Barber exists in every country, it is a profession to help people’s hair tidy and stylish. In a corner of Jogjakarta, I found a traditional barber who works every morning to style and cut people’s hair. A profession as a traditional barber is very different with the modern one, as a matter of earning and way of working.

The modern barber (salon) works in a clean room with air conditioner to keep them and the clients comfortable. As a result, the clients should pay a little bit higher.

Traditional barber works on any space available like in the corner of a market, kiosk, or even under big trees. It costs cheaper to cut our hair on them, about maximum IDR 4,000 (US$ 0.4). As a matter of quality, traditional barber has good quality but they sometimes do not follow trends, so that young people prefer cut their hair on salon.

Traditional barber usually only do cutting hair. They don’t have services like toning, hair spa, cream bath, rebounding, etc. Therefore, traditional barber is classified as a lower class in the hair styling field. But, it is the way the do for living. Their family depends on them. So, let us help by cutting our hair on the traditional barber.

Coffee is a daily drink that is very popular in Aceh, it is becoming a tradition. There are so many coffee stall or bar that always full of people who enjoy drinking coffee. For the men, drinking coffee in a stall or bar is a way to make social interaction or even networking.

Going to Banda Aceh, it is better to taste the original coffee of Aceh especially in the area of Ulee Kareng. The way the bartender serves it is very unique, they don’t use shaker or espresso machine but a sieve made from fabric. Coffee powder are filled into the sieve, then the bartender pours boiled water into it. The bartender raise it above the head, pour the coffee into glasses. Everyone may taste the original coffee or with milk.

The most popular coffee from Indonesia is kopi luwak. This kind of coffee is very famous and expensive. Luwak is actually an animal which eat coffee seed. Therefore, the seed is to hard to be digested so that it comes out together with the luwak’s feces. It is then hygienically processed becoming coffee powder.

Mostly, farmers in Indonesia are traditional farmers. They do not use machinery to plant and harvest, the only modern machine used is tractor to plow the field, but sometimes they hoe the field manually. Only few farmers own tractor because the price is expensive. The tractors are used to plow their own field and to be rented to the other farmers.

It is hard to live as a farmer. Why? Because many farmers do not have their own field, they are just tenant farmers that have to share equally the harvest with the field owners. Any cost (to buy fertilizers and insecticide, plowing) borne by the tenant farmers. In addition, they should work at the field everyday.

The time of harvesting and after are the most interesting to be observed. When harvesting, we may see farmers are working together to harvest the crop. A few days after harvest time, they plow the field using tractors. This is the time for many herons to ‘visit’ the farmers. Herons are looking for food, worm, that are coming out of the soil. Everyone may enjoy this tourism attraction in Indonesia for free. Taking pictures of the birds and the farmer may refresh everyone and as a gateway from daily routines.

Like in any other country, people should work for living. Here is an example of what the Indonesian do for living. Selling ‘Bubur Ayam’ or chicken porridge is one way for living. This was taken in Jogjakarta using my VGA camera phone.

Bubur ayam is great for breakfast. It is made from rice as the main substance. There also chicken, fried soybean, sauce, chips, and sambal (condiment) to make it more tasty.

The person here starts selling from 5.30 am, while other people are still asleep. At 10.00 am usually it is all sold out. The price for a bowl of bubr ayam is vary, depends on the quantity, usually starting from IDR 4,000 to 5,000.

phone call photo by Caelea

Nowadays, there is no boundary anymore to communicate with your family from anywhere in Indonesia. Big and small islands are now provided with base transmit stations to support cell phone service in Indonesia. Tourism is getting big advantage from the service. Tourists won’t get difficulty to call their travel agent, book hotel, or reserve a private resort.

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There are many cell phone operators in Indonesia which provide competitive price. The big five operators are Telkomsel, Indosat, Excelcomindo, Bakrie Telecom, and Smart Telecom.  Their product work on both GSM and CDMA networks. Lists of products are:

1. Telkomsel: Simpati, Halo, and As (GSM), Flexy (CDMA), Telkomsel Flash (Internet Bradband)
2. Indosat: IM3, Mentari (GSM), Starone (CDMA), IM2 (Internet Broadband)
3. Excelcomindo: ProXL (GSM)
4. Bakrie Telecom: Esia (CDMA)
5. Smart Telecom: Smart (CDMA)

The need of accessing internet directly from cellphone is becoming the core business for all operators in Indonesia. Tourists are no longer find difficulties to get information about tourism places and attraction in Indonesia, find private resort on an island, and many other information. 3G network is now available in every city, giving fast service for every customer. Generally the charge for internet connection is IDR 1 per kilobyte or less.
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Photo Credit: Deka~Discover-Indonesia.com

Observing people’s activities is interesting especially the activity that we don’t know before like the local people’s activity of Drini beach. Drini beach is about 10 kilometers to the east of Baron beach, Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta. Mostly, the occupation of them is fisherman. Of course they catch fishes for living. Depart from the beach at the night and dock the boat on early morning. Sometimes they have to sail for days only to earn for living. However, they sometimes can’t sail. So, what they do when they don’t sail?

Photo Credit: Deka~Discover-Indonesia.com

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Fixing their boat or broken equipment is a must for fishermen when they don’t sail. But if they don’t sail they get no income. To rely on the tourism aspect is not helping their life much. So, the locals of Drini beach collect sea weeds, small beautiful fish and sea urchin at the shore. They sell them to brokers who buy them in low prices. Doing that won’t make them millionaire, but they can live, simple living, not a luxurious living. Their hard life and intense struggle can fulfill everyday need and even send their children to school. For the matter of good food for children, they usually give some fishes they caught in order for the children to get good nutrient.

Some of the fishermen don’t have their own boat. They rent the boat from the “Juragan”, the owner of the rental. Sharing the catch is how they pay the rent fee. At least, the fishermen get only 30% – 40% of the result. Since the government helps them with boats, they don’t depend on the Juragan.

Photo Credit: Deka~Discover-Indonesia.com

Photo credit: Deka

Like any other country, many Indonesian have no certain job, they do everything for living. For those who does not work in an office, manufacture, self employed or any other formal work, usually find work which requires muscle’s strength. The picture above is conveying the work of stone and sand miners.

The stone and sand miners (well, it is not mining actually but collecting) usually collect stone and sand in the narrow rivers. The miners will get about IDR 100.000 to IDR200.000 to fill up a truck. To fill up one truck, they work in a group of 2 to 4 people where they can fill up about 5 trucks in a day.
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Photo credit: Deka

In the rainy season, when the rivers are overflowing, the miners do not collect stone and sand. They usually work at their field or someone’s field, repair their broken house or just take care of their goats or cows. Most of them has more than 5 goats or 2 cows. Cow is more expensive so that only few people has. When the time is come to sell their goats or cows, merchant will come to buy and then bring them to the market.

Photo credit: Deka