Sebentar di Bandung, Indonesia

Darso. He was our driver when we were in Bandung. He emphasized that he was only a driver and not a tour guide as he would only drive us to the place that we wish for, with no value added of accompanying us during each visit or contributing his local knowledge during each stop. That was what he was being paid for and that's all what he did.

No, he's not being inconsiderable as what you assumed. He was just using all that he had for survival; if you wanted more, you've just got to pay more. As simple as that. In fact the same style was adopted by other survivors in  Bandung.

***

You see. With a population of around 2.3 million, Bandung creates a very competitive neighborhood, especially among the low to the lowest income earners, despite the increasing number of visitors each year. Try to step a foot outside an outlet store and you, you alone, would be approached by at least 3 souvenir sellers, whom offer more or less the same item. And they'll follow you with the lowest price that they could offer, until you are out of their sight. In fact, we were approached by the same man, offering the same "fresh" blueberries, for about 4 times and he even followed us till we got in our car and drove away. No, you don't have to blame them, they were just fighting for their meal of the day.

Even if you were in a car, stopped at a traffic-lighted junction, someone (usually a kid) will approach you with an usang guitar, singing for you voluntarily, considering that if you didn't chase them away, that meant you were interested with their singing and you were obliged to pay. And if you didn't, you would receive a killer look, with maki-makian and a hard kick on the car door.

All I could say, any help offered by some stranger on the street might not come only with courtesy and smile but, with hope to get a little something for their stomach, for the day. You could choose to accept the offer and pay, but you might just want to do it wisely and sincerely.

***

Darso, as the age 25, married with a 6 months old baby was renting a room for his family, costed about RM180 per month. He earned about RM200 per trip of 3-days, 9am to 9pm, as a tourists driver while his wife was a full-time housewife. Darso was a good company of us. He shared a lot of interesting things in Bandung that sounded what-the-what?! to us. He's a jovial person and ambitious too. He had no interest in continuing his study, after his final class in secondary school (in Indonesia, it took only 3 years to complete primary school and another 3 years to complete secondary school).

Darso added, the cost of living in Bandung was quite high for his rate of earning. Despite the RM180 per month room rental for his whole family, he had to also pay for a quite high bill of his wife labor, reaching RM1000 for normal delivery in private clinic, for the whole delivery process until around 6 hours after the delivery (you'd be discharged after less than a day). It might cost several hundreds for the same case in government hospital but the service and treatment received was bad. Darso said "Mereka jaga juga, tapi tak sembuh dah suruh balik."

We continued talking about the culture, the people including the gossips of local artists. Talks and jokes about Peter Pan's vocalist and his life in prison, led us to a new, ironic information about Indonesia; the prison which placed those involved with corruption is the only prison with all the good facilities available. There, they have TV in each room, comfortable bed, food and restroom. Ironically, even the prison was "buyable".

Nonetheless, Darso who came from a village with it's main source of living is small scale agriculture, 9 hours ride away from Bandung, said that he thanked God everyday for what he and the family had; not much but enough. It saddened him to see the some young generations being dropped out from school, with no clue about their future, but rather enjoying their current lives with drugs and alcohols. Some of them even used the young kids to beg for money on the street, monitored them from afar, ensured those kids to bring back the money for them. All the young kids get was the meal for the day.

Darso would one day wish he could own his car, doing his own tourist driver job and received more than RM200 per trip that he received currently from the car owner (whom also the travel agent who dealt with us, but we never met).

"Saya tak mahu belajar lagi, Kak. Sudah tidak mungkin. Tapi saya bisa usaha untuk hidup senang, satu hari nanti dapat beli kereta, bikin bisnes sendiri dan ada rumah sendiri. Allah kata kun fayakun"