Back From Medan
I reached home late last night. I guess this is my first blog post for this year. Anyway, here are some photos and things that I saw during my trip there.
Upon landing, we went to get our luggage. Near the conveyor belt was a sign.
The rate as of now is S$1 is equal to 5,866.64 Rp. However, we will round it up to 6,000 Rp. Going by the rounded rate, it costs about S$0.30 per luggage. Cheap? In Singapore, it's free. Unless of course you decide to tip them.
There was this day when I accompanied my grandmother to a chinese sinseh for some medicine. I was waiting for her when I saw this.
In case you are wondering what that thing is, it's a rat, the back portion of a rat. When I saw it, I was horrified. Never seen a rat that big (it's about the size of your two fist) running about in the streets. It was also wet, so its fur was like pointy and stuff. By the time, I took a shot of it, it was halfway into the sewers. Kinda reminded me of Splinter in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
There are kids as young as 5 who work in the streets. Some sell cigarettes, some busk by strumming some random notes on the guitar and there are those who can clean your car in the middle of the road with a feather duster. In this picture, there's a man and a young boy. The boy was collecting rubbish or some sort.
In Sun Plaza, there is Roti Mum. Interesting huh? I saw shops like Ya Kun Kaya Toast and Bread Life (imitation of Bread Talk?) there, but I already had photos of them from my last trip. The coffee bun tastes nice. I guess it was so good that they decided to franchise it.
How can I ever forget Papa Ron's Pizza? It is a definite must to go there whenever I am in Medan. Why? They have an all you can eat pizza meal for just 15,000 Rp! That is equal to S$2.50! Mwahaha...I bet there they haven't encountered people like me. My family and I ate a simple light meal in the morning and indulged ourselves in a pizza-fest. There were four of us and we ordered a jug of lemon tea. That jug was quite big, I mean it could fill around 6 glasses. The total cost? 90,090 Rp, which is like S$15.00 which is around S$3.75 per person. Neat huh?
Haha...now you know why it's a must to eat here. By the way, the lines on that tissue represents the number of pizza slices I ate. Altogether, I ate a total of 13.5 slices. The slices there aren't as big as those in Singapore. I would say it's around 1/2 or 1/3 the size. Anyway, it is a good deal.
On the road, you can see many interesting things that you won't find in Singapore. For example, most of the people there who ride motor bikes do not wear helmets, especially in the night. Talking about motor bikes, there's this place called "Jembatan Layang" or Kite Bridge in English. At night, you can see a lot of couples on motor bikes stop on the bridge looking over at the scenery. There was this night close to the New Year where there were a lot of motor bikes. The distance between each couple is like about a meter. It was lined with couples on motor bikes. Next thing I saw was this becak (trishaw) with a very interesting feature to it. It has a long pole besides it. A lighting rod? I don't think that's safe.
Then there was this man who sat on a crate of boxes at the back of a truck! Not so much of safety I guess.
Can you guess what the building in the picture below is? Well, it's a university. I was shocked when I learnt that it was a university. Why? I mean, the building looked so run-down and derelict. It looked more like an abandoned building to me. When I asked one of my friends why they didn't want to renovate it or something, the answer that person gave really sounded funny. They didn't do it as painting it would increase the temperature inside the building. Huh? I mean, even though it increases, it's just by a bit and the renovated look would outweigh the increase. Never mind.
Notice anything interesting in this picture?
This car is made from both BMW and Daihatsu. From what I know, maybe the driver took a BMW logo from another car and just paste it there. It isn't strange to see such things. Another thing that really is quite funny is the missing road signs. When I asked why there were missing road signs, one of them answered me that the people there dismantled it and put it in their house. Some even sell it! Would you like a "Orchard Road" in your living room?
There is this interesting sign I found in one of the wet markets.
Basically, it says something like, "Children are forbidden to pee here." For people to put a sign like this, it only shows what the children there have been doing. Actually it's not really weird to see children peeing around like in the middle of the road. There was once I was in the airport and I saw this boy *ahem* and his father was behind him, trying to hide him from anyone.
I saw this advertisement and took a photo of it.
In Medan 384 kbps is already considered as very fast. Now don't you just appreciate what we have in Singapore even more?
I spent my New Year in Medan. Close to midnight, my auntie gathered us and played with fireworks. In Singapore, there isn't such a thing as fireworks, but there, there's plentiful of it. There some that were sprinkler-like and others that fly in the air before exploding into a burst a colors. Pretty.
