Fred went a wandering.

Anyone been this close to a volcano?



Ruddy warm in that bit of Dieng, near Wonosobo.

A sensible solution when you're on a bike in the rain.



A mushroom stand.



Birds are popular out here. They even have bird markets in the street.

Fruit is for sale everywhere. As each fruit ripens up and is ready for picking, stands turn up all over the place selling whatever is ready.

It's the turn of duku this month.




Illegal DVD sales are everywhere.



Riding a bike is a fashion hobby out here.

A specialist Muslim school in Purwokerto, Central Java.





When you visit anywhere, local tradition insists they give you food,



and take you to a restaurant.
This is Padang food; very spicy.

Things like tread on tyres are optional here. There are loads running round like this.



The people that decide shop names really need to check the English first.



115

He chops up the fruit and serves it with a really hot sauce. Very nice.





Road safety is something other people do

At around 13, Muslims boys have the 'chop'. Big family occasion as it's seen as the start of manhood.
(And the end of a bit of his manhood )



A lass who works in the local 'Alfamart' convenience store.



A bread delivery van



Typical Indonesia repair

Security guards carry a big stick



and a penknife



Some lasses selling things





Buskers at rest

Scenes from Wonosobo, Central Java.











Bananas are free in many villages. You simply pick wild ones.

More Wonosobo area.



Changing the boss of a police sub district.

The old and the new



The wives must wear their uniform and join in



The entertainment



And the bloke who's leaving gets pressies

A milkman outside a school



Big white water rafting event was 'coming up soon' in Banjarnegara. They were getting ready.

Muslim wedding in a mosque.

The religious bit.



Then the legal bit.





In Indonesia, you get marriage books instead of certificates.

Then respect to the parents.





After that it's off home for photos and food.

By way of a note.
Most brides out here are, in the small towns and villages at least, virgins until the wedding night. Same goes for most grooms.

If you need a new key, it's easy. Stand like this are all over the place.



Micro buses here all over the place.



KFC mobile?



Chicken delivery woman



The 'local council' in my old village.



There were 160 houses in my old village. About 60 were family.
The villages are still as they were many years ago and many people still spend their whole lives within a tiny area.
Some older people who never went to school, still only speak Javanese and have no clue about the national language, Indonesian.

No benefit system means people work at anything.
This bloke wanders about selling household bits and bobs.



Chess is a street game



Not sure if the junk he's collecting is the bike.



Newspapers are commonly posted on boards in town squares each day.



Rainy season is just that so many buildings are designed with covered walkways.

Larger police stations have riot gear stored there.
The sticks are are used to make sure stroppy, violent people are better behaved.





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Back to those petrol stations. Most are run by the state oil company called Pertamina.
They are generally clean and mostly safe. They are fixed price for fuel that is set my the government at a subsidy.

Many are pretty well set up.
Fuel of course.



This one has a fish pond.



and a mini market



All have toilets.



A little mini mosque. 86% Muslim country so they all have these.

A joglo. That's a Javanese building with a tall roof but no walls. Quite common in the hot climate out here.









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I'm off to bed. More soon.

Mas Fred,The food looks great,Ill be back East Java middle next month,look forward to some good eating !!

Great pics,thanks, Phil

- the meat on the skewers look mouth watering!

No benefit system means people work at anything.
This bloke wanders about selling household bits and bobs.

Seeing pictures like this, makes me wonder how far this man has walked in a day to earn some sales.. I hope he managed to sell most of the items.

More Wonosobo area.

Amazing view and photoshot!

Muslim wedding in a mosque.

Captured an amazing moment..

At around 13, Muslims boys have the 'chop'.

must be quite painful -

@ Mas Fred, i'm really lost for words on how your pictures are just so amazing and how you capture the the perfect shot on the daily life over there. As mentioned before, I for one, never learnt so much about a country just by looking at pictures. !!

Bamboo is a common plant in Indonesia.
Because it's so common, it's very cheap or even free.
It's also strong and lasts for ages.

Bamboo in the wild.





Uses of bamboo.
The bridge will be surprisingly strong.



Most people don't know but it can be woven into sheets. They will take a brick being tossed and won't break.
That makes it a handy material for house walls if you don't have money for wood or brick.



But the toilet is made from other wood.
Many village houses don't have a toilet so shared arrangements are made.

jazzy851 wrote:

- the meat on the skewers look mouth watering!

The best satay I've ever had.
That restaurant is in Purwokerto and is wonderful.

Thank you for your kind comments.

Stupidity on the roads comes in grades here.
In most western countries, this would be totally mad.
Here, it's only slightly silly.

