Tall Flag Carrier

A tall flag carrier is part of the marching band auxiliary components that - together with other auxiliary elements - functions to add visual elements to the band's performance.

Different types of marching band have different auxiliary elements. A ceremonial marchng band, for example, might include a troop of traditional color guards; whereas corp-style field band would probably include a dance line.

The auxiliary elements of a marching band are sometimes collectively called the color guards or the visual ensemble.

I took this photo of this tall flag carrier girl practicing her skills at Bandung City Hall park a couple of days ago. I used slower shutter speed to capture the motion of the flag.

The Crossing Bridge

This is the pedestrian crossing bridge from where I took the photos of Jalan Merdeka (Merdeka Street) that I posted in the previous two posts.

In contrast to the street below, which looks clean and well-maintained, this pedestrian crossing bridge looks dirty and in disrepair. Some of its tiles have come off. Considering its location, which is just next to the city hall, I don't understand why it has been left dirty and in disrepair like this. I can only guess that the maintenance of this facility is not a priority because not many people use it. As I said in one of my previous posts, a lot of peole here prefer to jaywalk than using the pedestrian crossing bridge like this.

Wide Angle View of The City: Merdeka Street, North

This is the view of Jalan Merdeka (Merdeka Street) facing north. I took the picture at about 5 PM from the same pedestrian crossing bridge where I took yesterday's photo. The City Hall is the white building that is partly visible on your left hand side of the picture.

Bandung's traffic is not always as light and smooth as this. In some places and at certain times, it can get very crowded. Terrible traffic congestions usually take place during weekends, and the holiday seasons (when many visitors flock the city) and at commercial areas, such as Cihampelas, Purnawarman, Sukajadi, Dago (Ir H. Djuanda), and Junjunan (Terusan Pasteur) and Riau (L.R.E. Martadinata) streets and the areas around the alun-alun (city square). Traffic congestions during the daily rush hours are also generally quite bad.

Wide Angle View of The City: Merdeka Street, South

This is the wide angle view of Jalan Merdeka (literally: Freedom or Independence Street) south of the City Hall, which in this picture is on your right hand side (invisible). The tower and the high rise building on the top left corner are, respectively, Bandung Cathedral (the Saint Peter Church) and Panghegar Hotel.

Car Wash in Bandung

I snapped this photo with my cell phone camera while waiting for my car being washed at a tire shop and car washing station on Setiabudhi Street in the north of Bandung.

Hand car wash like this is quite easy to find here and is relatively cheap. Basic cleaning services cost between IDR 20,000 to IDR 30,000 (USD 2 - 3). Additional services are usually offered in the form of maintenance and beautification packages by car washing stations that also label themselves as "Salon Mobil" (Automobile Beauty Salon).

Labu Siam, Jipang

A relative of the cucumber, melon, and squash of the cucurbitaceae family, labu siam or jipang (sechium edule) as it is called locally is a very popular vegetable here.

This vegetable was reportedly brought to Indonesia by the Ductch from Thailand, and hence its name "labu siam" (Siamese pumpkin/gourd).

Labu siam/jipang is the fruit of a vine plant. The size of the fruit is about 10 to 20 centimeters. It grows in many parts of the world and is called with different names. In English it is generally called chayote, cho-cho, mirliton, or vegetable pear. In French, it is called christophine. What is it called in your language?

Villa Isola Series # 5: Villa Isola at Dusk and The Skywatch Friday

My blogging friend Babooshka of Ramsey Daily Photo has an interesting project of making 100 photographs of Ramsey Swing Bridge. So far, I think she has made 25. The same bridge from different angles and taken at different times. They are all beautiful and well-made.

I'm trying to do the same with Villa Isola, one of Bandung's architectural masterpiece heritage. My target is not 100, but 33. Today's picture is the fifth. The previous four are here:

The first
The second
The third
The fourth

Today's post is also Bandung Daily Photo's participation in the weekly meme Skywatch Friday. Check other participating blogs with photos of the sky here.

