Pondering Poverty, TelkomHell, & Cambodia Coming Up…
Pondering Poverty:
I’m still processing images recently taken in south Vietnam along the Mekong Delta. I must say I only shot a handfull of images during my two day tour of the Mekong Delta, with some scenes standing out more than others. Life along the river a mixture of harsh and simple life: meaning, while making a living along the river may be difficult, people still content with each other, their environment, and thus with daily life.
I’ve mentioned in past blog posts Indonesia is a country of maximum extremes. While Jakarta is quite modern, it still has scattered pockets of gritty poverty. Furthermore, Indonesia’s poverty levels becomes more acute as one goes further away from a major city. I’ve also mentioned Vietnam also have a similar social structure, but not to the extreme of Indonesia: in other words, Vietnam’s HCMC is not nearly as modern as Jakarta, and its poor regions are not as inflicted with poverty as deeply as Indonesia.
I am beginning to think there are different categories of “poor.” Vietnam poor is more along the lines of “country living” poor (as Americans would say, living in the Boondocks); they have very little money, but they also need little money as they try to live off the land as much as possible, and their homes are buildings that are simply decaying, but maybe once were built to a certain cultural standard.
Indonesia’s poor are not only monetary poor, but poor in nearly every way relative to the essentials of living; they tend to live in makeshift homes of disgarded wood, plastic wrap and scraps of sheet metal, and often are wearing scraps of old cloth as clothing (in the poorest areas I’ve seen so far). I have seen families living on cardboard between railroad tracks in Jakarta. It is safe to say Indonesia has the “country living” poor, plus the stark, gritty poverty of having virtually nothing at all.
Along the Mekong Delta, may earn a living selling fresh fruits and vegetables from out of their rowboats. In the early hours one can find dozens of type of fruits and fresh seafood. There are even vendor boats, where the person sells bottled water, canned sodas and snacks! Speaking of snacks, you should try the mini pineapples! The seller will cut up the pineapple in a way the stem can be used as a handle and then you eat the pineapple as if it was a turkey drumstick! YUMMY!
As it should be obvious by now, living on the Mekong Delta means spending a lot of time in and around the water. Whether you are washing (yourself, child, pet, cloting or veggies, all next to each other), traveling, earning a living or shopping, odds are you will use the river. And life on a river means having a boat. Every age, men and women are in boats.
TelkomHell:
I use a mobile phone service called Telkomsel. They are (supposedly) the best in Indonesia. But, my personal experience with them lately has been nothing but pure Hell on Earth! I signed up for international roaming, mobile banking, etc. Does ANY of it work? NO!
Not only do I find it hard to believe they are the best service, but the service is almost none-existent in central Jakarta! (Meaning, I must stand next to a window to get a measly two bars on my mobile phone, and I am in a standard 1st floor building, not a conctrete-laced skyscraper! Don’t even let me get started about their Telkom Flash Internet service (I’m already planning to switch back to Indosat for Internet upon returning to Jakarta)!
The standard line from customer service is “Please wait 3 days” I’ve waited 3 days now for over a week. They have no idea what they are doing. They’re simply stalling, and getting rid of customers, so when they call back, maybe another tech will have to deal with the issue. They should rename their service to TelkomHell!
So, if you have tried to call me, SMS me, or MMS (in reference to you, x-tine hahaha) me, please wait until I return to Jakarta.
Cambodia Coming Up:
EARLY tomorrow morning, I’ll be heading to Cambodia! I’m very excited and looking forward to this part of the Journey. I can’t wait to see the temples as well as the villiages. While there, I’m not certain how much internet access I will have. I will try my best to say hello when I can.
Cheers!
A Working Holiday…
Intro
I’m writing this blog post very fast, as I am less than a few hours from deadline for submitting a portfolio (see below). I’m currently in Vietnam. I can say HCMC reminds me a lot of Banjarmasin, Kalimantan or Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in terms of the types of buildings they have, but with maybe 50% of the Jakarta’s traffic: most of HCMC’s traffic seems to be motorbikes. I can say the traffic is more organized than Jakarta’s, yet still harder for a pedestrian to cross the roads, as motorbikes are just a non-stop torrent, thus people almost cannot walk across roads. I’ve seen so many skinny people standing sideways balancing as if on a log, to avoid the motorcycles from hitting them as they pass just inches away in front and behind them! If I did that, I’d be a dead man!
*~ Yes, I know, lots of paradoxes today ~*
Traffic Example: It seems there is an HCMC unwritten rule on the main roads motorbikes will drive in the right lane, and cars in the left lane, crossing each other only when needed or turning (which is a horror to witness: turns!). Still, Jakarta has HCMC beat for overall traffic, but at least Jakartans can cross the road (albiet still dangerous to do so).
In Jakarta, the traffic is massive, swarming mass of cars and motorbikes, constantly weaving in and out of lanes (what lanes? they will drive 5 cars side by side on a 3 lane road!) while honking their horns for almost no reason (maybe it is a Jakartan Hobby?). In HCMC, the car horns are used much less, but when they do use them they honk Honk HONK even after passing what they were honking at!
Police are almost unseen in HCMC, while in Jakarta, they are everywhere and constantly pulling people over to elicit ‘fines’ from people. My friends say the fines happen most often around lunch time, as the police tend to pocket the money, and thus can use it to buy lunch hahaha. Also I noticed Lebaran holiday (when many go back to their home towns) is another time when Police are out in mass force to get every dime (or Rupiah) they can.
