Many moons ago, when I first arrived in Baliland (FOB from a nanny nation), the motorbike “helm” was a curious, optional item reserved for those riders who had the money to buy one. Most of those who did have one wore the Leggo Land model, crafted from gossamer-thin, presumably decorative plastic complete with a long cap-like brim and token chin—to really stretch the use of the word—strap. Over more than a decade we seem to have come a long way; now perhaps 80% of folks don one. Compare these stats to say a 21st-century Asian metropolis like Shanghai where helmets can be spotted about as frequently as the Balinese tiger.
However, if we take a closer look at the situation in Bali, we still have a long way to go in terms of international safety standards. People may generally wear a helmet type contraption on their heads but only around 50% of these do up the strap or wear it the right way round. On top of this, only a shameful 1% of parents put helmets on their infants.
When asked why they don’t put helmets on their young children, you’re bound to get the gamut of typically naïve answers: “Because we don’t have to.” “Because they don’t need to” “They’ll get too hot.” Some people correctly claim that it’s because small helmets aren’t sold in Bali. This is in fact quite true. I once tried to buy a helmet for my son but the only thing I could find was not only way below any vague sort of safety standard, but the clip on the strap didn’t work and it was also way too big. It pretty much rivalled not wearing a helmet at all. Now when my son wears it, particularly if he’s on the bicycle with me, people either laugh or say rather curiously, “Oh, biar nggak masuk angin ya?!” (“So he doesn’t catch cold?!”). Astaga! This was a bit over my head … but indeed a helmet provides some protection from the monsoon rains—more on that and slightly more unorthodox uses of the ‘helm’ in the next issue of Kulture Kid.
Vaughan Hatch has immersed himself with Balinese culture, living with locals in Bali since 1997. He speaks fluent Indonesian and Balinese, and is unashamedly addicted to playing gamelan. A linguistic, archaeology and publishing graduate, he works for indOKiwi ‘linguistic and cultural solutions’ in Sanur. Email him on contact@indokiwibali.com or call (0361) 8427030 for further queries.
