Medan, It Is

"Jay, sana ada wireless tak?"

"Starbucks ada, McD ada, rmh aku pn ada.tp x byr lg laa.heheh"
"Wowee ada starbucks! Bagus bagus"
"Ada laa.pikir kuno sgt ke -_-"

"Jay, rm**** cukup bukan, 3 hari?'
"Wow! Tu sbulan pn cukup! Xpe, blanja aku skali kay? Hehe.jgn **** rupiah dhla"

YEARS BEFORE TODAY, I only heard of Medan from Mak Cik Ana, who always comes to our house weekly to iron clothes for years now. Medan is her kampung in which she always took a ferry from Penang to reach there. When I was small I first noticed Medan in a map at the back pages of Malaysia Airlines' in flight magazines -- the letters were bolded, indicating that it was an important destination -- then on a signboard by the street showing 'Medan Letak Kereta' in front of Kompleks PKNS.

Other than that, Medan is just another city in Indonesia, that it's on Sumatra, it's big and it rarely has earthquakes. Nothing more. The impression given of the city wasn't of any distinction -- expectedly crowded, congested, unplanned, full of pollution, smog, heavy traffic and funny people.

I still owe Uzair a visit, anyhow. I didn't meet him ever since I went to London in end-June, I missed his send-off meeting-up, and most definitely missed his send-off at the airport. I barely noticed that he was going to leave soon as I was eaten up by work and I wasn't online for quite a while (this was before the ages of portable broadband). Early plans to Medan were made as early as August, but was delayed greatly until November.

Medan was disputed amongst ourselves, of course. Given that Bandung and Bali were much interesting options, some of us withdrew from the plan just because Medan is really out of the question. This is true even to Uzair, but given that the poor guy has his own tight schedule, he can't really fly off to Java just like that -- not now.

So yeah, it's decided. Let's go to that city with a population more than KL itself. As long as I can meet that short guy, seeing him in one piece, I'm more than glad.

"And another thng," he said, "please expect fr the worst, nt the best.okay? Hahaha"

We got you, brother.

Off to Medan tomorrow with Haziq and Edzmir. Mama just sounded me off for not packing yet, as usual. Love you, Ma!