The land of smiles.

I have heard many countries referred to as ‘The Land of Smiles’ I’ve also been lucky enough to visit a few and see the evidence for myself and I guess you’ll now call me biased if I say that nowhere is this more true than Indonesia, as this is the place I choose to call home. Well, I defy you naysayers to visit and allow me to prove you wrong.

Sure, Jakarta’s probably not the best example of permanent smiles, it’s a capital city  with the pressures of housing 25 million people in a melting pot of semi poverty and grand indulgence but even here are more smiles than your average captial city.

Out in the provinces you are 99.9999% likely to be greeted with a smile. A certain amount of this is the fact that westerners are still an unusual sight and here on Belitung it’s seriously apparent. Amazed stares are usually followed by rubber necked gestures to confirm that what people thought they saw, they really did. And this is swiftly followed by a beaming smile, a shout to get you to look back again and, if possible, the words ‘hey mister’ (possibly being the only English vocabulary in their posession).

 this picture isn't from Belitong but perfectly illustrates smiles....are you smiling now?

But back to the smile. I once heard it referred to as the shortest distance between two people. A very apt way to put it.