What is SUMUT ?

I was invited to the Sumatra Travel Fair in Medan held from the 21 - 24th Jul. The accomodation, meals and conference fees sponsored by the Indonesia Tourism and the air tickets and airport taxes by the company. Thanks for the sponsorship otherwise I wouldn`t be there if with my own money. There were 26 of us from the Malaysia delegation and we were greeted by the organizing commitee at the Polonia airport. The first time I came to Medan was 6 years ago and nothing much have changed. The same airport, the same angkut-angkut, the same Kijang except now they have the Kijang Innova which I believe looks better than our Toyota Innova and they also have the diesel version. I got a room all to myself at the Hotel Inna Dharma Deli, the oldest hotel in Medan with history way back to the Dutch colonial period. It`s old but throughout my stay there I didn`t spot any spooks. The food in Medan is better than Yogya or Solo but they are still a bit too sweet except for the dinner at the Governeor`s house. That dinner was great especially the mee rebus and there`s this fantastic fruit juice a mixture of air durian belanda and air nyior.
Every night there`s a dinner invitation, first at the governors house, then the ministry of tourism and the last night at a posh restaurant owned by the walikota or the mayor of Medan. All makan, tido, watch the dancers and performances, meet too many people impossible for me to remember the faces the next day. The girls in Medan are beautiful and to stay away from some accidents, I hung around with some umrah and haj friends. We ponteng convention on the last day and went to Brastagi to eat durians at one of the pondoks along the way just before pekan baru. Pekan baru is a small town before Brastagi and the main income is prostitution.
SUMUT is Sumatra Utara.

What`s this photo about? I didn`t crop and enlarge it. No time, so I`ll just say the yellow signage writes Panggang B1. On the way to Brastagi, you can see many such signage writing panggang B1 or B2. These are the Batak Karo area. They are non muslims. The muslim Bataks are the Mandalengs who usually carries the suku name of Lubis or Nasution. B1 is actually dog and B2 is babi. So, panggang B1 is they serve anjing panggang there. No wonder I can`t see any dogs there.

The tarian piring at the governors house.

The farewell dinner at Restoran Kenanga. These are the panyambut tetamu. Cun-cun macam ni dia pacak je kat depan pintu?