The Starer, Part 1

Let’s talk about the starer. Upon arrival in Singapore, the thing that I notice most is that people leave you alone here — unless you need them or their help. It’s not that nobody did a bit of staring, there are, but only a few. The frequency of people staring and gawping at you and occasionally harassing you is much lower here than in Jakarta.

So far, my husband and I only encountered them in Bedok area, done by some peruta (an abbreviation from Pekerja Rumah Tangga, the politically correct way of referring to domestic staff) who were attending to their employer’s children on the stairs. Perhaps it’’s because they rarely or never see ‘orang asing’ or ‘orang barat’ (politically correct for ‘bule’ or ‘londo’ or ‘muka pucat’). I’m not caucasian, but my husband is. So, there you go …

However, I think the reason people in Indonesia like to stare is because they don’t have anything to do but to stare or gawp at people passing by infront of their eyes. Like when my husband and I were walking in the pedestrian road in Kuningan area, there were some ojek (motorbike taxi) drivers nearby waiting for passengers staring at us, and I was calling my husband from behind, and all the ojek drivers imitating me and shouting ‘tayang! tayang!’. Well, I don’t mind if they did it with a little bit of affection, but they did not! These fierce looking guys instead shouting ‘tayang!’ and then laughed, and then shouted again, and laughed again. Very annoying. So we quickly left them worrying that they would get crazy.