For years, Aprilia Santini Manganang and the Indonesian Women’s Volleyball Association had been fighting off accusations that she was actually a man, but this year, Manganang was finally confirmed to actually be male.

A member of Indonesia’s national women’s volleyball team, Aprilia Manganang also played in several local club teams in Indonesia, as well as in Thailand. She led the Jakarta Electric PLN women’s team to become the champion of the Proliga in 2015, 2016, and 2017. In 2019, she became champion again with the Jakarta PGN Popsivo Polwan team, before transferring to the Generali Supreme Chonburi-E Tech team in the Thai Volleyball League and winning the championship that same year. Manganang won multiple Most Valuable Player awards in her career, and helped the Indonesian national team win the bronze and silver medals at different editions of the Southeast Asian Games (SEA). But her amazing achievements were always put into question, because of haw she looked.

Read More »

Indonesian police are investigating the strange case of a 25-year-old woman who claims that she gave birth just an hour after a gust of wind got her pregnant.

The young woman, identified as Siti Zainah, ahs become the subject of widespread ridicule in Indonesia after claiming to have been impregnated by a gust of wind, on February 10. Furthermore, Zainah added that she gave birth to a baby girl just an hour after the alleged impregnation. According to several Indonesian news outlets, the 25-year-old was relaxing at home in Cianjur, West Java, with her first child, when she felt the wind enter her body. A few minutes later, she went into labor.

Read More »

A fifteen-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old girl in Indonesia were reportedly forced to marry after breaking a local custom that forbids dating after sunset.

Child marriage has been a controversial issue in Indonesia for a long time, and last week it was once again brought into the limelight by the story of a young teenage couple forced to marry after only four days of dating. According to multiple media reports, 15-year-old Suhaimi and his 12-year-old girlfriend, Nur Herawati, were pressured into the marriage by the girl’s parents, after allegedly breaking customary dating laws, which forbids young couples to return home after dusk. Since the teenage boy brought his young girlfriend home after 7:30 pm earlier this month, her parents gave them no choice but to marry…

Read More »

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to get hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, staring absently into the camera might actually be a good idea.

At least that’s what Indonesian youtuber Muhammad Didit did earlier this month, posting a 2-hour-long clip of himself sitting on a couch and doing nothing but staring into the camera. The video has since received nearly 1.5 million views and has inspired countless memes on Indonesian social media. In fact, ever since Didit’s video went viral, other would-be internet celebrities have been been busy imitating him, hoping to also copy his success. You can now find YouTube videos of people doing nothing for four, five and even eight hours at a time.

Read More »

A 14-year-old Indonesian girl has been getting a lot of attention on social media thanks to her unusual pets – six giant pythons that she loves to pet and cuddle with in her videos.

Most people would run for their life at the sight of a full-grown python, especially one that looks like it could swallow an adult human with ease, but Chalwa Ismah Kamal isn’t most people. The 14-year-old teenager, who reportedly hails from Purworejo, Central Java, shares her home with six massive pythons and appears to have no concern for her safety when she’s around them. Photos and videos of the Indonesian girl playing, bathing and cuddling with the giant reptiles have been going viral on TikTok and Instagram, and leaving viewers with their mouths wide open.

Read More »

Human pregnancies normally last around 9 months, but one Indonesian woman has been making news headlines in her country for claiming that she gave birth just one hour after experiencing pregnancy symptoms.

Heni Nuraeni, a 30-year-old woman from Mandalasari, a village in Indonesia’s Tasikmalaya Regency has become the main topic of conversation in her country, after it was revealed that she gave birth to a baby boy after allegedly experiencing pregnancy symptoms for about an hour. Heni claims that on Saturday night, July 18th, her belly started growing and she started experiencing painful cramps which she immediately associated with child birth, having previously given birth to two children. The problem was that not only had she been oblivious to the pregnancy, she also hadn’t made love to her husband in 19 months…

Read More »

While the rest of the world struggles to find a cure or even a treatment for Covid-19, Indonesia’s Agriculture Ministry  claims to have found a solution – wearing a eucalyptus necklace developed by one of its agencies.

The so-called “antivirus necklace” was developed by Balitbangtan, the Agriculture Ministry’s Health Research and Development Agency, and will go into mass-production next month. According to minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo, the necklace was made using a species of eucalyptus that can kill the novel coronavirus. Simply wearing the accessory for 15 minutes allegedly kills 42 percent of coronavirus, while upping the time to 30 minutes doubles its effectiveness. The eucalyptus necklace is just one of a whole line of all-natural products designed to prevent or treat Covid-19.

Read More »

Manusia Silver, or “Silver Men” is a special type of beggar that has become a common sight on the streets of several Indonesian cities.

