Street Musicians

practicing between light changes

Riding around Bandung streets is always an interesting experience, not only because of the traffic (which words truly cannot describe) but also because of the people who move in and around it. I’ve made references in earlier posts about  people we see working the street. I will go into a little more detail in this post. But before I do, let me say that one of our earliest observations was that if there’s a way to make a rupiah, Indonesians will figure out how to do it! And many of them have figured out how to make their living by working the streets.

group of young boys working street corner

slow day?

My observation is that street people seem to fall into 3 basic categories. Some are clearly beggars, and this category consists mainly of old women, young mothers with babies, young children and men with blindness or horrible deformities. Yes, blind people work the streets too! The blind are sometimes led by another person into stopped traffic. If unaccompanied, they stand or sit on the curb or perhaps like the man yesterday “feel” their way down the street by touching the cars. If not blind or lame, street beggars will come right up to your window and be very persistent until you make eye contact and give a hand signal for "tidak!" (meaning "no") Sometimes I feel very hard hearted, and especially so when someone has a physical deformity. But one could literally hand out money all day. You will not see the saddest ones here because it’s hard enough to even glance at the suffering of some, much less photograph them.

musical pair work the angkots

"Love me tender..." (just joking)

2 sets of musicians jump in open angkots in stopped traffic

Besides those who fall into the above category, there are the street salesmen. I blogged on this group recently. When traffic stops they quickly flow into and around the cars and scooters hawking homemade snacks, strawberries from nearby Lembang, cigarettes, newspapers (sometimes several days old) and pretty much anything you can think of.

a boy and his monkey

The third category we’ve observed would be your street entertainers. Within this category there are basically 2 groups – those entertaining with monkeys and those singing and using instruments. I call these the street musicians. These are young boys anywhere from 10-20 years old. They use guitars (all sizes) or ukuleles, some of which are decent looking instruments and some that have definitely seen better days.

It seems that people just sort of hold a claim to certain corners or intersections and others know that spot is taken and they need to find their own. Sometimes several guys will work together. It’s the same way with self-assigned parking lot attendants and people who direct traffic. They seem to just kind of find a spot and do their thing and people will give them change. At least I assume they are making money; why else would they keep doing what they do?

As with beggars and salesmen, the street musicians wait until traffic stops, then immediately move out into the traffic. They come right up to your window and begin singing. Some have decent voices; others are pretty awful. Either way, unless you give them the appropriate hand signal, chances are you’ll soon be dropping money into their can. 

young boys hopes for the best

Some of the younger boys working the already overcrowded streets hop into open doors on the angkots where they strum for a captive audience and maybe pick up a few cents in the process.