My opening blog post has come round a tad quicker than I had anticipated. For after the article below hit Indonesia's most popular news portal yesterday afternoon http://news.detik.com/read/2015/05/26/110831/2925052/10/siapa-bule-misterius-penarik-becak-racing-merah-putih-di-jalanan-jakarta - basically wanting details on the balding man of mystery, and for those with information to come forward - I had to skip the planned 'soft opening' of the new site and get straight to it.
The initial article above led to an appeal on a national TV station, which in turn led to insights on the mysterious man being offered up. The info/hearsay/goss was mashed up, campur style, to create a recipe of truths, half truths and pure fantasy for follow on articles which had the story trending nationally - yip, the charmed life of a celebrity! Sadly, all the commentary was completely void of the actual purpose of the Becakterus challenge. I hope we can rectify that in the coming days and weeks and keep it focused on raising awareness and funds for the local yayasan/charities.
So, what are we up to this time. Well it started over a year ago when I purchased a becak straight off the rank in Tangerang, a satellite town that lies to the west of Jakarta. Many thanks to Dewi's Dad for sourcing and negotiating.
The idea at the time was to take as much of this hard-working becak on a long ride; I guess further than seemed reasonable. A year and a bit later, and after a complete rebuild, the recently renamed 'Flying Merah Putih', has been unveiled to those interested. Which is to take something traditional and culturally iconic in Indonesia and attempt to take it further (hopefully) than any known record would suggest.
The follow up post will provide more details on what is planned. Until then, all the best, Becakterus
