Monday 10-Oct-2005 (day 2)
At 10:45 local time, on Monday 10th October ( day 2) we arrived in Medan.
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Medan Airport
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The distance between our plaine and the arrival hall was about 50 meters and had to be crossed on foot. When I felt the soil of Sumatra beneath my feet, I was captured by a feeling of inner emotions that cannot be described. I breathed in the tropical air in abundance and a smile of happiness boiled up spontaneously from inside me. At last I was back in the country where my roots were anchored. Very slowly my tears started to flow.
I had already informed my "cool" travel companions that this would happen to me.
Martie, also a travel companion of mine, a Dutch East Indies lady of 50 years old who was born in Surabaya, had the same emotional outburst I had upon seeing our beloved land.
For that reason we embraced each other and slowly walked towards the arrival hall.
Our other companions all looked at us questioningly and did not understand a thing.
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Giant Wim of 2 meters 10 cm tall
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Also Wim, with his length of 2.10m walked past us questioningly. Because of his length he was quite a sight for the Sumatran people who only have an average height of 1.65m. (later on many people were even afraid of him because of his height)
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Place of reconcilliation
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Finally I had found a suitable place to kiss the soil of Sumatra and convey her the message of Hans (a dear friend of mine), to no longer be angry with him, because on 26th November he will visit Indonesia also.
When everyone had boarded the airconditioned bus, we departed in the direction of Bukit Lawang. Because of the bad road, caused by tropical rainfall, it was not possible to drive faster than 50 km/h. Due to the lack of funds and because Java and Bali are more important because of tourism, the island of Sumatra had to wait before there would be funds available to repair the roads.
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Road restaurang Dynasty Cafe
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After a 3 hours drive we arrived at Dynasty Cafe. Here we would have our lunch. Al my companions ordered a tosti with a cup of tea or coffee. But, since I had finally come home, I only wanted to enjoy al the delicious specialties of the Indonesian kitchen.
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Gado-Gado with Bintang beer
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I ordered a delicious plate of gado-gado with an icecold Bintang beer to chase the heat inside me.
After lunch we drove on in the direction of our hotel in the jungle of Bukit Lawang.
On the way we saw many Palm plantations. These serve to make soap.
We also passed a great number of: rubber, cocoa, tea and coffee plantations.
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Palmtrees: the oil from the nuts serves as basic ingredient for palmsoap.
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Hanging bridge across the Bohorok
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