Salient. The Newspaper of Victoria University College. Vol. 20, No. 8. September 14, 1956
"Europeans are rich"
"Europeans are rich"
Any claim that you have no money, however true, is invariably greeted with hollow laughter—for "all Europeans are rich." But when you have gained their confidence, Indonesians are delighted and sometimes quite overwhelming in their hospitality.
Indonesians are very friendly and polite, so that anyone who is willing to meet them half-way need have no fears for his reception. For example, when I was in Djakarta I played tennis on Saturday with a group of Indonesians who made me very welcome and always insisted on my having more than my fair share of games. When my holiday came around and I decided to visit the Minangkabau area in Sumatra, friends from that district quite deluged me with offers of hospitality with their families.
In all these social contacts there is the pleasant [ unclear: feeling] what friendship with Indonesians has an added significance—that in a small way you are helping the causes of international understanding. On the other hand, however, it must be admitted that it is not always possible to escape the feeling of being perched uneasily between two world, and cut off to some extent from your own cultural background.