Friday night and I'm logging in from the Novotel Internet Bar in Medan, North Sumatra. Today's (15 October) the first official day of the month long fasting Puasa season for Muslims in Indonesia and as a mark of respect for the occassion, all bars, discos and whatever other forms of exciting night life have come to a virtual standstill.

I've not been back to Medan since 2001 and the town largely unchanged, now boasts of its first mega supermarket, Carrefour. Its a breeding ground for future generations of motorists as I almost got run over several times by different kids driving their shopping carts at breakneck speeds along the asiles.

I had a busy 2 days in Jakarta before I'd arrived in Medan and my hate for the capital's Busway system grows. Taking up 1/3 of the busiest Thamrin and Sudirman thoroughfares, its a feat to get from one destination to another 5 kilometers away within an hour.

As such, picking an appropriately located hotel to stay has taken on much more importance nowadays. I used to like staying at the Mecure Residence Serviced Apartments in Slipi before the Busway system was introduced. It has a great garden and is relatively peaceful with all the comforts of home.

Now with the Busway system effectively downsizing traffic capacity on the roads, together with a booming automobile population (of mostly locally produced Kijangs) staying out in Slipi with appointments in Kuningan, Sudirman and Thamrin means cutting down on the number of doable appointments to 4 a day from my regular 6.

This trip, Hilton Hotel had a great deal with breakfast for US$62 a night and I stationed myself there for 2 nights, making every effort to have the clients come TO me at the hotel instead of risking death by exhaust fumes on the roads.

The Kemang area which used to be pretty Bohemian a couple of years back is fast turning into Yuppie haven with upscale restaurants and bars replacing the run down but crazily fun and wild joints that gave the area its reputation.

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Met up with Goenadi Haryanto in Jakarta one evening and I brought him to Zen. I dont think this 58 year old gentleman enjoyed the spectacle of bar top dancing. In between the pounding music, we spoke about the direction of Indonesian photography and his ongoing exhibitions with Budi Darmawan.

Budi Darmarwan, Arbain Remby and himself were headed to Puncak (a 2 hr drive out of Jakarta into the mountains) to judge entries for a photo competition. Wished I could have had the time to follow them to enjoy some clean air.

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So today, after my appointments in Medan, I hired a motorized becak for an hour for some sightseeing. If you dont mind eating exhaust of other vehicles, its a great way to explore Medan. However, I wouldnt advise any photography unless you're able to squeeze at least 1/250 sec out of the camera....... the vibrations from what looked like a modified lawn mower motor driving the contraption, with the pot-holed roads made for a jarring ride that often times flirted with death and disaster.

Luckily I had a roll of Fuji 1600 Neopan with me.

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I'm off to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow and cant wait to get back home on Sunday. I'd packed 2 cameras for this trip...... a digital Olympus 5060W and the film based Contax G2 paired with a 35mm f2. Both seemed to have had their teeth knocked out of them. The Olympus' menu button is not working which means I've been stuck with a grainy ISO 200 setting (that I'd set the weekend before for family snapshots). The Contax G2's autofocus mechanism completely seizes after 3 to 4 exposures and the only way to get it going again is to de-couple the lens from the camera body, jiggling its contact points and putting it back together....... well one point up for the Contax....AT LEAST I had something to jiggle and poke at until the damned camera worked again. With the Olympus digital, all I could do was turn it on and off....... and pray. God has NOT answered my prayers yet.

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to be continued...............