A Sg-an Who Loves Indo?

Me and my friend had quite a unique experience when we were taking a bus to go to her house 2 days ago...
The bus was so full of people that we are 'forced' to stand in front, just next to the driver, who is an Uncle in his 50s.
Then suddenly the Uncle talk to us in Chinese, asking me something. Me & my friend dunno what to answer coz we couldn't understand what he was asking about. Seeing our confused look, the uncle asked us again (still in Chinese) whether we can speak Chinese. I answered that I can't. He asked us where we came from. Both of us replied "Indonesia."
Then he said, "Oh... Indonesia... You ah... your face look like Chinese but you cannot speak Mandarin..."
"That's why we are unique what..." I replied *with Singlish of course :)*
"So... why don't you learn Mandarin?"
I didn't answer. Honestly, I don't really have any good reason why I didn't try to learn Mandarin. I wanted to answer, "I prefer to learn Japanese than Mandarin.", but I don't think that sentence really answer the Uncle's question, coz you can learn both languange at the same time right? For me, dunno why... I don't have a 'heart' to learn Mandarin despite the fact that:
- Mandarin is a great language (full of philosophy in the characters),
- I look like Chinese :)
- I'm currently living in Singapore (Mandarin is a common language used here).
Well... let's just say that I'm more passionate to learn Japanese. Continue...

"So... what language you are using?" he asked.
"English and Bahasa." I replied. *I actually wanna add "And Sundanese (it's my fave anyway! :)", but not sure whether he knows what Sundanese is :)*
And then... the long (but interesting) conversation began. *the Uncle is definitely a very2 talkative one. We spent about 40 minutes at the bus talking*

What were we talking about? About how good Indonesia is. Some points that the uncle mentioned:
- He once stayed & ran a business in Indonesia (Jakarta & Medan) in 1978's.
- He admired Soeharto. Why? Because in Soeharto era he can easily import things 'without paying taxes', just pay the people who worked at the border. He said things are different now coz the law is stricter. *Honestly... I'm speechless (and definitely cannot agree with him)... I just said that it's good now that the law is strict*
- He talked about Indonesian women. He said they are beautiful (compared to Sg women), could really take care of their husbands coz they don't have to work (and he loves the idea), and that they have good skin (I dun really understand what he meant, but I tried to rationalize by saying "Maybe because they have more time to take care of themselves coz they are not working? :)"
- He talked about how stressful living in Sg. He mentioned that Sg-an only think about money... money... and money...
- He loves Indonesia because there you can still feel feel fresh air in the morning , see green pastures, trees and mountains (where in Singapore all you see is HDB or any other tall buildings :p)
- He loves Indonesian food coz it's tasty and cheap. He mentioned how he likes Indonesian 'buah salak' and 'sarang burung wallet'.
- He's amazed how Indonesian can enjoy eating only nasi and ikan bilis, and eating it just by sitting at the road side (while in Sg people are so fuzzy about food and eating at a proper place)

Too much eh? Well... I would think so. I mean... the bus was full of people (which I believed most of them are Sg-an) and he talked so loudly that anybody standing in the front part of the bus could hear what he said. I saw some of them smiling and some just pretending that they didn't hear the conversation...
It's just awkward to hear that kind of remarks coming from a mouth of a Sg-an. Until it came to one point that I actually asked him, "Uncle, are you Sg-an?" Well... he is :) and in other occasion I have to say "Uncle, could you please stop? You make me feel homesick :)" and he just laughed.

Overall, he is a nice person and it was a nice conversation. After I alight from the bus, somehow I feel very happy that there are actually people who can see a positive side of my country. But somehow I also feel sad for him coz he think negatively of his own country. Near the end of the conversation I said to him, "Uncle, Sg has so many things to be proud about. It's safe and clean (which he agreed). The transportation system is so greatly organized that I feel really convenient travelling although I use public transportation."

I can actually mention many many great things about Sg, but because time constraints I could not...

Anyway... the point is... Every country has its own good and bad things, rite? And countries can learn from each other.
I think Indo can really learn a lot from Sg (especially in public policy, law enforcement, transportation system, city planning, etc.) ... and Sg can also learn from Indo (work/life balance, how to cook good food, how to live happily without the need for lots of money, etc. )

“Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things"