Medan

Off to Sumatra! Our supposedly short one-hour flight from KL turned out to be a day-long journey - first, it was delayed (luckily we noticed it just before we were about to leave for the airport very early in the morning, allowing us to crawl back into bed), and later it turned out that it was completely canceled. Reluctantly, we were eventually given the information on where to find the only complaint desk. After a very long wait during which we had to deal with some rude pushy people, we finally got our turn, managed to be one of the few to get a connection for the same day, and insisted on our delay compensation. Initially, it was withheld from us, but we had had enough time to familiarize ourselves with Malaysian passenger rights. So we ended up with a lousy lunch in the airport’s catacombs for free, hooray! Eventually, we arrived in Medan, and we intended to take the train into the city - although there was very attentive staff to guide us to the ticket machines, none of them accepted any of our various credit cards or those of other travelers. Since there was no ATM nearby, we booked a Grab into the city. Our driver chose a route through the villages (to save on tolls for the city highway), and we observed a huge commotion around the celebrations of the National Day (80 years of independence from Dutch colonial rule). Gatherings, food, and good vibes were everywhere!

We checked into our very simple hotel (a real change compared to Malaysia) and ended the evening in a busy noodle shop that specialized in a single dish. Nice people who were very happy that we ate there and great for people-watching!

Medan itself cannot be described as the most beautiful city, and many skip a stay here entirely. However, we liked it here and thought it was good to settle in a new country for the time being.

Thus, we ended up in a Hidang-style restaurant. Here everything that the kitchen offers is served on small plates (often sealed with cling film), but you only pay for what you actually touch and eat. The concept was unfamiliar to us, and we thought we had accidentally ordered the mega menu. We tried almost everything, and since we felt bad about wasting so much food, we tried to eat it all. Better to stretch the stomach than to leave something for the host! The latter was very happy about the unusually high bill that he could present us, and we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant close to fainting and skipped the next two meals.

Sights included the Great Mosque Masjid Raya Al-Mashun (for Marike only from the outside due to her bare knuckles), an old Dutch water tower from the 19th century that is at least still used as a backup, the Maimoon Sultan's Palace, where many Indonesians gathered for photo shoots in traditional clothing (a quite popular tourist activity in Asia), the Tjong a Fie Mansion (the splendid house of a Chinese businessman who made his money from tea, rubber, and tobacco), and the Perkebunan Museum, where we apparently were the only visitors in a long time. An employee took the opportunity to test her English skills on us, gave us vacation tips, and let us play with the clockwork. And in between, nice old Dutch colonial buildings.

When it came to organizing the onward journey to Bukit Lawang, we realized that it was very complicated and tedious to get there by public buses. So we booked a taxi there, which wasn’t much more expensive. Very unusual, but we should do it more often in Sumatra.