Cowbright: A roadside flower market

fresh orchid arrangements

Bandung has been called 'The Flower City'. Flowers are grown in the cool uplands that surround Bandung. There is one market not too far from where we live. In reality, it is just a series of small open-air stalls where individual vendors sell flowers by the bunch or in ready-made arrangements. I stopped there to pick up something to brighten our guest bedroom for another Fulbright couple who will be staying with us a few days. I got a cute little arrangement with daisies, mums and orchids for about $6US. While that's a lot less than I would pay for the same thing in the states, it probably would have been several times cheaper if I weren't Caucasian. I have been seeing a pattern for a while now. Last week I learned that the same pineapples we've been paying 15,000rp for sell to Indonesians for 4,000rp -5,000rp. I got this on good authority from 2 locals I was riding with. Sigh...

two wheeled floral delivery

But back to the flowers. Some of the most attention grabbing floral offerings are huge wooden signs that are used for business openings, weddings and the like. Surprisingly, these are made mostly from artificial flowers. They require many man hours of labor as each small flower is secured individually to create the overall design. Usually the signs will offer well wishes to a bride and groom or congratulations to a business. Although these flower signs are quite large, they are delivered by motor scooters. It is a sight to see them moving through traffic. Sometimes there will be signs on both sides of the scooter, totally obscuring the driver! In this traffic, it's a miracle that any of them make it to their destination in one piece (the driver and the flower board)!