Medan
There is a city called Medan on the island of Sumatra. There is absolutely no fucking a thing to do here, however, tourists often come to the city. Medan is a transit point on the way to the national park, where orangutans and other tropical bastards are found.
As many as 2 million people live in Medan. What they all do is impossible to imagine, because there is simply nothing in the city.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1810639.jpg)
The city center is just endless rows of identical houses and the highway between them.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1810646.jpg)
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1810636.jpg)
Everything is covered with some kind of social advertising, or political agitation.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1810642.jpg)
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1810650.jpg)
I found a cool lamppost.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1810645.jpg)
And the coolest water tower.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1810640.jpg)
Right in the very center there is a decent shopping center, which houses the only currency exchange for the whole city and you can eat delicious food.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1810652.jpg)
Luxury housing was attached to the shopping center. In the Asian sense, luxury housing is any house over 25 floors with access to shopping directly from the elevator.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1810657.jpg)
There are exactly two attractions in Medan. The first is the city mosque in the Moorish style.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1810609.jpg)
An object of colossal importance for the residents of Medan. Even the passage next door was decorated in the style of a mosque.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1810623.jpg)
The second is the Maimun Palace, where the Sultan of Delhi once sat. It’s cool to be a Delhi sultan. You can have your own huge wasteland right in front of the house.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1820165.jpg)
I really like the description of the palace on tourist dumps: “Both Indonesians themselves and travelers from other countries are eager to see it.” Seriously? Yes, I barely forced myself to walk to it, even though my hotel was five minutes away on foot.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1820166.jpg)
The palace, of course, is terribly primitive by our royal standards.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1820167.jpg)
Faded portraits of local nobility hang inside.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1820178.jpg)
Spontaneous trade is broken up in the former living room.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1820180.jpg)
I got on an excursion for schoolchildren.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1820171.jpg)
People in Medan are not scared. There are very few tourists here, so a white man is literally mobbed and asked to take a picture. Only “Senk yu” and “Salam alaikum” know English.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/P1820187.jpg)
Due to inexperience, I booked a hotel in Medan for as many as 7 days. I thought that after a trip to the jungle to the orangutans, my legs would hurt for several days. The trip turned out to be much less difficult than I thought, and Medan was much more difficult. So the rest of the days I sat in the hotel and worked.
Fortunately, there was a very interesting hotel in a historic house in the city. The rooms smelled damp, but it was the smell of elite dampness.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/IMG_5096.jpg?1)
There were antique vases, paintings and statues in the foyer. The wallpaper was peeling off, and the leather on the chairs had cracked for a long time, but this only added charm.
![](../img/travel/medan-may-2022/IMG_5078.jpg?1)
There was an absolutely fantastic temperature controller in the room, originally from the 70s. The temperature is set by a handle similar to the gearbox in the car. If the handle is not fixed at the desired cooling level, it smoothly crawls up to the “off” state.
It is a pity that the regulator has not worked for a long time and remained only for beauty. The usual air conditioner is now engaged in cooling.