There was me thinking we'd managed to avoid Medan altogether and here I am now in a dormitory (less revolting than the private rooms) in a shitty guesthouse in a very shitty city. Thankfully everyone warns you about how disgusting it is so you're reasonably prepared. Nonetheless Medan is, along with Poipet in Cambodia and delhi, competing for the honour of Asia's least desirable place.
Our excuse for a guesthouse is, on both a positive and negative note, opposite Medan's main attraction - its Mosque. The negatives outweigh the positives however as one sight of it was enough for me and now I fear my sleep will be seriously interrupted by calls to pray. Ironically, connected to the grounds of the mosque via a pedestrian walkway is McDonalds. I guess it's best to avoid the five times a day rush!
We leave Sumatra tomorrow headed initially for Bali. As I've said before we've only scratched the surface but have been hugely impressed. Places of interest are unfortunately widely dispersed and given the arduous nature of overland travel, it's hard work and seriously time-consuming. We would have liked to have seen more but it's difficult to justify an eighteen hour journey anywhere, let alone here, to see a flower - even if it is the biggest in the world.
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