uh nasi goring and 22,500 for the coffee.

[00:09:21]The thing is with Nasigorang, you can get you can get bad ones like a lot of them. There some foods you say you can't get a bad nasigorang but you can. I've had a a lot of really terrible ones.

[00:09:32]This is a very good one. These staff here absolutely brilliant. Very friendly people from >> Bali. Bali Bangi. Thank you. Y see you.

[00:09:42]Bye.

[00:09:44]Nice people. Nice people. Let's get out there and have a look around. Oh, another church. Like that's literally I don't know 50 m from the other church.

[00:09:54]another sort of uh I don't know Ali or something like that. So I've turned down a road called Jalangun Marappi now. Um so I'm heading in a sly direction. I actually want to go and see there. I know there's a a um I don't even know what the Indones like that's the Balanese word like a graveyard or whatever it is like a cemetery. That's it. A cemetery. The reason I want to go there is on my way in on the motorbike uh today, I had um there was a massive traffic jam going down one of the major roads in all of Deasar. Massive traffic jam. What's going on here? And as I get to the front of the traffic jam, there's a large procession, a funeral procession. And what's really interesting about it is that there were no frustrations at all.

[00:10:42]No beeping, no angry people. who were just patiently wheeling their bikes, thousands of us behind this big procession. And uh I'm I'm assuming they're going to this local cemetery. So I'll get down there and have a look what's going on down there. See if there's anything of note uh while still trying to be respectful as well. I actually just spotted this out of the corner of my eye. It looks like a little old school coffee shop. Is it open?

[00:11:11]It's got a bit of character to it. Looks closed, doesn't it?

[00:11:18]>> Hello, Puka.

[00:11:19]>> Yeah.

[00:11:19]>> Oh, yeah. All right. We're open. Open for business. Hot capuccino. Yeah.

[00:11:25]>> Yeah.

[00:11:27]>> Okay.

[00:11:28]>> So, we're getting a white coffee here.

[00:11:30]White coffees are 24,000.

[00:11:33]Oh, that's cheap, isn't it? Nice little spot to sit out at the front. Look at that. Beautiful. And then inside, they got a bit of air conditioning. Not too cold in here if you want to sit inside, of course.

[00:11:42]So, Indonesian coffee culture really is more of an evening thing, although I've noticed a little bit more in the morning happening. But yeah, that's why it's a bit quiet at the moment. Everyone's at work. Just speaking to the barista here and um uh they're quite new here. So, um I was saying I'm a bit sorry about if there's anything wrong, but that's a really polite Indonesian thing to do is to apologize in advance for any kakurang, but I know it's going to be good.

[00:12:10]It's actually a nice coffee, especially when you're talking about 24,000. Really good coffee. I was just sitting here and I saw this little sign here, born to play rugby. And I was speaking to Witty, the um the barista here, like what is that? Why have you got a sticker that says born to play rugby? And Witty said that she is part of the barley stings.

[00:12:33]Is that right?

[00:12:34]>> Yes. And um yeah, they play international tournaments. They have to train.

[00:12:41]>> Yeah.

[00:12:42]>> And every weekend.

[00:12:46]>> Yeah.

[00:12:46]>> Yeah. So, isn't that cool? We have in Bali some rugby teams. I didn't even know it. I I don't even really hear about this stuff most of the time. Maybe I'm a little bit not hooked in enough, but that isn't that interesting. I thought that was pretty cool. Thank you.

[00:12:59]We did. Okay, let's keep going.

[00:13:03]>> Love that place. Nice little uh stop on the way through the back street on my way to the cemetery. I was just walking past this thing and I can see two guns up there. It says M16 on them. Uh this is Jerro Gadet Talaga peradilan and I don't know what that means. So if you know, leave a comment because I don't know what it means and it looks interesting. Um seems pretty important.

[00:13:30]That's a cool one. The Wally Cup. So, Wally is the mayor. That means mar and uncut busy. It's weightlifting. It's pretty cool, eh? Uncut. It's is interesting cuz the word uncut means to lift and then bessie is usually the word for iron. Oh, that's a cool little uh temple or whatever that is there. I don't even know if that's the actual temple. I'm not sure what that is, but it's like looks like one of those things where you bang the uh the wooden thing on top. It's like a call to the village.

[00:14:00]There it is. Valul. That's that thing there that they um bang the wood on there to alert the village.

