The bule bugil walking down Jalan Rasuna Said on February 13. Photo: Twitter / @titudt dan @yusuf_wan
Jakarta can be a really, really weird place sometimes…
So last Saturday, we saw some reports on social media that there was a naked bule walking down one of Jakarta’s busiest streets, Jalan Rasuna Said.
“There is a naked white person in the fast lane of Jalan Rasuna Said,” Twitter user Nani Sumindarti wrote, attempting to get the attention of the Jakarta Traffic Police’s Twitter account.
Here’s another, slightly more descriptive sighting from Mr. Adam Scott:
This sounded extremely familiar to us (a naked bule walking down the street in Jakarta is not something you easily forget). Sure enough we found numerous tweets and stories about a white man wearing nothing but a backpack and flipflops while walking down the fast lane on Jalan Rasuna Said, but from back in February of this year!
From the pictures and our friend’s description, it also seems like there is a chance that the naked chap is in fact a true bule (in case you didn’t know, the word originally meant albino). So he may actually be an albino Indonesian.
Other than that, we know very little about this mysterious man besides the fact that he likes to live life in the fast lane, naked while wearing sandals. His reappearance brings up so many questions: Who is he? Where is he so determined to get to on Jalan Rasuna Said? Was he arrested or stopped by police either time? Is he doing some sort of naked protest? What’s in the backpack (his clothes, maybe?)?
There is a chance that the bule bugil was in fact not really naked, as indicated by another Twitter witness from last weekend:
“@RadioElshinta There a white person walking in the fast lane of Jalan Rasuna Said with a stocking that looks like skin so that he looks naked #sensational”
So maybe he was in fact just wearing a (very white) flesh-colored bodystocking, and nobody else dared look closely enough to notice? We’re not sure whether that would make this story more or less weird.
But either way, we’re definitely curious. So if any of you happen to have any info on the (possibly) bule bugil, drop us a line at jakarta@coconuts.co.
Update: Another reliable source has confirmed that he was, in fact, definitely naked.
