Weekend crowds from the big city frolic in the Bohorok river at Bukit Lawang, a couple hours outside of Medan.

Looks like a lot of fun, but someone actually died in the river soon after I took this photo. It's sort of hard to see, but the current was really strong - far stronger than normal, and many locals had been warning about it.

A couple people vanished under the water, and their family members started screaming when they noticed the disappearance. The waiter from the restaurant where I'm sitting leapt into the water (as did several others) to look for them, while still others ran downstream along the banks.

One of the victims was pulled out of the water a hundred meters down. The other wasn't found until 20 minutes later, trapped under a rock.

It was interesting that no police or ambulance services were involved in this process. With Indonesia's stability problems has come a breakdown in civic services, especially away from Java and Bali. An Indonesian guy I talked to at length on the ferry ride from Malaysia to Sumatra said that in Medan, where he lives, almost all the public services - garbage collection, policing, etc. - were effectively provided by local organizations somewhere between civic charities and street gangs.