My long-lost friends,
I could re-cap the past couple of days in one word - "Awesome"...
Why so awesome? Well, our time in Jogjakarta was spent touring two massive and spectacular temples. Not only were they massive and spectacular, they were also hundreds and hundreds of years old. Both temples are on extended lists of the ancient wonders of the world, and it is no surprise. If the advanced construction and beautiful sculptures don't make them mysterious enough, the fact that one of them was abandoned for hundreds of years and buried under volcanic ash and untamed forests should do the trick.
I could re-cap the past couple of days in one word - "Awesome"...
Why so awesome? Well, our time in Jogjakarta was spent touring two massive and spectacular temples. Not only were they massive and spectacular, they were also hundreds and hundreds of years old. Both temples are on extended lists of the ancient wonders of the world, and it is no surprise. If the advanced construction and beautiful sculptures don't make them mysterious enough, the fact that one of them was abandoned for hundreds of years and buried under volcanic ash and untamed forests should do the trick.
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| (Borobudur Temple) |
The two temples were called Prambanan and Borobudur, you would probably recognize them either from the movies, or from an episode of National Geographic... for your history/religion lesson of the day: Prambanan is a Hindu temple that was constructed in the 9th century. The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia and one of the largest in Asia. Borobudur was also constructed in the 9th century and was designed as a Buddhist shrine. There are more than 504 statues of Buddha on and around the structure.... That's all the history for now.
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| (View from the top of Borobudur) |
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| (Halee getting her ride on) |
Since my last post, we officially finished our internship with our good friends at Indokemika. We also had the opportunity to tour the Indonesia branch of Sonoco. Sonoco is a large packaging manufacturer located out of the great, Hartsville, SC.
On Sunday we will fly to Singapore where we will stay until Wednesday when we fly back to the good ole U.S. of A.
Next post should be from Singapore.
, Tyler
I was glad you guys got to tour a Sonoco operation in Indonesia - that will give you an even better feeling for the scope of the company that is headquartered so close to your college lives. The chair of the Coker board, I think, used to have responsibility for many of the Asian operations and that probably includes Indonesia. So, if you were writing a reflection paper for this internship, what are the three top observations you guys would record? You certainly got to FEEL some history -- temples thousands of years old. Have a good flight back to the States.
ReplyDeleteSorry it took so long to respond, we have been travelling the past few days. I think the top three observations I would record would be:
ReplyDelete1. The importance of relationships in Asian business- The companies in Indonesia and Asia practice what is called relationship-based business. In America, we typically practice transaction-based business. The difference is that we make business choices based on money, or transactions. The Indonesians will not do business, even if it means not making a sale, unless they have established a relationship with the other company and approve of the way the company functions.
2. Communication- Am I trying to earn brownie points? Effective communication is a major part of running a successful international business. The company that we worked for has several plants and warehouses stretched all across Indonesia, and they have to successfully communicate orders etc in order to maximize profits. Without effective communication systems in place, it would be impossible to be organized enough to stay in business.
3. Cultural Differences- The people in Indonesia are very respectful to each other. It was very nice to experience a culture where everyone respects one another. No matter how big of a difference socially or financially there was between two people, they always showed mutual respect. On the same subject, the customer service there is light years ahead of where we are. If you go into any fast food establishment, they treat you the same as if you were in a five star restaurant and were a special guest...It was a very nice/refreshing change.
There are many more observations that I think are important, but those are the top three that stood out to me.
- Tyler