Hilarious Jakarta show - Bule Gila!

I just happened to flip to Antv station tonight at 7pm Jakarta time and they were showing this local show called Bule Gila. The language went a bit too quickly for me to catch everything but basically, what they do is take two bules (ie gwailo to you and me in Malaysia) and make them do local stuff.

This episode has Ron from Australia competing with John from Scotland to be the Bule Gila on the show. First up - the traffic policemen test! When I saw traffic policemen, I don't mean the official police guys in their uniforms. You see, in some parts of Jakarta, the roads wind in and out of local settlements where there's barely enough room for two vehicles to pass by and there are plenty of blind corners. So the local lads who live there come out to play traffic policemen and for their efforts, you drop money into the little bucket they hold out to you. I've watched our driver pay Rp500 or Rp1,000 to these guys and it's money well worth it.

It was simply hilarious to see the two bules put on shorts, faded tees, sling a Good Morning towel across their shoulders and go to work. They were competing to see who could get the most fares and the most ciggies. I think they stopped traffic more than they helped to move it along because the locals were all slowing down to stare at the sight of a bule directing traffic in their own backyard. LOL John the Scot appeared to be enjoying it, hamming it up and blowing his whistle merrily. The drivers he encountered must have enjoyed it too because he managed to rack up quite a sum in his cup.

The next challenge was to be a mi bakso hawker. I think mi bakso is meatball noodles. If I'm wrong, I hope any Indons reading this post will correct me. So first, they get this local hawker called Pak Bejo to teach them the ropes. The two guys learn how to manage the pushcart, how to use their utensils to clang onto the pushcart to create attention and how to prepare mi bakso.

Then off they go their separate ways to see who can make the most money. John again proved tops in this challenge. I suppose if you are a local and you hear a Scottish-accented voice shout out, "BULE MI BAKSO!!! BULE MI BAKSO!!!", you too would come running out of your house to check it out. Like all the ibu-ibu who came running out of their houses, I thought it was simply hilarious to see a white man pushing a mi bakso cart around, trying to drum up business.
The funniest part was when they interviewed the customers of the two guys and some of them wrinkled up their noses and said their mi was not salty enough and not spicy enough.

The winner gets a Bule Gila trophy, I think. The show tickled me so much I'm wondering if I could enter my own bule husband into the show. Imagine how funny it would be if we had a Bule Gila trophy to show off in our home!