Fred went a wandering.

Peddling these things is hard work so motorised versions became popular in some areas. I'm unsure these things are legal but they are as long as nobody says they aren't.



20180705_085653 by Indofred, on Flickr

There are a million street traders in every town, sewing guys being a very common sight.



but this is the first one I've seen repairing rackets for a living.

There are always traffic jams at school run times, but they tend to be worse here than in England. There are two reasons; the first is nobody organises anything so cars, motorbikes, and kids are all over the place - the second being street sellers blocking the pavements so the kids end up walking on the road, and that slows everyone down.
This guy was selling snacks to the primary kids as they left school.

Flatten



Shred into 'noodles'



Fry



serve and get his Rp2,000

ckr

The main international airport serving Jakarta and the rest of this area is a big, modern place you might find in any large city.
Just outside the airport is the hotel area, and a bunch of shacks with street sellers.
Many don't have  an official electricity supply so ......



As you can see, all up to date safety standards are strictly observed.

The food in Aceh is many and varied.
The bread is an Indian thing called Roti cani (Chaneye) served with a little chicken curry - Delicious.
The load of dishes covering the table type food is very common in that area. You eat what you want and any untouched stuff is passed to the next customer.

Aceh is in North Sumatra, and is dry as a bone as far as alcohol is concerned (or at least legal alcohol)
It's known mostly for images of people being whipped for sex outside marriage, and the press give us a lovely picture of bearded Islamic police everywhere spying on the population in case they take a bite of forbidden fruit.
The reality is rather different, the place being extremely safe, quiet, and peaceful with hardly a cop in site and, above all, it felt safe to be out late at night.

As I mentioned, no pubs or clubs but they make up for that with coffee shops. Seriously, there are hundreds of them and you can't move without passing one every 20 feet or so. As a note, the places are very popular.
I enjoyed by trip t this place, a pleasant atmosphere and the owner was a really nice chap.

Sidecars are the big thing in Aceh, ranging from a sidecar to hold the generator for his fairground ride trainer, right down to a rubbish collector and his pushbike.





and food



and drinks



and people

20180717_182245 by Indofred, on Flickr

December of 2004 saw a massive event, a tsunami of massive scale that destroyed much of Aceh, killed thousands of people, and made a mess you wouldn't believe.
There's a museum to the event, a place everyone should take a moment to visit if you're in that  area.
The walls of one room are covered in the names of the dead.







As for the rest, just visit an find out for yourselves as words aren't really enough to understand the place.

Bacak (baychack) vary in Indonesia from the standard version with a passenger seat at the front and a dude behind on a normal bike seat providing the power, right up to a motorbike and sidecar.
Aceh has the latter, many of which are very nicely made and looked after.
This is 'My' bacak,the one I used to get from the museum to the ship.

The single most amazing site in Aceh is the ship.
It weighs in at 2.6 thousand tons, but got tossed 5km inland by the wave. Seeing the thing close up gives you some idea of the massive power the wave must have had.

I've yet to travel the Java toll road from Jakarta without seeing a bump, or at least what's left after a fresh one.
My last jaunt was no exception



That made me wonder where all the other accident damage stuff ended up .. but a quick play on google maps looked after that.

The "Oops" collection










This is the really big Oops because this mess is this year's model.

We was in Aceh in 2015 for a wedding, we flew to Medan doing the orangutan thing, then drove to Kutacan (spelling) and then to Ketamba/ Katambe or similar
Also seen the ship monument you seen at Desa (something or another I think)
Pretty different that's for sure
One strange thing I picked up on in various parts of Aceh is that quite a few spoke very good English more so than other places I have visited

The owner of the coffee shop had a pretty fair go at speaking English, as did many others. Whilst English isn't a widely spoken language, it is used by some at least. The thing that got me the most was the number of tourists, something I didn't expect at all.