Now, turns, both Jakarta and HCMC are horrible with turns and circles! My God, why do people love circles sooooo much in S.E. Asia??? (well, I did not see that many in Thailand….) I must say circles are so dangerous a place. It’s impossible to walk, and forces all the cars and bikes (who are already driving illegally in and out of lanes in Jakarta especially) to be a big mass of 20 cars side by side. Jakarta has these huge circles, while HCMC have tiny ones, but still have this effect of 3 lanes of cars turning at the same time into 3 lanes of cars coming from the opposite direction, Add to this that not all cars are making a U-turn, but making an upside down L shaped left turn which now “croses” the onslaught of 3 lanses of cars coming from the opposite direction. *~ my god, headache thinking of it! ~*
Buildings here are not a modern as Jakarta. There are some very modern places, certainly, but I think HCMC is still behind Jakarta. If you’ve visited Jakarta, you know it is a mix of poverty and very modern. Here, the poverty is not as deep (I think) and the modern is not as modern hahaha.
The people are very very tiny! They find me to be amazing (given my chubby body). I visited my friend’s factory, where over 1000 people work. I felt like either a walking zoo exhibit, or a rock star, given the constant stares. I even was asked a few times to take pictures with them (maybe as proof they met a giant fat man). The people are quite friendly actually
I’ll post pictures next time, as I’m just too busy at this moment because of…
Work
So far I’ve seen some interesting places on my first day here, but the last 3 days have been spent doing the following:
- Updating my Photo Catalog in Adobe Lightroom
- Finalizing the prints and photo information for a photography contest that focuses on MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) in Indonesia
- Preparing (by 2 PM today, and it’s 11:00 AM already!) a portfolio of 60 photos to be submitted to VII Photo Agency (home of my Photography Gods). They have given a deadline of April 30 for my portfolio to be received in their New York office.
*~ Kyaaa, I must get the CD to Janet’s office staff so they can give to DHL! ~*
Holiday
Later this week, I’ll meet up with my buddy, Andrew, to take a quick 2-day tour of the Mekong Delta. He’s still finalizing the plan for it. This weekend, I am dragging Janet for shooting! She purchased the Canon 5D that I wanted weeks ago, but have yet to use it! OMG! How can she resist using it???? She says she must “read the manual first” *~ Shock~* hahahah
We’ll be heading to Cambodia for a week on April 30, where I plan to do the great majority of my shooting this holiday. I can’t wait for that. I’m doing a great deal of personal research for this part of the holiday. It will be a great time and effort.
Bahasa Indonesia Lesson for Today:
Vietnam: Vietnam (hahaha)
Cambodia: Kamboja
Take care!
Rodney’s Life Forcast: Sunny with Scattered Clouds…
OK, I know! It’s shameful I’ve not updated my blog recently. It’s just been a hectic time in my life! But I know I should still update on a regular basis. Ok, I promise to update from now on at least once per week! For now, I will hide my face in shame *~ cry ~*
1) My teaching contract has come to an end. I’ll miss the staff and students at the school, but I am pretty good friends with some of them, and we already SMS, chat and hang out (you guys know who you are).
2) I’m currently looking for work in Jakarta. I’m still undecided what to do: teach again, go back into Information Technology, or pursue photography full time. Of course, photography would be the first choice, but freelance work is very hard to obtain. We’ll see how that goes. I’m casting a big net, to see what I can catch.
3) After hunting for two weeks, I found a kost (rented room) in Menteng: a very nice and safe area in Jakarta. Menteng is known for being quite exclusive and expensive. The houses in this area are amazing, even by USA standards (although my house is not that impressive; it’s only on a street with impressive houses). The house I’m living in is owned by a woman who owns and sells antiques. Her inventory is simply incredible. The owner actually lives in the house (bigger and nicer) across the street from the one I live in. her downstairs is like walking through a museum.
Speaking of antiques, I live only a 5 minute walk from the famous Jalan Surabaya (famous for their huge selection of antiques). I can say I like this house I’m in very much. Maybe I’ll post photos of the rooms (ha! no way, but I will share to friends via email).
My next plan? I’m flying to Vietnam and Cambodia! My dear friend Janet is helping my photographic efforts with a special Donation: Free stay in Vietnam with her for maybe a week before we travel together to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat Temple, then I return back to Indonesia as a tourist. Thanks a bunch, Janet. It has been way too long since we last met up. I’m hoping she will say “OMG, You’ve lost weight!” (Hint to Janet).
Question to any Indonesians: how does one gain agents or sponsorship for their art or galleries??? I’m having the hardest time with this. Additionally, if there is anyone needing photography for their projects let me know.
I had to send my laptop battery to Apple to get a new one. I felt it was losing its charge too fast. It turned out I was correct. Since buying my sexy MacBook in May 2007, Apple upgraded the batteries with newer, stronger ones! So, I got a free battery as I was still under warranty (well, not free, as I still paid the 100k Rupiah delivery fee kyaa!).
That’s all for now: I was asked to submit portfolios to a family of Indonesian magazines. I’m writing emails now. I’m also submitting my formal CV to two companies, in hopes to catch an IT position as a technical project manager (my background is 18yrs of experience in the IT field). Additionally, I’m submitting articles and portfolios to another magazine. I think they will like my work. While creating the portfolios, I came across photos I’ve shot that I had totally forgotten. Amazing. I’ll post some next time.