As for the people there, they would all gather at this place with trumpets to usher in the New Year. There were so many people that it was jammed. I took us around 2 hours to travel what would require only 20 minutes.
Now, as I am back In Singapore, I would need to switch from using Bahasa Indonesia and Hokkien to English. Kinda need some adjustments. By the way, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas 2006 and a Happy New Year 2007 :D
Oh well, I guess I have to start work on my project.
Upon landing, we went to get our luggage. Near the conveyor belt was a sign.
The rate as of now is S$1 is equal to 5,866.64 Rp. However, we will round it up to 6,000 Rp. Going by the rounded rate, it costs about S$0.30 per luggage. Cheap? In Singapore, it's free. Unless of course you decide to tip them.
There was this day when I accompanied my grandmother to a chinese sinseh for some medicine. I was waiting for her when I saw this.
In case you are wondering what that thing is, it's a rat, the back portion of a rat. When I saw it, I was horrified. Never seen a rat that big (it's about the size of your two fist) running about in the streets. It was also wet, so its fur was like pointy and stuff. By the time, I took a shot of it, it was halfway into the sewers. Kinda reminded me of Splinter in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
There are kids as young as 5 who work in the streets. Some sell cigarettes, some busk by strumming some random notes on the guitar and there are those who can clean your car in the middle of the road with a feather duster. In this picture, there's a man and a young boy. The boy was collecting rubbish or some sort.
In Sun Plaza, there is Roti Mum. Interesting huh? I saw shops like Ya Kun Kaya Toast and Bread Life (imitation of Bread Talk?) there, but I already had photos of them from my last trip. The coffee bun tastes nice. I guess it was so good that they decided to franchise it.
How can I ever forget Papa Ron's Pizza? It is a definite must to go there whenever I am in Medan. Why? They have an all you can eat pizza meal for just 15,000 Rp! That is equal to S$2.50! Mwahaha...I bet there they haven't encountered people like me. My family and I ate a simple light meal in the morning and indulged ourselves in a pizza-fest. There were four of us and we ordered a jug of lemon tea. That jug was quite big, I mean it could fill around 6 glasses. The total cost? 90,090 Rp, which is like S$15.00 which is around S$3.75 per person. Neat huh?
Haha...now you know why it's a must to eat here. By the way, the lines on that tissue represents the number of pizza slices I ate. Altogether, I ate a total of 13.5 slices. The slices there aren't as big as those in Singapore. I would say it's around 1/2 or 1/3 the size. Anyway, it is a good deal.
On the road, you can see many interesting things that you won't find in Singapore. For example, most of the people there who ride motor bikes do not wear helmets, especially in the night. Talking about motor bikes, there's this place called "Jembatan Layang" or Kite Bridge in English. At night, you can see a lot of couples on motor bikes stop on the bridge looking over at the scenery. There was this night close to the New Year where there were a lot of motor bikes. The distance between each couple is like about a meter. It was lined with couples on motor bikes. Next thing I saw was this becak (trishaw) with a very interesting feature to it. It has a long pole besides it. A lighting rod? I don't think that's safe.
Then there was this man who sat on a crate of boxes at the back of a truck! Not so much of safety I guess.
Can you guess what the building in the picture below is? Well, it's a university. I was shocked when I learnt that it was a university. Why? I mean, the building looked so run-down and derelict. It looked more like an abandoned building to me. When I asked one of my friends why they didn't want to renovate it or something, the answer that person gave really sounded funny. They didn't do it as painting it would increase the temperature inside the building. Huh? I mean, even though it increases, it's just by a bit and the renovated look would outweigh the increase. Never mind.
Notice anything interesting in this picture?
This car is made from both BMW and Daihatsu. From what I know, maybe the driver took a BMW logo from another car and just paste it there. It isn't strange to see such things. Another thing that really is quite funny is the missing road signs. When I asked why there were missing road signs, one of them answered me that the people there dismantled it and put it in their house. Some even sell it! Would you like a "Orchard Road" in your living room?
There is this interesting sign I found in one of the wet markets.
Basically, it says something like, "Children are forbidden to pee here." For people to put a sign like this, it only shows what the children there have been doing. Actually it's not really weird to see children peeing around like in the middle of the road. There was once I was in the airport and I saw this boy *ahem* and his father was behind him, trying to hide him from anyone.
I saw this advertisement and took a photo of it.
In Medan 384 kbps is already considered as very fast. Now don't you just appreciate what we have in Singapore even more?
