Showing posts with label becak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label becak. Show all posts

Thursday, 21 June 2018

Some Sulawesi tour guides

I've forgotten this chap's name, but he was a veteran at the game, and a total professional. He'd claimed me before I even got off the bus in Rantepao. And there was no way he'd take no for an answer, and no way he'd budge from his asking price of Rp 800,000 for a day's tour guiding, including car and driver. That's the tour guide union's agreed rate, he said, and that was that. He was pretty good though. Here he's playing with a giant stag beetle, for some reason.
This is our driver, whose name I think was Arief. A jovial young happy chappie and an excellent driver. He was quite a ladies' man too. Whenever we stopped at a tourist site,  he's be chatting up a young woman or two!
On day two I found myself with John here. He did an adequate job I thought. He's posing here with a giant deposit that looks like it was left by our car.
John told me that we'd be climbing Mt Sesean, the 2150m high peak on the range in the picture. I knew that we wouldn't, as there was only an hour or two budgeted for it, and the driver was waiting for us to return for lunch. Sure enough we only made it to the first peak there, and he announced we'd have to turn around and go back down.
The chap on the left was a bit of a pain. He was the becak (cycle rickshaw) driver in Makassar who managed to lure me into the 'it's up to you how much you pay' con for his quick tour of the harbour and local markets. I knew it was a bad idea, and would have really rather walked to these places and took my time there. And of course once the tour was over the friendly and relaxed disposition vanished and he was demanding ridiculous sums. I gave him three times what I really should have, and pointed out that this was the same as the amount I'd just paid for my ticket for the 10-hour bus ride to Toraja Land.

Sunday, 10 June 2018

Makassar

I spent a happy couple of days in South Sulawesi's capital, Makassar, on my recent Indonesian trip. It's come a long way since my last visit, 30 years ago, when I mostly remember muddy streets and becaks (cycle-rickshaws) as the main mode of transport.



For a visitor like me it's largely about the waterfront sights and food stalls. There are also a big theme park and an underground shopping centre.

There's also a 'floating mosque', and another, even more spectacular disneyesque mosque seems to be under construction.








One of the things it's difficult not to do is to get picked up by one of the tourist becak drivers, and taken for a ride, farewise, as well as to the schooner harbour and the fish market. The sights and photo opportunities make it well worth while though.








The Makassans are of course famed for their seafaring prowess, and were trading with the people of northern Australia hundreds of years ago.








Last time I was there, Makassar was officially Ujung Pandang. That never quite worked, and it was changed back to Makassar in 1999 by then President B.J. Habibie, who was born nearby. The two names are now used interchangeably, and Lonely Planet assures me there are no political connotations in which one you use.


Monday, 17 November 2014

Getting around (trains and boats and planes, plus bikes, becaks and buses!)

Plenty of transport options in Central Java. There are comfortable and regular train services.










 There are punts to cross the rivers on when you're cycling in the countryside.













There are lots of airlines plying the many routes between and within the islands of the enormous Indonesian archipelago, and they don't crash nearly as often as they used to.







Within cities you often rely on the ojek (motorbike taxi). I was unsure of the best pillion passenger etiquette. Do you hold on behind the seat, in front of you, or do you hold on to the driver? So I had a good look at what others around me were doing, and the truth is, hardly anyone holds on at all!

Or you can use a becak (bicycle trishaw - some of them now motorised with a little motor). I forgot to mention real taxis too. Plenty of them around too, though I don't seem to have a picture.














The odds are though that you'll do a lot of your land travel using buses. There are lots and lots of buses, going anywhere and everywhere. Traditionally if people stand on the roadside anywhere for more than a few seconds, buses will compete to screech to a halt alongside them, anxious to lure them aboard, whether or not they want to go where the
bus goes, and regardless of how much luggage they're going to lug aboard with them. Buses tend to be relatively clean and smart on the outside, but a bit the worse for wear inside. The ride can be exhausting. They're driven by maniacs who think nothing of tailgating and roaring past trucks and other buses on blind corners, only to screech to a halt seconds later when they see another potential passenger on the side of the road. Often, impecunious wandering minstrels get on for a few minutes at a time, and play ukuleles and sing tunelessly. Most passengers meekly pay them with a small donation - This is the country's social security system at work.

This sort of bus 'service' has usually applied to both city and intercity bus systems. So I was very pleasantly surprised to come across Yogyakarta's new city bus service. Would you believe there's a well organised network of air-conditioned city buses, with route maps and timetables even? There are designated bus stops - comfortable shelters on raised platforms, each with an attendant. You pay the attendant and are let through the turnstyle, and when the bus comes along it pulls up at the right spot for easy ingress and egress. The bus conductor, whose job is just to announce the stops to the passengers and to open the doors, then welcomes you aboard, and off you go to the next stop.