It takes no longer to fly to Medan than it does to fly to Alor Star. So it's really very doable for a long weekend. And last weekend the doable was done, thanks to good old Subang airport and Firefly.

Highlights:

1. Eating excellent Padang food (of course, we're still a long way from Padang, but still, we're closer to the zone, and I think it shows); and getting taken to the places in Medan that only locals know about (really nice pempek, for example, at Wong Kito, and epic bakso at Bakso Amat):



2. Experiencing some interestingly eclectic worship architecture:







3. Drinking bandrek at a stall opposite the market in Berastagi -- just what you need for these colder climes;
4. Walking the grounds of the Sinabung Hills hotel in the rain, listening to the low growl of the thunder and the plaintive chant of the mosque:



5. Relishing the scenery en route to Danau Toba: fields laden with fruit, vegetables, and flowers; pretty churches; mountains; forests; waterfalls; and the stunning lake itself...:



6. Starting to learn something about the Batak, another of Indonesia's fascinating multitude of ethic groups:







7. Getting an interesting initial taste of Pulau Samosir, with its old royal sites, its flamboyant traditional houses, its endlessly changing lake vistas, and its earnest but still friendly pursuit of the tourist dollar:



8. Feeling -- at one and the same time -- that we're "home", and yet we're somewhere entirely new and different;
9. Shopping for interestingly named peanut snacks (tang-tang, teng-teng, tung-tung, and the like) at Paten's delightfully old-fashioned outlet in Pematangsiantar, where all the products are in glass cases, as in my youth...;
10. Sightseeing in multi-cultural Medan (a mix of Malay, Chinese, Batak, and long-term Indian): taking in the nicely laid-out museum; the jolly, green-and-yellow, very Malay palace; the Moorish Grand Mosque; a splendid Chinese temple; and so on...







I loved this weekend. I'm hoping Sumatra, which is truly peninsula Malaysia's larger twin brother, will feature on our agenda again very soon.