And why are their ferries always sinking? Some good explanations here.
Yet another Indonesian ferry sank, this past Sunday. A couple hundred drowned, about par for the course. Considering that Indonesia is an archipelago, you’d think the citizens could swim. But a lot of the ethnicities in Indonesia have traditionally viewed the ocean as largely a dangerous place, so never really took to sailing and other water activities.
The Hindus on Bali, too. I recall when we were there that it was the Muslims who were the big fishermen, that the Hindus shied away from the water. There’s supposed to be some good surfing on Bali, but it was pretty much all foreigners doing it from what we could see.