The Whole Region a Huge Garden

Te Ao Hou, March 1965, Page 22

The Whole Region a Huge Garden The rich volcanic soil of West Java, with the rain and the sunshine, make the region a huge garden. Crop succeeds crop without interruption. On the flats, paddy (rice) is the chief crop. The paddy marches up the lower slopes of the hills by way of terraces. Higher up are vegetables of every kind and higher still are the tea-shrubs. The fruit includes pine-apple, coconut, papaya, mango, banana, apukuk, durian, oranges, and other tropical varieties. These are all delicious, but it takes a little courage to try durian, which has a revolting smell, just like our corn steeped in water. My family and I landed in Djakarta, a city about 3,500,000, in December 1963. Stepping from the plane on to the tarmac was like walking into an oven. I am a little more acclimatised now, but still find the heat oppressive. I've trudged the streets of New York in high summer, and it can be hot there. However, in New York (or Auckland for that matter) one can look forward to fall and winter. Here in Java there is no autumn or winter, simply a wet season and a dry season. Djakarta is a bustling, crowded city. The streets are jammed with traffic. Cars, trucks, buses, bemos (three-wheeled taxi), bicycles, betjaks, jostle for right-of-way. Motor traffic includes the latest model cars from Europe, the United States, Japan and Russia. Of course there are jalopies, but I couldn't help noticing the new cars, for there were many models which I had read about in motoring magazines but had never seen before.