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The markets and the streets represent for me an open air living museum, a direct contact with the cultures and the locals, where you can observe and study the behaviors, lifestyles and customs with an experience made of smells, colors, sounds, flavors, static and moving forms that often, especially here in Asia, are like an exciting and overwhelming experience that enchants our perceptions.
Sumatra is a huge tropical island in the North of Indonesia: jungle, beautiful and relaxing beaches and islands with crystal clear blue water, volcanoes and lakes, endless oil palm plantations and cities, crossed by roads that are not always easily practicable and sometimes require several hours to travel a few kilometers. Home for a wide variety of flora and fauna and a rich mixture of cultures and religions.
Here the streets and especially the markets are always the chance for some new interesting meeting with the super nice and friendly locals, to exchange a smile or, if you find someone who speaks English, some funny chat. It often happens to be stopped while walking by groups of students who want to practice English (at the end of the dialogue you have to give it an evaluation based on the level of the conversation!), by someone who wants to know where you come from and where you go o by someone who just wants to have a good laugh together with the curious new traveler.
In this article I try to convey to you what can be going around the streets and markets of Sumatra through my shots and memories, I always love to immerse myself and lose myself in the alleys made of stalls and merchandise, of people everywhere with their smiles, of new foods with flavors not yet tested, of signs and signboards in unknown spellings, of intense smells and colors, but above all made of an explosion of life!
A mini pempek “factory”: fried meatballs made of fish paste typical of Palembang
A small fish stall, the super-cheap pempek, a street vendor that sells noodles soup with bakso (meatballs) and a particular technique of Chinese therapy, where glass cups are usually used in which the vacuum is created that sucks the patient’s blood, but in this case they are used … horns !! Click the images to enlarge them!
A simple shop made of some wooden planks and some containers where the merchandise is crammed is the source of income for this kind gentleman and his family.
Some stalls selling fruit and vegetables in a Bandar Lampung market. Often you can find colorful spicy peppers, garlic, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and other products that are weighed in the old-fashioned scale at the center of the shop. Click the images to enlarge them!
These guys turned their three-wheeler into a moving restaurant where they serve delicious Indonesian food.
An internet point, a boy ready to take a picture of himself, a domino match to spend time on a hot day and a becak driver (a kind of moto-taxi) waiting to get some customers. Click the images to enlarge them!
The intense looks and the genuine smiles of the locals are the memories that remain most impressed in my heart, the true treasure of a traveler.
Merchants and locals in a market in Bandar Lampung. Walking through the stalls for sure attracts attention in these places where mass tourism, fortunately, has not yet arrived. Click the images to enlarge them!
It is difficult to walk the streets of Sumatra without stopping every few meters to exchange a greeting or smile.
Some small shops with nice and super friendly shopkeepers happy to be immortalized in a photo, a newsstand and a view of a market in Palembang. Click the images to enlarge them!
Exploring another South Sumatra market!
A market in Bukittinggi, a boy sells in bags fish for the aquarium, a curious little girl popped to see who passed by her house and boys who prepare the poultry to be sold. Click the images to enlarge them!
RED! Market in Bukittinggi: a vivid red light projected by the colorful tents that shelter the shops and passersby from the sun and rain.
Stalls selling meat, household goods and fruit and vegetables! Click the images to enlarge them!
A bakso hawker is preparing us a delicious and cheap meal!
Some night markets in Bandar Lampung and Banda Aceh. Every day you can find stalls that start to sell merchandise and street food both in the morning and late evening. Click the images to enlarge them!
Indonesia is mainly inhabited by Muslims, Halal food must be prepared according to Islamic law procedures, as was the case for these chickens sold in a market in Banda Aceh.
Halal: also in this case the food sold complies with the rules of Islamic law. Click the images to enlarge them!
These relaxed gentlemen sell mirrors on the street!
Fish sold on palm leaves, dried fish, small hermit crabs with a painted shell and refined and colored clothes in a shop window of a Bukittinggi store. Click the images to enlarge them!
These are just some of the shots taken from this fantastic adventure around Sumatra, where the hospitality of the locals encountered walking through the streets and markets has left me an indelible memory in my soul.
If you want more pictures of the area, take a look at the photo gallery of Indonesia!
Pictures taken with Vivo Xshot mobile and edited with Snapseed.
Memories edited with heart, mind and pen.
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