🇮🇩IndonesiaID

Indonesian licence plates are black with white letters. The letters usually appear as three white sections through the blur.

Commercial vehicles use yellow licence plates.

Plates in newer coverage can be white too.

NOTE: Malaysian licence plates are also black, but generally have two white sections.

Indonesia drives on the left.

NOTE: Malaysia drives on the left, while the Philippines drives on the right.

Indonesia uses white or yellow centre lines. Outer lines will always be white. The centre lines will be solid or dashed.

In Generation 3 coverage, yellow centre lines are more rare, as Indonesia only recently started using this colour for its road lines.

NOTE: Malaysian road lines are always all white.

Poles in Indonesia are typically round and made out of either steel or concrete. Many of the steel poles are painted black, and also feature the Indonesian flag colours on them. The pole tops are usually either even or uneven, depending on the region.

You can learn more about regional poles in the region-guessing section.

Indonesia commonly uses these black-and-white square or circular bollards, as well as these yellow-and-black ones, which can also have a red reflector. Other designs can also be found.

NOTE: UK-style bollards are mostly found in Kalimantan.

Usually yellow waystones that are angled towards the road, and have a cutout close to the top are unique to Indonesia. They include shorthand for three cities or towns, with the biggest one being on the top in the cutout section.

NOTE: Waystones in the Philippines are perpendicular to the road and have the text facing away from the road.

Indonesian can look very similar to Malaysian, however Indonesian has been influenced by Dutch, and Malaysian by English. These small changes in spelling may help differentiate the two.

An example is the word television in English, which translates to ‘televisi’ in Indonesian, similar to the Dutch word ‘televisie.’ In Malaysian, it translates to ‘televisyen’, more similar to English.

You can find these rows of red and white banners all around Indonesia. Sometimes, more colourful flags can be found.

Cigarette ads can be found all over Indonesia, usually with a black or red colour scheme and around a price of 18,000 Rp. Keep an eye out for illustrated graphic pictures, and the word ‘PERINGATAN’.

Motorcycles in Indonesia have front licence plates, as opposed to other south-east Asian countries which do not.

The official Indonesian currency is the Rupiah (Rp).

Coverage in Indonesia is fairly limited. Notably, there is no coverage on Papua or adjacent islands, and coverage is sparse in areas such as Kalimantan, Aceh, Central Sulawesi and North Maluku.

The names of 2nd level subdivisions, named ‘Kabupaten’ or ‘Kab’ for short, translating to regency, can be found all over Indonesia on various signs and billboards. Each province is split up into multiple Kabupatens, totalling to 417 which are covered by street view, and therefore applicable in Geoguessr. These are learnable with enough time and patience.

See the resources section for more information.

You can find the cardinal directions written on many addresses. They are as follows:

• North = Utara

• East = Timur

• South = Selatan

• West = Barat

• Central = Tengah

• Southeast = Tenggara

Satellite dishes can help you determine whether you are north or south of the equator. For example, if the satellite dish points north, you are most likely south of it, and vice versa. Additionally, they usually point towards the middle part of West Kalimantan. This lets you use the angle to determine which side of Indonesia you are in. Lastly the angle of the satellite dish can also tell you how far away from the equator you are.

While kabupaten names appear significantly more often, a number of signs also display the postal code. Postal codes are five digits long and grouped by their starting digit, ranging from 1xxxx in Jakarta to 9xxxx in Maluku and Papua.

You can click on the image to enlarge it.

Indonesia uses two types of pole tops: even and uneven. This refers to the bar that holds the insulators and whether it is symmetrical to the pole itself. Knowing where even and uneven poles are most commonly found is useful for region guessing.

On the Lesser Sunda Islands (“Nusas”), you can find poles with an extra long support on the pole top. Sometimes, two supports can be present.

You can find these poles with a triangle attachment under the horizontal bar in the following regions.

NOTE: This does not apply to stacked poles.

Poles with an indent on both sides are found in West Java, Jakarta, and Banten.

Trident style pole tops are most commonly found in Central Java and Yogyakarta, and rarely in South and West Kalimantan, and North Sumatra and Riau.

Pole tops in North and Central Sulawesi, and Gorontalo commonly feature an extra attachment right under the horizontal bar.

These poles are almost exclusive to North Sumatra. The bar which holds the insulators is even, but features uneven insulators with one on one side and two on the other.

Poles with a support shaped like the letter A are common in Kalimantan and the Nusa islands.