Can't really say I noticed to be honest but I was surprised by the information by the lad who was getting married (from Manchester) who spent about 5 days in Aceh before his marriage then returning to Medan with his wife, lots of activities to do, surfing, off roading amongst loads of other things

My wife wanted a mirror and street markets are commonly a good place to hunt for them. You'll notice all these shops are selling about the same stuff, a customer's dream if you're any good at negotiating.
I simply walked down the  lot asking the price, then waited for one to say it was fine to negotiate the price, knowing I'd found the one that wasn't selling enough so I could get a good price.
All worked well.

Fried banana is available in Kalimantan, and this place was excellent.
I stuffed myself silly on the stuff so much I didn't have any dinner.

Kalimantan is a very nice place but not exactly crowded. This is the main road in a town I passed through while there.







The restaurant was very nice and the local exceptionally friendly.

Mini buses vary as you move around Indonesia. These are Kalimantan's version.
Sorry the pictures aren't great but I wasn't able to stop to get better ones.

This 'house' is for chickens, thousands of chickens



These houses are not.
Kalimantan has many traditional and other simple wooden houses.

The seventeenth of August is independence day, a date most Indonesians take very careful note of.
There's also a nice sales opportunity for some.



These guys were enjoying a chess game

A walk by the river





Enjoying the afternoon

IMG_4330 by Indofred, on Flickr

Business is business and hair grows so a barber business has a stream of customers.......but I don't think he had the cash to set up a shop..

Independence day is a village celebration as much as it's a national one.

Works hard all day but only takes pennies home

Followers of the news will be aware of the terrible events on Lombok island, the death, injury, misery and suffering the people of that beautiful place are experiencing at the moment.
I've only been to Lombok once and didn't have time to explore, but I did have chance to see how friendly everyone was.
Groups of schoolkids are giving up their free time to collect for the victims.
You have to be a bit careful of fake collectors over here, but these are going to be the real deal as their principal would go off his trolley if they used school uniform to scam anyone.









IMG_4348 by Indofred, on Flickr

Every country has its forgotten, faceless people, Indonesia being no exception

Most schools, all local communities, and many businesses have a flag ceremony on independence day.
This is taken very seriously as Indonesia had to fight hard for its freedom, and that's not likely to be forgotten any time soon.

The standard cry is "MERDEKA" (freedom/independence), and they really mean what they say.
This bank was doing a rehearsal, and using the flag isn't allowed until you do it for real.
Almost forgot to mention - The serious side is very serious, but the flag ceremony is also a celebration, so a little fun before and after is fine.









IMG_4363 by Indofred, on Flickr

I've only seen this once in the last few years but great to see everyone so patriotic etc, good excuse for the kids to go a little crazy also, surprisingly Batam Centre is very quiet but in the kampungs big street party's (I'll have a few cold ones in my local for them 😊)

Business is conducted by people in many different ways, this guy seeing it as something that might or might not happen so he's happy at waiting in case a customer comes by.
He'll remain poor until he dies.

Land with a house



The house - the washing



The owner - Would you plough that lot by hand?

If you can't afford to buy land, consider alternatives

Small fishing boats like this are common in Indonesia. These pretty much hug the coast, never venturing too far out to sea.

Anco - A new word for me.

It seems these large nets on poles are called anco (Pro. Ancho) and are used when the tide comes in, that being from 3 until 6 every afternoon as the fish follow the tide.
They dip the things in the water, wait 5 minutes, then pull out with the thing full of fish. According to the chap I was chatting with, they get a reasonable number of fish in that time.

I had a little shopping to do but that left me with a choice of main road or back street - no competition

Lunch time



Washing time - At the front of the house with well water - Still very common in Indonesia.

Opticians are cheaper if you use an optician keliling (travelling). They wander around or you can call them







IMG_4565 by Indofred, on Flickr

Let's see - Wooden building and a big flame - mmmmm

[

Time moves on and old tech becomes less popular, just as these old fashioned rice cookers have become a poor seller, but there's still a small market for those without electricity and people who want a back up when the electricity goes off.
(We have one)



[/url]

A pedicab is known as a bacak (Baychack) and they come cheap, cheaper if you crowd in - poor driver



Some bright dude has made these kids' versions

There are lots of ways to make money (even if it isn't much), one is to trade in gold on the street

[

another is to strap yourself into a cart and collect rubbish (The stuff and the salary)