Maybe a lost sight today!

I remembered sometime back when this photo was taken in May 2004 at Pundong, Yogyakarta, the people in the small village need to use the bamboo bridge to get to the mainland everyday. When I was there with some Indonesian photographers, they said that that's probably the last time we're seeing that bridge as the plight of the villagers have been raised in the international arena when National Geographic covers it. Financial aids poured in from foreign countries and it was decided that when the flood comes again and wash away the bamboo bridge, it will be built in place with a stroong permanent concrete bridge.

Reflecting on this story, I feel that a part of the local culture is lost. The bridge no longer have any significance to the villagers anymore or it will fade off over time. Maybe the newer generation of the villagers wouldn't have to live though the hardship of canvassing for funds to build the bridge periodically the flood comes. But they would probably not known how the simple bamboo bridge has served their humble establishment over the last countless years with the cycle of building & rebuilding.