Comparison and practice

How to tell Indonesia from Malaysia in GeoGuessr

Check the licence plates and the centre line first. Both countries use black plates with white letters, but Indonesian ones blur into three white blocks and Malaysian ones into two. A yellow centre line points to Indonesia; a double white one, to Malaysia. Then look for what only Malaysia has in our cards: yellow hexagonal route-number shields, stop signs reading “Berhenti” and black code stickers on electricity poles.

Indonesia clues: 1,026
Malaysia clues: 36
photos in the quiz: 22

1 of 10

In which country do you see this license plate style?

Keys 1–2 to answer, Enter to continue.

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At a glance

What changes across the border, according to our cards. Each clue comes with its photos further down.

Clue	Indonesia	Malaysia
Licence plates	Black with white letters, blurring into three blocks; yellow for commercial vehicles, white in newer coverage	Black with white letters, blurring into two blocks
Motorbikes	Carry a front plate too	No equivalent in our cards
Centre line	White or yellow, solid or dashed; edge lines always white	Always white; often double on two-lane roads
Road markings	No equivalent in our cards	Thick yellow diagonal bars, almost exclusive to Malaysia
Signs	No equivalent in our cards	Yellow hexagonal route-number shields; “Berhenti” and “Beri Laluan”; black-and-white striped sign posts
Electricity poles	Round, steel or concrete; many steel ones painted black with red-and-white bands near the base	Black rectangular code sticker, sometimes with a red-and-white or red-and-blue stripe below
Bollards	Black-and-white, or yellow-and-black with a red reflector	Slim, mixing black, white, grey and red
Regional architecture	Balinese roofs, Minangkabau and Batak houses in Sumatra	No equivalent in our cards

Clue by clue

Photos from real MetaSpotter cards, with the explanation each one carries.

01
Licence plates
Both use white letters on black, so what decides is how many white blocks are left when the plate is blurred: three in Indonesia, two in Malaysia. Indonesia also has yellow plates for commercial vehicles and, in newer coverage, white plates. One more Indonesian clue: motorbikes carry a front plate, which most of South-East Asia does not do.

© Google
🇮🇩 IndonesiaIndonesian plates are black with white letters, and through the blur the digits/letters usually resolve into three separate white blocks. Commercial vehicles use yellow plates instead, and some newer coverage shows white plates. Malaysian plates are also black, but they generally blur into only two white sections.
© Google
🇲🇾 MalaysiaMalaysian plates are black with white text split into two sections and stay readable even blurred; Indonesian plates look similar but split into three white sections.
© Google
🇮🇩 IndonesiaMotorcycles in Indonesia carry a front license plate in addition to the rear one, which most other Southeast Asian countries do not do.
02
Road lines
Indonesia paints its centre line white or yellow, solid or dashed, with edge lines always white; yellow is rarer in Gen 3 coverage because it was adopted more recently. In Malaysia every line is white, and on two-lane roads the centre line is often doubled: it is the only South-East Asian country that does this. A yellow centre line points to Indonesia; a double white one, to Malaysia. Thick yellow diagonal bars painted on the road are almost exclusive to Malaysia.

© Google
🇮🇩 IndonesiaIndonesia uses white or yellow centre lines, which can be solid or dashed, while the outer lines are always white. This differs from Malaysia, where road lines are always all white.
© Google
🇲🇾 MalaysiaMalaysia frequently uses double white centre lines on two-lane roads, sometimes dashed on one-lane roads; it is the only Southeast Asian country to do so.
© Google
🇲🇾 MalaysiaThese thick yellow diagonal bars are almost exclusive to Malaysia; very rarely a similar pattern appears in Hong Kong or the United Kingdom.
03
Road signs
This is the clearest section on the Malaysian side. Direction signs show the route number in a yellow hexagonal shield on a green or blue background, which only Malaysia has. Stop signs read “Berhenti” and give-way signs “Beri Laluan”; Brunei uses the same words. Sign posts are almost always painted in black-and-white stripes, though similar ones turn up in Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Our Indonesian cards have nothing equivalent.

© Google
🇲🇾 MalaysiaHexagonal yellow highway-number shields on a green or blue background are unique to Malaysian directional signs.
© Google
🇲🇾 MalaysiaStop signs reading 'Berhenti' and yield signs reading 'Beri Laluan', both in Malay, are the standard pair here; neighbouring Brunei uses the same wording.
© Google
🇲🇾 MalaysiaSignposts in Malaysia are almost always painted with black-and-white stripes; similar posts also occur in Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Bangladesh, so check other clues before deciding.
04
Electricity poles
Indonesian poles are round, steel or concrete, and many steel ones are painted black, often with red-and-white bands, the national flag colours, near the base. Malaysian poles often carry a black rectangular sticker with a code, sometimes with a red-and-white or red-and-blue stripe below it; those black stickers only appear on the peninsula. Lamp posts held by a triangular brace or by an arm with two small circles are also mostly seen there.

