Indonesia Medan Kampong Keling 1980

Indonesia Sumatra, Kampong Keling market, Medan. Note the fine vegetables amongst the tropical fruit. These were grown in Brastagi a few hours drive and a few thousand feet higher to the southwest where the climate was more temperate.

We lived in Medan from 1979 to 1981 when I worked for Mobil & greatly enjoyable it was. I found the people and places fascinating. Every day threw up something new & even on the walk to the office you saw different things of interest.

I went back on holiday in 1997 &, unsurprisingly, things had changed. Toko Ben's - the sacks sit outside the shop entrance - had transformed into a modern supermarket no longer opening onto the market but what shocked me the most was the fact that the Mobil office building had been converted into a Pizza Hut! A sign of the times I suppose.