~ exhausting but rewarding ~
Thurs. March 18. Dave is much rested and motivated to get out and about today. Bugger the beach, which is about 25km away and probably not really that nice. He's off on his Kalianget bike trip instead. Unfortunately he starts late in the not so fine morning. After a short time, howerver, it gets very hot. He keeps on going though. It's a flat ride past rice fields and through villages that line the road. Pissing perspiration he manages to get the camera out when he comes across an old warehouse, some goats and then some old buildings. There are some wonderfully nineteenth century warehouse on the outskirts of Kaliagnet. I really dig the doors and the symmetry and utilitarian aspects of such buildings. Across the road there is another like it was a granary for rice storage.
In the east of Madura there's a definite, clearly-evident Dutch flavor to the buildings. There's something else too. It's a sort of Mediterranean-like feeling too. It shows up in the Sultanate's monuments...in the ordinary dwellings too. White-plaster walls and tile roofs. Influences perhaps from earlier Portuguese contact. The Portuguese were the earliest European colonizers in Melaka and east in Maluku, the Spice islands. Renovated, old, commercial buildings line the main road on the outskirts of Kaliagnet. Up behind these is the old colonial commercial centre of town. Dave heads round to the passenger part of the port, the Terminal Penumpang Kapal Laut. The idea is to take a break and internalize some much-needed fluid. He also has it in mind to visit some off-lying islands in the coming weeks. Perhaps he'll even leave Madura by boat to Java. To Jangkar, a port near Banguwangi and near the main ferry to Bali. That way he'd miss out the Surabaya city...again.
Highlights of the Kaliagnet trip include the store-woman who wants Rp.12k for a 10k pack of Marlboro. The difference is only 20 cents but hey! Dave points out the price which is printed on the packet..and that's what he pays. Shit, this sort of thing starts to get annoying...especially under extreme heat conditions. The man with the bike just wants to relax not haggle about prices. In the past Dave has scoffed at tourists arguing prices to save dimes. Imagine doing that all holiday! One big long argument. Yeah great holiday...and it was so cheap! It's been an awful long time since Dave's ridden a bicycle too. It's at least 25km out to Kaliagnet and back...and in the middle of the heat of the day too. He reminds himself to upgrade his planning and not to attempt this sort of energy-sapping outing again for a while.
A Kalianget story...by Adi:
He's with a Norwegian anthropologist, who's doing fieldwork for his Ph.D on local traditions and ceremonies. This would be a couple of years ago now. They're opposite the copshop, main street...on right before the ferry wharf to the off-lying islands. There's a couple of shots left in the anthropologist's camera. So Adi shoots the police station...which has a sign out front saying... “Welcome Home”... meant for returning Maduran illegal migrant workers from Malaysia. Policeman comes over and takes them to his office...grills them...wants to see ID papers and passports etc. Then Adi politely explains that he works for the government tourist office. He's 'an official' too. And what's more...he comes from Sumenep. The tone of the conversation changes and the cop's very apologetic.What's wrong with taking a photo or three...of a copshop anyway. Just like cops anywhere...bored. Wanting to throw their weight around and in Indonesia looking for extra cash. Well, it's not really extra...it's normal. And understandable...they get paid such low 'official' wages!
Dave has his theory about the countries of South East Asia and their level of 'development'. His index of how developed a country is, is to assess the 'official' wages/salaries of government public servants...like cops, teachers, and nurses etc.. He has met Cambodian English teachers who have to work at private schools [for a third of what he got] because they get only $50-60 per month. OK, that's before they charge the parents 'special' fees too. But to bump their income up a relatively liveable $200 a month, they work private too. Have to. To be able to support their wife and baby, and other family members...or save up the $4,000 or so it costs for marriage. Annual salary of $2.500! Lao is pretty much on a par with Cambodia. Vietnam and Indonesia are slightly more developed in Dave's estimation. Thailand's the most developed.
Dave gets back hot, thirsty and completely buggered again. It's been an interesting ride though. The buildings. Not hardly any 'modern' style Indonesian ones. For some reason he recalls what an American teacher-friend Greg, used to say about the Thais. When he was pissed off at them for any one of several reasons he'd moan: “...these people were all living in grass huts a hundred years ago”. It's great to have had the use of a bike to do such adventures. Stopping when feeling like it or when something interesting appears. The guys at the gasoline-loading wharf...'No smoking mister'...and the girls at the port, with their 'Hello mister' in soliciting tone... and the mostly-unemployed guide, outside the Chinese Temple...when Dave was exhausted...and he could only manage a limp but annoyed 'tomorrow' in reply. Not the temple tour guides fault Dave's getting old and didn't have enough gas left in his tank. Back at the Wijaya it's a quick evening sate ayam with the delicious rice again and then rest... pondering the images of the day still floating around in his head.