My first stop in Sumatra, the sixth largest island in the world, was Medan. The capital of North Sumatra and the largest Indonesian city outside Java with a population of just over two million, is a big, hot and busy city. I only spent one night there and I felt that it was like many large cities around the world – if you have something to do there, like work for example, then it’s great, but as a tourist there is very little to see.
I went to look at Mesjid Raya, the great mosque situated in the centre of the city. It was built in Moroccan style in 1906 by Dutch architect Dingemans, and was certainly impressive. I also saw Istana Maimun (Maimun Palace). Medan’s proximity to Malaysia means that Malay food is available here, as well as foods from across Sumatra. Motorised becaks ply the streets of Medan, a phenomena I have not seen elsewhere. Resembling a motorbike with side-car, these vehicles take the place of rickshaws in other Indonesian cities, taking passengers around town.
Medan is very much on the backpacker trail, for travellers flying across from Kuala Lumpur and heading down through Indonesia. It has backpackers’ hostels geared towards international tourists. Having not experienced the backpacker world for a long time I checked in at Blue Angel Hostel, just south of Mesjid Raya, which seems to be the current hub of the backpacker industry in Medan. I paid Rp.50,000 for a very clean room with fan and bathroom. The bathroom was semi-indonesian style, with a sit-down toilet, and a bucket of cold water and dipper. The bed was very soft, but I got a fair night’s sleep, and it was very good value. The food was reasonably priced and tasty and cold Bintang beer was available. The Blue Angel had a friendly atmosphere and I was easily able to meet travellers from other countries.
Leaving Medan to travel to Bukit Lawang I walked to Istana Maimon and took an angkot (yellow minibus) no 64 to the Pinang Baru bus terminal. I paid Rp.5000 for this but perhaps it should have cost less. On the Bukit Lawang bus the conductor tried to make a killing charging all the foreigners Rp.30,000 each when it should have been less. I haggled and in the end he reluctantly dropped the price for me, after coming up with all sorts of nonsense about how he’d get arrested. I was surprised by how many foreign tourists I saw in Medan, even in the off-season. It was a bit of a shock for me to be thrown back into the world of being ripped off for being white, but that’s life, as a white tourist in Asia.