NOTE: A-frame poles can exist anywhere where the electrical wires are in a bend and need extra support. Use this tip with caution.

Poles with the flat part of the crossbar facing away from the pole are common in Sulawesi. 

NOTE: Usually, poles in Indonesia have the flat part of the crossbar attached to the pole.

You can often see thin, black poles next to regular poles near the East Peninsula of Central Sulawesi. Two pieces of tape can be seen near the top of the poles, usually light blue and green. These can rarely be seen in northern South East Sulawesi.

You can find this rectangle attachment on the pole tops which is mostly unique to Bali. This appears with the Lesser Sunda Island support beam as well.

Pole paint with horizontal text on the pole is usually a good clue for Bali. It is usually dark blue on Bali but can be light blue or even green.

Asymmetrical poles with 2 supports below the bar occur mainly on Sumatra and the southern part of Sulawesi. It is not commonly seen in Kalimantan or Java.

These painted fences are typically found on Sulawesi. They will be mostly painted white with blue or red.

Central Sulawesi features these unique bollards that are painted black on the bottom, white in the middle, and yellow on the top.

Green paint can often be seen on the side of bridges in South and Central Kalimantan.

Within Indonesia, oil palm plantations are mostly concentrated in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Palm plantations can rarely be seen in Sulawesi.

The majority of rice production is concentrated in Java, but can sometimes be found in other provinces, namely South Sulawesi and South Sumatra. They can rarely be found in other provinces as well. For a full overview, see this page.

The Nusas are drier than other regions in Indonesia. Vegetation tends to look less tropical, but instead lower and shrubbier. 

NOTE: While less common, other regions such as Java can look similarly dry. Make sure to look out for other clues before guessing.

Very rounded green hills, typically covered with clusters of palms, sugarcane or corn, are extremely common within the province of Gorontalo.

This savannah landscape is occasionally seen on north Sumba. 

NOTE: In Generation 3, you will always see a white car.

Red soil with a layer of white soil on top of it is most commonly found in the Bangka Belitung islands. On these islands, the white soil can often be seen spilling onto the road.

Tiled roofs are most commonly found on the island of Java, and sometimes nearby regions such as southern Sumatra, the Lesser Sunda Islands, and South Kalimantan.

NOTE: The tiles on roofs in South Kalimantan and Jambi look slightly different. The tiles are usually less rounded but flatter.

Plain sheet metal roofs are more commonly found toward the north, where tiled roofs are not found. They are most commonly found on Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Sumatra.

Sheet metal roofs with this shape, a symmetrical triangular shape with two levels of sloping, can be found mainly in Sulawesi, but can be found elsewhere in Indonesia.

These horizontal slots inside the triangles of the roofs are almost unique to Southern Sulawesi.

NOTE: They can rarely be found in East Kalimantan and West Nusa.

You can find these distinct roofs with uniquely high-pitched peaks on Sumba.

Architecture in Bali is unique because it was influenced by old Balinese culture and Hinduism. The most important thing to look for are these crown-like roof pinnacles, found everywhere in Bali. Guardian statues and slit-drum towers are common too. Andesite, a dark, volcanic rock, is a common building material in Bali. You can often see gates, walls, and other intricately carved ornaments built from this material.

West Sumatra features these distinct boat-shaped roofs.

North Sumatra features similarly distinct boat-shaped roofs, however the roofs are less angled upward and they do not feature spires.

NOTE: These roofs are most commonly found near Lake Toba, due to its sacred history.

On Kalimantan, you can find these unique roofs made out of wooden chips.

Roofs with gable horns can be found most commonly in South Sulawesi, Riau and Central and South Kalimantan.

NOTE: Horned roofs are often found with Bugis roofs in South Sulawesi. Use this tip along with other clues to determine which region you are in.

A small region of South Sulawesi, around the city of Rante Pao, features these very unique houses, called Tongkonan, that have saddle-shaped roofs. The houses themselves are also elevated from the ground.

Indonesia is religiously a Muslim majority country, so seeing churches, and other Christian signs, is a good clue for these regions.

Generation 3 antenna coverage is most commonly found on Java, but can very rarely be seen on Bali in and around Denpasar. It is most commonly seen in East Java, as most of the antenna coverage in the west has been overwritten by Generation 4.

Black Generation 3 coverage can be found almost everywhere in Indonesia, but is most common in Sulawesi.