Indonesia

License plates are often black with white lettering, with the text visibly split into 3 groups (region, number, region). Yellow and red plates also appear.

Cigarettes are commonly sold roadside, and cigarette ads are common too. Even without an image, if it says "18+" it's a tobacco ad.

You may see rows of red-and-white triangular flags, or colorful flags, in front of houses or along streets.

The convenience-store chain Alfamart is everywhere. Together with Bank Mandiri and BRI Bank signs, it turns up even in smaller towns.

Most gas stations belong to Pertamina, the country's biggest fuel company. A number on the sign can even reveal the region (see "Narrowing down by region").

Utility poles often have red-and-white paint, or are iron poles painted black at the base or all over.

Roofs are usually tile or tin. The proportion of tin roofs rises the further north you go.

Narrow 2-lane roads are common.

Below the province (Provinsi) level is the kabupaten (regency), sometimes abbreviated "KAB" on signs. Learning kabupaten locations speeds up narrowing things down.

The number printed on a Pertamina gas station sign can reveal the region.

• 1x-5x: the smaller the number, the further north
• 6x: Kalimantan
• 7x: Sulawesi

A coffee plantation of low trees planted in terraced rows. Robusta is grown in Lampung, South Sumatra, and Bengkulu; arabica at higher elevations, such as Gayo in the Aceh highlands and Toraja in Sulawesi.

Rice is grown nationwide, but over half comes from Java.

Corn is concentrated on Java.

A plantation forest of straight-trunked trees planted at even spacing, with leaves bigger than a hand, is teak. It is managed mainly on Java.

Thin-trunked trees planted in rows, each with a diagonal cut in the bark and a small cup or shell to catch the sap, is a rubber plantation. South Sumatra has the most, and rubber is common across Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Dark green shrubs pruned to waist height, blanketing a mountainside like a carpet, is a tea plantation. Two-thirds of it is in the highlands of West Java.

Houses with reddish-brown tile roofs are common on Java.

A barren stretch of pure white sand dotted with several square ponds of murky blue or green water is a tin-mining scar (locally called a "kolong"). About 90% of production comes from Bangka Island and Belitung Island.

Straight drainage canals running on and on, water the deep brown of black tea, and flat, dark ground mean a peat swamp. Found across Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Papua.

A slope of brown, withered grass dotted only with fan-leaved palms, with none of the deep tropical green you'd expect — that's the Lesser Sunda Islands (Nusa Tenggara). It's Indonesia's driest region, with lontar-palm savanna spreading across it.

A perfectly cone-shaped mountain visible nearby, or dark volcanic-ash soil in the fields, points to a volcanic belt. Active volcanoes are especially numerous on Java and Sumatra.

The traditional Minangkabau house (Rumah Gadang), with its upward-curving roof, is found in West Sumatra.

Houses of the Batak people, who live in the highlands of northern Sumatra, have a distinctively shaped roof curving upward like ︶.

In the Toraja region of Sulawesi, you'll find Tongkonan houses with a boat-shaped roof curving up at both ends.

Houses called Lontiok are distinguished by a curved roof, a raised floor, and an odd number of steps up to the entrance. The roof's peak sometimes has a cross fitted to it.

The traditional houses of the Baduy people (Suku Badui), called Sulah Nyanda, can be found here.

Sumba Island has houses called Uma Marapu, with tall, pointed roofs jutting sharply upward.

Ternate Island has Mount Gamalama visible at its center, with roads and houses lining its slopes. Neighboring Tidore Island has a similar feel.