Sunday night Oct. 17

Today Raidul and Holan organized a motorcycle trip way out into the countryside, 63 km out, to be precise.Five of us went on 3 cycles, Raidul and I riding behind two friends of his ( both English teachers I'd met before ).First we stopped briefly at Raidul's mom's home again for his Sunday visit; most of the same people were there as last time.Then we stopped at a strung-out roadside traditional food market where as soon as people saw my camera they all wanted to be in, and see, photos.I was happy to oblige, of course; that's mainly why I wanted to go.To the guys it was nothing special - in fact they commented only about the mud, flies, and general messiness of it all.After the market stop it didn't take long to leave the city behind.Marshy, jungly areas alternated with recently-planted rubber plantations and small rice fields - harvested months ago, with mainly just dark clumps of stubble in shallow water all that's left now.We passed small roadside settlements spaced out every 5-8 km with only occasional clusters of houses in between.Everywhere, rice was drying in the sun, usually right next to the roadside on plastic tarps or blankets.In some cases people were raking it or winnowing it using big wicker trays and occasionally electric fans as well.As I'd noted before, big, new, 'showy' cement/stucco homes with gaudy paint, needless columns, etc. alternated with traditional wooden ones of all sizes and states of repair.We followed the Musi River upstream much of the way; by the end it wasn't a tenth of its size here. We crossed many bridges, all simply functional ( unlike Ampera here ).Usually the rivers were lined with pretty rudimentary unpainted wooden homes on stilts, with lots of people in the water bathing and washing clothes, plus boys jumping in from any high point they could find - quite a popular social scene, obviously.We passed quite a few weddings in progress.It was hot and bright but not oppressively so.There was little traffic going out, but a fair bit by the time we returned after noon, on roads that barely qualified as 2-lane and were in pretty poor condition.We finally turned around at a riverside village where one of the guys' inlaws live, and relaxed at their home a while ( they also did the noon prayer there ).We had a simple lunch of rice, ikan pindang ( fish, very hot ), and veggies at a tiny café there too, looking over the river. The guys took us on an alternate route back with another stop at a relative's home for more super-sweet black coffee plus pempek, conversation ( about teaching in America, English usage, etc. ) and a photo session. Finally we stopped at Holan's inlaws' home near PTC, where his wife and kids were waiting along with his younger sister and brother ( they'd gone to a nearby wedding that he he'd been 'supposed to' attend as well, and that he had intended originally to bring me to as well - Padang-style with lots of traditional dances, he said ).We had more pempek and another photo session.I took so many photos that my batteries ( both low to start with, as I discovered ) gave out.I think the guys enjoyed it all as much as I did.Holan said he had never done such an ambitious trip by motorcycle.