Fred went a wandering.

I was taking Michelle for her usual morning walk using the usual route when I noticed this.



Weddings, circumcisions and funerals will see Indonesians but these tents up wherever they can. This time they have covered the walkway that runs between the houses.



They put tables out so they can serve food to their guests



But they have to cook it first



Of course you have to park carefully.
Yes, this is in use on the roads



158

Bakso is little meat balls in a hot, watery soup with a bit of veggie.
The meat is all fat and rubbish and I can't stand the stuff.
I'm not alone in this but I am in a tiny minority.





A small shop



No, make that a tiny shop.

love the pictures mas fred...
specially the Serpong part.. its a friendly view.

The last groups were a mix of Purwokerto and BSD.
I think the bakso was Melati mas but I get all over the place so I could have mis-remembered.

i never been to Purwokerto.
I think almost every neighbourhood have their own "bakso" guy.
even, In front of my "kompleks", theres a stall selling beef, lamb and rabbit..
poor rabbity..

I hung out in Purwokerto for a while so I know it quite well.

Kaki lima means, 5 legs.
That's a cart with some bloke powering it. They're used for everything you can imagine and a few things you can't.



The roads are a great place to find the unusual, the stupid and the positively dangerous.

Road safety is someone else's problem out here.
A taxi driver using a mobile is pretty common.



A rather nice little restaurant in Purwokerto



common thing here is lesehan. That's usually just a simple table and no chairs. Off go your shoes and you sit on the floor at a low table.



You end up in a little stable like enclosure. That means it's private so you can eat in peace.



You can wash your hands before and after the meal.



It's especially necessary after as you eat like this.

Ah, fish in a pet shop.





Sorry, did I say pet shop? I mean supermarket. These are food. Told you fresh stuf was easy to find out here.



On the subject of fresh food. A few of these chicken sellers are around every morning.
Killed at 5, plucked by 6 and on the road being sold.

I love bananas. Really easy to find cheap fresh ones out here. Mini plantations are all over the place.



Another street food stall. This one has nasi gila (Crazy rice). That's spicy as it comes.



While wandering around a couple of years ago I noticed this little village. Seriously poor place but they all seem to have a TV. Bamboo and cheap wood construction.
Compressed dirt floors.





I was in a place called Purbalingga.
Nice mosque there.

Cutting the rice crop.





Things get recycled here. It's not so much a green thing as doing it is cheap.
This is a common dustbin. Old tyres have uses.

The police set up road blocks to check motorcycle.

It's called sweeping.



They check people are wearing helmets and have the correct docs for the bike.



They ignore the openly stupid things.



If you don't have the right bits of paper you have the form filling, trip to court and fine.



And say bye bye to your bike.



I'm told that Rp50,000 can buy you an escape from all that pesky paperwork but I don't believe a word of it of course.

A trip to Jakarta.

Starts by a pedicab ride to the bus terminal.



Where the man collects your Rp200 entry fee.



My bus was due to leave at 7am but this is Indonesis so it ended up going at 8.

People just waited around.



Then off we go.

Past a little volcano or few.



and on to the toll road

Road works on one road held us up for a while.
On the better buses the sellers aren't allowed on but they sell to people in cars and on the cheap buses.
A traffic queue is a magnet to the sellers.



The roads are not always up to western standards even in Jakarta.



Breakfast



Last of my Jakarta trip from the time I lived in Purwokerto.

People collecting for various things and beggars are 24/7 out here.



And at the rest stop

Girls from a local Muslim school taking part in a parade.



This bloke sells hot soya milk





Fluffy pic for the girls to go "aaawwwwww" at.



Indonesian safety. This is a kid's play area.

I went up to Wonosobo (My old stomping ground).

Main street.





Alun alun (Town square)

I was late out of bed and very late setting off so no breakfast. I got there about 11am and was well ready for some snap.
In Wonosobo there is a great roast chicken place.

On the road south out of Wonosobo there is a Buddhist temple but I've never noticed this over the road from it.





Ah, what's cooking?



Curried chicken feet



166

mas fred wrote:

No, make that a tiny shop.

http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/qq28 … d486ac.jpg

I love how well the name goes with the place.

mas fred wrote:

I love bananas.

