bus

Garis Batas 31: Berakhir di Sini

Pusat kota Bishkek (AGUSTINUS WIBOWO) Anak Satina satu-satunya, Maksat, yang dulu selalu menemani ibunya di Toktogul, sekarang sudah jadi mahasiswa tingkat pertama di ibu kota Bishkek. Satina menganjurkan saya untuk mengontak Maksat kalau ke Bishkek nanti. Kebetulan sekali, di malam ketika saya hendak meninggalkan Toktogul, bapak angkat Maksat datang dari Bishkek. Namanya Moken. Kata Satina, orangnya baik sekali. Siapa Toktogulduk, orang Toktogul, yang tak kenal Moken? Sekarang Maksat menumpang gratis di rumah Moken di Bishkek. Belakangan saya tahu bahwa Moken bekerja sebagai supir taksi. Di Kyrgyzstan, seperti halnya Tajikistan, supir taksi termasuk pekerjaan yang menjamin cemerlangnya masa depan. Saya menumpang mobil Moken langsung ke Bishkek. Jalan dari Toktogul ke arah utara melewati gunung-gunung tinggi. Kendaraan umum yang boleh melintas cuma taksi. Bus besar dilarang lewat sini sejak kejadian bus yang mengangkut para pedagang Uyghur dari China terguling dan menewaskan banyak orang, beberapa tahun lalu. Mobil Moken termasuk mewah. Badannya panjang dan kursinya lebar. Saking nyamannya mobil ini, saya ketiduran terus sepanjang perjalanan sampai ke Bishkek. Rumah Moken terletak di perumahan Ala Too di pinggiran kota Bishkek. Maksat, yang masih mengenali saya, sangat terkejut dengan kedatangan saya yang tiba-tiba bersama bapak angkatnya. Maksat langsung menggiring saya ke ruang tamu, menyiapkan makan [...]

July 26, 2013 // 1 Comment

Mazar-i-Sharif – Perjalanan Menuju ke Utara

Biya ke berim ba Mazar, Mullah Muhammad jan (Mari pergi ke Mazar, Mullah Muhammad sayang) – Lagu tradisional Afghanistan Electricity… sign that development in Afghanistan is going the right track Sudah hampir sebelas bulan berlalu sejak saya melintas perbatasan Uzbekistan-Afghanistan di desa Hairatan, beberapa kilometer jauhnya dari kota Mazar-i-Sharif. Sejak saat itu kehidupan saya hanya terkurung dalam lingkup kota Kabul. Saya bahkan tidak pernah bepergian lebih dari lima kilometer. Tak bisa dibayangkan, betapa rindunya lagi saya untuk kembali ke jalan, pergi ke tempat-tempat baru dan belajar hal-hal unik. Tahun baru Naoruz, tahun barunya orang Afghan yang didasarkan pada perhitungan matahari, akan segera tiba. Naoruz adalah perayaan penting untuk orang-orang berlatar belakang kebudayaan Persia. Di Iran, tradisi merayakan Naoruz penuh dengan pengaruh dengan tradisi pra-Islam, seperti mengumpulkan tujuh buah bahan yang berawalan huruf ‘s’ (haft sin), atau merayakan Rabu malam dengan api dan petasan. Di Uzbekistan, Navruz adalah hari di mana orang menyiapkan sumalak – puding dari rerumputan – dan tari-tarian indah menghiasi kota-kota kuno. Naoruz juga tahun baru bagi masyarakat Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, dan Afghanistan. Kota Mazar-i-Sharif adalah pusat perayaan Naoruz di Afghanistan. Ratusan ribu orang berbondong ke kota besar di utara itu. Apalagi tahun ini libur [...]

March 17, 2008 // 0 Comments

Karakul – Out of Murghab

A new day, and a new month, starts in Murghab The new month has just started, and I have only 4 days left on my visa. I met these two guys in the bazaar of Murghab, one with visa expiring today (November 1). The guys were from America and Israel, and they have been waiting for onward travel to Kyrgyzstan. They were there in the bazaar yesterday but failed to depart. Today is the second day (and supposed to be the last day) attempt. Murghab is somehow a depressing place to wait for transport. As now the oil price has skyrocketed, one’s a month salary is only enough to cover the distance from Murghab to Osh or to Khorog in a public transport for one time. People don’t travel anywhere. There are many drivers but not passengers. The drivers hang around the bazaar the whole day to get passengers, and except the two travelers, and me, there is nobody else to share the cost. Some drivers even didn’t have petrol for their vehicles. The cost is always calculated in terms of liters of oil, with 3.40 Somoni/liter standard in Murghab. In Langar I even saw a driver asked the passengers [...]

November 1, 2006 // 0 Comments

Rawalpindi – Do Nambar

Women are rare on Pakistan streets. But when they are, mostly they are totally covered February 21, 2006 I have written many stories of examples of male to male sexual harrassments in Pakistan (personal experiences) and it’s unfair if I dont write the sexual harassments that happen to women, which are far more common. I was in a crowded bus today, heading to Islamabad. When I entered the bus, the seats next to the drivers (supposed to be seats for ladies, and it is really pronounced as LADIES instead of ‘aurat’ in Urdu) was occupied by some men also. The ticket men allowed me to sit in front seat also, maybe because I was foreigner. Then there were about five seats left for the ‘ladies’. But as there was only one woman passengers, the seats were again occupied by male passengers. Then everytime coming a female passenger, those male passengers have to move away and give the seats to the women so that no women will sit next to unrelative males. Something that not happen in Indonesia. I was just thinking at that time, life is quite complicated here, even the seats have to consider the genders. But this difficulty [...]

February 21, 2006 // 0 Comments

Rawalpindi – More About Public Transports

Travelling and eating can be done in one-go in Pakistan February 20, 2006 Sometimes I have to grumble, and it was about the public transport service in Islamabad. In New Delhi I had an example when I took a bus and suddenly the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere as the driver didnt have mood to continue the journey, and all passengers had to find their own way. In Rawalpindi, it’s another story. Conductors are little bit too much enthousiastic in selling tickets, that they will lift you even they know surely 1000% that the bus will not reach your destination. Instead they will take you the nearest point between your destination and their route. Once I took a bus to Phir Wadhai and they dropped me somewhere in Murree Road and asked me to go by Qingqi instead. I chose to walk, and it was even further than the initial distance where I took the bus. In Islamabad, some bus numbers concern too much about the profit. Take an example, bus number 120 which passing from Melodi Market to F-10 through the Karachi Company. Karachi Company is a big terminus where all buses stop for a while for [...]

February 20, 2006 // 0 Comments

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