Bule Gila: Tales of a Dutch Barman in Jakarta

Waiting at the airport, having missed my plane, with much thanks to the taxi driver that decided to take me the scenic way, I had not much to do but look around the many shops. Luckily a little book wrapped in clear plastic caught my attention."Bule Gila" a term that had been reffered to myself only days prior is a light hearted but but oh so true interpretation of the day to day dealings in Indonesian culture.Being 36 years old, I have not had the patience to read a book since my teen years at school. With a somewhat short attention span and overactive mind, reading a book was the last thing on my mind for my return trip to Australia. In eight hours, on and off, I finished the book and was dissapointed to get to the end. The stewardesses must surely have been wondering what my bursts of laughter were about between the hours of midnight and six am.Looking forward to a "bule Gila 2". Great work Bartelle and I will surely visit Bugills the next time that I am in town.O.E.

I really enjoyed reading this book, I got quite a few laughs. Each chapter is short (approx 2 pages or so), has different themes and context and always tells a good story. You are hooked from the start of each chapter as you find yourself compelled to finish reading the story to find out what happened in the outcome of Bartele's experience.I highly recommend this book as a read on your daily journeys to/from work on the bus/train/ferry or if you are alone having a quiet beer in bar.

A very entertaining look at expat life in Jakarta. An enjoyable and easy read. It rings true to life. Having managed a bar in Indonesia in the 70s I particularly related to it. I looke forward to visiting BuGils.

This is actually my third copy of the book. I bought the first copy in 2005 as a gift for my cousin, bought the second copy 3 years later for my husband. Both my husband and I love this book so much that we thought it would be a good read for our friends to see a glimpse of the capital's night life in a humorous way, without risking our own book to ruin (plus, he doesn't want to share what was actually my gift for him), so we decided to buy another copy. The one we bought is a used one, but when we received it, it was in an absolute perfect condition, like 99.9% new (is that an oxymoron, to be absolute perfect 99.9% new?). I'm not sure if it was just read once, or simply the last old copy at the store. Plus, it came with an orangutan bookmark! How cute that is! Thank you Reuseabook.About the book itself: an honest, funny, storytelling of the crazy life in the Indonesian capital from the point of view of a person who was not brought up in the culture. While Bartele honestly writing what he experienced in funny way, you need to appreciate how he savored every moment - all the struggles, all the good days, all the bad days - not always happy with everything, but still took it the most positive way he could. I wish there were more books like this published.Mind you though, this book was published in 2005, so a lot of things have been changed since, and Bartele probably knows things better by now. Like I believe "Pantai Hawaii" (Hawaii beach) in Bali actually refers to Padang-padang Beach, Bali, one of the sets of the Julia Roberts' movie "Eat, Pray, Love".It's a good book for you who know Jakarta, even if you think you don't know that much. But this would also be a good lend to your friends who know zero about Jakarta, but I suggest you to explain a lot about some words and jokes in the book. That being said, it might not be understood by people who don't know anything about Indonesia and Jakarta, however, some people with good sense of humor do, like my husband. He never set foot in Indonesia before he read this book, yet, he thought it's a very funny book.