Tuesday 11-Oct-2005 (day 3) Continued
On Tuesday 11th October we took a Becak tour.
The becaks in Sumatra were of a different build than those in Java.
Due to the hilly terrain, all becaks are provided with a 2-tact 50cc fuel engine. This is a 2-stroke engine and the driver does not sit behind his customer, like in java, but on the side of his customer.
Because of cutbacks they, on top of all, add oil to the petrol. The exhaust gasses exiting from the exhaust pipe smelt dirty and these gasses contained much unburnt carbon monoxide which heavily spoiled the environment. Also for humans this kind of combustion is very much inadvisable. The surrounding environment looked blue with smoke.
So I tried to get the first becak (and succeeded).
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This was my becak mate and his name was Achmed
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Achmed was a friendly guy and he spoke some English. I already had spoken with him before. Just like so many other Indonesians Achmed was curious to know where I came from. "Anak Betawi" (child of Betawi - Jakarta) I then said. This answer seems to be the magic word. People feel a kind of recognition and doors are opened wide.
Afterwards I always have to explain the reason for not speaking Bahasa Indonesia.
However, since I am an Orang Betawi (Betawi Person), the ties of friendship were never broken and I always had a headstart compared to my travel companions.
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This is Fred sitting in his Becak
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Now, he is still able to smile, but later on he will land in the stream of exhaust gasses of my Becak!!!
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The local guide drove along with Freds Becak
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After a quarter of an hour he was fed up with munching smoke and ordered the becak driver to overtake us. Now it was my turn to inhale those aromatic fragrances. Luckily I had only one becak in front of me and was able to hold on. In all there were 12 becaks, it really was no fun for those in the becaks at the back.
This guide suffered greatly from the flood of the Bohorok river. His wife and child died in that disaster and his house was destroyed entirely. Since I was an "anak Betawi" he accepted me as a kind of friend and told me everything about the drama that befell him.
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The first stop of the Becak tour at a kind of rice factory
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The (rice) grain is spread on the ground in this way to be dried and afterwards can undergo further processing (separating the chaff from the grain)
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Rice cultivation of approximately 2 months
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It will take another month before it is ready for harvesting
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This is the new cultivation
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To fill a field of about 50 times 50 meters of cultivation, one needs one full day. This is done by women in haunched position. Their daily duties start at 06:00 hrs with a tea break at noon and than they work through until 18:00 hrs.
The art of planting is to plant in a straight line keeping an intermediate distance of about 25 cm, because the young cultivation shall expand in width. The "Tani" (farmer) does not own his land, they apply a kind of ground lease. The farmer may borrow the land and cultivate it. He does not need to pay anything, but he must give the owner 50% of the harvest. A field of 50 times 50 meters will yield a rice harvest of 500-600 kg.
With the 300 kg that the farmer can keep, he and his family members can live approximately 9 months. For the last 3 months he will need to buy rice from his feudal lord, who will never be able to finish his share of 300 kg and will partly sell it. The rich get richer while asleep.
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Also read the Other Stories in Wahrweb
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