[00:14:08]It feels like I'm in like that um cemetery area. Like that's what it feels like. I'm just seeing a lot more of those buildings, those old ceremonial style buildings around the place. So I must be just around the corner, I reckon. Pretty sure that's what I was looking for. Setra a bad. So let's have a look. See if I can get in here. I think I should be okay. I don't usually these sort of burial grounds like they're pretty openly sort of available to walk into. You don't want to be going disrespecting anyone, but like if I look through here like it's not really like a temple or anything. It's just a like a road that goes into a big open area. So, we'll have a look around. That is a beautiful beautiful tree there as well.

[00:14:47]I'm not sure what sort of tree that is.

[00:14:49]Often you'll see banyan trees, but I'm not even sure it's a bunan tree. It's just enormous. All right. So, there's a there's smoke everywhere down here. And I'm just seeing big uh funeral ps all the way in the bushes over there, over there. Uh there's something going on over there. So, obviously, this is the main funeral ground for this area. And it's quite um yeah, it's quite big. The pile of smoke over there is actually not part of the funeral um like cremation. That's more like just burning the um well, what what happens is that whole thing there gets burnt as well. you see. So, they've got to deconstruct that and throw it on the fire pit as well. So, sometimes you get confused between what's actually been cremated and what you know the the um all the paraphernalia that sort of accompanies it as well. I'm just following the um the son of the guy who's died and he wants me to come and join them over here, which I'm a little bit reluctant to do because it feels quite awkward, but he's he's saying, "Come, come over. Come over." He was just telling me about uh the bones are just about to be burnt to dust. And after that's done, they take to them to the ocean. Um, yeah. So, that's what's going on there. There's a guy with a big metal stick crushing it up and all that sort of stuff. They got the fire in there. So, that's what's going on. I I I mean, I try and be respectful and try not to get too close, but if I'm invited, I'll obviously accept the invitation. Incidentally, the guy who has died is 81 years old. The guy was also saying that cuz I said, "Oh, is it expensive to have one of these?" Cuz I'd heard that having a funeral here is expensive.

[00:16:19]And what he said to me was it can be but it's your choice. He said that uh Balines Hinduism is flexible and if you don't have a lot of money it's okay to do a very simple ceremony. You don't have to go all in and pay all this money and maybe you feel some cultural obligation or some obligation from your friends and family. But from a religious point of view that's not required. I've said it before and I'll say it again.

[00:16:43]These funerals um are quite special.

[00:16:47]Well, I really think they're an amazing part of Balines culture. A real community event that everyone comes along and sees off one of the members of the community and um of course people are sad, but it's not this big grieving process that goes on in public like you might expect. It's actually a little little bit more restrained than that. And people are actually happy to see that their loved ones are actually going back to, you know, back to the ocean or back to mother earth. It It's an odd thing which I don't fully understand from an emotional point of view cuz I think emotionally you must be wrecked but you've got to put on this grave face because uh you don't want the spirit to sort of think hang on um I can't leave you. I can't leave you while you're feeling this way. Is one of those things.

[00:17:39]Yeah, I do struggle with it actually from an emotional point of view how I would cope with that. That's a really cool uh word to see there. Dr. Hwan, that's a bet. What's interesting about the word herwan is that it means animal, but there are other words that could also mean animal like binatang. And you might wonder why there would be two words for the same thing, animal.

[00:18:02]Well, when you say the words, they feel different and they it's hard to explain really, but when you say the word dog in English, if you say that in a slightly different way, it can sound really bad.

[00:18:16]But if you're saying, well, what sort of animal is that? Oh, it's a dog. It's fine. And Indonesian, you have different feelings for words as well. So, the word heran is quite a neutral word for animal. But because the word animal can also be used as a pjorative like it can be in English. You might say the word binatang and if you don't say it correctly if you say it out if you say it in the wrong context like oh you're like a a binatang of course that's got a negative context to it or a negative feeling but of course binatang can be used just a more casual word uh to mean animal. So when you're speaking in a more sort of polite way or uh there in a particular context, you would use the wordwan rather than bin tongue. But in everyday talk, just use bin tongue.

[00:19:04]That's the that's the short way of putting it. Anyway, sometimes you'll probably wonder how on earth are you ever going to learn all those little nuances and it takes a long time.

[00:19:13]They're the the nuances are the things that take ages to learn. The feeling about words takes forever, like takes many, many years. But you got to start somewhere. And having someone explain it gives you a massive head start. So that when you hear the word in the future, you know, hey, that's got a bit of a different feeling from the other word which is got a similar meaning. Getting lost in the back streets here of permachutan. Permachutan apparently is the kurahan. Kurahhan is the lowest level of government in Indonesia where you have paid positions. Below that, they're not really supposed to be paid.

