I love rickshaw. The Indonesian version of it is a three-wheeled vehicle with iron frame where the driver sits behind us and pedals. I always love it ever since I can remember. When I was a little girl, my grandma used to take me in it and we would go places where sometimes busses or cars couldn’t take us. I think part of this fondness is also induced by this memory. But apart from that, what’s not to like? If you sit on it, you can feel the sweep of breeze coming against you, and it’s the most refreshing feeling. Another thing is, you don’t have to drive. All you have to do is just sit inside and look around, or read, or sleep, or whatever is possible to do inside such a tiny little space. And what I quite like about riding it is that I got the feeling that everytime I give money in exchange with the service that the driver gives me, I have somehow put food in his plate (by the way, rickshaw driver in our country is always a man). Or maybe, even in his and his kids’ plates. And that’s just unbeatable. (Of course, if I took a motorbike or a bus, it would also mean that I will put food in somebody’s plate, but since rickshaw has so many competitors these days, I try to keep the competition fair.)
Rickshaw for me is also another tool for therapy. I found this out a year ago. While touring for the first time around Java, the pianist Sam Haywood and I took a rickshaw ride in Surabaya and found out that it gave us such an amazing feeling (also very much recommended while taking a rickshaw is sharing it with someone you find comfortable to talk to like Sam.) We had talked all night while sightseeing around the city and it was so therapeutic.
After that experience with Sam, I often took a rickshaw ride by myself, even long after he went back to London. The best time to do it is at night and while you are having a big problem and you thought that your life is so miserable. Then you have to go out there and see night life in this very thing. I sometimes found that people are selling weird stuffs right in the middle of the night. I just did that tonight and at some point, I found a girl and a boy, apparently brother and sister, sitting on the side of a road selling stickers at 11 pm. I mean, seriously, who would buy stickers at such a wee hour? But they were there with tired faces and sleepy eyes, yet every time a motorbike approaches, their eyes lit. if there is something that could make them stay awake all night, it was only hope. A hope that somebody would stop by and buy, and thus they can bring home some money. Maybe it’s enough, maybe it won’t, but it’s still better than nothing.
Now if seeing this thing doesn’t make you get a knock in the head, then you seriously need a CT-scan. Sometimes we can brood over our trouble, and feel like there’s no way out, but if you go out there and see, there are always people whose life situation is much, much worse than ours and that should give you the realization that each and every one of us has a problem of our own, and the fact that you don’t have to stay awake all night to earn your living should make you feel grateful for everything that you have. I find this night expedition a good cure to my troubled feeling. Sometimes, it doesn’t mean that the problem is gone, but this always puts everything back in perspective. If life seems such a dead end, if you feel that you’re stuck in a moment you can’t get out, you should go and look outside yourself and see those people who has no privilege of having a dream, of making a choice, whose only care in life is to survive. And that includes the man sitting behind you, accompanying you till the break of dawn, feeling grateful because he can feed another mouth for another day.
Rickshaw for me is also another tool for therapy. I found this out a year ago. While touring for the first time around Java, the pianist Sam Haywood and I took a rickshaw ride in Surabaya and found out that it gave us such an amazing feeling (also very much recommended while taking a rickshaw is sharing it with someone you find comfortable to talk to like Sam.) We had talked all night while sightseeing around the city and it was so therapeutic.
After that experience with Sam, I often took a rickshaw ride by myself, even long after he went back to London. The best time to do it is at night and while you are having a big problem and you thought that your life is so miserable. Then you have to go out there and see night life in this very thing. I sometimes found that people are selling weird stuffs right in the middle of the night. I just did that tonight and at some point, I found a girl and a boy, apparently brother and sister, sitting on the side of a road selling stickers at 11 pm. I mean, seriously, who would buy stickers at such a wee hour? But they were there with tired faces and sleepy eyes, yet every time a motorbike approaches, their eyes lit. if there is something that could make them stay awake all night, it was only hope. A hope that somebody would stop by and buy, and thus they can bring home some money. Maybe it’s enough, maybe it won’t, but it’s still better than nothing.
Now if seeing this thing doesn’t make you get a knock in the head, then you seriously need a CT-scan. Sometimes we can brood over our trouble, and feel like there’s no way out, but if you go out there and see, there are always people whose life situation is much, much worse than ours and that should give you the realization that each and every one of us has a problem of our own, and the fact that you don’t have to stay awake all night to earn your living should make you feel grateful for everything that you have. I find this night expedition a good cure to my troubled feeling. Sometimes, it doesn’t mean that the problem is gone, but this always puts everything back in perspective. If life seems such a dead end, if you feel that you’re stuck in a moment you can’t get out, you should go and look outside yourself and see those people who has no privilege of having a dream, of making a choice, whose only care in life is to survive. And that includes the man sitting behind you, accompanying you till the break of dawn, feeling grateful because he can feed another mouth for another day.