Vihara Vipassana Graha

The Buddhist vihara and meditation center Vihara Vipassana Graha is located on Jalan Kolonel Masturi 69, Lembang, about 10 kilometers north of Bandung. The construction of this two-hectare hill top compound began on 23 February, 1992 and was dedicated on 21 October 1995.

Vihara Vipassana Graha is open not only for Buddhists, but also for the general public who want to learn about Buddhism and meditation.

Bare-footed Rock Climber

I spotted this bare-footed rock climber in an exhibition recently held by a local rock climbing club on Jalan Braga.

Being ignorant about this kind of sport, I sought to find out if bare-footedness was a common practice among rock climbers. It turns out that it is not. A rock climber has to wear a special pair of shoes that is especially designed for that.

Rock climbing has become a more and more popular sport here. Many high school and university campuses have a rock climbing club and climbing board like this.

Before assuming the status of a sport, rock-climbing had been a practice of necessity for different peoples in many parts of the world. Some Chinese paintings dated as far back as 400 BC, for example, depicted men climbing rocks. The Anasazis Indians of North America who built dwellings on steep cliffs in the 1300 CE must have done it with quite a sophisticated skill of rock-climbing. In Indonesia, such a skill has been practiced by bird nest collectors who often have to climb steep cliffs and rocks in the mountains or seaside rock formations. As a kind of sport, however, it has generally been agreed that it began in England in the last decades of the 19th century. More historical details of this sport can be found here.

As with any other estabalished sports, rock climbing has also developed its own set of terminology and techniques. If you are interested to learn about them, this wikipedia article might be quite useful to start with.

BANDUNG DAILY PHOTO 1st Anniversary

Today is BANDUNG DAILY PHOTO's first anniversary. So, instead of posting a new photo and story, I'm presenting you with a slide show of some of the photos that I have posted for the past one year.

For the past one year, I have posted 292 stories and more than 300 photos of Bandung and its vicinities, making BANDUNG DAILY PHOTO one of the largest and most informative and comprehensive photo blogs covering Bandung. Thanks to City Daily Photo Blog network and your supports, it has also grown from an obscure new comer to a high-ranking blog with an average of more than 100 clicks per day. For all this, I'd like to say thank you, thank you, and thank you for all your supports, visits, and comments. It's YOU that keep me going despite the busier work schedules I have now.

Once again, Thank you!

Skywatch Friday: Television and CB Antenna

Outdoor television antennas used to be a ubiquitous object in the urban skies (I guess they still do in many parts of the world). Slowly but surely, however, they have been or are being replaced by satellite dish or parabolic antennas and less conspicuous indoor antennas and cable television receivers which are technologically more reliable in capturing television broadcasts. (I think many of us would still remember how the weather condition would affect the quality of the pictures and sound received on our television sets and how winds could change the direction of our outdoor antennas and produced the "ants effect" on our television.)

Can you see what looks like a three-tiered object on top of the TV antenna? That's a CB (Citizen Band) radio antenna.

Just a few years ago, before the advent of mobile telephones/cellular phones and the internet, CB radio was also very popular and a very cool thing to have. I still remember spending hours in a friend's house just so that I could communicate and flirt with some strangers over the CB radio wave. (Now we can all do that on our desktop or laptop with the internet, which offers not only voice chat but also video calls and conference.) To think of it, it's amazing how fast telecommunication technology has developed and how wonderful it is. (I must admit, however, that I sometimes still miss the good old days ... ^_^).

This post is Bandung Daily Photo's participation in this week's Skywatch Friday meme. To see other photos of the sky or sky-related objects from around the world, please follow the links.

Banteng Jawa

This is the head shot of a young female Banteng Jawa (bos javanicus) that I took at Bandung Zoo sometime ago.

