Jonathan Neufeld Outdoor adventure photography and mountain life

My First whole day in Medan started off with a breakfast that was entirely foreign to me, some rice, and noodles that weren’t exactly what I had in mind, but lots of fresh fruit as well so that was ok. I spent most of the morning getting on-the-job training which started out with meeting our driving and experiencing Indonesian traffic in the daylight. I know this probably isn’t a surprise to anyone but traffic here can only be described as “chaotic”, they drive wherever they please and around who ever is in their way with a thousand scooters and carts whizzing around the cars and between the cars and most amazingly is that there isn’t one single accident. They all drive fairly slowly and no one seems to get angry at anyone else and everyone gets where they need to go. At one point we got cut-off by someone and then people started driving the wrong way up our lane so we had to drive the ‘wrong way’ up what appeared to be a one-way street for about 100m! No trouble, that’s just how it is here. Anyway, the driver took us to ATC and I got to see the inside of Indonesian ATC while we talked with them about the area we want to fly, and then after that we went to the airport to talk with some other people about security passes and flight approvals. The whole thing took maybe 3hrs tops and after that we came back to the hotel to wait for another day while bureaucracy took over.
For the afternoon the other 3 guys that are here and myself headed off to the Sun Plaza mall for some shopping and general not-being-at-the-hotel-time. It was quite nice, and one of the guys even remarked “hey, it’s just like a mall in here!” I didn’t buy much, I managed to spend about Rp 80,000 on a few pieces of software and another Rp 30,000 on a Starbuck coffee before we came back to the hotel. We also went for lunch at a Dim Sum restaurant, and I don’t think the guys really know how dim sum works… I’m not an expert so someone correct me if I’m wrong, but in my experience they bring food around and you choose which dishes you want… well, they called it “having appetizers pushed on you” which is reasonable I suppose since almost everything is pushed on you around here from sunglasses to watches to cab rides. Anyway, I ended up with a spicy-beef-noodle-peppers dish that was really quite good and a few of the dim sum dishes which cost me Rp 50,000 (less than $5). The mall was a neat experience and even better was driving through town to get there, we went past slums and fancy areas, and kids playing in canals (sewers?) and shops and all sorts of amazing things. Admittedly I haven’t been terribly adventurous in going for walks or excursions around the city but we’ve also been spending a lot of time working (believe it or not!).

Here is a shot of the city out my hotel window

Today breakfast was a little better, I had something that was more fishy than anticipated but also had some good spice to it accompanied by rice and lots of fruit again all washed down with bitter local coffee. Breakfast lead into a return trip to ATC to further discuss our flying areas, which by all accounts went fairly smoothly and after that I spent another few hours learning about Flight Permits, Work Permits, Flight Approvals, Security Clearances, Security Passes, and how to import all the equipment here to Indonesia and most importantly how to avoid paying duty on them every time. Once that brain buster session was over we went back to the airport to obtain our security passes so that we can all be out on the ramp at the airport and not get arrested. They assured us they would be ready by 1pm so we dutifully showed up then and were told that there was some confusion about the whole thing and that maybe we hadn’t talked to the right people about it. After an hour of waiting, and explaining, and waiting some more we paid them for the passes and were told it would take an hour for them to be ready since everyone had to go to a meeting just then. We didn’t really believe them but we waited the hour, in a Dunkin Donuts, and went back and were told it would be another 15min… which turned into an hour, which turned into two hours. All told it took us nearly 4hours to get the passes, which were supposed to be ready at 1pm! Bureaucracy indeed! I suspect someone’s pockets got lined along the way, but I’m not exactly sure who… anyway, the plane should get here tomorrow and hopefully we can start flying right away.

By the way, I think I may be a millionaire and just didn’t know it until I came here:

One last PS the purplish fruit at the bottom of the dish in the previous post is a durian, and not at all to my liking! Here is a picture from wikipedia showing them banned on Singapore’s Rapid Transit!

