Crouching Johnny , Hidden toilet roll (You use the hose for ....emmm...hosing yourself.)
I don't think I could ever get the hang of one of these toilets! Anyway, I arrived at the airport with a good 10 hours to spare but luckily enough , they have a KFC at the airport which allows free refills! The meal deal is a bit odd though as they have no fries, The meal consists of a chicken burger a drink and ............. some ice cream. That seemed weird to me but it was fine as I had plenty of time to try all the carbonated drinks at the airport.(I think my belly was about to explode at one point but you can't look a gift horse in the mouth when there are free drinks to be consumed. It's like going to the buffet and just eating one meal. That's a cardinal sin!!)
Anyway, the drinks machine happened to be near a TV which was showing reruns of the football. This was cool as I had missed all the games so far ! Well, It was cool when they showed a rerun of the Sweden V France game the first time. Subsequent showings of the game put me to sleep (which was probably a good thing.)
By The way, If you are ever in the terminal waiting to be called to your plane before take off, make sure to bring some ear muffs as the sound of the announcers announcing the departers is DEAFENING!!! It is so loud, that sometimes, I can't understand what they are saying as I hear feedback!
Anyway, at 7am the plane took off at K.L and landed in Medan (Indonesia) around an hour later. Talk about a culture shock!!! When I got my bags, I followed the rest of the crowd to customs but one the the security ushered me over to the visa place where i had to pay the 25 dollar visa entry into Indonesia As I was the only European on the plane (as far as I could see) I was the only one ushered over to this area. There were sniiffer dogs all over the place and eventually when I gathered all my stuff together, I went towards the exit sign where 3 men (seperately) asked me within 20 seconds if I needed a taxi. I didnt have a clue where I was going so I took refuge in the local shop where I grabbed a fruit drink. The shopkeeper charged me 13,000 Rupiah for the drink (Later that day, I found out that it cost 6,000 Rupiah in one of the local supermarkets. I would say to myself to never buy anything at the airport as they are overpriced but this was different as I needed a bit of space to breath!) While I was drinking the drink, a kid came up to me and said something like 'polis?'. He said this 3 times but I hadn't a clue what he was talking about . Eventually, he walked away (I think in frustration) but 5 minutes later , another kid said the same thing and pointed to my shoes.......ah, They want to polish my shoes! If you see the state of my shoes, they would have a tough job. Besides, this was 9am in the morning. I guess these kids should be in school. It was some introduction to Indonesia. I decided to open up the lonely planet book and get a hotel address and start walking.....Despite the effort of about 8 men (NOT an exaggeration) in tricycles to get me to use their transport , I carried on (The police were able to give pretty good directions) and as far as I can see, it's a really good way to see the town (If you can avoid being knocked down (which is a strong possibility here.))
A quiet day for traffic in Medan
A view of the main river when entering Medan
Anyway, after realising that red and green lights (as far as I can see) mean roughly the same thing ---ie: go,go,go. I took a chance and was able to make the hostel in one piece (It doesn't seem as warm here as it is in Kuala Lumpur so I wasn't sweating too much). I was able to get a room at the angel hostel for 80,000RP which included a toilet come shower (when using the shower, i had to remember to close the toilet door, as the bed was pretty close to the edge of the jax. There 's no spare room in this place!)
My room , complete with skeleton of spare bed (I am guessing you could use this to put your clothes on)
bucket + shower, It must be the Comfort Roo....I mean Bathroom
It's the good quality cardboard you know!
A quick word of warning before I forget, If you ever miss chocolate and are hungry for some at an airport , just buy enough to eat straight away, Don't eat some and then put it on a spare bed and if you come back to it the next day, expect to see no insects all over the chocolate bar. aaaaahhhhh, that NEVER happened to me .....more than once.......in Medan.....(Damn, that was good chocolate too!)
So, where to go when visiting Medan? I decided to have a look at the Al Mashun Grand Mosque where upon entering, they ask you to make a donation . I have a question. If someone asks you to make a donation, does that not mean that it is not REALLY a donation anymore, more like a charge?? Anyway, I had a quick look through the mosque.
lovely pic of me in the reflection!
While I was inside the mosque , a guy came over to me and asked if you could chat to me so he could improve his English (This is quite a common occurance in this country) I was happy to oblige so we chatted about some basic stuff like 'where are you from?' 'Ireland'--- 'oh, Holland?' 'no, Ireland- it's close to England' -- 'oh England?' 'yes, I am fro England' (I have lost track of the amount of times I have had this conversation!)
I am the guy on the left
I don't know if you have ever seen a mosque. So, here is the inside of this mosque
Just Outside the main hall
The main hall
The Muslim equivalent of the parapit
This is the exit from the Mosque
Aside from the mosque, I stumbled into a library where they seemed to have lots of mannaquins dressed in traditional garb. Here are just 2 of the types of outfit.
Traditional Indonesian Dress
I keep forgetting that Indonesian is the language that is learned in school but it is NOT everyones first language in this country (in a similar way that Tagalog is not everyones first language in the Philippines).
I decided to head across the road to thhe Istana Maimoon. This is the location where there is a palace (created by the sultan of Deli) but there seems to be ongoing renovations everywhere. One guy was painting the outside of the palace while standing on.....the outside of the palace..
Nerves of steel
The inside of the palace just looked like most other palaces that I have seen, rich clothes and a few fancy chairs
Here are the chairs!
Outside view of the palace
All this opulence was gettting to me so I decided to take a stroll through the town and see if I could see anything interesting.I went into a supermarket where they sold a variety of stuff that I had never seen before. Here is just a selection of what was sold at that store...
mmmmmm seaweed and lobster flavoured crisps!
As usual, there seemed to be a macdonalds on every second or third street. I did notice a famous town in Dublin was represented out here also!
Loike, O.M.G! Killiney in da house!
There seems to be a freedom/independance square everywhere and here is no different. Here are 2 pics of the square and an ornament close to the square.
Independance square
The tricycles are parked everywhere
After walking around aimlessly for about an hour noticing odd shops like the one which combines sports with music, so if you are ever looking for a pair of football boots, you can buy your guitar (you know the guitar that goes with the football boots!)
Play the drums? nah, I'll just buy the ping pong table
I decided against buying anything as everything seems to break within 5 seconds of buying it so I moved on to the food district (where else!) where they were selling all manner of deep fried foods. I thought I had died and gone to starch heaven. I must remember that my heart will fight back one day, but in the meantime, it was time for deep fried banana
Deep fried Banana
A cross section of the banana
All in all , it was an interesting day In Indonesia. The people are really in your face so there is no way that you could be a shy person and live in Medan. Walking around this town can be tricky when there are not many paths. I don't think I'll walk with my mp3 player on!
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