Saturday, August 2, 2008

JOGJAKARTA & BEYOND - Day 4 Part 1

DAY 4 - ONWARDS FROM GLAGAH

I paid for my one night stay when I checked in. This would free me to leave at the first light of dawn if I wished to, without the need to disturb the caretaker of the losmen. The sun was just breaking the horizon when I got ready to leave. I posed for this pic to remember this "Primitif" Losmen. Nothing primitive about it. I enjoyed my stay in a clean room. I had some biscuits purchased earlier to fill my stomach for the early ride.


This day was MONDAY, Monday blues for city dwellers. Back home at this hour, the highways would have been choked with traffic. Over here, people went to work too. They have no Kancils, MyVi's, BMW's or the Mercedes. They all cycled only one kind of vehicle - the ONTHEL. And they got aerobic exercises on the way to work.




It was a nice sight to see. In groups of 4 or 5, they cycled together to work. Their "panniers" were empty. Almost all wore their multipurpose "helmets". Their hardened hands would not require gloves. Certainly no padded pants necessary for their bottoms. They were born with their "Shimano shoes". Barefooted they cycled, most of them. I doubt it was due to poverty. It was more for practicality. Their cycling attires were their working attires. As I photographed them, they were also looking at this overdressed traveller. In their minds, they must be thinking, "what an expensive to cycle".


When the day was over, on their return journey, they would be carrying loads that only their steel ONTHEL bikes could carry. These bales of padi were heavy. I saw a man requiring help trying to right his ONTHEL laden with the padi bale. I actually missed capturing a man carrying a wooden bed precariously on his bicycle!




I reported earlier that once the padi was harvested, cash crops replaced the padi. Here, a couple and their daughters were manning their smallholdings. The shrub-looking plants were "cabae" in their Indon language, or "cabai" to us. The taller plants were maize.




They also had an economical way of frying the maize. I'll use the acronym PALD - Peel And Let Dry. It would also be eco-friendly. This is what I called "a-maize-ing".




The crops were also in abundance. It should be, with bold advertising like this one. TONG BES, TUNG SAR - Tongkol Besar, Untung Besar. Again "a-maize-ing"!

I would like to add....KAN NYAK, DAN SAR - Makan Banyak, Badan Besar! Just like the lady in the ad. Didn't she resembled our very own Pop Diva?

Just across the road of this advertisement was a restaurant. I stopped here for my breakfast, my eyes still on the Tong Bes...Tung Sar

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