This is my first time to Medan and only my second time to Indonesia. Took the 8.40am Silkair flight there. The flight was quite uneventful. Actually, I slept most of the way. heh. I had a pretty late nite packing for the trip and ended up sleeping less than 2hrs. Service was not too bad. Must say that the flight attendants were quite cheery... at least they were cheery whenever I was awake lar. heh. Upon arrival, we walked down the gangway to the tarmac. Managed to grab a pic of the plane. It was quite funny, coz the bus we boarded travelled less than 100m to the arrival hall! haha... I think it was probably only about 50m or less. Could've just walked.



Medan is very similar to parts of Malaysia like Penang & Malacca. There aren't many tall buildings and I think there are only a handful of malls. While I was there, I went to the two bigger malls, the famous Sun Plaza and another one which I can't remember the name, but has a Carrefour in it. Sun Plaza is huge mall. It's kinda like Takashimaya mixed with Lucky Plaza. There are upmarket shops but also many small shops selling everything from pirated DVDs to children's toys. Shopping in Medan is quite so-so. I guess if you;re interested in clothes and stuff then it'll probably be a bit cheaper. But since my main interest is electronics, games & videos, Medan's shopping doesn't really appeal to me.

There aren't many sights in Medan. As far as I know, Medan is more of a trading port coz of all the plantations there. I spent a couple of days in Brastagi, about 1.5 hours from Medan. Brastagi is up in the mountains, so it was pretty cooling there. Although I pretty much spent my time in the resort coz of the workshop, I did manage to catch some of the beautiful architecture/structures on my last day. Here are some pics. Apparently, this architecture is influenced by the Batak culture in the highlands. It's really unique. just take a look at the pic of the church on the bottom right.


Grand Mutiara Hotel where the workshop was held. Just look at the beautiful sky. Oh yah, there wasn't any haze in Medan. The haze is in Kalimantan, not Sumatra, where Medan is.


The local marketplace. Plenty of local shoppers and tourists looking for souvenirs.


A monument in the middle of the roundabout of the small town.


A bus stop. If I'm not wrong, the people actually sat INSIDE. Just compare the beautiful designs to our clinical bus stops in Singapore.


Here's the church which I thought was really beautiful. Click to see the really detailed designs on the wall.

When I asked my former boarders from Medan, the one thing they told me to enjoy in Medan is... FOOD! Wow... Medan food is really pretty good. One of the places I went quite often was Taipan. This is a really beautiful chinese restaurant and the food is really really REALLY good. It's really hard to describe yummy food over the blog. If you are ever in Medan, give Taipan a try. It's a MUST.


Decor at the main entrance of Taipan

One last comment about Medan.

It's really interesting (and to some extent, a little disturbing) to see the huge disparity in wealth among the Medanese. There's really a huge gap between the have and the have-nots. You have to be there to really appreciate what I mean. And I guess, I wonder if there really is any way to narrow this gap. I heard stories of how even people holding diplomas end up simply being maids simply coz it's so difficult to find a job there.

In reflection, I wonder if this is happening in Singapore. Of course, there are the rich, not-so-rich, and the poor. The government talks about education & opporunities being the equalizing factors. But I think, even in my middle-class status, I don't really understand what the poorer Singaporeans go through. I plan my trips, buy my psp, ds, ps2, etc... and yet I think there are definitely Singaporeans struggling to make ends meet. I guess, here, it's just not so obvious. But perhaps, I need to get out of my small little ivory tower more.