MEDAN DELIGHTS

Dearest Friends,

I was never the dedicated shopper that most of my compadres were, but every so often, if there was something I really needed, if the kitchen cupboards were extremely bare, or if I just had a severe case of compound fever, and we weren't due to go out to Singapore or on vacation any time soon, I would let one of my friends talk me into a day-trip to Medan.

Image from igougo.com

Medan was the 3rd or 4th largest city in Indonesia, and the largest by far on the island of Sumatra.  If you wished to go there, you made sure your hubby got your name in the hat for a seat on the co-plane well in advance.  If they decided they probably had room for you, you needed to be up and out of the house before dawn, to get to the tiny, open-air, company-run airport in time.  Then you prayed that they hadn't had to remove too many rows of seats to make room for cargo (which had priority over just about anyone other than major muckety-mucks).  Worst of all, you had to step onto a big freight scale to be weighed, while a bunch of little 80-pound Indonesian men gathered round to watch!  If their pencil and paper tallies said they could afford to take on that much extra weight, you were finally allowed to board the little plane.

Image from panoramio.com

Once you arrived at Polonia airport in Medan, which wasn't just a whole lot better, and if you had remembered to make arrangements in advance with Mrs. Ben, there would be an air-conditioned car and driver waiting to pick you up and spend the day driving you hither and yon.  The most important stop of the day, of course, was at Mrs. Ben's grocery store (actually, it was called Mr. Ben's, but it was obvious who ran the place) where you would purchase a few of the necessities you couldn't find back on the compound -- like hot dogs, bacon, cheese and sour cream -- and a few special treats.  My weakness was Baldedas bubblebath (the Asian equivalent of Green VitaBath), which caused me to break into a major happy dance, first time I spotted it there.  They would then pack your food into coolers with dry ice, and have them waiting at the airport for you when you got there.  You couldn't risk buying too much though, or they might not let it all on the plane!

There were a couple of furniture-makers there that we all frequented, primarily because they were willing to combine orders and ship things directly to the compound for you.  One, called Edy's, is where I had ordered the new wicker furniture for our living area, and where John had his fancy dart-board cabinet and Medan Craps sets made.

Yes, my hubby's pride and joy now resides on the floor behind a toilet, out in our garage utility room!

Lunch was usually at one of the hotels, and the last stop of the day, before finally making our way back to the airport, would be to pick up the Pizza Hut order we had called in -- a much appreciated treat for our hubbies and children, who would be very hungry by the time we came dragging in!  In between there was a frenetic blur of antique shops, shoe factories, congested streets filled with the ting-a-ling of the pedi-cabs called becaks, a thousand honking horns, choking smog, and mysterious aromas.  Oh, and we must not forget the one bright and shining star that stood out from all the rest, Azziz!  But, you will have to wait a bit to find out more about him, for he deserves a special post, all of his own.

Writing this post reminded me that we still had our beautiful Medan Craps set hidden under a piece of furniture here, and hadn't played it in years.  Since our kids and their friends are all very much into games, will be here for the holidays, and were too little to play this game back in Indonesia, I decided to pull it out, dust it off, and get it ready for their arrival.  There's just one problem.  Neither John nor I can remember how to play!  Can any of our Indo-buds help us out here?