Of becaks and butterflies—strolling in Medan

In the early to mid-1980s, I was doing a considerable amount of influence skills and negotiation training for both the Indonesians working with Pertamina, the local natural gas company, and for Mobil Oil expats.

When evenings came, I set out to explore the city and get a bit of exercise—not an easy thing to do, because the moment I set foot in the street outside the hotel door, I acquired an entourage of not just one, but several becak drivers who would pedal their cabs alongside me. “Master go shopping?” “Master want good restaurant?” “Master see city?”

I whipped out by pocket language guide and came up with, “Saya mau jalan-jalan.” (I want to go for a walk). It didn’t work. Or, at least they thought that this was part of my negotiating strategy, so they kept on trying to make me a passenger.

But my few native words worked to shift the conversation to Indonesian. Not having lured me into a ride with the common destinations, one of the drivers sent me back to the dictionary with, “Mau kupu-kupu malam?” Plurals in Bahasa are often the repetition of the singular word. I found kupu easily enough. Butterfly? So he was offering me butterflies of the night? Moths? Not quite. I put two and two together and came to the conclusion that the oldest profession in the world apparently had the most genteel of names in Medan.