After finding no water we decided that moving out to another hotel was a better option. But with no money in Rupiah and needing to eat, our first mission was finding a money changer.  Christine and I walked down the street (which had broken brick foot paths interrupted by trees necessitating frequently walking on the road) and found an ATM that allowed us to withdraw from our Australian Bank account. (I did not know it was possible with an eftpos card - Maestro)

We then had dinner at a restaurant nearby (well, breakfast) which was Ayam and two types of fish with rice. We had to rush it as we were meeting Pak at 10:00 at the hotel. With not having a shower we were looking forward to finding a new hotel quickly. Headed back to Ompung's place and Christine called various hotels then it was off to one in the centre of the city.

During our walk Christine met a lady on the street who had been her foster mother when she was 12 years old. The lady was selling mixed drinks on the street to earn money to live on. It struck me just how poor people are here and how surviving is a constant struggle. There were also many soldiers on maneouvres in the vicinity. It looks like the government can spend money on force but not on educating the people to help them get out of their situation.

Hotel room looked great, except that the handle of the bathroom locked while I was in there and they had to get the handy man and his assistant to crawl through the crawl space and into the bathroom via a hole in the ceiling while I stood in just a towel and watched them dismantle the door handle.

We were then moved to room 311 which was similar. Teak wood (or maybe mahogany) made up the furniture. We mundi-ed  then were taken to the bank in the city by Pak. After changing money we headed to the plaza. A whole shop was devoted to jeweled trees (trees made of ceramic, wire and stones) and saw that the cheapest sold for $40. Wasn't interested in buying one anyway as my mum makes them! But as some people in Medan earned no more than $5 a day, I figure the price is for tourists only.

Lunch upstairs of many different flavours then back to Ompung's place. Then back to the hotel, then back to Ompung's place at 7:00pm for dinner. Got to meet more friends, join in singing, have a huge meal, pass photos around and generally had a great time. Headed home tired.

[I found that people from the city of Medan spend their spare time singing, talking and relaxing. As far as I could tell there really wasn't much else to do here. If you have family or friends in Medan you'll be fine, but after two weeks here I can safely say that there's nothing else but shopping, chatting and going to church!]

Medan North Sumatra continued