[00:19:48]Hello.

[00:19:49]>> Hello.

[00:19:51]Yeah.

[00:19:52]>> Yeah.

[00:19:57]>> Yeah. Go up and see what these guys are doing playing with their kite.

[00:20:08]>> Oh yeah. Okay.

[00:20:11]>> Yeah.

[00:20:19]Oh, look at this.

[00:20:30]Oh, all right. I can't show it on camera cuz it's so small and so far away. It's about 300 m in the sky. So, any low flying aircraft, beware. Right up there next to the sun. There are a few in the distance as well.

[00:20:52]Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:04]>> Yeah. These kids are really cheeky. This guy said he wants to be on camera cuz he wants to be go viral cuz he reckons he's gang which is handsome.

[00:21:13]>> Handsome.

[00:21:14]>> They're all handsome. Gunanga.

[00:21:18]>> I don't know how they're going to get this kite down. God, it's high.

[00:21:21]>> I reckon it could be even longer than 300 meters. Like it just seems so far away.

[00:21:28]Now they're filming me so I can go viral.

[00:21:31]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Massi. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:34]Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey.

[00:21:40]Okay. Slow. Slow.

[00:21:46]Yeah.

[00:21:50]Hear that?

[00:21:51]So, means be careful, take care on the roads, and is like uncle.

[00:21:57]>> They don't want to call me pup, which is nice. It's a bit respectful really. Is more warm, you know. uh even if a person is uh a sir calling someone on is quite respectful as well. Um very that whole family is just so so wonderful and polite and kind and warm.

[00:22:18]I've said it a lot of times in these videos, but when I come away from those sort of three interactions, my day is made. You could be stressed, you could be angry when you before you come out.

[00:22:27]You have those interactions with such lovely people and it makes your day and I think you know we could learn a few things about this sort of behavior in the west as well. Smiling at people and being polite to people and being nice to people is so well it's just so I I reckon it probably makes you live longer as well. Well, like it probably does if you really have all these great interactions. Love it.

[00:22:50]One of these little kids from earlier has just followed me and he said, "Oh, there's a lake over here. I want to show it to you." An urban lake. So, he's going to show me. I'm just going to keep walking. He's getting his friend. He's going to get on the back of the bike and they're going to show me where this lake is, which is interesting. I reckon it's over the back of these houses somewhere.

[00:23:06]So, I don't know what it is. They're showing me here.

[00:23:09]>> Hey, they've ditched they've ditched the bicycle and now they're they're on foot in here somewhere. But that just looks like a river, you >> Wlay. What's in here? Now, I was saying, "Oh, I reckon that K's like 300 m high."

[00:23:23]And I was saying like it sound like a bit of an exaggeration. Well, the kids here have just told me that the actual string on that reel is 600 m long. So, like and he said, "Oh, you you got to be careful. If there's any helicopters around, it could be dangerous."

[00:23:38]Yeah, it could be. All right. I don't know where we're going here, but they reckon this used to be a market.

[00:23:45]Like, it must have been a long time ago.

[00:23:47]And there's no way I would have found this on my own. All right, here we go.

[00:23:52]So, I asked them why why is there a gate? and they said, "Oh, it's just so the kids can't get in, the young kids.

[00:23:56]It's not that you're not allowed to come in here. Uh, it's just so the kids can't come in here, apparently."

[00:24:01]>> I also asked, "Why is this land here in the middle of the city?" And they said, "Oh, well, the the government has purposely just ignored it because they don't want to develop all parts of the land." And I reckon that's a pretty smart response, isn't it?

[00:24:18]>> Oh, wow.

[00:24:21]Oh yeah, this is a really massive lake here and it's not being used. I wonder why that is. I wonder if it's some sort of water reservoir that maybe once upon a time was used for the town's uh town water.

[00:24:41]Yeah, that's cool. E, obviously there's walking tracks everywhere here, so they must come down here all the time. They know where they're going. I need to be a bit careful. Yeah.

[00:24:54]>> Okay, I'm down. Wow.

[00:25:04]>> Oh, there's a guy fishing over there apparently. Oh, that's pretty cool. The the kids reckon they come in here every now and then when they're um when their kites fall in. They got to come over here and retrieve them. Well, that's pretty cool.

[00:25:16]They're just telling me that on Sundays this place is filled with people who go fishing. So they must have fish in here.

[00:25:33]I don't know what that means, but I know Le is like a catfish.