I spent my New Year in Medan. Close to midnight, my auntie gathered us and played with fireworks. In Singapore, there isn't such a thing as fireworks, but there, there's plentiful of it. There some that were sprinkler-like and others that fly in the air before exploding into a burst a colors. Pretty.
As for the people there, they would all gather at this place with trumpets to usher in the New Year. There were so many people that it was jammed. I took us around 2 hours to travel what would require only 20 minutes.
Now, as I am back In Singapore, I would need to switch from using Bahasa Indonesia and Hokkien to English. Kinda need some adjustments. By the way, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas 2006 and a Happy New Year 2007 :D
Oh well, I guess I have to start work on my project.
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posted by Steph at 10:02 PM
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8 Comments:
First thing first. Nice photos from Medan, Indonesia! I heard of this city a few years ago when the Indian Ocean Tsunami hit Indonesia and Medan was in the middle of the big mess. Looks like Medan has recovered from the disaster.
Although I do see rats in big drains in Malaysia I've never seen such a HUGE rat before! Eeeks! I wonder how female tourists will react if they see these fury and yucky creatures.
LOL! Not painting the building so it would be cooler inside? Haha that's some fuzzy logic. Most probably they lack the fund to renovate ahd refurbish the building. But at least they got a university over there, giving people there a chance to pursue higher education. Anyway painting a building white will help to decrease the internal temperature, leading to substantial drop in costs of electricity.
The Daihatsu van having a Mercedes logo is funny! Anyway, signboards, drain covers, wires and transformers are often stolen in Malaysia by people who are dsperate for money. It is funny to know that in Indonesia people steal to add to their own collection XD
I never knew peeing in the streets is such a common thing over there. Last time I went to China I saw this 10+ year-old kid poopooing in the SHOPPING MALL! Yikes. My face immediately crumpled into a piece of crushed newspaper.
384kbps... now I know how lucky I am. People like me in developing / developed countries have easy access to almost everything such that we take all these things from granted. I should feel really grateful, and should stop complaining how the earthquake in Taiwan slowed down internet access, thinking that so many other people on earth can't even afford internet access or worse still, a computer!
I love to play with those fireworks and stuff like that. Quite fun and, erm, illegal. Ooops. You didn't hear anything.
Welcome back to garden city! Have a nice weekend!
Thanks Teddy for that looong comment. I love long comments...haha. It only shows that the post was interesting and was able to let the readers think.
Well, Indonesia's nice and all, despite the odd and weird stuff there.
Power! Sunday Times article also hang up big big outside. :)
Lol...true lancerlord. I guess the owner may be a Singaporean...haha. I guess kiasu-ism isn't bounded by territories.
Hi I'm a Medanese. Thanks for the story about the city. I hope you enjoy traveling there. Please come again and eat lots of durian! :D
the internet speed of that speedy connection u took picture of is now 1Gbps. no kidding. lmao.
MI SEKELUARGA MENGUCAPKAN BANYAK TERIMA KASIH ATAS BANTUANNYA MBAH , NOMOR YANG MBAH BERIKAN/ 4D SGP& HK SAYA DAPAT (350) JUTA ALHAMDULILLAH TEMBUS, SELURUH HUTANG2 SAYA SUDAH SAYA LUNAS DAN KAMI BISAH USAHA LAGI. JIKA ANDA INGIN SEPERTI SAYA HUB MBAH_PURO _085_342_734_904_ terima kasih.
KAMI SEKELUARGA MENGUCAPKAN BANYAK TERIMA KASIH ATAS BANTUANNYA MBAH , NOMOR YANG MBAH BERIKAN/ 4D SGP& HK SAYA DAPAT (350) JUTA ALHAMDULILLAH TEMBUS, SELURUH HUTANG2 SAYA SUDAH SAYA LUNAS DAN KAMI BISAH USAHA LAGI. JIKA ANDA INGIN SEPERTI SAYA HUB MBAH_PURO _085_342_734_904_ terima kasih.
KAMI SEKELUARGA MENGUCAPKAN BANYAK TERIMA KASIH ATAS BANTUANNYA MBAH , NOMOR YANG MBAH BERIKAN/ 4D SGP& HK SAYA DAPAT (350) JUTA ALHAMDULILLAH TEMBUS, SELURUH HUTANG2 SAYA SUDAH SAYA LUNAS DAN KAMI BISAH USAHA LAGI. JIKA ANDA INGIN SEPERTI SAYA HUB MBAH_PURO _085_342_734_904_ terima kasih.
Thannks for the post
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