The first thing that I have noticed the moment I boarded the cab from the Medan Polonia International Airport to the hotel was that there were a lot of motorbikes on the roads in Medan. There were so many bikes on the road I think the bikes outnumbered the private cars! And these bikers weaved in and out in front of other vehicles with much confidence!

Oh, by the way, in Bahasa Indonesia:

• kereta = motorbike (in Malaysia, kereta = car)
• mobil = car
• taksi = taxi / cab
• Kijang = Toyota (hence, Kijang Innova = Toyota Innova)

There were also a lot of beca, bike-powered-trishaws, if I could call them that. And it appeared to me that the beca was one of the most popular mode of public transportation, aside from the bas kota (city buses that were actually vans).

The beca was good for one person, or two, or even the whole family!

The other popular mode of transportation was the bas kota. The bus driver and conductor were constantly on the look-out for potential passengers, and the driver would honk at anybody he thought could be one.

The buses (or vans as we Malaysians call them) were always overcrowded, regardless of the final destination. We took a bas kota from Medan to Kuala Simpang, which was about 3 hours away, and at one point, there were 16 passengers in the bus, no thanks to the driver and conductor!

Not only that, even the public buses were always overcrowded! And let’s not even talk about the condition of these public buses! The cushion seats were torn, most windows were sealed and to top it off, insensitive people were smoking in the bus throughout the journey!

But it was a really good experience, to do it the local way :)

You may view the rest of the pictures (and some video clips) here: Sumatera, Indonesia 2009.