LANDING SOON / QUOTES (EN)

At night, I can easily see how wet this land is. All around me lights are reflecting in the sawahs. (GdeR)

Seen from my train’s window, the landscape appears to be much more open. It’s because few people want to live close to the track. They prefer the roadside, where they can sell food or restore bicycles. (GdeR)

“Because they use the sawah’s topsoil for making bricks, the farmers need ever more fertilizer.” (Eko Prawoto, architect)

“Gerco! Feyenoord - PSV live on public television tonight!” (sms from Didik, my chauffeur)

In my bedroom at the Pink House, last night, I listened to a drum band playing. Jompet told me this was the ghost band from the Kraton. Now I’d heard it play, I would feel at home in Yogya. (GdeR)

Our car drove over rice spread out on an orange tarp to dry, smack in the middle of the road. I told Didik, “Finally I understand how they make the ‘geplette rijst’ I buy in the Netherlands.” (GdeR)

Growing rice is a hands-on job. It’s a rare farmer who uses a machine to level the sawah before he plants the rice. And most “machines” are oxen. (Jompet)

“Aerial photography clearly shows that most architectural intervention is in neglect of the surrounding areas.” (Eko Prawoto)

I’d made a CD to play in the car while on the road. The Mountain Goats were playing, and Didik said, “Ah! Gunung kambing!”

“Here in Java the farmers use sickles to harvest their crops. The sickle is always moved towards the farmer, thus guaranteeing he only harvests what he himself needs.” (Jompet)

“Especially north of Yogya, where the city is growing very, very fast and without any planning, real estate developers are taking the sawah and transforming it into suburbs.” (Eko Prawoto)

“Yogya was built between the sea and the volcano, between the Parangtritis and the Merapi. On the morning of May 27th, 2006, everyone in Central Java jumped onto his motorbike immediately after the big earthquake struck. The ones close to the sea feared a tsunami, the ones living near the volcano expected an eruption. They all drove to Yogya.” (Nindityo)

“I don’t go to sleep without having the key in the lock and a backpack with my personal belongings right at the door.” (Wulan)

“As a scientist I hope that artists will create art that will automatically expose the environmental problems.” (Heru Hendrayana, geologist)

Once in a while I like to see a buzzard circling over the suburbs and shake its head. (GdeR)

On urban planning: “You draw a line and it hits your friend’s house – and then you bend it a little, because you don’t want your friend to be mad at you.” (Eko Prawoto)

Ramadan. Returning from work in the cab, the radio had to be turned on. I had bought Cokes, bintangs and chips. Suddenly, the radio transmitted the sound of a siren followed by a prayer – finally the sun had set. On the rear seat a can of Coke was opened with a hisssssss.

“I can see you now, harvesting the good images in your lab, after working hard at planting all the seeds onto your films and waiting for them to grow in the refrigerator.... you really have the blood of a farmer.” (Jompet)

"It's not seen as right if you are all alone, it's pathetic, rather -- that's what I hear from people travelling In South-East Asia. Keep in mind there are many more Asians than Caucasians. Maybe it is we who are crazy for desiring to be loners." (in an e-mail from Jeroen van Westen)

While walking all by myself near the Opak river. Passer-by, “Hey, Mister, where is you’re friend? You don’t have friend?? I want to be your friend.”

"The scale of the sawah is getting smaller and smaller because the land is bequeathed and then cut up." (Heru Hendrayana)