Touchy Feely
Medan. Not a true tourist destination in the normal sense of the word. We are certainly feeling ‘unusual’ here. The locals are desperate to speak to us or have photos taken with us. All very friendly, just curious it seems.
On the subject of feeling unusual, several members of the group have been for massages and got more massage than they normally would expect. And no, I don’t have any photos that I can share with you. Seems the definition of ‘full body massage’ out here is more literal than back home, but I’ve heard no complaints so far.
It was a sad moment leaving Bukit Lawang. The staff at the Hotel Orangutan had looked after us and entertained us with their ‘music’ and beer. The drive back towards Medan wasn’t quite as awful as the journey out as we didn’t have heavy rain or darkness to contend with. Just large logs in the road and bone jarring pot holes.
Medan is a fairly sizeable city, the biggest in Sumatra. Lots of traffic, dreadful pavements, shopping malls and big swanky hotels. The Grand Mercure was once a big swanky Hotel, now it’s a slightly faded Big swanky Hotel. It could do with some ‘touching up’ here and there (I’m on to the massage theme again aren’t I ?)
A pool, hot showers, posh food and not being woken by monkeys on the roof seemed to perk many up. A Korean barbecue meal and a visit to a local Irish bar was in order. When I say ‘Irish bar’, it had ear splitting Indonesian karaoke, sold Bintang lager and Australian wine. Well the sign was Irish at least. Like what you get at home but with a bit of a foreign touch (oops, sorry) Sean and Jack plied themselves with copious amounts of lager by buying beer towers and the inaugural meeting of the Medan Ladies formation wine drinking Association was convened. We left the boys to play with their towers (sorry, doing it again...) and headed home.
The Grand Mosque was the target for the day. Eileen had said it was a 15 minute stroll. He lied. Half an hour of dodging traffic and open sewers with a hot and grumpy child convinced us to try the local Tuk Tuks. We had been told that the boys had been charged only a couple of thousand rupiah. We must have looked richer as I couldn’t barter below 20,000.
Marc’s knees seemed a little inappropriate so they gave him a sarong to wear so we could enter the mosque. Never been inside one before. Beautiful building. It’s always an experience exploring normally forbidden places like this....😏
The Tuk Tuks returning home were no cheaper. That rubbed us up the wrong way, but we had to get back as Marc had a spa appointment to get rubbed up the wrong way (kadoosh !)
So, we have scrubbed the jungle mud off, adjusted back to civilisation, been pampered and fondled and now we are moving on once more. Next stop Bali. Two flights, 2 international borders (Indonesia to Malaysia and back in to Indonesia), two time zone changes, a new hemisphere...oh and a grumbling volcano on Bali that may or may not erupt and cause us issues. Ever onward !
On the subject of feeling unusual, several members of the group have been for massages and got more massage than they normally would expect. And no, I don’t have any photos that I can share with you. Seems the definition of ‘full body massage’ out here is more literal than back home, but I’ve heard no complaints so far.
It was a sad moment leaving Bukit Lawang. The staff at the Hotel Orangutan had looked after us and entertained us with their ‘music’ and beer. The drive back towards Medan wasn’t quite as awful as the journey out as we didn’t have heavy rain or darkness to contend with. Just large logs in the road and bone jarring pot holes.
Medan is a fairly sizeable city, the biggest in Sumatra. Lots of traffic, dreadful pavements, shopping malls and big swanky hotels. The Grand Mercure was once a big swanky Hotel, now it’s a slightly faded Big swanky Hotel. It could do with some ‘touching up’ here and there (I’m on to the massage theme again aren’t I ?)
A pool, hot showers, posh food and not being woken by monkeys on the roof seemed to perk many up. A Korean barbecue meal and a visit to a local Irish bar was in order. When I say ‘Irish bar’, it had ear splitting Indonesian karaoke, sold Bintang lager and Australian wine. Well the sign was Irish at least. Like what you get at home but with a bit of a foreign touch (oops, sorry) Sean and Jack plied themselves with copious amounts of lager by buying beer towers and the inaugural meeting of the Medan Ladies formation wine drinking Association was convened. We left the boys to play with their towers (sorry, doing it again...) and headed home.
The Grand Mosque was the target for the day. Eileen had said it was a 15 minute stroll. He lied. Half an hour of dodging traffic and open sewers with a hot and grumpy child convinced us to try the local Tuk Tuks. We had been told that the boys had been charged only a couple of thousand rupiah. We must have looked richer as I couldn’t barter below 20,000.
Marc’s knees seemed a little inappropriate so they gave him a sarong to wear so we could enter the mosque. Never been inside one before. Beautiful building. It’s always an experience exploring normally forbidden places like this....😏
The Tuk Tuks returning home were no cheaper. That rubbed us up the wrong way, but we had to get back as Marc had a spa appointment to get rubbed up the wrong way (kadoosh !)
So, we have scrubbed the jungle mud off, adjusted back to civilisation, been pampered and fondled and now we are moving on once more. Next stop Bali. Two flights, 2 international borders (Indonesia to Malaysia and back in to Indonesia), two time zone changes, a new hemisphere...oh and a grumbling volcano on Bali that may or may not erupt and cause us issues. Ever onward !
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