Few days ago, a friend remarked that I seemed to be very busy travelling this year and asked if it's tiring to be scooting around all the time. We sat down and counted the places I've been to so far in 2011 and it totalled 6 by the end of June (averaging one country per month).
It sure seemed like a lot of travelling, on hindsight, but it felt nothing like that when I was busy getting my passport stamped at the different immigration counters :x
Anyhow, I did a Sumatra trip with some of my new friends who were also in Hong Kong for exchange. Yvonne and Doris had planned to visit Medan, Sumatra, just before Chinese New Year, and asked if I was interested to join them girls (and Tuomas was able to make it in the end too). In all honesty, Sumatra wasn't a place on my to-go list so I didn't think I was going... that was of course until I finally got my tickets booked. To say the least, I'm really glad I decided to go for it, because we had such a great time throughout...
... okay, maybe not the first night.
We arrived in Medan close to/just past midnight, got a taxi amidst all that driver chaos at the airport terminal exit and ended up at some dodgy-looking street where our hostel's (Yvonne reserved beds for a night online) supposed to be. We had the impression that it was going to be a lively youth hostel, but our driver stopped us at the door-step of some weird-looking-building-that-turned-out-to-be-a-church. The owners didn't look too pleased to be woken up by a bunch of noisy backpackers, but after some verifying, it turned out that was the place that Yvonne made the online reservation with. The pictures, description and reviews on the website were one of the most misleading ones I've ever seen in my entire life; there was absolutely no mention that the so-called hostel is located within the same building of a run-down Catholic church.
Digressing, Catholic's the religion of approximately 60% of the population in Medan according to our cab driver (need some verification with the figure though).
#1 Sleeping arrangements for the first night
Back to the room...
there were cockroaches scurrying around when we finally reached the 4th floor (i.e. top of the building) where our beds were; and there were even a couple of them on one of the beds. Tuomas didn't seem to have a problem with those insects so we gladly offered him that bed. The windows of the room couldn't be opened; they were taped up or something, and since there was only one standing fan in the room (that was falling apart quite badly; I was worried the entire night that the revolving part might just fall off the stand anytime), it turned out to be awfully stuffy.
It was near impossible to sleep. After tossing and turning on my grimy mattress for what seemed like forever, it started to pour heavily outside. Heavy raindrops were coming into the room through the taped-up windows, nice. Not to mention that it became increasingly stuffy with the downpour outside and lack of ventilation in there. It was about 3 plus in the morning that I finally dozed off.
You'd think that was the end ofmy our attempts (gone horribly wrong) to get some sleep...
But no... we had to be woken up by a rooster's incessant crowing at 5 a.m. (I looked at the time on my watch and cursed the crow). Things were so bad (blood-shot eyes from not getting enough sleep and all) that everything seemed to be funny all of a sudden.
It was near impossible to sleep. After tossing and turning on my grimy mattress for what seemed like forever, it started to pour heavily outside. Heavy raindrops were coming into the room through the taped-up windows, nice. Not to mention that it became increasingly stuffy with the downpour outside and lack of ventilation in there. It was about 3 plus in the morning that I finally dozed off.
You'd think that was the end of
But no... we had to be woken up by a rooster's incessant crowing at 5 a.m. (I looked at the time on my watch and cursed the crow). Things were so bad (blood-shot eyes from not getting enough sleep and all) that everything seemed to be funny all of a sudden.
#2 Rise and shine!
We pulled ourselves out of our beds and glanced across the beds at each other to acknowledge the fact that the night didn't turn out too well. Then we went on to wash up and pack our stuff (in fact, I didn't even bother taking anything out of my bag apart from the toiletries; tried to sleep in whatever I'd arrived in), and had some toast with jam that the lady-owner sent to our room.
I can't recall when was the last time (prior to this trip) I wanted to leave a hostel/hotel so badly, but I was definitely glad that we were not going to be spending more nights here. As we made our way down the stairs, we realized that the 2nd and 3rd storeys were areas for mass/prayers (complete with the long benches). An old lady (whom I presume is the lady-owner's mother) who was working in the kitchen saw us and bade us goodbye with a "Selamat jalan".
Even though that wasn't a very pleasant stay in general, I'm still thankful that we had a roof over our heads, and that the experience opened my eyes to the different worst case scenarios to expect while travelling, and provided me with a benchmark to compare unpleasant accommodation experiences with!
Thankfully, things got infinitely better afterwards :)
We pulled ourselves out of our beds and glanced across the beds at each other to acknowledge the fact that the night didn't turn out too well. Then we went on to wash up and pack our stuff (in fact, I didn't even bother taking anything out of my bag apart from the toiletries; tried to sleep in whatever I'd arrived in), and had some toast with jam that the lady-owner sent to our room.
I can't recall when was the last time (prior to this trip) I wanted to leave a hostel/hotel so badly, but I was definitely glad that we were not going to be spending more nights here. As we made our way down the stairs, we realized that the 2nd and 3rd storeys were areas for mass/prayers (complete with the long benches). An old lady (whom I presume is the lady-owner's mother) who was working in the kitchen saw us and bade us goodbye with a "Selamat jalan".
Even though that wasn't a very pleasant stay in general, I'm still thankful that we had a roof over our heads, and that the experience opened my eyes to the different worst case scenarios to expect while travelling, and provided me with a benchmark to compare unpleasant accommodation experiences with!
Thankfully, things got infinitely better afterwards :)
1 comment:
Hahaha. What a memorable hostel experience for you! It might be that annoying but i was glad to read that the lady was kind enough on the their guests. This must be a learning experience for you. :)
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