3 Wheels are better than 2

The Flying Merah-Putih is anything but fast, but what it gives up in speed, it gains in substance… 80 kgs when loaded up. Thus, rather than burning up the road and devouring the kms, the becak takes a more measured approach, carefully caressing and gathering up the kms, with cultural panache. 

I've been told riding a becak embodies the philosophical side of this island, and it can be found in the symbolism of a Javanese maxim, Alon Alon Waton Kelakon. Meaning; be sincere, be sure, be steady. I guess it's therefore more about the journey than the destination. 

In Indonesia the 3-wheeled rickshaw or pedicab, is known as the Becak. The name, Becak, originates from the Hokkien dialect for Be (horse) Chia (cart) - at least that's what it says on the internet. The original pedicabs were developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and entered Java and Sulawesi around the 1920s. Numbers through the post-war era, mushroomed across the archipelago with 30,000 reported in Jakarta alone, by the late 40s.

In the novel 'The Year of Living Dangerously', the writer Christopher Koch portrays the becak as an iconic part of everyday life in the capital. This was in the politically charged years of the mid 1960s. The author has Guy Hamilton, the lead character, sauntering round the Hotel Indonesia circle, seeking refuge from the hot sun under the canopy of a becak. 

Today, as the Jakarta Post rightly points out in a recent article, it would be incomprehensible to see a becak now circling the famous Bundaran in the heart of the city. Or is it?.. 

History too shows that as Jakarta continued to grow, and as the traffic multiplied, something had to give way, and it was this charismatic 3-wheeler that lost out. By the late 70s, it was estimated that over 150,000 becaks were operating in and around Jakarta - which resulted in the city administrators of the time banning them altogether. Reportedly, as an example, over a 1,000 were gathered up and dumped into the Jakarta Bay.

But as late as 2007, the Jakarta provincial government passed new regulations under a public order by-law. The by-law prohibits the manufacturing, assembling, ownership and operation of a becak within Jakarta. Failure to abide could result in 3 months in jail and/or fines of up to 30 million rupiah. If anyone reading this and knows of my wife and daughter, please keep it to yourself. Thank you. 

That said, with the help of YCAB - www.ycabfoundation.org - we are hopeful of securing the necessary permits very soon. In the meantime, I'll continue to train on my 3-wheeler, which if anyone asks, is a tricycle designed in the style of a traditional becak. And of course, on the proviso to never pick up a fee paying customer.

I certainly feel less conscious when I get out past the city walls, because out past the ring toll roads, I receive the most amazing and warm welcome from the Tukang Becaks, that still ply their trade on the fringes of Jakarta and beyond. A fine example in the article below.

Becak-terus, dong.