Page 47 and a strange fruit.

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These shops are often stocked up by going to the local supermarket or buying from small scale wholesalers. Their profits are tiny.

A delivery.

A walk to kertek, Wonosobo, Central Java.
This is the main road to the North.

This taxi offered me a ride.
No, I'm not taking the piss - This is a taxi.

Kertek town centre.

 

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Kids on the way to school.

Food sellers outside a school.

School kids have a flag ceremony every Monday.
They salute the flag and the head teacher.

 

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Schools often invite the army to do drill training.

There are some seriously big insects in Java.

In my old town two people died last year of drinking illegal booze.
The stuff uses medical alcohol and bleach in it's list of ingredients.

A week after the second one pegged it I was at the old dam in the village and found their drinking den.

 

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I keep saying nothing can surprise me in this country after three years (at that time) and I keep being wrong.

Pedicabs are very common but this one seemed a little small.

I thought there were two passengers but, if you notice the leg sticking out, there were three............

....... or maybe more

 

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I mentioned the women who send kids to beg at traffic lights.

I was wandering about taking photos of snakes the other day when I noticed this place.

Serious food as long as you have a toilet roll in the fridge.

There are a lot of beggars out here but this is the first time I've seen this lass.
Old, blind and looking seriously ill.
She had no idea I have taken the photo but I paid her for it anyway.

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There is a local police called the Pol PP.
Sort of like council people but with big sticks. Their job includes removing illegal stalls that block the pavements.

Kids on the way to school.
There are vocational schools here known as SMKs. You can find a wide variety of skills at these schools.
Most tend to be admin, computers, motorbike mechanics but this one is for navy/merchant navy.

Sorry about the really poor image but it tells the story.
The normal polite greeting for a teacher or parent is handshake. That's commonly a kiss to the teacher's hand or the kid will raise the hand to the forehead or cheek.
Very polite.

When you eat at a street stall the place being clean is a very important feature.
Even the dish washing facilities have to be tip top.

 

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I have found that most stereo types have some truth but are mostly a load of old bollocks.
All Indonesian blokes are small.
This bloke was outside a local gym. Turns out he's the local arm wrestling champ. Bloody nearly ripped my arm out just shaking hands.
If he has a sister remind me not to try to shag her.

Back to the roads for a moment.
Anything will be carried on anything if it can or almost can.
There is no Indonesian work for "safety".

Why is this bloke giving money to a van driver?

Because it's a bus.

The army is called the TNI.
They must have had a senior officer at whatever do they had on so there were road blocks and security around.
As you can see it was a precise military operation with an airtight cordon around the base.

 

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<serious moment>
It does. I love the way people are here. When I first went to Malaysia, I was told Indonesia was crap, full of terrorists and a place not to be.
The terrorist bit was partially true but loads of them, including the leaders, are pretty much finished considering the number of bullets the police put in them.
The rest of the people are pretty much all the same. They almost always have a smile and are willing to give you the last crumb off their plate if you're a guest in their house.
</serious moment>
The girls also tend to have very nice bums.

 

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There's a law that says they must have daytime headlights. Thought it may have been a good idea to enforce the one about night time lights first but there you go.
Wonder if there is a law about using a bike to walk your dog.

No dole so people do what they can. Loads of little street micro businesses here.

I may have mentioned before, one of the strangest things for a newcomer to Java comes across is the Javanese calendar. There are only 5 days in a week but many things are still planned using it. That means, to a westerner, the days for things float around seemingly at random.
Market days are one of those things. It was Wage and Paign (Not sure if I managed the spelling of the last one) at my old place but there is a Pasar (Market) Wage here.
Bloody big place it is too.

Two levels of total chaos and mess.

That day wasn't a Wage (pron. waggy) so things were quiet but you can still get an assortment of goods and services.

 

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I went downstairs to the ground floor. Nice to see health and safety in action.

 

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I could have got transport out and home but I chose to walk to the exit.

 

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Most people don't have any real understanding of English at all but it's fashion to wear kit with English stuff printed on it.

Another lesson in road safety (1)

(For the girls; that tyre is supposed to have little tracks on it called tread)

Another lesson in road safety (2)

No special reason for the photo but she's cute. An English teacher.

 

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My cycling is getting me fit and allowing me to see alls orts of things and meet all sorts of people.

Turns out this lass is/was some sort of road racing champ in Indonesia and came third at the Asean games a couple of years back.
Sorry the details are rough but that is a result of my Indonesian still being limited. Lessons start again soon.

I had no idea there was a BMX culture out here.

More road safety.
You have to be sure no one will run to you so a well thought out, clearly marked safety barrier is a good idea.

Rubbish collection (Indonesian flavour)

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Today is Eid - sort of Muslim Christmas.
First thing, I had to go to the local mosque and listen to some bloke preach about something I didn't really understand because it was all in Indonesian. I took best shot it was about honesty and not taking part in corruption. Loads of that in Indonesian officialdom (But getting much better).

The big trick with Eid is, get to the mosque early. By the time the actual thing starts, you can't get into the building at all but, if you get there early, you can pick your spot.
The best place is near the door. That way, you get a breeze and never get cramped up in the crowd near the middle.

I'm not really supposed to but I sneaked a piccy with my Samsung galaxy note wonder phone.
Still loads of space when I took these but none at all 10 minutes later.

 

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Why use a truck when you don't need to?

Another village shop.

When you a police station, there is a little gazebo where you must tell the guard cops who you are, who you will go to see and leave some ID with them.

Here they are.

Bird flu has been a problem in Indonesia. In the west people can't understand why but it's easy to see out here. In every village there are lots of ducks, chickens and even a few geese wandering around the streets. Between that, a lack of knowledge of basic hygiene and the common past time of pigeon handling, you get a problem.

 

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I had a meeting in Wonosobo. That went all early so I decided to go for a walk.
I wandered around the town I was in then headed out of town. I ended up about 3 km from town before it started raining and I decided to jump on a bus.

The old railway is still in evidence here and there.
The remains of an old village station.

Every parking area of every town has the bloke who keeps and eye on your motorbike when you park. This place is no exception.

It's more than common for people to do two jobs at once out here.
This bloke drives a pedicab.....

..but also helps run the family street restaurant.
Now what was I saying about basic hygiene? The washing up is just way too close to that crap encrusted drain.

 

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A local Muslim school I got dragged into when I walked by. The lasses did enough smiling for him and the rest of the town put together.

It was getting dark and ready to rain by the time I got to where this old field gun is used as a monument but I quite like the stark outline so I took it anyway.

There is also an old aeroplane there

I assume the machine guns were removed and replaced with a couple of bits of pipe but this is Indonesia so you never know.

 

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The sign says (Roughly) "No dumping your old crap here".

Children begging is common. I think this is the same young kid I snapped once before.

His 'boss' he has to hand the cash over to isn't very much older.

 

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The larger supermarkets are pretty much like any western place .. sort of

They sell loads of dried fish.

 

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And sugar. People here use sugar like it's going out of fashion.
White sugar is common but there are several types of red sugar that they use in cooking.

And crackers. Indonesians love crackers with everything

The river but what's going on in the middle?

Ah, washing the dishes

You may notice the sewer pipes.

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