Man Against Machine

Text and picture ©Eki Qushay Akhwan

Bandung holds a number of festivals and art events of different kinds every year. I took this picture of a man arm-wrestling against a mechanical arm at a festival recently held at the Gasibu Square by SCTV, one of Indonesia's national television networks. He had to do 30 pushdowns against the machine to get a t-shirt. He lost! The machine was apparently too strong for him. Quite a number of visitors tried their luck (or rather, strength) with this weight lifting mechanical arm. Some of them won, some lost.


Bandung Festivals

Shoe Deposit Counter

Text and picture ©Eki Qushay Akhwan

You have to take off our footwears to enter a mosque. Leaving your shoes or footwears outside the mosque might not be a good idea if there are a lot of people going into the mosque at the same time like during the Friday prayer service. For security and convenience, big mosques like this one at the Indonesia University of Education campus in Bandung, provides a shoe deposit counter where you can leave your footwears and claim them later after the prayer. The counter service is usually open only on Friday during the Friday prayer service. I don't know if you could find this anywhere else, but in big mosques in Indonesia this is a common practice.

By the way, these people are claiming their footwears from the deposit counter after the Friday prayer service that I attended today.

Bandung, Daily Customs

Roda Gila (Crazy Wheel)

Text and picture ©Eki Qushay Akhwan

Roda gila (crazy wheels) is a kind of traditional acrobatic attraction where two or more motorcyclists ride and do crazy and breathtaking acrobatic actions in a cylindrical drum made of wooden planks about seven meters deep and 10 meters in diameter. Spectators have to climb onto a platform at the top of the cylindrical drum to watch their actions. I took this picture at a festival held at the Gasibu square sometime ago.

Bandung, Bandung Festivals