Medan !

I noted what the man said while waiting to board an Air Asia flight back to KLIA LCCT!

"Sugar in KL is cheaper than in Medan. But you can hardly find sugar in KL ...a lot of it has been smuggled to Medan!" The man has what I discern as a flight of ideas , along with the propensity to talk to strangers! " You know", he said,poor people take a lot of sugar and drink sweet drinks..rich people on the other hand drink mineral water a lot."
The guy made some astute observations , perhaps without knowing the reason behind the sweet tooth of the disadvantaged...People with protein deficiencies crave sweets!I heard him repeat what he said to an Arab man in front of the line."Sukar arkhas henna min Kuala Lampur..."

I was in Medan last weekend looking in on my youngest daughter Aimi. She had been in Medan for about a month and was really quite well adjusted to the people and the routine.
Medan has also changed for the better since I was there last March.
A few months and some marked changes!
The city was much cleaner and when I say clean I was not talking only about the roads . The administration has also been cleaned up and is still being cleaned up. I guess the new Walikota really means business
Aimi has developed a Medan slang and has a whole new vocab that sometimes I had to ask her what she meant when she started saying my EF KA and oh he is in EF KA GI..
A clue to what is all means is in Puskesmas.....Pusat Kesihatan Masyarakat . Bank SUMUT is Bank Sumatera Utara!

The alphabets are also pronounced differently. EF mean F , and Ka is K. So EF KA is short for Fakulti Kesihatan ie Health Faculty. EF KA GI is Fakulty Kesihatan Gigi, the Dental Faculti!

If you want to offer congratulations for a wedding or the opening of a new shop, a bouqet of flowers is not the thing in Medan. Instead you order a whole panel of paper flowers that spells out your wishes..Of course you have to make sure there is enough room on the roadside for your congratulations board..an example of it is in the photo blog below.

All over Medan there are banners reminding people to be polite to drive carefully and to stay clear of Narkoba ( drugs).

Patience is a necessary requirement if you want to stay in Medan. The electricity in the hotel was out for more than 6 hours and there was also no running water at this time since the water supply used a pump. Power outages are a common feature in Medan. And if like me you are a coffee addict, better bring your own sachets . I developed a headache the first day I was there because I could not find any place that served coffee. One the second day I did find a place but I wanted coffee with milk. The waiter took my black coffee with its 2 inches of granulated sugar
( no sugar shortage in Medan) and added 3 tablespoons of condensed milk. I could only manage to drink a quarter of this 'sugary ' treat!

It seems that the power outages and the lack of hot water on tap did bother Aimi at first but she soon adjusted to the inconveniences .

Aimi has had a bit of a scary adventure yesterday morning: Hana and Aimi have both related the event in their blogs:

Once upon a time in Malaysia and Medan

and

tasukete! dorobo!!!!!

All I can say is, now I know how much the laptop means to Aimi and perhaps to many young people who record all their life happenings , keep all their videos pics and anames etc on their laptops...Perhaps losing a laptop would seem like losing a part of one's self...


If you go to Medan , don 't forget to visit Medan Mall, and make sure you know the measurements of your windows in case you are sorely tempted to order a new set of really awesone looking curtains at dirt cheap prices!

Belanja Buuk!

PS
Bangkenit has finally found a job. The pay is reasonable but the work is not what he would find interesting! Ah well, a stepping stone insya allah. Now is perhaps not a time to be choosy , as long as the job is above board and ethical , do it well and do it out of a sense of duty , even the most tedious routine jobs will be rewarding.

Hmmm Baba wrote an interesting post....antara Kaca dan Intan...children ...time to show Baba which one you are Kaca or Intan ....Or maybe the difference is between carbon and diamond, you just need a wee bit more pressing to change from carbon to diamond....