SUMATRA, CURSUD TREASURES | France 5 | Les Routes de l'Impossible

In the vastness of the Indonesian archipelago, Sumatra occupies a special place. They are 60 million to live on the 6th largest island in the world. Agriculture makes its wealth but it is also its worst enemy. A third of the inhabitants depend on the work of the fields.

To avoid taking the rutted tracks, Masinis uses the old railway line which dates from the beginning of the 20th century, but is it faster and safer? Not really… It was he himself who tinkered with his rickety motor wagon. The rails look like snakes because they don’t run straight and in places they have disappeared, replaced by branches…“The rails were swept away by a landslide. It is the fault of the rainy season, it has been raining non-stop for 2 days. I have already derailed and overturned but fortunately I have never had a death.A miracle, given the state of the bridges, which seem to be held together by the operation of the holy spirit. But thanks to his machine, peasants, villagers and gold miners are no longer isolated.For his part, Rudi the taxi has nothing to envy to this sickly train, the minibus driver transports 6 passengers over 80 km and the road is in the same condition as the old railway line… the ruts and the mud and more. The monsoon transforms each trip into a real journey, but the atmosphere is quite good.”To forget the state of the road, I only have laughter, anyway, I have to work every day to earn the money necessary for my family”According to Rudi, the multinationals which transform the tropical forest into palm fields to make palm oil, commit an ecological disaster and ruin the lives of travelers.“You can see there are lots of big trucks carrying palm nuts. They are hundreds every day to pass by there and it is they who end up destroying the road by dint of borrowing it. ”

In the Minang region, every year, at the end of the rice harvest, the peasants compete in a mad race. There is no racetrack or horses here, but… bulls and a rice paddy as racetracks. The “jockeys” are standing on a bamboo slat pulled by two mastards. With speed, they surf the water and if the beasts aren’t going fast enough, they have an amazing technique to speed them up. Even if he still masters the bulls well, Maklanu had to let go of the reins.”It has become too difficult because I have no more teeth and for a jockey, the most important thing is the teeth”Because biting the tail of bulls is the only way to make them accelerate.