This old indonesian Rickshaw was imported from Sumatra by the guy at Bali Gallery Coconut Grove, (Darwin NT). It's been repainted with the Tigers football logo and looks nice and neat.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tigers Rickshaw
This old indonesian Rickshaw was imported from Sumatra by the guy at Bali Gallery Coconut Grove, (Darwin NT). It's been repainted with the Tigers football logo and looks nice and neat.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Street scene Malaysia
Another of Tom's photos from 1970's Malaysia. This cycle has a longer frame than most I've seen. Front end seating can be a fun ride.
Food Cart Malaysia 1975
This photo was taken in Alor Setar, Malaysia in 1975 by the husband of one of my flickr friends. I am told he used a Canon F1 35mm SLR with a Canon 105mm lens and Kodak Tri-X film. Tom used to do his own processing back then and I think he has excelled with this picture.
According to my flickr friend Augati
"The rickshaw here was a three-wheeled self-propelled hawker stall. It was mid-morning and the rickshaw was parked outside a coffee shop from which it most likely operated."
Mobile hawker stalls, also known by various other names like 'Kaki-lima' (five feet) are still common in many parts of Indonesia and Malaysia. I think they're great. Some people think that the USA invented fast food but these guys take the cake... to you... literally!
The best food I've eaten in Indonesia came from the back of one of these food carts.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The Langcha of Kampong Nyak Puteh - A friend's story
Last year when I started this blog I did have the intention of collecting people's personal stories about rickshaws and how they have used them in their lives. I have had some very interesting conversations with people over the past few years about their rickshaw experiences but it is very difficult for me to take other people's stories and publish them online and I know I have balked at the opportunity to do this. So I've decided to have a go at it anyway and hope that something of interest comes out of it.
At my previous job I had a colleague, Faridah, who grew up in a small village called Kampong Nyak Puteh on Penang Island on the West coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Penang is a vibrant multicultural place that has a long history of immigration from many corners of the globe. It is now a popular tourist destination and has also become quite industrialized which has lead to massive changes in the lifestyle of the local people.
"The Rickshaw is called bacha in bahasa but in Penang we called it Langcha I think its Chinese origin"
Little girl in Langcha Kampong Nyak Puteh 1980.
Langcha by the sea Penang 1980's
Yasmin and friend ride the Langcha in Penang 1990's
Nyak Puteh is no longer there it was re-claimed by the Government at the end of a 99yrs lease. All the land previously occupied by Faridah's Family was lost.The village which was once a simple and pleasant place to live, is now gone.
There was a stream that flowed with clean water; people were accustomed to sharing the fruit from several neighborhood fruit trees and Rickshaws were a common and much valued form of public transport. Unfortunately the village was replaced by blocks of flats designed for high density living. Faridah tells me:
"Now there is no more fruit trees or beautiful river eveyone has a small courtyard for themselves and that is all"
Faridah says that the Langcha riders were once well respected in her village but with industrialization and modernization they do not have such a significant role in the daily lives of those who live there now.
At my previous job I had a colleague, Faridah, who grew up in a small village called Kampong Nyak Puteh on Penang Island on the West coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Penang is a vibrant multicultural place that has a long history of immigration from many corners of the globe. It is now a popular tourist destination and has also become quite industrialized which has lead to massive changes in the lifestyle of the local people.
"The Rickshaw is called bacha in bahasa but in Penang we called it Langcha I think its Chinese origin"
Little girl in Langcha Kampong Nyak Puteh 1980.
Langcha by the sea Penang 1980's
Yasmin and friend ride the Langcha in Penang 1990's
Nyak Puteh is no longer there it was re-claimed by the Government at the end of a 99yrs lease. All the land previously occupied by Faridah's Family was lost.The village which was once a simple and pleasant place to live, is now gone.
There was a stream that flowed with clean water; people were accustomed to sharing the fruit from several neighborhood fruit trees and Rickshaws were a common and much valued form of public transport. Unfortunately the village was replaced by blocks of flats designed for high density living. Faridah tells me:
"Now there is no more fruit trees or beautiful river eveyone has a small courtyard for themselves and that is all"
Faridah says that the Langcha riders were once well respected in her village but with industrialization and modernization they do not have such a significant role in the daily lives of those who live there now.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Neglected blog but not forgotten
Hi to those readers who have actually been visiting this rickshaw blogspace...
I must apologize for neglecting this space for so long!
