Other side of Bintan

[Em Eye]

I've been to Bintan and stayed where the resorts are. Just wondering what the rest of Bintan is like. Are there other beaches?

[ADH]

I did a daytrip once to Tanjung Pinang, the main town on Bintan. It's absolutely nothing like the resort area but a regular Indonesian town with the usual dodgy pavements and generally quite dirty. I don't think I saw another ang moh once I left the ferry. After clearing customs, I was approached by a local who wanted to show me around so I accepted and he showed me a Chinese temple and some mangroves which were unexpectantly peaceful and beautiful. We had lunch on a stilted Chinese restaurant. It was not cheap but regular for Singapore (ang moh tax there, I think).

It was good to see the other side to Bintan but the town is not somewhere I would return to nor spend more than a few hours there. A good introduction to real life for Indonesians.

[sundaymorningstaple]

I did a daytrip once to Tanjung Pinang, the main town on Bintan. It's absolutely nothing like the resort area but a regular Indonesian town with the usual dodgy pavements and generally quite dirty. I don't think I saw another ang moh once I left the ferry. After clearing customs, I was approached by a local who wanted to show me around so I accepted and he showed me a Chinese temple and some mangroves which were unexpectantly peaceful and beautiful. We had lunch on a stilted Chinese restaurant. It was not cheap but regular for Singapore (ang moh tax there, I think).

It was good to see the other side to Bintan but the town is not somewhere I would return to nor spend more than a few hours there. A good introduction to real life for Indonesians.

The guy didn't take you down to 10 stone? It's the low-rent hooker village.

Worked out of P. Galang for 2.5 years resettling VN refugees. Always spend at least one night each way in Tanjung Pinang. Drank an awful lot of Bintang beer at the open air makan place (parking lot by day) down by the waterfront in the middle of town. Bit rickety but lots of fun. Course we had an international crew from literally all over the world so it was good fun especially after 2 weeks in a refugee camp (living just like the refugees).

Always went to the fish market at the end of town early on the morning to depart to come back to Singapore and would load up with crabs for next to nothing. I love sambal chilli crab!

[dot dot dot]

I did a daytrip once to Tanjung Pinang, the main town on Bintan. It's absolutely nothing like the resort area but a regular Indonesian town with the usual dodgy pavements and generally quite dirty. I don't think I saw another ang moh once I left the ferry. After clearing customs, I was approached by a local who wanted to show me around so I accepted and he showed me a Chinese temple and some mangroves which were unexpectantly peaceful and beautiful. We had lunch on a stilted Chinese restaurant. It was not cheap but regular for Singapore (ang moh tax there, I think).

It was good to see the other side to Bintan but the town is not somewhere I would return to nor spend more than a few hours there. A good introduction to real life for Indonesians.

Why do you mention 'ang moh' in your description here? It doesnot add anything, it has no functional meaning, it is just disturbing.

Eric

[Wham]

Eric - i hate to argue with you so often - but "ang mo tax" hit the nail on the head for me - especially in the context that often there IS an outsider tax - i get charged one price and my wife gets charged another price - we can both negotiate the price lower - but at the end of the day she still normally pays less as an asian.

Also, my wife calls me "whitey" - but whatever the word - it is meant to describe the non-local - and the terms that singers use is "ang mo" - last i checked it meant "roung eye" - but i am no authority. Does it offend you? Not trying to be arguementative - but just curious why you find it so irritating.

[ADH]

It's simply a name to call white people. I could have said WASP, honkey (not as in someone from Hong Kong but as in white person of course), caucasian. I think you are making a big deal over nothing so just replace ang moh with white person. Yes, it does serve a functional meaning, I was relating the fact that I believe I was charged more for my meal than a local person would have been charged. Disturbing, a slight over-reaction I would say. I find paedophilia disturbing, not someone using the word 'ang moh'.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Eric - i hate to argue with you so often - but "ang mo tax" hit the nail on the head for me - especially in the context that often there IS an outsider tax - i get charged one price and my wife gets charged another price - we can both negotiate the price lower - but at the end of the day she still normally pays less as an asian.

Also, my wife calls me "whitey" - but whatever the word - it is meant to describe the non-local - and the terms that singers use is "ang mo" - last i checked it meant "roung eye" - but i am no authority. Does it offend you? Not trying to be arguementative - but just curious why you find it so irritating.

Actually, in the local vernacular "ang mo tax" would be right at home (short, too the point without a lot of explanation needed to understand what is being inferred). I, just like Wham and even Eric as well I suspect, have been hit with the "white man can pay more" tax more time than we like to admit.

Brings back a prime example that happened years ago to me when I still had a car here. I bought a tarpulin (one of those two-tone blue stripey things) to cover my car while I was offshore on the Oil Rigs. I went down to thieves market to one of the shops there (all gone today) and priced one and was told $40. Sounded okay to me so I went back over to Tekka Market where my wife was shopping (I wasn't allowed in there with her for the same reason!) When I met her in the hawker centre portion of Tekka I told her and she told me to point out the shop and then go somewhere else. In the end she only paid $10 dollars.

Ang Mo is just a figure of speech. Nothing to get upset about. Like I always say, call me anything but late for dinner!

.

[dot dot dot]

I don't care about the term 'Ang Moh' as such, but when being used without any context.

But I did misread indeed, as it made sense in relation to most likely having to pay extra money when being a foreigner.

I've seen it happen all over Asia btw, this dual pricing.

Eric

[CardZeus]

On the subject of 'ang moh' - anyone seen the movie 'Perth' made in Singapore? It's mainly in English but also Hokkien and has English subtitles throughout - I noticed that every time the term 'ang moh' was used the english translation was along the lines of 'white trash' or some other derogatory term. Does it just depend on the context as to whether it is derogatory or not???

[sundaymorningstaple]

On the subject of 'ang moh' - anyone seen the movie 'Perth' made in Singapore? It's mainly in English but also Hokkien and has English subtitles throughout - I noticed that every time the term 'ang moh' was used the english translation was along the lines of 'white trash' or some other derogatory term. Does it just depend on the context as to whether it is derogatory or not???

CardZeus,

You are spot on. It's all in the inflection and context. It's like the highly derogratory term "nigger" in the US. It's not PC to use the term but listen to them use it over there amongst themselves. Or "MoFo" for that matter.

Another good example is the term 'Mick' when referring to the Irish. Can be insulting or just a fond moniker.

[dot dot dot]

Ang Moh literally means 'red hair', first being used to describe the colonial surpressors.

It depends on the context whether or not it is being used in a derogratory way.

Eric

ps. I loved that movie Cardzeus, loved it....

[CardZeus]

Ang Moh literally means 'red hair', first being used to describe the colonial surpressors.

It depends on the context whether or not it is being used in a derogratory way.

Eric

ps. I loved that movie Cardzeus, loved it....

Yea - I thought it was great - especially the last scene of the Indian guy - "now all I want to do is emigrate to Perth!"