Directions

A sign post attached to an "alternating alternates" amber traffic light near Ledeng Bus Terminal indicating the directions to Sapulidi and Imah Seniman (lit. Artist/Artisan House). Both of them are cafes, resorts, and galleries owned and managed by the same company.

Sapulidi is located at Graha Puspa, Cihideung Village, on Sersan Bajuri Street. Imah Seniman is located further away at Cikahuripan village on Kolonel Masturi street.

Many direction signs in this city are what can probably be called "commercial directions" because they don't give you direction to a general area or location, but to a specific commercial venue. I don't know if this is quite common in other cities. I also don't know if this practice is being regulated here.

Road Side Shoes

A vendor selling shoes on the road side of Jalan Gunung Batu in the western part of the city. Different models of shoes are offered here. According to the seller, he and his friends came all the way from Sidoardjo, an industrial city near Surabaya in East Java. They claimed they had brought the shoes directly from the factory and therefore they could sell them for a lot less than any shops or supermarkets.

I once bought a pair of walking shoes for a little more than six US dollars. They looked good, but did not feel as comfortable as those that are more expensive. They did not last long either.

Delman

Delman is a horse-drawn carriage or buggy like the one pictured above.

You would probably think that delman is no longer in use as a means of transportation in a big city like Bandung. But it is. In several parts of the city, particularly on streets/roads that connect the city with its suburban areas, it is still very much in use as a popular means of transportation. The one pictured above, for example, serves the route of Cimindi and Gunung Batu area.

A delman looks like an environmentally friendly means of transportation. It burns no fuels and hence produces zero carbon emission. However, without a special lane allocated to it, it often causes a long queue of motor vehicles behind it. In small roads and during rush hours, a single slowly-moving delman can turn what is already a bad traffic into an even more annoying congestion. Hence, what on the surface looks like an environmentally friendly means of transportation can actually be a significant - albeit indirect - contributor of air pollution.

Photo by Agus Wahyudi (a freelance photographer and Bandung Daily Photo contributor).