I was surprised to discover that the blog continued to receive visits for such a long time after my last post. I hadn't set it up to notify me if messages were left and so now I find myself reading interesting remarks long after they were left. So tardy I hadn't even looked at the blog for several months!
Anyway. The interest this blog has attracted has prompted me to attempt to continue with the project and catch up on some rickshaw stories and thoughts I've been having in the year or more since my last post.
I have had several conversations with people from all walks of life about the potential of pedicab, rickshaw, becak or whatever the human powered vehicle is called in your area.
There have been some interesting developments in the design of solar powered and electric assist rickshaws and regulations related to pedicabs appear to be becoming stricter. Meanwhile the issues of traffic congestion, global warming and fuel prices have public opinion about the validity of human powered transport swinging to extremes with all the force of a giant pendulum.
Let's see if we can get this thing up and moving once again. Comments are very welcome and discussion is encouraged.
I must apologize for neglecting this space for so long!
I was surprised to discover that the blog continued to receive visits for such a long time after my last post. I hadn't set it up to notify me if messages were left and so now I find myself reading interesting remarks long after they were left. So tardy I hadn't even looked at the blog for several months!
Anyway. The interest this blog has attracted has prompted me to attempt to continue with the project and catch up on some rickshaw stories and thoughts I've been having in the year or more since my last post.
I have had several conversations with people from all walks of life about the potential of pedicab, rickshaw, becak or whatever the human powered vehicle is called in your area.
There have been some interesting developments in the design of solar powered and electric assist rickshaws and regulations related to pedicabs appear to be becoming stricter. Meanwhile the issues of traffic congestion, global warming and fuel prices have public opinion about the validity of human powered transport swinging to extremes with all the force of a giant pendulum.
Let's see if we can get this thing up and moving once again. Comments are very welcome and discussion is encouraged.
Friday, September 14, 2007
National Ride to Work Day
Wednesday 17th October will be National Ride to Work Day in Australia and I have decided to get on board for the Big breakfast at our local University!Our breakfast will be held at the Student Square BBQ area at Charles Darwin University, Casuarina NT. 7:00 to 9:00am
We will have representatives from various community groups and are expecting a good turn our of people from the local community.
Alas I still haven't found a Rickshaw. I thought I would have one by now but my plans have fallen through. It would have been great to transport people to work on the day, but I guess I'll be riding my bike.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Asia in North Australia
There's a long distance between Broome in North Western Australia and the bulk of this country's population both in miles and cultural makeup. It's kind of a shame that time is tightening it's grip and like many other unique places in the world the gap is closing fast.
Since I was a kid I have wanted to visit Broome. I have had a romantic fixation on the place ever since I first heard of the place years ago. I can't remember when the image first came to me of that tropical paradise:
Since I was a kid I have wanted to visit Broome. I have had a romantic fixation on the place ever since I first heard of the place years ago. I can't remember when the image first came to me of that tropical paradise:
~ Red earth; blue sky; emerald sea!
~ Brown skinned beauties, the daughters of pearlers
~ Wild kids on the edge of a place...
~ they say it's Australia but it sure looks like Asia
~ Busted tin roofs, dirty red shoes and the sun lazy and tropical
~ Sometimes a hint of frangipanni, clove cigarettes and dried fish
~ rise on the cool desert breeze
~ It's the dry!
~ Bougainvilleas fill the gaps in rusty tin walls
~ easterlies nudge shells strung on fences
~ UP THERE
~ nothing like I know...
~ Did AB Patterson or Lawson ever write it?
~ That man in his dingy little office or the bushman Clancy never knew a thing about it!
~ Mangoes, fresh fish, and Music
~ Salt water cowboys.. tough proud men...
~ Skin tanned by sun, fed on sea and torn by shells!
~ Survivors! So far away... forgotten... A bureaucratic anomaly...
~ A true haven for dreamers drifters and reprobates! The raged unwanted
~ A place for me?
Gone
It may have been on one of Alby Mangles amazing adventure films or it may even have been the Leyland Brothers... I can't remember but from that time on I was headed north and west.. Would I ever get there?
That place is far from where I come from and the cost had prevented me from getting there... (well unlike Alby I never made the decision to just GO!) So eventually back in 1996 I plucked up the nerve to take extended leave from my job, sell all my stuff and head off on a world trip of my own with the intention of coming back to Australia and Broome! I made it around the globe OK found myself back in Darwin, a good launching place for a trip to Broome, and wound up married with a 1.5 children and still no closer to my destination! Ironically my wife, who I met in Darwin, also landed there on her way West!
