Grand Swiss-Belhotel Medan

... fixed point in the distance. <br><br>All around them was water. Only water. <br><br>The old man offered the boy a cigarette. The boy had tried smoking only once before with his friends after school. He had taken a puff and almost choked up a lung. He wanted to look cool so he tried not to vomit as he finished the thing, but he didn&#8217;t want to smoke again after that. <br><br>This time, however, the boy wanted something ...

... s the first to *nswer *ll the questions before the others even h*d * ch*nce. He still bounded out of his se*t to reg*le me with current *ff*irs&#8212;this time reg*rding the recent re-election of Indonesi*n president Susilo B*mb*ng Yudhoyono&#8212;to giggles of delight from the other students. The girl who s*t next to him be*med *t him w*rmly. Since then he h*s quickly become the cl*ss m*scot, cl*ss clown, *nd he*d of the cl*ss *ll in one.<br><br>There is ...

... she was covered from head to toe in mosquito bites and took great delight in muttering &#8220;I told you so&#8221; under her breath. <br><br>While we were waiting for dinner to be served, a monitor lizard appeared in the campsite searching for food. Monitor lizards are huge and can grow up to 6ft in length, although this one was probably half that size. Our four guides produced a delicious spread for the eight of us, quite some feat given the very ...

... felt old and tired after bearing so many children-too tired to make herself pretty any longer. She hadn't taken any jamu in a long time. Besides, with so many mouths to feed, she had very little money to spend on herself. She often went to the market in her old faded pink teddy bear pajamas, and this morning she had barely the strength to drag a comb through her hair. She didn't want to look in a mirror anymore because she would only see more strands of gray appearing in her once ...

... her pyjamas they didn't believe her when she told them it was a scorpion... until they all came to have a look! ...Apparently it's the biggest one there is and black is the most dangerous! Eeek! We later walked around with extra caution and were glad we'd left the outdoors jungle sleeping behind us! :-)<br><br>The next day we randomly got to see a bit of rural Sumatra on a motorbike, sample some of the local fruit from Dodi's garden, and participate in a Muslim wedding!!! Very ...

... bardzo powaznie.<br><br>Samolot do Medan sie opoznil godzine, ale nie stanowilo to dla nas cisnienia, nawet nie bylo wiekszego problemu z przelamywaniem chceci snu bo w Warszawie byla godzina 16-ta.<br><br>Wyladowalismy w Medan o 22-giej czasu miejscowego. Lotnisko podobne do wielu w Azji, kameralne, bez karuzeli na bagaze. Panowie pakuja bagaz na wozek i je zestawiaja w hali przylotow.<br><br>Bagaz jest, wreszcie jestesmy na miejscu,  w komplecie ...

... I asked him busy doing what, and he said "sometimes in the garden...sometimes coconut carvings...you know"....he did not seem very busy to me! But the point is that he was not trying to sell me anything, just being nice.<br><br>The bus ride from Lake Toba was a rough and sweaty one that started to make me understand why the Lonely Planet calls Sumatra a "rough ride". But I made it, and right away I liked it a lot. It really does feel like the jungle ...

Indonesia, Sumatra, Lake Toba, Tomok,<br>24-02-2009.<br><br>The quiet foreiger`s enclave Tuk Tuk on the bulb shaped peninsula facing Parapat on the main land, might be tranquil and peacefull given over almost completely to agriculture now that all the foreigners that once wandered around its winding and hilly streets, are gone. The village has gone back to its quiet village life where gossip is the main entertainment of the local populace.<br><br>Tomok, maybe an easy five kilometer ...

... the habitual gathering place for old Dutch hands to Pattaya. Nobody likes him, we`re all on no-speaking terms with him but that is totally beyond Peter`s mind where nubile very young female bodies and tasty food are the norm, and anyway how can we possibly remove this huge fat monster from what is basically "our" bench in Pattaya??? Walking the loop of about five kilometer around Tuk Tuk ...

... again. I only stayed in Medan for a day and a half as I was heading north for a trek. On my first evening I met Bob who took me under his wings and settled me into Indonesia nicely introducing me his friends, solving my usually problem with each new country of enabling data transfers on my phone and hanging out with his friends and helping me get to grips with some basic phrases :)