Livin' la vida Lombok

Friends in Lombok were teaching me (again) the difference between pedas (spicy hot) and panas (heat hot) - easy once you have a mouthful of pedas - and I was thinking about how odd by Indonesian vocabulary is.

I have not yet nailed down the days of the week, but I can rattle off useful terms like Sapi apa yang indah telah (What lovely cows you have, madam) and Anda memiliki masalah tikus teman (you appear to have a rat problem my friend).

Some phrases I should never have learned:

• Ombak tampak hebat! Tidak ada yang punya cadangan papan selancar? (The surf looks great!Does anyone have a spare board?)


• Apakah saya lihat pemula? (Do I look like a beginner?)


• Yang berbau enak, hal itu harus aman untuk dimekan. (That smells so good it must be safe to eat)

And thanks to my little phrase book for these gems:

• Saya orang Australia tetapi tidak memilih John Howard. (I'm Australian and I voted against John Howard)


• Kamu mau menikah dangan saya? (Will you marry me?) Might you be leaping in a bit early if you need a phrase book for this??