Story of Bali, Indonesia

I want to change some money. I go, with a Nitour guide. to the Bank of Indonesia. I have Autralian-dollars Traveller-, Cheques and sterling Travelers Cheques (Cooks, both) and I have Australian notes and Bank of England notes-no U.S. currency because it is in process of being devalued, and I do not regard it as a good bct. But the Bank of Indonesia in. Medan will not change anything but American dollars. They don't want Australian money or sterling in any form; they do not even know the exchange tates of these currencies. So I am taken to a money changer, handsome Indian who is also in airline representative. He offers me 425 rupiahs to the Aust. dollar I have been exchanging in Bill for 460, and the rate is going up.

I can't go the Indian higher than 440. and have' to, take that rate The hotel I go to will cash only American-dollars I Travellers, Cheques. But. I find out later from two New Zealand business men staying at the hotel. who arc pretty disgruntled about the whole business, that the Bank Dagang Negara (Commerical State Bank) will exchange rupiahs for Australian, . N.Z. or sterling TCs or notes. But Nitour didn't know that.

MEDAN. the chief city of Sumatra, has nothing much to keep the tourist there. It gives the impression of not being big enough to hold a population of 900,000. More than a quarter of these are Chinese and about 50,000 arc Indians.

By mid-morning I am on my way by car to Lake Toba, which is 147 miles (235 kilometres) by the road we'll take, and about 35 miles shorter by another road that will be the return route. I have with me a young Sumatran guide who speaks English. His mellifluous name is Rismono Trio. Taking only a small bag for a two-night stay, I have left my suitcase at the Hotel Dirga Surya, a -name I ask Rismono the meaning of.

"it means *Congratulations sunlight*," he says. I hope Rismono's translation of Dirga Surya is correct, and think the name should be Anglicized. Travellers' tales would be less boring if one could start off with: "I remember. up in North Sumatra, meeting a very odd bod when I was staying in Medan at the Hotel Congratulations Sunlight

As we run out of the city I try to read an informating sheet on Medan I have been presented with, prepared by the North Sumatra Tourist Guide Association (N'osutoga). It turns out to be a short (but not short enough) account of the Sulthartate (not sultanate) of Deli~ the province we arc in. There is a legendary bit about a princess in a glass coffin but. Historically it becomes dull in the most meticulous way, e.g..On August 28th 1888 Sulthan Maamun Alrasjid founded the new Sulthan Deli's castle at Medan and on May t8th 1891 transferred all governmental activities. Anyway the sulthanate no longer exists since Indonesian independence. And the former Sulthan's. Palace was in a very messy state of repair, not open to visitors. not worth visiting.

We are now beyond the shanty-town suburbs of Medan. The cocopalms have thickened and we arc no longer passing Ox, carts' with turbaned 'Indian drivers, or houses with harsh roofs of corrugated iron. Now the houses arc thatched with nipa-palm, and their walls are mainly bamboo. We are in the region called Karo.

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