Indonesia - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 211

Although getting around Sumatra on
public transport can be gruelling
- distances are vast, the roads tortuous
and the driving hair-raising - it's certainly
an adventure, and one best experienced
now or never: in September 2013, the
Indonesian government financed the first
sliver of funds (two trillion rupiahs) for
the start of a brand-new Trans-Sumatran
highway, set to be completed over the
next twelve years. Meanwhile, the many
safe, low-cost airlines that now link all
the island's major hubs have effectively
phased out the old Sumatran sea routes
favoured by travellers in decades past.

includes a couple of Arabic gravestones
from 8 AD and some ancient stone
Buddhist sculptures.

Mesjid Raya
he black-domed Mesjid Raya (daily
9am-5pm, except prayer times;
donation) is one of the most recognizable
buildings in Sumatra. Designed by a
Dutch architect in 1906, it has North
African-style arched windows, blue-tiled
walls and vivid stained-glass windows.

Colonial architecture
Jalan Brig Jend A Yani , at the northern
end of Jalan Pemuda, was the centre of
colonial Medan, and a few early
twentieth-century buildings still remain.
he weathered Mansion of Tjong A Fie at
no. 105 is a beautiful green and yellow
two-storey house built in 1900 for the
head of the Chinese community in
Medan (daily 10am-5pm; entrance &
English-speaking guide Rp35,000;
W

MEDAN
Indonesia's third-largest city, MEDAN is
the gateway to North Sumatra. Often
railed against by fast-transiting tourists as
one of Southeast Asia's least charming
cities, Medan makes a better impression
on visitors who stick around a bit longer.
Chaotic as any Indonesian metropolis,
it certainly has its fair share of pollution
and tra c jams, but also boasts more
urban comforts than anywhere else in
Sumatra. Medan has a diverse population
hailing from all across the archipelago
and beyond, including substantial Indian
and Chinese minorities whose roots in
the city predate the arrival of the Dutch,
the latter having left a few graceful
examples of colonial architecture
- evidence of the wealth generated from
the vast plantations that to this day
stretch up the slopes of the Bukit Barisan
to the west of the city.

4

tjongafieinstitute.com). Beyond the
striking, dragon-topped gateway, the
mansion has uniquely appointed rooms
well worth a gander, including a lavish
reception hall, Taoist prayer rooms and a
spacious upstairs ballroom now hosting
local exhibits.
he fine 1920s Harrison-Crossfield
Building (now labelled “London, Sumatra,
Indonesia TBK”), at the road's northern
end, was the former headquarters of
a rubber exporter. Continuing north
along Jalan Balai Kota and taking a left,
you reach the grand, dazzlingly white
headquarters of PT Perkebunan IX (a
government-run tobacco company),
on narrow Jalan Tembakau Deli, 200m
north of the Natour Dharma Deli hotel,
which was commissioned by Jacob
Nienhuys in 1869.

WHAT TO SEE AND DO
Most travellers spend no more than a day
or so in Medan, using it as a transit point
to Bukit Lawang, Danau Toba or Malaysia.

Museum of North Sumatra and
Mesjid Raya
he large, informative Museum of North
Sumatra (Tues-Sun 9am-3pm; Rp1000),
at Jalan Joni 51, 500m east of Jalan
Sisingamangaraja (often shortened to
SM Raja) on the southern side of the
Bukit Barisan cemetery near the stadium,
tells the history of North Sumatra, and

Indian Quarter
In the west of the city, on Jalan H Zainul
Arifin, is the Sri Mariamman Temple (daily
6am-noon & 4-9pm; donation), Medan's
oldest and most venerated Hindu shrine.
It was built in 1884 and is devoted to
the goddess Kali. he temple marks the
beginning of the Indian quarter, the
Kampung Keling , which is the largest of its