Back to Medan

There’s a kilometer-long road down to my grandmother’s summer house on Funen. It’s a paved country road, and technically you’re allowed to drive 80 km/h on it. It’s so uneven and crooked, though, that if you drive 60 km/h on it, everyone lifts off their seats. My dad, of course, consistently always chooses to speed up a bit down that road, so it feels like being dice in a dice cup.

On the highway from Parapat to Medan, I’d rather have driven down the summer-house road with my dad behind the wheel. The highway isn’t bad, but every spot where a tunnel or underpass has been built under the road has resulted in what amounts to a launch jump at the speed our taxi driver chooses to take them at. When, in the middle of the highway, I get a notification from my step-counting watch that I’ve hit today’s goal for steps and floors climbed, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. And after 2 hours on a constant roller coaster, even the strongest stomach gets tired.

The journey heads back to Medan after 8 days on Samosir Island. Any travel guide will probably tell you that 2, max 3 days on Samosir is enough to experience the island. I’d probably agree with them there, if you’re just going for the sights. Samosir has beautiful mountains and fantastic views out over the lake. A little excursion to Sibea-Bea, and an afternoon of swimming and water sports along with a good evening meal in Tuktuk, and you’ve got a feel for the area. I did enjoy my little holiday-like stay, though. Ready and fresh to move on.

Hotel O

On Agoda I found a very cheap hotel in Medan. It’s actually close to the cheapest hotel I’ve seen on my entire trip. 29 kroner a night, highly recommended, 3 stars, a good number of positive reviews.
I’m very skeptical of that kind of thing, so I double-check that there are no hidden costs or major issues reported. Nothing jumps out. When I arrive at the hotel, the first thing that greets me is a big sign in red letters reading “No LGBT”.

It should be said that this is the first time I’ve seen any anti-queer signage on my entire trip. Across 8-9 cities in Indonesia as well as both Cambodia and Vietnam, I haven’t gotten the impression of active resistance to queer culture. That said, people in Medan dress much more conservatively and covered up. When I ask the receptionist about the sign, she glances at it, rolls her eyes, and gives me a smile, so who knows how strictly it’s enforced.

It’s one of the stranger hotels I’ve stayed at. The building itself feels newly renovated, with white walls and polished tile floors. There’s no trace of wear or neglect. On the other hand, if you step outside the hotel, you’re standing on a dusty, dirty, busy main road. The hotel’s location is a bit of everything. It’s right next to a nice café, a mini-market, and a bazaar. I won’t be eating anything right here, though. There are a couple of food stalls out front of the hotel as well as in the bazaar next door, but after seeing rats crawling in and out of the empty food carts at night, I’ve chosen to walk a bit further for my meals.

There’s also a small side street not far from the hotel. In classic Asian style, there are 8 shops selling the same thing. This is the computer-café-and-printing street. If you walk through it, you reach the university campus. It’s July, so the university is on summer break, with only a handful of people around. That way I can go from busy and convenient to peaceful and empty in 2 minutes.

Medan life

The cityscape in Medan is very different from many other cities I’ve stayed in. More religious buildings, with a fair number of mosques, a few Christian churches dotted around, and still room for other religious buildings. It’s very normal for restaurants and cafés to only serve halal food. No pork, no alcohol. You can get a beer in a lot of places if you ask for it, but it’s not listed on many menus.

The nightlife is also fairly special. There doesn’t seem to be a particularly strong drinking culture in the city. On my little evening walks it’s typically the big cafés and restaurants that stay open late. It seems like that’s where the nightlife is found. Most places are open until 23:00, and a few all the way until 01:00. I’ve seen fairly large restaurants and cafés in several places on my trip, but in Medan they’re fairly consistently packed with 100-200 guests during the evening rush hour around 9 pm.

An evening at a café isn’t a quiet moment with a cup of coffee. It’s an activity center, where every table competes to be the liveliest. People play games, listen to music, watch films, talk on FaceTime, or howl with laughter at each other’s jokes. Among them there are a couple of tables where young people sit with their laptops out in relative silence. The overall mood, though, is lively and loud, bordering on festive.

I’ve seen a couple of ads for rooftop parties, which seem to be the places that most resemble nightclubs, but from what I’ve seen, there isn’t a bar or club street like in so many other big cities.

During the day it’s hot in Medan. It’s 6 hours from Medan to Lake Toba, and likewise a 6-degree difference. In the middle of the day it sits steadily at 35 degrees, and walking down the hot asphalt streets can quickly feel like opening the oven door. People don’t seem used to seeing pedestrians in the midday heat either. Only 5-10 minutes go by before a new person shouts ‘Hello’ or honks and waves at me. I feel almost like a minor celebrity. Whether it’s my fairly pale skin or the Stetson hat drawing the attention, I can’t be entirely sure, though.

The journey ahead

I’m using my days in Medan to tidy up my backpack and my head. A few things get bought for the toiletry bag, my clothes get rearranged a bit, and I look ahead to the next stop. Soon I’m heading to Malaysia, where I’ll initially be staying for 4-6 weeks. Apart from Bali, I’ve stayed in most places for 1-2 weeks, but in Malaysia I want to try 3-4 weeks in the same area at a time. I’ve reached a point in my journey where feeling comfortable has become more important than experiencing new thing after new thing. When the scene, the people, and the surroundings keep changing constantly, I don’t get down into the depth of the experiences. Here in Medan I could probably go out and find some interesting social scenes with people I could talk to. But with only a few days left of my stay, the motivation just isn’t really there.

That doesn’t mean I’ll be sitting still in Medan. It’s a somewhat interesting city, because it sees so few Western tourists. Very little here is set up for me. I have to walk a long way to find breakfast that isn’t rice-and-chicken based. It’s also a noticeably better city for pedestrians than many others in Southeast Asia. The university campus behind the hotel is a perfect area for early morning runs and training, with the option of some food at student prices later in the day. So I’m in no way wasting my time here in Medan, but then again, that’s coming from a somewhat atypical, slow-traveling Fynbo (someone from the Danish island of Funen).

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