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Hitchhiking is a widespread practice in '''Indonesia'''is usually very easy for foreigners (Bule) while it gets harder for locals, nevertheless it unless they are taken on the dumping bed of a truck. It might be hard to get a free ride at times if you can't communicate in Bahasa Indonesia that you actually do want to hitchhike. The problem is not that people don't know about hitchhiking, it's just odd And even if "Bule" (western people) do ityou can speak some basic Indonesian, so you need to disperse the thought you just might concept of hitchhiking is not always understood. You will be a confused tourist. Especially welcomed with the common use of standard sentence "Mau ke mana" (where are you going) as a greeting , that can lead to a lot of confusion - check [[Asia_phrasebook#Indonesian]]. Once you get the gist, hitchhiking can go very smoothly on all the islands and often one of the first cars will pick you up. Traffic Cars are not many though and traffic is very slow though, and if : in particular in Java it's not uncommon to be blocked in traffic jams for hours. If you want to cross the whole country and get a full picture of Indonesia, it is not convenient to take a mere 1 month visa. There's a two months visa that can be applied for outside of the country and that can be extended four times for one month each.

The thumb isn't used in Asia for hitching and a sign isnt really necessary. Instead of sticking out a thumb wave down each car as if you were signalling for them to slow down. Once you waved a car to stop, the driver will want to know what's the matter. Hitchhiking in Indonesian is said "Menggonceng" and free is "Gratis" like in latin languages. If you don't speak indonesian, it can might be helpful also to have a sign saying "Nebeng". Nebeng is a javanese slang term that is used to ask fo a free lift - there are a lot of javanese people all over indonesia, so its a usefull term also outside of java. Alternativly you can use "Numpang" which means to be a passenger, but not necessarily free. Pick ups and trucks are generally fine though, motorcycles are hitchable but the most likely to ask for money. If the car is decorated with plush, it's definitly a taxi and even if they offer you a free ride, bear in mind that everyone else in the car is paying!