So the other time I ventured north was to watch how bamboo is harvested. We followed one of the PTBP employees who selects bamboo, and went an hour by bike to the area of Bangli.
We then met a group of raggle-taggle local logger dudes and jumped into a truck. (for those of you on Dartmouth Woodsmen's Team or Crew, this is the Balinese equivalent of Pup Blodgget and Steaky the Truck, and friends.)
We headed along an bone-jarringly potholed road for a bit, and along a path for another few minutes. And then we went down. Straight down. We did not realize that the bamboo would be at the bottom of a freaking RAVINE. Poor Szuyin had on flip-flops! Eventually we climbed/slid down to the bottom, and set off along/in the stream to find the bamboo. Once we had located the bamboo, tested its density, and selected the one we wanted, the logger dudes took over. I just stood there, transfixed. I was absolutely sure that I was about to see a man get crushed to death by giant bamboo. I’m still not sure how that didn’t happen. Again, for those of you with Dartmouth woodsmen, they proceeded to break every rule of chain saw safety you every told me. Literally every one. Every one. And continued smoking through it all.
This is my scared face!
The greatest mystery of all is, other than “how are you still alaive with all your limbs” of course, how the heck do you get the giant mutant grass out fo the giant ravine? Unfortunately this will remain a mystery, as they said they would leave the Ptung culm there to dry out a bit before hauling it out by some alternate rout. Presumably by magic. So we just scrambled back up the clif, and hoped back in the Balinese Steaky, and headed farther north. Here we found a pile of drying felled Ptung that was ready to be loaded onto the truck. Bamboo is light, but still, I was amazed to see these men each lift a 4-meter section of giant bamboo onto a shoulder and calmly toss it into the back of the truck. After they had loaded everything, they perched on top, we climbed back in the cab, and headed homeward.
After this experience, I spent about there days trying to design things with only the absolute minimum number of columns, cause I now have a whole new respect for how much effort it takes to harvest each one of the dozens of bamboo stalks that come into the work-yard every day. Eventually, I realized you cant build a bamboo house with only 3 pieces of bamboo, but still…. Just wow.
Also, bamboo is freakishly big. This is a species of GRASS. Like the little things in your front yard. It’s just giant, mutant grass. When I think too hard about this, things get weird.
We then met a group of raggle-taggle local logger dudes and jumped into a truck. (for those of you on Dartmouth Woodsmen's Team or Crew, this is the Balinese equivalent of Pup Blodgget and Steaky the Truck, and friends.)
Hi ho, hi ho....
We headed along an bone-jarringly potholed road for a bit, and along a path for another few minutes. And then we went down. Straight down. We did not realize that the bamboo would be at the bottom of a freaking RAVINE. Poor Szuyin had on flip-flops! Eventually we climbed/slid down to the bottom, and set off along/in the stream to find the bamboo. Once we had located the bamboo, tested its density, and selected the one we wanted, the logger dudes took over. I just stood there, transfixed. I was absolutely sure that I was about to see a man get crushed to death by giant bamboo. I’m still not sure how that didn’t happen. Again, for those of you with Dartmouth woodsmen, they proceeded to break every rule of chain saw safety you every told me. Literally every one. Every one. And continued smoking through it all.
This is my scared face!
The greatest mystery of all is, other than “how are you still alaive with all your limbs” of course, how the heck do you get the giant mutant grass out fo the giant ravine? Unfortunately this will remain a mystery, as they said they would leave the Ptung culm there to dry out a bit before hauling it out by some alternate rout. Presumably by magic. So we just scrambled back up the clif, and hoped back in the Balinese Steaky, and headed farther north. Here we found a pile of drying felled Ptung that was ready to be loaded onto the truck. Bamboo is light, but still, I was amazed to see these men each lift a 4-meter section of giant bamboo onto a shoulder and calmly toss it into the back of the truck. After they had loaded everything, they perched on top, we climbed back in the cab, and headed homeward.
Also, bamboo is freakishly big. This is a species of GRASS. Like the little things in your front yard. It’s just giant, mutant grass. When I think too hard about this, things get weird.
1 comment:
I'm sure Steaky would be honored to be compared to such a nobel and productive beast like the bamboo harvest truck.
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