"Nasi Goreng!"

It is a common understanding that the first Indonesian words learned by foreigners are probably “selamat pagi” (good morning), “bagus” (good) and…”nasi goreng” (fried rice).

Nasi goreng becomes a popular word due to a joke (sadly true), if you are a tourist and got lost somewhere in Indonesia, you’ll be safe if you remember this word, because you can easily find nasi goreng almost everywhere in Indonesia. It’s an acceptable food, and tastes good (depends on the cook though. But mostly it’s good).

However, a magic word would still not be a magic if spoken in a wrong circumstance.

I lived and worked for a year in Bali, an island of paradise for foreigners, including tourists. I lived in the heart of Kuta, the most crowded tourism area, mostly occupied by young tourists from these groups: surfers, backpackers, adventurers, and them who prefer to save their bucks.

There has been a narrow alley called Poppies Lane 1 (there is also Poppies 2), the most populated alley in Kuta. Motels, restaurants, cafes, bars, souvenir shops, surf shops, internet cafes, barber shops are here.

Bamboo Corner is one of these restaurants that serve good food with low prices. As a matter of fact, it was one of my destination places to fulfill my need for meals. Bamboo Corner hardly ever lacks of guests.

This story is told by Yu Lie, a surfer girl who shared the same boarding house (kost) with me, one of my best girl friends.

One evening Yu Lie was having a dinner at Bamboo Corner, alone, sitting on a seat of one of the tables at its terrace. A group of local girls were having a chat on the narrow alley, in front of where Yu Lie was having dinner.

Then a tourist passed by on a motorbike. It looked that one of these girls knew this person, and so she yelled at him, “Hey!”

The tourist saw the girl, and spontaneously replied, “Hey! Nasi goreng!” and continued his journey, leaving this girl and her friends in confusion.

He might have intended to say, “Apa kabar (how are you)” to her, or perhaps he just wanted to be polite saying something in Bahasa Indonesia. But oh well, he has chosen the wrong word. Happened in front of many people, including some foreigners speaking Bahasa Indonesia, this misuse of language happened to be a funny situation.

The ever-narrow Poppies Lane 1, Kuta

A language switching is probably not as bad as the misuse of words, but still, interesting. If you visit Bali and would like to see a beautiful sunset or to surf in a place called Dreamland, part of Uluwatu, along the steep road to it, you’ll find words like “POLICE IN 50 M. NO BAGUS!” or just “POLICE! NO BAGUS!”

It is said that some bad policemen like to blackmail tourists (sad though). The reason for asking some money from them is, “You are not allowed to hang around on the street wearing no cloth.” Surfers are perfect victims because they often don’t wear shirt. Even they still wear pants, topless is considered “indecent” (Give me a break, Officer. You guys give an irony to the meaning of Bali tourism. Topless boys and girls are spread on the beach). Some Brazilian surfers who didn't like this fact, sprayed these words along the road to Dreamland as warnings to their fellow surfers to beware of the police officers who can suddenly jump out in front of them in any given second.

Nasi goreng, lah!