Back in Medan

We are back in the big smoke (literally) and someone just lit up beside me in the enclosed internet cafe, which isn't unusual but it's still choking, so this will be a short email. We have been in the jungle looking at the monkeys and the orang-utans (literally "jungle people") and enjoying the rain in the evenings, which pelts on the tin roof so loudly that we can barely hear each other speak, even when we are right next to each other.  There is a river where we swam and we drank passion fruit juice every chance we got (with fresh marquisa! - that's Indonesian for passion fruit).  We could have gone trekking from Bukit Lawang, but it was so expensive that we forwent (?) that pleasure and just saw the monkeys and apes and other creatures as we saw them.  It was still good. Now we are back in Medan, which is a big city, and has all of the negatives of big cities, namely exhaust fumes, smoke, heat and not enough air to breathe.  The opelet (minibus) drivers still hum while they drive though, sometimes they drive with their wrists, as they collect fares, watch for possible passengers, let people off, avoid a becak (motorized tuk tuk) here, a car there, a bicycle here, a truck there, yelling what I think may be deprecations out the window, all the while changing gears about every 2 minutes.  We always get where we need to go...for about 50cents per person.  The taxis tend to quote us the equivalent of 5 or 6 dollars, so we learned to use public transportation, which is fun, as we whisper to the other passengers "how much does it cost to get to...".  They are always very helpful.  Of course, we say it in Indonesian "berapa harga ini ke...".  Indonesia, or at least Sumatra, is one of those countries where people would like to be able to speak English, but really don't.  So we have learned.  I have a whole sheet of vocabulary.  We're going to wow them when we go to Bali. Must go and get some air now. ACDB