November 4, 2006
to Medan: Last full day in Indonesia
As with each morning since being in Indonesia we are up by 6, packed and have breakfast at 7.
By 7:30 we are walking across the swinging bridge to get a ride to the bus station. We hope this area recovers from the flood 3 years ago. We have bought souvenirs from those who came by our room to sell. One man, we bought a batik and 3 necklaces made from coconut shells, a monkey, a design and a dragonfly. Rachel's bike spirit is a dragonfly. An 81 year old man with decorated bamboo flutes, unwrapped them from a cloth and started playing. Rachel bought one. A lady with a backpack with goods also has a shop along the river, describes her old shop with two rooms of goods, lost in the flood, but says now the town can be better. Before it was ugly with shops with plastic everywhere. They ask us "tell the tourists to come." We say we will.
At the bus station, we are the first on the bus that is to leave "in 5 minutes." Since Indonesians have no sense of time or distance, we are not surprised it was more like 20-30 minutes. But we are off for the bumpy ride back to Medan, slowly at first the bus starts to fill up. The conductor hanging out the back door always on the lookout or shouting what sounds like a grunt to signal the driver to stop or take off. Once the passenger's foot either touches the ground or lifts up off the ground onto the bus, the bus is rolling again without delay. This requires always being ready to maintain balance and get on and off quickly.
Once in Medan bus station, we quickly get a becak for 30,000Rp to our hotel. At least it is not raining this time!! We settle back into a room the hotel quickly cleaned for us, shower and head out for lunch. We walk to the Tiptop restaurant that has been here since Dutch colonial times. We see a couple that was having breakfast the same time as us in the ecolodge. Lunch is a "beef" wiener schnitzel, potatoes, vegetables with an appetizer of bittenbollen. Patrick orders for dessert a peach ice cream melba and Rachel has a chocolate sauce ice cream, we each eat half and then exchange. Another wonderful lunch! Someday we will not be obsessing over food.
We take a becak back to the hotel, repack, have a light dinner at MacDonald's and our last day in Indonesia is almost done.
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