Becak - The Traditional Transportation in Indonesia

If you visited Indonesia, especially to city like Bandung, Surabaya, Solo, or Jogjakarta, you might find a unique transportation : a carriage with three wheels which been paddled by a men who sit on the back seat. It is called Becak / Beca, a very well-known traditional transportation in Indonesia.

Paddled Becak

Actually Becak is not a true and original transportation mode from Indonesia. Back in 1930, this transportation was used by the traders from China who brought this transportation from their country to Indonesia as the carriage of their stuff. The name of Becak was originated from Be Chia (Hokkian Dialect, which means "horse carriage") because back in China, this transportation was drag by horse. Since using horse is not popular in Indonesia that time, so the carriage been drove by the men. In the earlier, people called this transportation as "Roda Tiga" (The Three Wheels). But since 1940, it starting been called Beca (wrote as Betjak, Betja, or Beetja) and used as regular transportation for people.

In 1942,  when Indonesia was occupied by Japan, the uses of gasoline had been controlled by the Japanese Government and many Indonesia people were not allowed to own car. Because of that, the needs of  Becak - as public transportation - was increasing and there has a very huge expansion of becak's quantity that time, especially in most of Java's big city, such as Jakarta, Bandung, Jogjakarta, Solo, Semarang, and Surabaya.

Becak with Machine (Becak Motor)

In 1943, becak has been introduced to Makassar - one of the city in Sulawesi Island- and other city outside Java,such as Medan, Padang, Palembang,and Lampung.

Becak is ganing it high popularity in 1960s - 1980s, because it provides door-to-door service that easier passenger to go anywhere they want (especially if they bringing along a lot of their things).

In 1980's, becak becomes a very serious problem for Jakarta because of its extreme increasing. In 1950, becak only have 25,000 units that spreading in all over Indonesia. But in 1966, its quantity was blowing up hugely into 160,000 units in Jakarta only, and increase even much bigger - into more than 400,000 units in early 1980 - and become the main cause of the traffic jam. And this quantity was only noted in Jakarta only!!

In the same time, Indonesia government started to think that using of becak is considering as slavery and not fit with human rights. Due to this consideration, based on Regional Government Regulation (Peraturan Daerah) No. 11/ 1988, becak is restricted permanently as public transportation. Eventhough, the regulation is valid in Jakarta only. In other cities, becak still exist and treated as regular public transportation, until today.

THE TYPES OF BECAK
Each city has its own typical and types of becak. But generally, becak can be divided into two types :
a. Becak with back-controller (the driver is sitting at the back).  It can be found in Java area.
b. Becak with side-controller (the driver is sitting at the side). Mostly used in Sumatera area.

Bemo

Both types of becak can be divided into two sub-types :
1. Paddled becak.
2. Machine becak.

Paddled becak is using men power to paddle the becak. In most area in Java, all of the becak used paddle. Some people considered this kind of becak is similar as slavery act and critisized as a violation of human rights. Even that, this kind of becak still used in some Java city, like Bandung, Solo, Jogjakarta, Surabaya, Semarang, and also some city in Sumatera, such as Palembang.

Each city have its own trade mark of paddled becak. The seat of Java's becak usually a little bit higher to balancing the driver and the passenger's weight (especially for  "heavy weight" passenger). Meanwhile Sumatera and Bandung's becak usually have lower seat to ease the passenger entering the becak. 

Machine becak is becak that use machine to run. Usually the becak been attached to the motorcycle, either side-by-side or back-to-back.

Bentor

Besides regular becak, there are some types of becak that become the trade-mark of each city in Indonesia :

1. BECAK MOTOR : 

Literally it means "becak with motor". It is a becak that been attached with motor cycle side-by-side and its width is similar as regular car. It is a regular trasportation that been used in Medan and Pematang Siantar, North Sumatera.

2. BEMO : 

Actually Bemo is refering to "Becak motor". Differently with Becak Motor in Medan, Bemo is almost similar as car but use motor-cycle machine. Bemo is commonly found in Jakarta and become a trade-mark of Jakarta's traditional transportation. Bemo is created in 1962, and its purpose is to replacing Becak. Since it's abling to run faster and further comparing Becak, most people starting to like using Bemo.

