Friday, 8Dec06

Highlights: museum, masjid, Pak Fon

Medan is a sprawling city,,, quite unlike the last few places I have visited (except maybe Palembang a little bit). One other feature I quickly noticed is the relative lack of unique cultural traits specific to this area.

My first stop in discovering what was unique to Medan was the museum. I have to laugh at Lonely Planet’s description of the city of Medan:

“Choked with traffic and overrun with ancient motorcycle becak belching foul fumes into the already heavily polluted air, you’d be well advised to bring a face mask- and a pair of earplugs. Like many Asian capitals, Medan is a city of contrasts: grandiose Dutch colonial buildings adorn affluent older suburbs while jerry-built lean-tos house the bulk of today’s population.
The city has few redeeming features or real sights of interest and most tourists wisely treat it strictly as an entry and exit point.” (pg. 435)

Haha,, well- it’s a biting critique, but hard to argue with. The museum did little to alter that image.