| Hello there my dear friends. I hope that life is treating you well. Today I am going to talk about the benefit of living in a small town here. Of course there are a few disadvantages but many advantages. To begin with, it is much cheaper here than in a major city. Food is also much cheaper. One can purchase a meal in a native restaurant for about 50 cents. Traffic is not that heavy here unlike Jakarta which seems to experience total gridlock at times. There is very little violent crime again unlike in the capital. children can play unescorted in the streets and even the rivers without any problems. The people I really believe are friendlier here. Getting around the town is easy and fast; no problem with driving or finding a place to park. The price of renting or buying a house is really low. There are no huge shopping malls with their overpriced, name brand products. It is peaceful and quiet, except for the deafeningly, amplified music coming from mosques, parties and weddings. A couple of disadvantages are that sometimes it is difficult to locate needed items in the stores. There is no local airport, requiring a three hour drive to Surabaya. There is not much here in the way of entertainment like there is in the larger cities. It’s a funny thing...the grass is always greener on the other side, that is, people in small towns always want to visit the city and the people in the city want to get away from it all and find somewhere more peaceful! It appears that the people living in the villages are more religious than their counterparts in the city. You will not see many dogs, as the strict Islam followers believe that they are banned from owning one. In fact, if a dog licks then, they have to wash seven times. If they ever meet MY dog, they may have to wash a few hundred times as he definitely is a licker! On the other hand, cats are everywhere. Some tame, some feral. A strange thing here is that although there are chickens running around everywhere, followed by their offspring, you never see a cat bothering them. I have never understood this As to the girls here, well they are much less spoiled and more appreciative. If the Indonesian women living in the cities are like those depicted on television I would definitely advise you to avoid them. Even the school children shown in TV serials are nasty and bitchy. Unfortunately those programmes probably influence the young viewers to act that way. The girls from the poor villages lead a fairly difficult life. I was one of them, so I know firsthand. Sometimes there was no food to eat. My father had to give massages to neighbours in exchange for some rice or had to go fishing. I never owned a doll. I used to look at middle class people and wish that I had a cellphone and nice clothes like they did. However, I managed to remain independent. Before I was married, I met a rich Indonesian businessman who offered me a house and a car if I would be his second wife (permitted here) but I rejected him, because I was looking for true love. I am sure that there are many girls here just like me who appreciate things much more than someone who has been spoiled. Village girls like to marry at an early age because all they desire is family life. I get many requests from Western men telling me that the last thing they want is to marry a businesswoman but prefer someone with more simple ambitions. I don’t think intelligence is anything to do with it. My husband says that I am extremely intelligent, having learned English so quickly as well as computer programming even though I didn’t get much of an education. I am a very good driver (He says I drive like Fangio) and organize the webpage by myself. However, I prefer for my husband to make the major decisions and take the lead in our life. I love him and wouldn’t dream of shouting at him or dictating to him. I think that I am the type of girl that YOU will meet if you visit us and there are lots of them here just waiting for their Prince Charming. So make a point of coming to Indonesia and meeting YOUR dream girl...Until the next time...Very best wishes...Yuyun |