After a brief stopover in Singapore I’ve finally made my way to Medan Indonesia. The flight over from Denver was excruciating, it was 3hrs to San Francisco, then 14hrs to Hong Kong and an another 4hrs to Singapore; and all of the flights had only enough time in between to cross the terminal and walk down another jet-way and onto another airplane. In HK we had to go through 2 separate security points, one with the standard scanner and one where a gentleman with white gloves actually looked through my bag. It wasn’t bad though, they had it set up efficiently and the line moved quickly, the only trouble was that I could see my connecting flight boarding while I was waiting in line. It wasn’t a problem though and I made the connection with plenty of time to spare. Arriving in Singapore seemed to only take a minute or two since I dozed off before they even started the safety talk, I hardly slept on the previous flight so I was exhausted by that point; which I think worked in my favour since I am hardly jet-lagged at all.
The next morning I met Kenzo who took my passport and S$440 and came back a few hours later with a fancy stamp in my passport that says I can work in Indonesia for the next 12 months, provided I leave once in a while. While he was taking care of that I went back to the airport and secured a seat for tonight’s flight here to Medan and then after filling in the rest of the crew here I went for some good old-fashioned sight-seeing. I walked down one of the main streets and mostly wandered in and out of shops and headed towards things that looked interesting I found my way to the harbour and what seemed to be the main downtown area which had a really cool lion statue/fountain in the harbour

While I was walking around I ran into a lady carrying an MEC purse and struck up a conversation with her; MEC is a dead-giveaway for fellow Canadians, it’s like a subtle Canadian flag really. I chatted with Debbie from Ottawa for a few blocks and then we went on our separate way again, it was a small trivial conversation, but it was nice to connect with someone, even on a small level.
The whole city is decked out for Christmas and it seems very weird to me what with the 30C heat and all. It also seems to me that evergreen branches and trees kinda lose some of their meaning when things stay green there all year round, but never-the-less here is a Christmas tree for you.

After my 4hr walk I was tired and sweaty beyond belief and dying for some water so I crashed at the hotel until 4pm when Kenzo was finished with my passport and fancy stamp. I took my passport and headed back to the airport, 2nd time that day (3rd if you consider that I didn’t arrive until after midnight the day before…) and headed off to Indonesia.
I must comment on the Customs Form you have to fill out to get in to the country, it asks if you have any weapons, or drugs or large amounts of cash, all pretty standard, but then it also asks if you have any porno or pre-recorded information since it will have to be either destroyed or censored before they’ll allow it into the country. I’ve never seen that before, and it caught me off guard; I checked the box for NO since it seemed like the best idea to me.
The next awesome thing is that they had someone from the hotel meet me at the airport, and thank God for that! It was a zoo there, especially compared to Singapore which is clean (S$500 for littering) and runs like a tight ship, the airport atmosphere here was crazy! In my life I have never really experienced culture shock, and let me tell you, just the drive here was a shock! Tomorrow when it is light and I actually wander around a little should also be eye-opening and until then I still don’t really know what I’ve gotten myself into, but strangely, I’m still looking forward to it.
Oh, and they gave me a plate of fruit, it was tasty (c:

I went to the Chatfield State Rec Area this afteroon. Nothing spectacular, but I thought I’d share some pictures anyway

I went and saw the new Bond tonight, it was amazing! Easily one of the best Bond movies I have ever seen. I think this movie really returns to the roots of Bond, his nature is well displayed, he isn’t overly coifed or suave, the one-liners and gadgets are kept to a reasonable (dare I say believeable?) level and the whole story line is very well concieved. My ony gripes are: that the traditional high stakes game of bacarat was replaced with the modern and hip Texas Hold’em and also that Q didn’t appear. The latter complaint isn’t so much of a concern considering my earlier remark about gadgets, and with regards to Texas Holdem, I suppose one must contemporize or risk losing the current audience to favour and old tradition. Regardless, it is a well done movie with some spectacular sequences, the opening action shot alone is worthy of high praise. I had some initial reservations about Daniel Craig as Bond, but he pulls it off masterfully and with a style that fits the character perfectly. If you haven’t already seen it, I would recommend you do so.

I hear from a fairly reliable source that the weather at home has turned for the worst, and I’d just like to point out that I walked around all day today in a long sleeve shirt, no jacket required. I suppose the joke will be on me shortly when I’m sweating so much I have a constant puddle at my feet! Oh, I was talking earlier about my revised schedule and I actually leave Sunday, not Saturday… either I can’t seem to keep the dates straight in my head or gremlins have gone in and changed things… I’m betting on the latter.

You know, it’s the samll things that can drive a man crazy. I find pockets can make or break a pair of pants for me, too shallow and they won’t even hold a pair of keys, too deep and I need a fishing rod to get my wallet back out! (and just in case you’re keeping track, yes I do mean the new wallet of a few days ago, and thank you, its doing fine!)

Also, on an unrelated note, I saw a short-person in a TV role today that wasn’t an elf, or a kid, and didn’t involve diving into a vat of nacho cheese. It was nice, he was realy good and totally belivable as well.