A mosque in BSD sets up a food tent to feed any passers by at the end of fasting.
Free food is common at this time of year.
Anyone is welcome.

The bridge has been open to motorbikes for a while but remained closed to cars and bigger.



Finally, it's open to cars but trucks still can't get through.
The locals have shifted the obstructions just enough for cars because they don't want the trucks going past.
Can't blame them.

Indonesia's independence day is coming up on the 17th.
Loads of people will have flags outside their houses and so on.
That means people will sell those flags.

Note his arm.



Kerupuk are seriously popular in Indonesia.  People eat them with everything.
They're a sort of cracker made from all sorts of different things like rice, flour, even potato.

Ramadan is a time of treats for the kids. They're be on their way to break the fast.



The old way to call to prayer, before loudspeakers, was drums. Many mosques still use them before the loudspeakers fire up.



All villages have a mosque of some sort.



Praying requires a ritual wash before entering the mosque.

A chicken or two.





I remember an old teacher telling me chickens were flightless birds.
Seems he was wrong.



A few weeks ago, I saw a chicken fly past me at a height of about 20 ft and fly for around 100 yards or so.
I've been trying to get a photo since. That's not a big tree but it shows they can fly.

Pots and pans sold from a bike.



It's coming up to Indonesian independence day so there are loads of people selling flags,

Hey Fred
watch oot fir low flying eggs

haggishunter wrote:

Hey Fred
watch oot fir low flying eggs

Bombing chickens - whatever next.

Seriously, I'd never seen a chicken do much more than flap around a bit so these things flying was really odd.

Maybe the last photo of the bridge for a while.
It's fully open to overloaded trucks again but no one bothered to sweep up the loose gravel.



Sadly, when a motorbike overtakes another and turns left before he clears the path of the first, the first bloke can't stop because of the gravel, so falls off.



The second bike, who caused the accident, buggered off but one of the people seems to have lost a shoe.

Indonesia has a building boom - a big one.
Houses and shops are being built everywhere and selling for daft high prices.
Loads remain empty but more are being built.
Indonesian exports are being badly effected by the Euro and US downturns.
I see trouble ahead.



This guy isn't wearing a dress. A sarung is common wear to visit a mosque but also commonly worn day to day by a lot of people, especially in villages.



Ambulances tend to be run as part of private hospitals.
They tend to be a lot more basic than the UK version and you have to pay for them.

There are a lot of people who can't afford an ambulance or any other medical treatment.
That means some people's injuries go untreated.

This guy is in a mess.
His arm has an old, untreated break that's left his upper arm "V" shaped. The lower arm and had are very badly swollen and he had no movement in his right hand.
He had a terrible limp, an obvious leg injury and maybe a hip injury.
That'll be with him for life now as repairing a badly healed fracture will be way beyond his ability to pay.
You can't see in those photos, but he was carrying a bucket of fish to sell.
No work, no food, even in that state.

These kids are begging for whatever they can get.
When I first saw these, I thought it was their mother who was taking the money from them as they collected it.
It turns out I was wrong. The women 'hire' the kids and force them to work as slaves.

Evil.



Mosques come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.



Child seat on a bike.

This lass can arrest me any time she wants.



New recruits, female at least, aren't allowed to get married for at least 24 months after joining the force.
Marriage usually means pregnancy and that means leaving for an extended period.

Pertamini filling stations are sometimes to be seen in villages where a pertamina isn't handy.





Muslims hate the west. Of course that's bollocks.
You would be amazed at the number of US, Australian and UK flags on things out here.
Not a political statement, just what I see.

A rice paddy.



Industrial safety at work



And especially safe with gas



Mobile veggie stalls are common here.
Cheap and they come to the door.



3 wheels on my wagon.
In a country where earnings are way too low to buy a van but transport is required..

Bamboo may be cheap but you can still sell it and make more than not selling it.



Moving house?



Shops rent out their car park space to food wagons.

The house had cockroaches but they all disappeared.
This bugger is about 30cm nose to toe.



1953 Hillman from the UK.
Seems the bloke's grand dad bought it and it has stayed in the family since.



A school open day.



A graveyard

Anyone want a brush?



A truck



In case anyone wondered what I used to do in the UK.



That has to be a cool job. I made a good few quid as well.

Tourist police in Banjarnegara, Central Java.

A business can appear pretty much anywhere.



At the time this was taken, there was a terrorist alert. This guy was the escort for the local intel cops.
It was all hush hush at the time but no worries now.



Three people on a bike is normal stuff out here.

Working a rice paddy.





A fairly typical Javanese style, cheaper end, village house.



A roadside petrol station.
These are very common in villages.