Indonesia and crossing the equator for the first time!

Boy am I far behind on this thing.  Here we go.

On November 4th, I left Penang on a short hop flight down to Medan on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.  As always, I didn't do a ton of research, and didn't really know what to expect.  Turns out that Sumatra, despite its proximity to very touristed mainland Malaysia and southern Thailand, doesn't see many tourists at all.  I kind of got that same rockstar feeling that I had when I visited the Philippines for the first time.  Hardly anyone spoke English, but I got a lot of huge smiles and very friendly people shouting "hello mister!".  A few people knew a couple other phrases, such as "where are you from?", "where are you going", and "what is your name?".  At first I made the effort to answer their questions, but it quickly became clear that they didn't know the meaning of what they were asking or understand my answers.  Eventually I just smiled and said hello as kids rode past in the beds of trucks screaming "where are you frommmmmmm?" as they sped by.

My fancy hotel in Medan

I'm a little embarassed to admit that I pulled a HUGE white guy move in Medan.  I had a real early flight the next morning, and planned to sleep in the airport instead of checking into a hotel for only 8 hours, and then leaving at 3:00am in a city I was unfamiliar with.  This left me with the dilemma of what to do with my big backpack for the 6 hours or so that I would be spending walking around town.  The airport didn't offer left luggage, so I decided to pull the race card.  I walked from the train station to the tallest, fanciest looking hotel I could find and asked the concierge if I could leave my luggage with them.  Since they don't see a lot of white visitors, they were excited enough to have me that they didn't even question it.  I made it clear that I wasn't staying, but they said no problem.  We even have a spa upstairs where you can go for a sauna, swim, or shower if you want.  Somehow I'm guessing that the average guy off the street doesn't get offered that.

Of course, I didn't get great sleep in the airport, but at least I had a quiet place to relax for a few hours.  The flight to Padang was easy, and it marked my first crossing of the equator.  I had it in my head that I'd done it a few years ago on a trip to Ghana, but a quick look at the map shows I wasn't even close.  Padang is significantly smaller than Medan, and is famous for its spicy food.  Jackpot!  I fumbled my way through a restaurant interaction with probably unintelligible Bhasa Indonesia and frantic hand waving.  First real night in Indonesia done!