Valentine's Day went by romantically for me. I sent my first love to the spa. Little Miss Biogon G 28/2.8 should be back in my arms from Cam-X this weekend all oiled up, cleaned and tightened.

Left for Bandung in Indonesia on 16th Feb. The way to get there is fun. After arriving in the capital city of Jakarta, we (Rosly and myself) took a cab to the Gambir train station and picked up tickets for the 10am Agro Gede express at 35,000Rp a piece. Its an enjoyable, comfortable and photogenic 3 hour ride through Javanese rural and hill country. The plains were in a lush deep shade of green bloating with rice weeds waiting for harvest. Bandung always leaves an impression on me with its rich Dutch roots and architecture.

After several meetings and a night in Bandung, we returned to Jakarta by 1pm the next afternoon. These taxi drivers get crazier every year. I could easily shake hands with the driver of the next vehicle at 120 km/hr through our windows! A leaky exhaust that re-routed its fumes into our cab allowed us the opportunity to bring the windows down for less poisonous emissions....and of course some photo ops.

Candy and coins in hand, it was a feast of window shooting ops as kids swarmed my open window like bees to honey. They were armed with songs, whistles, clappers, snacks, dyed chicks, handicrafts, guitars, cigarettes, magazines, newspapers and some slinging even smaller babies. A few would be at my window at any one time and by the time the cab pulled out of the snarl of trapped vehicles, I had bought 3 newspapers, 2 bags of nuts, a plastic rattler, 2 postcards and a pacifier (!)

The Peninsula Hotel in Slipi proved a haven for us as we washed off the road dirt. At 425,000Rp a night nett, its pretty affordable with fast service. We had one of the best dinners of the trip at Sari Kuning (in the Sudirman CBD area) specializing in Sundanese food.

The looming US/UK war with Iraq seemed to have triggered huge public protests worldwide. Driving past the DPR (Indonesian Parliament) on Tuesday evening, we counted several hundred activitists hearded like sheep squatting in a corner surrounded by baton-swinging riot police. The area around the main gate was a mess of torn clothings, posters, banners and headbands. We'd arrived minutes too late. I cursed myself silently for missing the opportunity.

Security was tight almost every where with major hotels and almost every commercial building of significance installing metal detectors at entrances and frisking EVERYONE coming in including VIPs. Unthinkable in the past, its surprising now how everyone up to the highest strastosphere of Indonesian society's elite are so cooperative in getting themselves frisked for explosives and firearms. The world has indeed changed. I want to buy Chubb shares.....

The evenings, as most evenings in Indonesia, were fun nights out with clients Club 1001, Manhattan and Millenium were still going strong. However, the open blatancy is frightening with dealers on the streets offering pharmecuticals of choice without much effort in even concealment. I guess the mayor of Jakarta finally came to an agreement with the establishment after 2002's show of force (when he shut down the nightclubs for a week). Too bad I didnt bring along any 3200 flim.



Will be meeting up with Lance and the guys this evening at the Museum to discuss our upcoming July exhibition.