Random thought number three I spend far too much time inside when I’m not at home, weird eh? I spent some time in a park yesterday sitting by a nearly dried up stream, the weather here is different, I was able the sit outside without a jacket and I even kicked off my sandals. I’m not exactly sure where this is going, but thats the beauty of stream-of-conciousness writing.

Oh, also, my schedule changed again and now I’m in town until Saturday. I also got invited to the house of a coworker for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. I’ve never been to an American Thanksgiving… are there any sort of protocols that need to be observed? If I don’t have a musket with a bell-shaped muzzle or a hat with a buckle on it am I still welcome?

Do I have to be under 5 to dance around a giant pumkin? Is it a BYOP sort of affair?

Regardless, and in all seriousnes I’m pretty pleased to be invited to someones home for a holiday, it’s a very good feeling to be included in a holiday when away from home.

Hmmm I had a weird dream experiance last night. I know, I know, I usually find it awkward and uncomfortable when people talk of their dreams but you’re gonna hear it anway. It happened as I was falling asleep, I could actually feel my concious level slide down a few notches but not quite to the level of sleep. After that all my limbs felt dead, like I couldn’t lift them if I tried to and granted I didn’t try too hard for fear of waking myself up. After a while of the dead-limb feeling I could feel my eyes scanning back and forth really quickly, but I can’t say for sure whether it was REM or not all I could see was the sort of grainy blackness one gets when their eyes are closed. I have heard of lucid dreaming where one has the ability to control their dreams because they know they are dreaming, and I tried to fly around or something but all I got was this grainy blackness. I can’t honestly say how long this carried on for, but it was a very strange experiance… I’m hoping to repeat it tonight.

On an unrelated note I bought a new wallet today, its actually a money clip I suppose since only cards go in the leather part and the money stays on the outside. It’s actually the second new wallet in as many weeks, my original one was ratty and was in danger of flying apart into its constituent elements at any moment. The replacement was nice and shiny-new but really way too large and it actually made me angry. The new one is really nice and while I’m not willing to go so far as to say it makes me happy, I am willing to say that it doesn’t make me angry.

As I mentioned earlier, my schedule got changed so I’m still in Denver and will be until Thursday now. I have another training day on Monday and I need to go now and think of all the questions I have about the job so I can get them answered tomorrow.

Oh, before I go, I think the Allouettes should have challenged that call at the BC 3yrd line, they could have had a TD out of it, could have changed the game.

My schedule has changed again:

Denver until Nov 24th then to Singapore via Hong Kong arriving on the 25th. The return date is now Dec 12, which means that I’ll most likely be home for Christmas! Yah!

All right, heres an update on the last few days:

Flying

Yeah, I went flying and it totally rocked! They have an indoor skydive place here that is a 12ft wind-tunnel and some sort of jet engine or something that creates a wind up to 100mph! We underwent a quick tutorial on how to do it, what sort of body position to maintain and how to avoid cracking your head on the windows and then it was flying time! It was really easy, you stand at the door and lean in towards teh wind and it carries you up (c: As long as you relax you can float in the wind and it feels like flying! We each did two 1-minute sessions and the second time the instructor showed us how to control the wind a little and move side-to-side and up and down. Then the increased the wind and the instructor steadied us and we flew up to the top of the tunnel, two stories from entrance door (c: It was just amazing, I think I may have to go again before I leave town.

Mountains

I had to work for a little bit this morning and then after that I cruised up to the flagship REI store here. It’s in an old restored train station and it’s massive! It was three stories, and had a whole lot of cool stuff inside it… as always I couldn’t walk out of there without picking up a few things (c: After REI I took a drive into the mountains west of town:

Many people who know me, know that I can be a little impulsive and this is a prime example of it! I didn’t really have a plan or a destination or anything in mind really other than to see a few things. It worked out well though, as I find it ususally does (c: I headed west and the terrain slowly changed from rolling flat-lands to red-tinged rocky outcrops with towering snow-covered mountains in the distance. Just outside of Georgetown the road winds up and up and then it goes through the mountain.

The Eisenhower Tunnel is about 3km long and is at 11,500ft! Perhaps the most surprising thing about it is that the world changed on the other side of that tunnel, on the east side its summer and their are birds singing and people on beaches and on the west side of the tunnel was winter! It was awesome! If I’d known I wasn’t going to be back I’d have stopped and to take a picture.

I did take some pictures further on, at Frisco:

And then some more pictures at Hoosier Pass, way up at 11,542 ft.