[00:25:37]>> Yeah.

[00:25:40]>> Mad, isn't it? Like, that is mad.

[00:25:42]They're saying there's some sort of connection with this area and shooting and the fight with the Dutch. So, there's some history here, which they don't really know, but there's some connection with shooting and the Dutch.

[00:25:55]And apparently, this didn't have water in it back in the day. Something like that. One of the really cool things is they are treating me with more respect than I've ever received in my whole life from anyone. They're treating me like an old guy, which I well I am, but you know, I think it's an old fashioned thing that we probably don't do much in the West is that old people uh used to be respected and these guy, these kids, every time there's a little steep downhill, they'll stop and say, "Be careful, be careful, and make sure that I'm okay." And that sort of stuff. Uh recognizing them a bit older than them.

[00:26:29]I reckon they're just amazing.

[00:26:37]>> They're going that way. I'm going down this little alleyway. There it goes.

[00:26:41]Really, really nice guys. Really, really love meeting nice people, you know, just makes your day. One of the things that people say is when you come to Barley, you got to have something to do. on on one of my interviews recently uh with Dane, he said, "You've got to have something really to keep yourself occupied." Here we go. I've just got a dead end here. I reckon I have too.

[00:27:04]Unless I can get down there. No, I'm going back the same way those kids went.

[00:27:08]Um the thing is for me with this channel, it sort of um gets me out there exploring and meeting people all the time. For me, that is what's keeping me just so happy in this place. I'm absolutely loving being here in Bali and and uh exploring these places, but also meeting all of these fabulous people because it just just keeps your mood so so high, you know? It's just a fabulous feeling to meet all these great people. I think as the years go on with my channel, and we've now been going for over two and a half years, it's becoming more and more clear uh that some of these great interactions happen when you've got pretty decent language or at least some language to be able to interact with people. And I think that's why it's so important to try and learn hello, how are you?

[00:27:56]>> That's why it's important to learn at least something. Even if you got a little bit of language, you can then ask people very simple things like where is this or how do I get here? Those simple things are I think what you need to learn straight off and then to have a proper conversation that comes later and it's not as important. But these interactions that I'm having are actually happen happening on a very simple level, a very basic level, a very um you know, a language that most people could learn within 6 months if they put their head to it. And I guess that's why my channel is sort of leaning into this whole language thing so much. It's not just about I want to teach people how to speak Indonesia. That's not really it. I want everyone to sort of have some of these really more indepth interactions with people that I'm having cuz I find that these interactions just take your visits to some place like Barley to a whole new level. We already love Barley, but you can love it even more if you just got a little bit of language. That's why I'm sort of leaning into that language thing on the channel quite a lot these days. Well, that's really nice graffiti over there as well.

[00:29:03]I don't know where I've popped out to here, but it looks to be a fairly main road. Look, traffic lights here. There's a guy nearly getting wiped out by the truck. Where am I?

[00:29:14]Well, I know I'm in the west of town and I could pull out my map, but I haven't done that yet. But what I'm seeing is some old rrooker along the left hand side here. The ones on the right are not as old, but the ones on the left are definitely old. And we all love a good old Rook, don't we? There's the um one of those buses, those Transmet Metro Data buses.

[00:29:38]I just love those ones over there.

[00:29:40]They've got the Balan styling and they've got a bit of an age to them which I can't really put my finger on, but like I wouldn't be surprised if it's like 60s uh age or maybe even earlier.

[00:29:50]Could it be? I don't know.

[00:29:53]the more and more I sort of explore Dempasard, the more that it sort of gets under my skin. And it's one of those things that you never expect with Debasar because it's got such a bad reputation as being a busy, noisy place with nothing of interest. But for me, it's got everything I want, everything I want from a a a fairsiz Indonesian city.

[00:30:14]And it's quite walkable as well. I mean, I've got so much to explore in this city. I don't even know where I'm going to stop. It's just crazy.

[00:30:21]Every time I come here, I feel like I'm sort of opening a new chapter or a new area of the city that I didn't even know existed. Like them kids showing me some random lake in the middle of the city was completely unexpected. I know where I am. That is the Kawasan Heritage Jalang Jamada. So that is the main old city and I've been down there a few times on the channel so I know where I am now. I just have never been down that road. Well, that's about as good a place as any to wrap up this episode. Thanks for coming along for the ride today and thanks for watching. Make sure you hit that subscribe button to keep up to date with all things sonor and the rest of Indonesia. I'll catch you next time in