What Men do on the 17th of August

Tanjut pinang is one of Indonesian’s favorite Independence Day activities. Basically what you do is stick a huge, greased, bamboo pole in the ground with a lot of presents tied to the top and get a bunch of men to try and climb it. How could that not be entertaining! Jason managed to keep the recruiters at bay this year, but it’s not looking good for next year…

These guys are dancing around to rally the crowd before the competition. Pak Unen (far right) introduced us to Pak Bandi & to our community – great guy! The guy on the far left is holding a donation box which says, “Donations for the tanjut pinang.”







And the competition begins...






















Three hours later they finally made it to the top. Check out this video…