After decades of travelling around the archipelago of Indonesia I have come across many odd things, both culturally and linguistically. Being well versed in Bahasa Indonesia, I was delightfully surprised to hear, when I was in Yogyakarta, a term unfamiliar to me. The term being ‘Polisi Tidur’
I have probably heard it before a thousand times but not payed much notice to it. Literally translated it means ‘sleeping policeman’. What it actually applies to is the speed bumps in the road! Of course I fond this amusing but when you think about it, it makes sense. They slow the traffic down just as if a policeman was standing there.
How I learnt about this term was because there is a polisi tidur at the entrance to the village where I stayed and many of the locals mentioned it at times in conversation. Naturally, my curiosity became the better of me and I asked one of the locals. With much hilarity he explained it. Actually it is quite a cute term as a deterrent for speeding motorists, both motor bikes and cars.
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The same term is used in Australia and in the UK
hi barrie,
nice to read your little ditty about the sleeping policemen. i’ve been in indonesia now for about 6 years and on the numerous occasions that these ‘bumps’ have come into conversation, i’ve always called them ’sleeping policemen’ to the hilarity of the locals(after an explanation). being english,this has been the normal term used in england since someone ‘invented’ them decades ago !