Goatshiteambulance:

MEDAN – Capital of Sumatra.

My last blog was about Singapore – a modern, dynamic, city constantly changing and concealing a lot of its Asian-ness.  In total contrast, a few days later I was ankle deep in mud, inhaling the exhaust fumes of trucks jammed abreast on the only road to the port (where my ship was waiting), overturned lorries, traffic clogging the city streets, beggars darting between moving cars and rubbish pickers collecting anything recyclable – this is Medan!  Sumatra is a very Muslim Island in Indonesia, but Medan, its capital is not in, or near the radical, Sharia state of Aceh.   Medan typifys the old Asia and I was delighted and a little surprised by

the warmth and friendliness of the local people.

Women in their hijabs offered soft, welcome smiles.  School girls with their cell phones wanted selfies – well,  with us in them and the men in the mosques nodded their acceptance as we admired their place of worship.

At the lavish Sultans’ Palace, families donned for a few hours, the gold clothes of royalty again, for those photographic moments.

The Grand Mosque – is very grand, the old Chinese Temple offers advice for wealth and prosperity and roadside ‘repairers’ fix bicycle tyres from the gutters and trishaw drivers, without passengers, snooze in the sun.