Arrival in Medan

During our flight, Hosea discovered a dead lizard squished inside the cup provided with the in-flight lunch-tray. The little incident caused quite a stir on board, which made the flight much more memorable than it would have been otherwise. :)

We landed in Medan about an hour after taking off. As our connecting flight to Banda Aceh, GA 186, was not due until 4:45 pm, we decided to while away our time at a fast-food joint, California Fried Chicken, which was conveniently located near to the departure lounge of the domestic flights terminal. It was a long wait, but fortunately, there was a silly but distractingly entertaining Spanish game-show screening on TV inside the restaurant.

When it was about 3:30 pm, we checked in our luggage, paid our airport taxes (15,000 rupiah per person), waited a little bit more, and soon we were on our way to Banda Aceh. Other than Hosea, the rest of us have never been to this tsunami-stricken region before, and so we were extremely nervous and apprehensive about what we were going to see when we got there.

Having a bit of fun in the rumah tunggu (waiting room, i.e. departure lounge) in Medan