© Google
🇮🇩 IndonesiaMany steel poles in Indonesia are painted black and often carry the national flag colours, red and white, in bands near the base.
© Google
🇲🇾 MalaysiaElectricity poles in Malaysia often carry a black rectangular sticker with a code, sometimes with a red-and-white or red-and-blue stripe just below it.
© Google
🇲🇾 MalaysiaLamp posts whose support carries two small circular fittings like these are mostly seen on the peninsular, mainland part of the country.
05
Bollards
Indonesian bollards are usually black-and-white, square or round, or yellow-and-black, sometimes with a red reflector; the yellow-and-black one is the useful clue. Malaysian bollards are slim posts mixing black, white, grey and red, in several colour variants. A black-and-white bollard does not decide on its own: look at the shape and the colour mix.

© Google
🇮🇩 IndonesiaIndonesia commonly uses black-and-white square or circular bollards, as well as yellow-and-black ones that can have a red reflector, though other designs also appear. UK-style bollards are mostly found in Kalimantan.
© Google
🇲🇾 MalaysiaMalaysian bollards often combine black, white, grey and red on a similar slim post layout, though several colour variants exist.
06
Indonesian architecture and landscapes
Indonesia has regions with a look of their own that our Malaysian cards do not cover. In Bali, roofs topped with crown-like pinnacles appear almost everywhere. In West Sumatra, Minangkabau houses have boat-shaped roofs with sharp spikes; in North Sumatra, Batak houses have less steeply curved ones without spires. In the east, especially the Nusa Tenggara islands, vegetation is brown and sparse. Indonesia is majority-Muslim, so a church points to one of its Christian-majority regions.

© Google
🇮🇩 IndonesiaBalinese architecture, shaped by old Balinese culture and Hinduism, features crown-like tiered roof pinnacles almost everywhere on the island, plus guardian statues and slit-drum towers.
© Google
🇮🇩 IndonesiaWest Sumatra has these distinctive, sharply spiked boat-shaped roofs, seen on traditional Minangkabau "rumah gadang" houses.
© Google
🇮🇩 IndonesiaVegetation here looks brown and sparse rather than tropical-green; this dryness is typical of eastern Indonesia, especially the Nusa Tenggara islands.

The hard case: Borneo and the coasts facing Malaysia

In the parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan that face Malaysia (Sumatra’s east coast, Riau, the Riau Islands and West Kalimantan) many buildings have metal canopies with curved ends, often blue or red, a Malay influence, so architecture does not decide there. On Borneo, Malaysia also switches poles and stickers. Go back to plates and road lines, and look for what belongs to each area.

SarawakPoles with a 2-1 insulator layout and a long diagonal wooden brace; Indonesian ones can look similar but are usually not wooden and have smaller braces or none. Lamp posts with a boomerang-shaped sheet-metal support.
SabahThin metal poles with two parallel crossarms, winding mountain roads and green arrow-shaped street signs with a small yellow hexagonal “JKR” logo.
KalimantanUK-style bollards are mostly found here; in the areas facing Malaysia, metal canopies with curved ends.
Johor and the Riau IslandsIn Johor, yellow street-name signs with black text and black pole stickers with “TEL TNB” at the bottom; in Batam, poles covered in small plumbing adverts such as “SEDOT WC”.

What does not decide

These clues look the same on both sides of the border, so on their own they do not decide. In MetaSpotter, when a card shows one of them, the other country is never offered as a wrong answer.

Oil palm plantation
Rice paddy
Coconut palm

How to learn them and keep them

Reading this page is not enough: in a week you will have forgotten half of it. These clues stick when you review a few every day, right before you forget them. Start with Indonesia · Metas (18 cards) and Malaysia · Metas (12), then mix them with the rest of the region in S & E Asia · Identify.

Study S & E Asia · Identify

Indonesia and Malaysia decks

  
    🇮🇩
    
      Indonesia · Metas
      Level 318 cards
    
    🇲🇾
    
      Malaysia · Metas
      Level 312 cards
    
      S & E Asia · Identify
      Level 374 cards
    
      Southeast Asia · Beginner
      Level 225 cards
    
      World · License plates
      Level 354 cards
    
      World · Road lines
      Level 352 cards
    
    🇮🇩
    
      Indonesia · Kalimantan
      Level 431 cards
    
      Asia · Bollards
      Level 322 cards

How to tell Indonesia from Malaysia in GeoGuessr

At a glance

Clue by clue

Licence plates

Road lines

Road signs

Electricity poles

Bollards

Indonesian architecture and landscapes