Well finally, after countless holidays back to Melbourne we both decided enough is enough! We packed up the car squeezed the kid into a gap on the back seat, filled the glove box with Play School, Hoolidoolys and Seseme Street tapes then set off! Across the Kimberleys and Westward towards Broome. Broome the place of our dreams, Broome the romantic Asian haven far far away from the influences of the bland Anglo Australia that even Darwin reeks heavily of! Away to somewhere free of the network TV cutout figure of what Australia would be if we would all just white up a little. On to Australia as it could have been if the ever colonial Orang Putih had just been a little more friendly to the locals and the help!
We arrived at Broome by road, on a crowded single lane highway full of RV's. A multi million dollar rolling stock of diesel guzzling self contained apartments on multi axle trailers! Caravans & motor homes lumber in and out of town in endless streams the streets are choked with elderly citizens from southern towns come for the warmth and a pretty place to camp! As we roll through the roundabout past the giant new tourist information centre the next thing we see are those too, too familiar golden arches!
We have arrived! Just 20 years too late! All the stories were true! Broome has been consumed by tourism and is no longer the place it was. I looked hard to find the Broome I'd dreamed of. I'm sure there are still plenty of people still living who can recall it well but for our short stay it was only a relic or a curiosity from the past. There are plenty of facades to remind us of Broome but the cultural conversion has begun. They say the population doubles or maybe trebles in the the tourist season and we were just one more car load of tourists come to sit at cable beach or gawk at the peculiar architecture or the beautiful faces of an Asian Indigenous Australia so different from what we know!
Still I loved Broome. Among some of the relics around town I discovered a pair of Indonesian Becaks on display at the Sun Pictures open air cinema, too bad no one has thought of recommissioning them to cart the tourists around town. Alas Broome town is choking on the soot of 100's of dirty diesel burning 4x4 pleasure craft plying its otherwise lovely streets. Windows rolled up, air conditioners blasting as the folks galk for glimpses of the Broome they have buried!
That place is far from where I come from and the cost had prevented me from getting there... (well unlike Alby I never made the decision to just GO!) So eventually back in 1996 I plucked up the nerve to take extended leave from my job, sell all my stuff and head off on a world trip of my own with the intention of coming back to Australia and Broome! I made it around the globe OK found myself back in Darwin, a good launching place for a trip to Broome, and wound up married with a 1.5 children and still no closer to my destination! Ironically my wife, who I met in Darwin, also landed there on her way West!
Well finally, after countless holidays back to Melbourne we both decided enough is enough! We packed up the car squeezed the kid into a gap on the back seat, filled the glove box with Play School, Hoolidoolys and Seseme Street tapes then set off! Across the Kimberleys and Westward towards Broome. Broome the place of our dreams, Broome the romantic Asian haven far far away from the influences of the bland Anglo Australia that even Darwin reeks heavily of! Away to somewhere free of the network TV cutout figure of what Australia would be if we would all just white up a little. On to Australia as it could have been if the ever colonial Orang Putih had just been a little more friendly to the locals and the help!
We arrived at Broome by road, on a crowded single lane highway full of RV's. A multi million dollar rolling stock of diesel guzzling self contained apartments on multi axle trailers! Caravans & motor homes lumber in and out of town in endless streams the streets are choked with elderly citizens from southern towns come for the warmth and a pretty place to camp! As we roll through the roundabout past the giant new tourist information centre the next thing we see are those too, too familiar golden arches!
We have arrived! Just 20 years too late! All the stories were true! Broome has been consumed by tourism and is no longer the place it was. I looked hard to find the Broome I'd dreamed of. I'm sure there are still plenty of people still living who can recall it well but for our short stay it was only a relic or a curiosity from the past. There are plenty of facades to remind us of Broome but the cultural conversion has begun. They say the population doubles or maybe trebles in the the tourist season and we were just one more car load of tourists come to sit at cable beach or gawk at the peculiar architecture or the beautiful faces of an Asian Indigenous Australia so different from what we know!
Still I loved Broome. Among some of the relics around town I discovered a pair of Indonesian Becaks on display at the Sun Pictures open air cinema, too bad no one has thought of recommissioning them to cart the tourists around town. Alas Broome town is choking on the soot of 100's of dirty diesel burning 4x4 pleasure craft plying its otherwise lovely streets. Windows rolled up, air conditioners blasting as the folks galk for glimpses of the Broome they have buried!
Becak at Sun Pictures
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