Being an Expat Rockstar, your profile is very attractive to many Indonesian women. There are two categories of women: the collectors who change their boyfriend as often as they change hand phones and the unlucky ones who find it really soooooooo difficult to approach the object of their desire, Mr. Prince Charming from overseas.
Good news ladies, you can now follow the guide and learn plenty of useful tips and tricks with How to Catch Mr. Bule (Bule is the word for Westerners in Indonesia).
An Indonesian woman, Erlinawati, who is married to Duncan Graham, an Australian journalist now living in New Zealand, published the book in Bahasa Indonesia several months ago.
The author, who Mr. Hubby apparently helped with her writing, aims to teach her counterparts on how to manage a relationship and end up married.
Yes, catching Mr Bule should be for life, and according to the author, it doesn’t take a simple visit downtown to the bars where the Bules enjoy hanging out. That’s an astute observation by the author. A woman can grab a guy for the night thanks to her physical attributes, but she must work a little harder if she wishes to go further with her fine catch.
Girls, move your ass, and don’t only shake it on the dance floor! Erlinawati strongly recommends learning golf, billiards, tennis, or applying as an assistant to a Bule executive. She advises not to stay home dreaming of a brand new Mercedes. Ladies hunting Bule’s need a geographic strategy; just as fishermen have their special fishing holes, women need their special spots too.
‘Go to Bali,’ she says, ‘but watch out in Kuta because all the men are drunk there and they are simply look for fun.’ Then she suggests trying Ubud. The book is clearly targeted at Indonesian women with an education and not at the Kampung girls, (Kampung is the Indonesian word for village).
As per Mrs. Erlinawati, Indonesian women should break their cultural barriers and learn why foreign men are truly more loving and caring than Indonesian folk. She also gives advice to Indonesian men wishing to stop Indonesian women from preferring Bules, but her method - treat your women better.
Regarding practical concerns, the book contains useful information about how to make the best of the relationship by learning how to adapt in Mr. Bule’s country once you have found him. Thus, she explains why those weird Bule habits are actually natural behaviors in the West and why there’s no reason to be frightened by them.
For example, why do Bule like dogs and why does he enjoy talking to them?
Why will a Bule fix himself a drink?
Why does he would turn off the light before going to bed? Indonesian people often think they have to keep a light on at night to protect themselves against haunting spirits and other ghosts.
In some ways, the book sounds like a collection of hilarious stereotypes of Bule. However, the author insists on avoiding the clichés and she points out that Bules are just like any other men. There are good ones and bad ones.
At the same time, the author can’t help but offer her readers a new sociological approach of what makes a Bule. Which she oversimplifies into two categories. The first, Beautiful Unlike Lots Elsewhere and the second, Bald, Ugly, Lazy, Easy (money!)…With Erlinawati, we understand that men do not come from Mars but from the West… and women do not come from Venus but from Indonesia.
Now guys, do you think you need a Bule version of ‘How to catch Ms. Indonesia’?
Nils is a French journalist and Internet consultant based in Jakarta since 2001, he is happily enjoying rock star lifestyle along with married status… or at least trying to make it work smoothly…
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes I read this book in an airplane and could not help laughing from page 1 until the end. The Indonesian woman sitting beside me was intrigued and started a chat with me. We’re now married so in some ways this book had its effect!
That is a stupid book!
not true….bule might have all material things but actually they have cold heart as they live that way. For them life is work and money wich some of them suit materialistic Indonesian girls but it doesn’t guarantee the happiness, is that better quality of life..?
a book on how to be a gold digger not a guarantee for blissful happiness in marriage? SAY IT AIN’T SO!!!!!
i think the book is funny with prejudices, but not all indonesian woman like bule, me as indo living in holland, my father is dutch-indonesian and mother indonesian, have a big indonesian family but none is married with a bule,
but i think its depends on wich places you staying in indonesia,
the chances to meet women in blok m or bali are better, than say like purwokerto,
I am gobsmacked, yet intrigued. I need to get my hands on this book just to see it for myself. The last time I checked, my passport is still green and I tick “female” as my gender, yet I found it hard to comprehend the concept behind Erlinawati’s thinking. What about the old concept of boy meets girl, boy likes girl, girl likes boy and they live happily until one calls it quit? Evidently now as you have insinuated, she is a new icon in the “newly-found” strand of subject where psychology meets socio-demography with the emphasis on human relation. We should call her the new “Huntington”.
But then again, I should get my hands on her book first before damning her. Maybe I will pick up some pointers there…if I should find myself on the single scene again he he….