Beggars have been around for as long as anyone can remember, and Indonesia is no exception, but the South-East Asian country has recently seen the rise of a new type of beggar, the so-called Silver Men. Inspired by the street performers who used metallic paint to transform themselves into living statues and wow passers-by with their doll-like movements, the Silver Men or Manusia Silver, as they are called in Indonesian, simply adapted the look of these performers to their own skill – begging.

Read More »

Indonesian media recently reported the bizarre case of a 31-year-old man who married a woman he met online only to find out that she was actually a man two days after their wedding.

The man, identified only as Muh, in order to protect his identity, reportedly met his wife, Mita, on Facebook about a month ago. After getting to know each other and establishing a romantic relationship online, the two decided to meet up in real life as well. They went out for coffee, and the 31-year-old claims that nothing about Mita’s appearance and voice felt suspicious. She looked beautiful and graceful, which made him fall in love with her instantly. He was staying up at night thinking about her, and after a few weeks of dating, he called Mita up one day and asked her to marry him.

Read More »

Fed up with people constantly neglecting self-isolation and quarantine rules, a local politician on Indonesia’s Java Island decided to lock rule breakers in a haunted house to set an example for others.

Kusdinar Untung Yuni Sukowati, the head of Sragen regency came up with the idea of taping into the locals’ fear of ghosts as a way to deal with an influx of newcomers in the area. Because of lockdowns in the capital Jakarta and other major cities, Sragen has started seeing quite a lot of people coming in, many of whom completely disregard the rule to self-isolate themselves for 14 days, in case they are infected with the novel coronavirus. To make sure people started respecting the rules, Kusdinar started putting offenders in abandoned houses locals believe are haunted.

Read More »

As countries around the world struggle to come up with ways of keeping people from going outside and slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus, Indonesian settlements are trying an unconventional solution – volunteer ghosts.

In Kepuh village, Central Java, people brave enough to venture outside their homes at night risk coming face to face with ‘pocong’ or shrouded ghosts, legendary figures believed to be represent the souls of dead people trapped in their funeral shrouds. The pocong monitor guests coming into the village and make sure that residents stay indoors as much as possible, to prevent them from spreading the potentially deadly coronavirus. Quite unusual for ghosts known as scary and creepy in Indonesian folklore, but then again, these aren’t your usual pocong.

Read More »

Indonesian soap opera actor Galih Ginanjar was recently sentenced to 2 years and four months in prison for humiliating his ex-wife by claiming that her genitalia smelled like “salted fish”.

In June 2019, Galih appeared as a guest on a popular YouTube show hosted by TV personality Rey Utami, where he answered all kind of questions about his personal life.When asked about his marriage to Indonesian actress Fairuz A Rafiq, which ended in 2015, the young soap opera didn’t shy away from vulgar language to describe intimate details. Among other things, he said that intercourse between them usually lasted about 15 minutes, and that her privates smelled like “salted fish”. This made the host burst into uncontrollable laughter, but enraged Fairuz, who quickly filed a police report for “immoral content”.

Read More »

This is a somewhat older story that was originally reported by media primarily in Indonesia and other East-Asian countries back in 2018. It got a lot of attention because it touched on a very taboo topic – the romantic relationship between an adult male teacher and a 13-year-old schoolgirl.

Erwin Pangaila was 27 when he fell in love with a junior high school student at the SMP Negeri 2 Tenga school, in Sulawesi Utara, Indonesia. In fact, it was 13-year-old Vinda Virginia who first noticed and approached him. She happened to walk by his classroom saw him writing on the blackboard and immediately fell for his broad shoulders and athletic physique. She wasn’t the only girl in school to have a crush on Erwin, but she was determined to be the one that won his heart. She started staying behind after classes to ask him questions and eventually, their student-teacher relationship turned into a romantic one.

Read More »

Since late last month, Indonesian social media has been buzzing with news of a controversial wedding in South Sulawesi, where a 103-year-old Dutch colonial war veteran recently married a 27-year-old woman.

Photos and videos of the unlikely couple on their wedding day have been doing the rounds online for over a week now, sparking both outrage and humorous comments. There are also those who can’t believe the wedding was for real, but several Indonesian news outlets have confirmed that 103-year-old Puang Katte married a 27-year-old woman named Indo Alang in the District of Siwa, South Sulawesi. The groom, who is reportedly a widower, fought in the Dutch colonial war (1945 – 1949).

Read More »

After struggling to convince members of his community to join him in making their streets and beaches cleaner by picking up trash, an Indonesian man put on a superhero outfit in hopes of becoming more convincing.

Rudi Hartono, a cafe worker from Pare-Pare, South Sulawesi, had long been struggling to persuade residents of his small coastal community to get more involved in keeping their home clean by picking up the plastic trash strewn on streets and beaches, but had had little success. But then he put on a Spiderman suit just to amuse his nephew, and people took notice. He accidentally became somewhat of a local role-model, and people started following his example.

Read More »