Today was photo day at Karya, a famous photographic studio in Medan. Hundreds of clothes and matching accourtrements to choose from. Many assistants there to take care of you. And I was feeling sick! I'd started getting a sore throat a day or so earlier, probably from the recent storm. Now I had a head cold as well. Christine headed off early and I was to meet here there later. (She left at 9:30) Sendy collected me at 11:10, allowing me some time to clean up the place, and we headed by Sudako to the studio.

By this time Christine's hair had been given waves and jewelery and her face had been painted to look Chinese-ish. I barely recognised her!

We had 3 sets of photos to do and the first involved a wedding dress and tuxedo, the second a purplish jacket with Christine's maroonish dress and finally a few photos in blue clothes. 

The first studio was your basic studio with ceiling rollers of various backdrops. The second studio featured wedding-like props - a bed, romantic old fashioned tables and more. We used this room to do the registry photo. Studio 1 was used twice as it was probably easier. Studio 2 required the light meter to be used frequently. Studio 2 was downstairs and in hindsight we probably should've recorded more of it on video. Oh well. We were there for at least 4 hours for me and 6 hours for Christine. We only got 9 minutes on video!

The photographer was very professional and the language barrier wasn't really a problem, though the girls required Sendy to translate so that they could find me the right type of clothes. 

There were about 10 attractive, black-dressed, short-skirted Medan women helping out and I went over to one of them and said "ma'af, tolong aqua, tremakasi". I don't know if I used the right amount of words but she got me a drink of water anyway, but was red-faced when she did it. None of the 10 could speak English and they were all joking about who was going to help me, so maybe she thought I might've understood something they'd said. 

Reminds me of a story of a couple of Indonesian girls on a bus in Australia, talking about how ugly one of the Western guys they were sitting next to was. They referred to him as a monyet (monkey) and, funnily enough, when he got up he said "ma'af, this monyet needs to get off!" Apparently the expressions on the girls' faces were priceless!

An interesting cultural thing I've found about Indonesians is that they don't have much sense of what westerners find offensive. If it's against their culture or their religion then it is offensive. If it is against them personally, then it is not. They frequently comment negatively on your appearance without actually being negative, just stating a fact. So if you've got severely embarrassing acne, are overweight and ugly, don't got to Indonesia as they'll actually tell you!!! Eg "Wow, that acne you've got really makes you ugly. You should lose some weight" and not feel the slightest embarrassment in saying so! I was frequently called a cheap skinny white guy because I was on a tight budget, tall and fair. Very amusing.

Sendy and Rani managed to get their eyebrows done there too, and we also had nasi goreng and ayam lunch (included in the price). I was very tired and feeling sicker by the time it was over but definitely enjoyed doing something different like this.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel with plans for swimming. With us was Christina - a friend of the family, Rani and Sendy. Unfortunately the pool was out of order so we just talked and watched TV. Then Sendy needed to have a cigarette so I took my pack of Tim Tams and we headed down to the bar. As soon as we sat down a comedian, named Jeremy McKenzie, started teasing Sendy about her smoking, the Tim Tams and other subjects. Kept us laughing for half an hour. Very funny guy. Also offered to pay for the coffee I'd had while doing the Tim Tam suck. Back to the room to get organised to visit restaurant H2O - a short walk away. We were the only patrons and the place looked new so I hope it gets more successful for them. Unfortunately my cold had got worse and I was really feeling unwell, so after we went back to the hotel I tried to sleep without much success.

Then it was time for the Medan Belly (cos we're not in Bali yet) Chucking, vomiting, diarrhea, throwing up, more diarrhoea, fatigue and more of everything. So whether the food from H2O was bad or it was the result of something I'd already eaten, I don't know. But this left me in bed for two days. :(

Medan continued