Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Living By The River

I had an amazing morning. We've had a replacement driver while Iwan is on his honeymoon and I found out yesterday that his grandmother lives in one of the houses on the Musi River. We went there this morning and explored the entire area. Its a completely different way of life yet again.

We parked the car outside the housing area and had to wind our way through a maze of narrow lanes to get to the house. And then, we had to cross this partially submerged bridge. Here's a photo of Aini, crossing first.



The men of the house run a business there. They charge batteries and make ice for the fishermen around the area. They were extremely friendly and had as many questions for me as I did for them. We stayed there for sometime, just watching them work and watching all the activity on the river.





This is the front of the house, facing the river.



Side view of the house:




Now here's something 'interesting'.....Do you see the arms sticking out of that low box? Yup....floating outhouse.



Further downstream...


I had such a fascinating time exploring the area. The people we met along the alleyways were extremely friendly.

The lady on the left in the photo below invited us to walk with her back to her house. I'll post about that tomorrow.



It is obviously a poor area but the place was joyous. People were full of smiles and proud of their homes. The trip turned out to be a truly uplifting excursion.

7 comments:

John A Hill said...

very interesting, Amanda.

wv: whiesh..an expression after a close call with danger or what a Mexican makes upon a star.

fiona said...

I love your photos...again!
The outhouse was a giggle :-)

elizabeth embracing life said...

Amanda, I have not been by in a while. I will have to read and play catch up. Your pictures and adventure are truly so different than life as we know it. Thanks so much for sharing.

Jenny Quld said...

I would love to visit this part of Indonesia!
What an adventure.

Amanda said...

John - Glad you enjoyed it.

Fiona - I couldn't help staring at the outhouse. Occasionally, the guy would look up and see ME LOOKING. Oops!

Elizabeth - Thanks for dropping by!

Jen Jen - Yes. These places really do make living here so interesting. I'm sure there are even more places to explore in Jakarta!

Mike said...

I think most people missed the "downstream" implications. Or maybe they were just being nice.

Bilbo said...

What a great post. Except for the part about the washing downstream from the outhouse.