3. HELICAK : 

Another type of becak is Helicak, the combination words of "helicopter" and "becak", because its shape that similar with those transportation. Launched in March 24, 1971, helicak became one of the most famous transportation in Jakarta. Same as becak, the driver was sitting at the back, while the passenger at the front. The passenger cabin was made from steel and fiber glass. It made passenger safe from heat, rain, and dust. However, because of the inconsistency regulation from local government, soon helicak did not developed well and dissapear by the end of 1970's era.

4. BENTOR : 

Refer to "Becak Motor", it is a trade-mark transportation from Gorontalo, South Sulawesi. This is becak with motor-cycle back-to-back position and can run very fast. Althought Bentor is very popular, the existance of this transportation is not permitted.

5.  BECAK RENGAT : 

Becak Rengat (or simply called "Becak") is one of becak type that very popular in Rengat, Riau Island. It is paddle-becak in which the position of the driver is at the side of the becak, not in the back as other becak.

Becak Rengat

Indonesia - Where Is It?

"Indonesia? Where is it? Is it part of Bali Island?"

Yeah.... sometimes I still hear this kind of question. There are a lot of people that still have no idea where Indonesia is, meanwhile they often visit Bali Island. Bali Island actually is part of Indonesia. In fact, there are plenty of other exotic places in Indonesia beside Bali that you can visit.

Before I explain more, let's find out about Indonesia.

Indonesia - or The Republic of Indonesia - is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia consist of 17,508 islands (about 6,000 of which are inhabited), with a population of around 230 million people (the world's fourth most populous country), and scattered over both sides of the equator. There are five largest islands : Java, Sumatera, Kalimantan, New Guinea, and Sulawesi. Among those islands, Java is the most populous island which has population density of 940 people per square kilometer.

Indonesia shares land borders with Malaysia on the island of Borneo and Sebati, Papua New Guinea on the island of New Guinea, and Timor Leste on the island of Timor. Indonesia also shares borders with Singapore, Malaysia, Brunnei Darrusalam, and Phillipines to the north and Australia to the south across narrow straits of water.

Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia and become the nation's largest city, followed by Surabaya (located in East Java), Bandung (West Java), Medan (South Sumatera), and Semarang (Central Java).


The total land area in Indonesia is 1,919,440 square kilometers, which make Indonesia as the world's 16th largest country in terms of land area. Administratively, Indonesia consists of 33 provinces. Each province has its own political legislature and governor. The provinces are subdivided into "kabupaten" (regencies, ruled by "Bupati") and "kota" (cities, ruled by "Walikota"). "Kabupaten" are subdivided into "Desa" or "Kelurahan" (village, ruled by "Kepala Desa" or "Lurah").
 
Lying along the equator, Indonesia has a tropical climate with two distinct monsoonal wet and dry seasons. Humidity is generally high, averaging about 70-80%. Temperatures vary throughout the year. Daily temperature range daily is about 18 - 32 degree Celcius. Usually mountainous area (such as the west coast of Sumatera, West Java / Bandung, Kalimantan, West Java / Batu, Sulawesi, and Papua) has temperature about 18 - 22. Meanwhile rural and city region (such as Jakarta, Central Java / Jogjakarta, South Sumatera / Palembang and Lampung) is generally in high temperature, between 26 - 32.

Indonesia's climate and archipelagic geography has support the world's second highest level of biodiversity (after Brazil). It has mixture of Asian and Australian species in flora and fauna. Forest is covering about 60% of the country (mostly in Sumatera, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and New Guinea).


There are about 300 distinct native ethnicities in Indonesia, with more than 740 different languages and dialects. The largest ethic group is the Javanese, who comprise 42% of the population and culturally dominant.


The official national language is Indonesian and it is universally taught in schools and spoken by nearly every Indonesian. But most of them also speak at least one of their local languages and dialects.

Indonesia has more than 300 ethnic groups, each with cultural differences developed over centuries and influenced by Indian, Arab, Chinese, Malay, and European sources. Indonesian also have varies cuisine by region. Rice is the main staple food and is served with side dishes of meat and vegetables. Spices (such as chili, ginger, and turmeric), coconut milk, leek, onion, and shallot are fundamental ingredients.

Sounds exciting? Well.... you bet..!!! Let's see what we have in Indonesia on the next articles.....