I miss bananas.  We have nothing good here.

mas fred wrote:

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e294/ … 010901.jpg

Aww.

Up a ladder



And the safety bloke at the bottom.





That looks like a laid back peddling style

I was walking down the main street this morning.

Hello, what's up here?





Bangkok has tuk tuks but jakarta has bajai (forgive the spelling if I got it wrong).





While I was waiting at that roundabout to try and snap a bajai I discovered a great new game of 'bait the taxi driver'.

All you do is stand at a very busy junction looking around.

What you do is totally ignore any taxis you see. They see the white guy and will cut up all six lanes of traffic and reverse back to you.

You get points but guessing how many people will blow their horns at him but the big points come if you guess the right number of near misses and actual accidents over any one hour period.
Best played in pairs but it can be great fun playing alone.
The look on their faces is great when you politely refuse there service.

All those food carts I have posted photos of must be made somewhere.

Motorcycle test in Indonesia.
First you have to get through the cones then do the fig 8 course



Fun transport



Odd transport.



A local market in a small Indonesian town.







170

We've had a lot of flooding here lately, well, in some places.
What's going on here?



Ah, fishing out all the fish from the last of the flood water before it dries up.
Small fish but handy when you don't have enough money to buy food.

An orphanage on a tiny back road, off another tiny back road.

The dude who runs it (I'm guessing at a very tiny salary)



The kids, buildings and a blind guy who always seems to be there but I have no idea who he is or what he does.

Living when you're poor could be described as existing.
Note the baby in the home made swing.

House prices are going daft in Indonesia (I predict a massive crash in the next couple of years).
Builders are grabbing as much land as they can and building very expensive (In price, not quality) houses.

These, Rp1.4 billion houses ae being built on soft ground that floods. You may recall the stuck digger I posted a few weeks ago.



They had to drag the truck out as well.

The river bursts its banks ever wet season so they're building up the banks.



Of course, they aren't building them up further downstream where the bridge gets blocked up so it'll probably still flood.

I, myself, sit in my dry, older and far cheaper house with freshly made lemonade from the lemon tree in the front garden.

Motorbikes are used to carry everything and anything.



Burst tyre? No worries, Mobile repairers are everywhere.





One of my favourite subjects is food. Indonesia suits me very well as food is available everywhere.
I suppose, one guy sets up a stall and people stop to buy so someone else latches on and so on. Pretty soon you have a mini market.

Someone is building a new church.

Traffic lights in Indonesia often have something more than lights in England.



The timer counts down to the change.

Supermarkets act as wholesalers to the smaller shops.
You get discounts if you buy by the carton.

There are small shops for pretty much anything and everything.

Hi Fred.. Nice to see all your pict...
Some of Indonesian living style...everyone now can see how unique is the Indonesian..
Have you ever been to eastern Indonesia? Or maybe Sumatera Island or Bali...?!! You can find more and more unique things around there...

I've only been to Central Java, Jakarta, a few beaches and Belitung island.
I would like to get around more but having family limits my freedom to wander too far.

Fate, as Lemony Snicket assures us,  is like a strange, unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like.

So far, Mr. Snicket's waiters have been pretty good at knowing what I'd like out of life but you never know if they'll bring snails in some disgusting wine sauce next.

Fred, I’ve “said” this to you many times in the past…selamat!

I personally regard this string on this forum to be the singular best and most honest representation of life on Indonesia (Jakarta area to be specific), to be found in cyber space.

Your photos speak a thousand words, and when they don’t, you are more than capable of filling in for them with letters.

There are more than just a few bloggers about Indonesia, Borborigmus being just one, who could learn a lot from you. 

Cheers, and please carry on!

I read a little of Borborigmus and love the work.
Comparing me to his genius is a very nice compliment.
Thank you.

Well then, that’s where we part ways, as frankly all I can read in his monotonous and boorish rants is constant dissatisfaction and the desire that things here were the same as back “home” for him…wherever that “home” is.

No worries though Fred, it was only a matter of time before we wouldn’t see eye to eye on everything, and once you, like him, have been in Indonesia long enough, you’ll both “see the light.” 

I don't know.
I've read a few of his posts and I've enjoyed them.
Maybe my odd humour sees the funny side.