by Ng Sebastian
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When I was a tour guide, I used to joke with my clients that there are two things that make Indonesians different: sarung and kampung (or sarong and kampong). A sarung is a brightly coloured woven fabric worn by both men and women in Indonesia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. The word kampung is similar to ‘village’ in English. Most Indonesians have a kampung asal, or village of origin. Wherever they live and whatever they do, they can usually trace back to their village of origin. Basically, if you have a friend who claims to be Indonesian but has no sarung and kampung, then she or he isn’t a true Indonesian.
This white-sand beach is on Rutong Island, which is part of Riung Nature Conservation Park. Rutong is very close to Oting, the small village barely visible on the far left edge of the picture lost against the backdrop of the hills of Tadho
Posted under General, Indonesia, countries, local tips, responsible organisations, responsible travel, whl.travel newsletter
This post was written by editor on September 30, 2009
On Sunday 10 October, Ethan Gelber, editor of this blog and at present visiting New York City, appeared on 
