More culture shocks

I liked to talk to local people and visit their kampung. Later I had been told that an orang gedung(people who live in expensive houses) were not suppposed to talk to the kampungers(villagers). What the fuck!!!! I can talk to everyone I like and nobody can tell me what to do. The same thing happened as I bought some mee(Chinese noodles) from a poor street vendor who normally only sold to villagers.

As I talked to the house-cleaning staff I was told that this was not the culture over here. Only the gossipers would talk to house cleaners because they try to gain more information for their gossip actions about the neighbours. In my opinion cleaners were human beings and I could talk to them as much as I wished. So I really had a hard time to understand and let alone to adapt to it.

The rich neighbours were very nice and I could talk a lot to them about different things. Showing off money and power seems to be of greater significance in this society. Of course money is equally important in Western countries where people who do have money tend to be more careful about wasting it. But in this society I found out that they simply size you up exclusively by the money or status you have. As I tried to enter a night club at the Pacific Place, the first thing the staff looked at was my shoes. Wow....I felt sorry to disappoint them with my 3-year-old Versace shoes.

Never call house-cleaning staff "maid"
During the Dutch colonial time and even shortly after this period, house cleaning staff were called babu or maid. Nowadays you may get slapped in the face if you call them babu(maid) or djongos(male maid). The real approach is pembantu or assistant for maids but you may also call them bibi(auntie) or mbak(older sister). Societies evolve, no matter in which country.