【文章标题】：Overcaffeinated in Indonesia
【文章标题】：在印尼咖啡因摄入过量
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ChinaTalk writer Irene Zhang went to Indonesia in July. These are her notes from the trip.
ChinaTalk 作者 Irene Zhang 于 7 月前往印度尼西亚。以下是她的旅行笔记。
Part 1: It’s So Big
第一部分：它太大了
A few hours before I fly to Jakarta, my friend in Singapore sends me off over durian. “Indonesia will be a military dictatorship soon. It’s so over for Southeast Asia[n democracy].”
在我飞往雅加达的几个小时前，我在新加坡的朋友请我吃榴莲为我送行。“印尼很快就会变成军事独裁国家。东南亚[的民主]彻底完了。”
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The next morning, I put my backpack on a baggage scanner at the entrance to Grand Indonesia, a glitzy mall in central Jakarta. The security guards’ metallic breast badges flashed past my bleary eyes. It occurred to me that the last time I did this at a place of commerce was in China during Covid.
第二天早上，我在雅加达市中心一家耀眼的购物中心 Grand Indonesia 入口处把背包放到行李扫描仪上。保安们金属质地的胸牌从我惺忪的眼前闪过。我突然意识到，上一次在商业场所这样做还是在中国新冠疫情期间。
Some time in 2024, I typed “what is the easiest major language to learn” into Google. The answer, according to the internet’s polyglot hivemind, was
bahasa Indonesia
, a standardized form of Malay that now unites 288 million diverse peoples across the archipelago. The spelling is consistent, the phonology relatively straightforward for English speakers, and basic grammar can be grokked in a week.
2024 年的某个时候，我在谷歌中输入“最容易学的主要语言是什么”。根据互联网上多语言者集体智慧的回答，答案是
印尼语
，这是一种标准化的马来语，如今将群岛各地 2.88 亿不同民族的人们团结在一起。其拼写一致，音系对英语使用者来说相对简单，基础语法一周就能掌握。
Two years, a whole Duolingo course, and many iTalki lessons later, I landed at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and managed a
terima kasih
to the customs officer. With more than 32 million residents spread across its metropolitan area (including the satellite cities of Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi — together known as
Jabodetabek
), Jakarta is the most populated city on Mother Earth. Indonesia is sometimes referred to as the “invisible giant.” It is the world’s fourth-largest country by population, has the world’s largest number of Muslims, and is Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
两年后，在学完了一整套 Duolingo 课程和许多节 iTalki 课程之后，我降落在苏加诺-哈达国际机场，并成功对海关官员说了一句
谢谢
。雅加达大都会区（包括卫星城市茂物、德波、丹格朗和勿加泗——合称
大雅加达
）居住着超过 3200 万居民，是地球上人口最多的城市。印尼有时被称为“隐形巨人”。它是世界第四人口大国，拥有全球最多的穆斯林人口，也是东南亚最大的经济体。
Invisibly, to much of the rest of the world, it is troubled at the moment. The Indonesian rupiah weakened around 10% against the USD over the past twelve months. MSCI considered downgrading Indonesia, an upper-middle-income nation, from Emerging Market status down to “Frontier,” alongside the likes of Burkina Faso and Oman. The war in Iran made fuel prices soar, pulling the rug out from under an economy reliant on raw materials extraction. And last year saw violent anti-government protests across the country over corruption and inequality. People threw Molotov cocktails, stormed luxury hotels, and burned down government buildings in Makassar and Bandung, leaving 11 people dead.
在世界其他大部分地区看不见的地方，印尼此刻正陷入困境。过去十二个月里，印尼盾对美元贬值了约 10%。MSCI 曾考虑将印尼这个中高收入国家从新兴市场地位下调至“前沿市场”，与布基纳法索和阿曼等国并列。伊朗战争导致燃料价格飙升，使这个依赖原材料开采的经济体雪上加霜。去年，全国范围内爆发了针对腐败和不平等的暴力反政府抗议活动。人们在望加锡和万隆投掷燃烧瓶、冲击豪华酒店、烧毁政府大楼，造成 11 人死亡。
Graffiti at an underpass in North Jakarta.
北雅加达一处地下通道的涂鸦。
My taxi passes Medan Merdeka — one of the largest squares in the world at the heart of the biggest city on earth — and I imagine it filled with people, arm after arm stretching to the end of the darkening horizon.
我的出租车经过独立广场——这是世界上最大的广场之一，位于地球上最大城市的中心——我想象着那里挤满了人，一只又一只手臂伸向逐渐暗下来的地平线尽头。
Part 2: The Coffee Quota
第二部分：咖啡配额
Jakarta has every kind of people in abundance except tourists. Over the course of a week, I managed to check out quite a few tourist-oriented spots: the old colonial town (Kota Tua), National Monument, Glodok Chinatown, and Masjid Istiqlal, the biggest mosque in Southeast Asia. There is the odd European backpacker and Chinese businessperson, and I catch Singaporean accents in restaurants and malls. But I did not see a single foreign tour group all week.
雅加达拥有各种各样的人，唯独游客不多。在一周的时间里，我设法游览了不少面向游客的景点：老殖民城（哥打图阿）、国家纪念碑、格洛多克唐人街，以及东南亚最大的清真寺伊斯蒂克拉尔清真寺。偶尔能看到欧洲背包客和中国商人，我在餐馆和商场里也能听到新加坡口音。但整整一周，我一个外国旅行团都没见到。
As it is an active site of worship, Masjid Istiqlal can only be visited by joining twice-hourly
ad hoc
tour groups at the entrance and borrowing appropriate clothing. When I made it there one afternoon, my eyes were burning from air pollution and caffeine intake. My group consisted of two Chinese businessmen working in Indonesia whose families were visiting, a Canadian medical student on summer holiday, two Japanese men, one Japan Airlines flight attendant enjoying a day off, and me.
由于伊斯蒂克拉尔清真寺是一处活跃的礼拜场所，游客只能在入口处加入每半小时一次的临时参观团，并借用合适的服装才能进入。一天下午我到达那里时，我的眼睛因空气污染和咖啡因摄入而灼痛。我所在的参观团包括两名在印尼工作的中国商人（他们的家人来探亲）、一名正在过暑假的加拿大医学生、两名日本男子、一名享受休假日子的日本航空空乘，以及我。
Istiqlal is Arabic for independence. Sukarno, Indonesia’s first president, insisted that the national mosque be built next to Jakarta Cathedral as a symbol of religious tolerance. Indonesia requires all citizens to register as members of one of six official religions (Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism) on their identity cards; atheism and interfaith marriage are effectively prohibited.
1
伊斯蒂克拉尔在阿拉伯语中意为“独立”。印尼首任总统苏加诺坚持将国家清真寺建在雅加达大教堂旁边，作为宗教宽容的象征。印尼要求所有公民在身份证上登记为六种官方宗教（伊斯兰教、新教、天主教、印度教、佛教和儒教）之一的成员；无神论和跨信仰婚姻实际上被禁止。
1
My fellow Canadian and I exchanged an uncertain look as we filled out the registration form and identified ourselves as followers of the Buddha.
我和那位加拿大同伴在填写登记表并自称佛教徒时，交换了一个不确定的眼神。
The great mosque, designed by a Lutheran, speaks the architectural language of the future as it looked like in 1978. Its interior is cool, metallic, and direct, e
这座由一位路德宗信徒设计的伟大清真寺，讲述着 1978 年人们眼中未来建筑的语言。其内部凉爽、金属质感、直接，e