Banteng Jawa belongs to the family of bovidae (bull, cow). Although scientifically named "javanicus", this species can actually be found not only on Java Island, but also on the islands of Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), Bali, and several other places in southeast Asia such as Cambodia, Thailand, the northern part of the peninsular Malaysia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

Banteng is a sexually dimorphic/dimorpheous animal, that is the appearance of its male and female can be readily distinguished. The coat colors of a mature male banteng usually range from blue-black to dark chestnut, while its female's coat is usually of rofous-chestnut color. In addition to this, male and female can also be distinguished by the size and shape of their horns. An adult male banteng's horn is normally longer than that of the female's and is pointing upward in its shape. The famale's, on the other hand, has shorter horn that is shightly curving inward. Both male and female banteng have white stocking-like coat on their lower legs.

An adult banteng is about 190-225 cm/6.3-7.5 ft long and can weigh from 600-800 kg/1320-1760 lb.

Bike To Work Indonesia

I found this bicyle with a logo of Bike to Work Indonesia at the basement parking of my office at The Faculty of Language and Arts Education of the Indonesia University of Education, Bandung sometime ago.

Bike to Work Indonesia or Komunitas Pekerja Bersepeda Indonesia (Indonesian Bike-to-Work Community) began with a group of mountain bikers who was concerned with the increasing number of motor vehicles and the deterioration of air quality in Jakarta.

To popularize the idea of biking to work, the group organized their first campaign to bike to work on August 6, 2004. The campaign was quite successful that the idea attracted quite a significant and growing number of followers. About a year later, on August 27, 2005, they officially declared the movement and organization. The organization's goal is to campaign for the use of bicycles as an alternative mode of transportation for the day to day activities.

Up until 2008, the organization claimed that it had more than 5,000 registered members in 23 chapters throughout Indonesia.

Cihideung Orchids

The Moth Orchid (phalaenopsis sp) is one of the more common (non-exotic) species of orchids cultivated and sold at Cihideung floral village in the north of Bandung.

The moth orchid is native to southeast Asia. Its native habitats spread from the Himalayan mountains in the west to the Philippines' Palawan island in the east, and from Taiwan's Ponso No Tao (the Orchid Island) down to Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku (the Mollucas), and Nusa Tenggara (Lesser Sunda Islands) in the south.



The moth orchid (phalaenopsis sp.) is one of the most cultivated and popular orchids because it is easy to grow in artificial conditions. In its native habitats, it normally thrives in warm temperatures of between 20 to 35 degrees centigrades with high humidity level (between 60 to 70 percent) and low light intensity (under shades, with about 12,000 to 20,000 lux of light).

Sundanese Rebab

Rebab is a two or three string musical instrument that is believed to have originated from the Middle East. It was introduced into the Indonesian archipelago by Moslem traders at about the 10th century CE or about the same time as Islam was introduced into the archipelago. Since then it has been adopted and adapted into the existing local musical ensamble of gamelan.

As you can see from the picture, the Sundanese (West Javanese) rebab - like that of Javanese - is shaped like a heart, has two strings, and two elongated tuning pegs at the top. The strings are usually made of copper. The heart-shaped body is made of wood and covered with a thin layer of membrane made of buffalo skin, intestine, or bladder. The elongated tuning pegs are significantly longer than its Asian siblings.

In a gamelan ensemble, rebab plays the role of the elaborating instrument that gives ornaments to the basic melody. As such, it can be played relatively freer from the scales that other instruments in the ensemble have to follow.

Mi Ayam Bandung (Bandung Chicken Noodle)

Mie ayam Bandung (Bandung chicken noodle) is a popular local fast food here. It consists of noodle, vegetable, and spiced chicken. People usually have it for lunch.

I think chicken noodle is originally Chinese. It has been adapted into the local culinary traditions and is therefore available in different varieties throughout east and southeast Asia.

Here is how it looks, sold, and prepared here. I took these pictures at UPI (Indonesia University of Education) campus at lunch time sometime ago.