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MEDAN |
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MEDAN , Indonesia's fourth largest city, occupies a strategic point
on Sumatra's northeast coast and is a major entry point for boats and
flights from Malaysia. It has acquired a reputation for being filthy and
chaotic, but also holds some glorious examples of nineteenth-century
colonial architecture, built by the Dutch gentry, who grew rich on the
back of the vast plantations that stretch up the slopes of the Bukit
Barisan to the west of the city. The boom was started by the
entrepreneurial Jacob Nienhuys, who saw the potential for tobacco
plantations, prompting even the local royalty to migrate to the city to
be nearer the action.
The City
The large, informative Museum of North Sumatra (Tues-Sun 8.30am-noon &
1.30-5pm; Rp3500), at Jl Joni 51, 500m east of Jalan SM Raja on the
southern side of the Bukit Barisan cemetery, tells the history of North
Sumatra, and includes a couple of Arabic gravestones from 8AD and some
ancient stone Buddhist sculptures. Eight hundred metres north of the
museum on Jalan SM Raja, the black-domed Mesjid Raya (9am-5pm, except
prayer times; donation) is one the most recognizable buildings in
Sumatra. Designed by a Dutch architect in 1906, it has North African-style
arched windows, blue-tiled walls and vivid stained-glass windows. The
mosque was commissioned by Sultan Makmun Al-Rasyid of the royal house of
Deli and, 200m further west, opposite the end of Jalan Mesjid Raya,
stands their Maimoon Palace (daily 8am-5pm; Rp1000), built in 1888 with
yellow walls (the traditional Malay colour of royalty), black crescent-surmounted
roofs and Moorish archways. The brother of the current sultan still
lives here so only two rooms are open to the public, but they are dull
and don't justify the entrance fee.
At the northern end of Jalan Pemuda, Jalan Brig Jend A Yani was the
centre of colonial Medan and a few early twentieth-century buildings
still remain. The weathered Mansion of Tjong A Fie at no. 105 is a
beautiful, green-shuttered, two-storey house that was built for the head
of the Chinese community in Medan. It's closed to the public, but the
dragon-topped gateway is magnificent, with the inner walls featuring
some (very faded) portraits of Chinese gods. The fine 1920s Harrison-Crossfield
Building , at Jalan Brig Jend A Yani's northern end, was the former
headquarters of a rubber exporter and is now the home of the British
Consulate. Continuing north along Jalan Balai Kota, you reach the grand,
dazzlingly white headquarters of PT Perkebunan IX (a government-run
tobacco company), which was commissioned by Jacob Nienhuys in 1869; it's
on narrow Jalan Tembakau Deli, 200m north of the Natour Dharma Deli
hotel.
In the west of the city, on Jalan H Zainul Arifin, the Sri Mariamman
Temple is Medan's oldest and most venerated Hindu shrine. It was built
in 1884 and is devoted to the goddess Kali. The temple marks the
beginning of the Indian quarter, the Kampung Keling , the largest of its
kind in Indonesia. Curiously, this quarter also houses the largest
Chinese temple in Sumatra, the Taoist Vihara Gunung Timur (Temple of the
Eastern Mountain) which, with its multitude of dragons, wizards,
warriors and lotus petals, is tucked away on tiny Jalan Hang Tuah, 500m
south of Sri Marriamman.
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