MY TRIP WITH VIAVIA (an article from our 2009 newsletter)

This story on ViaVia Newsletter was written by Ratih, Dian, Muti dan Ira. They shared their experience joining our Village Tour by Bike back in 2009.

It was a sunny day. Early in the morning, we (Ratih, Dian, Muti, and Ira) arrived in ViaVia Jogja. We booked a village trip by bike one day before. We woke up early in the morning and without having breakfast headed to ViaVia. It was a holiday for us as a student. Normally we spent the day by being idle on our bed. But, all spirits were up that morning and we were eager to join the trip. We prepared our favorite snack, and also a rain coat just in case it would rain during the day. Fortunately, it was a sunny day. We joined the village trip as research for our subject at school. The purpose seems like academic and formal, but all we got is far more than that.

We never thought that our journey would be full of joy. We enjoyed every single span in that day. We get a new experience that we never had before. All we know is living in a busy city in modern society. Our guide was Endang. We started our trip at 8 a.m from ViaVia. We cycled to a traditional village in Jalan Imogiri by Onthel (a javanese bike). This village is about 2 km from the city. Along the way we passed the city area, until we arrived at the original village of Indonesia. We saw large green vivid rice fields, herdsmen and the hospitality of the people. As a student who lives in the city, we are impressed with all of the things in front of us. We found a fantastic place where traditions are still alive.

We stopped at several places during the trip. At the first stop, we got a chance to go into the mud. We walked trough the dyke and joined the farmer planting the rice. On the other hand, we also helped them plowing the rice field using two buffaloes. Wow……it really is an amazing experience. We were not afraid to be in the mud, even with all the dirty things on our body. It took long, but we did enjoy it.

Our second stop is a harvest place, which is also quite impressive. We met some farmers who were harvesting rice. They were working with a simple technology to separate the seed from its stalk. We tried to work with that, it felt awkward in the beginning but it went well in the end. We even replaced them so they could take a rest for a while.

Our third stop is planting rice. Once again, we got a chance to plant the baby-rice with the farmer. It seems very easy to do, but in fact it is difficult. We needed a special technique and good skills to plant the rice so that it can grow well. We planted un-orderly, and the farmer re-arranged it patiently. They laughed watching our work.

Our new experiences are getting more the moment we arrived in a tempe home industry. In that place, we learned how to make tempe. We bought some tempe as a handgift.

The last destination is a brick industry. We needed big efforts to reach this industry. We passed a small narrow path via rice fields and a muddy road. Unfortunately, there were no people making bricks beacuse of the rain. We decided to take a rest and enjoy the landscape while eating our snacks.

Actually, there were two more destinations, a cow farm and a krupuk industry. But one of our friends, Ira, suddenly fainted because of the heat and because she was tired. Many villagers came to help us. It was a unique experience when an old man helped Ira with his inner power to become conscious. We were amazed by his appearance (with white beard) and just few minutes he can make Ira conscious ….. wow … thanks … mbah…. After all this happened we decided to finish our trip. We went back to ViaVia with all our new experiences and a different view. Thanks to ViaVia, we’ll never forget this journey. This trip reminded us to love traditional culture in Indonesia.