Ini Medan Bung !!!

Actually I don’t want to go out of town during this Holy Ramadhan, but what can I say, job is a job, so here I am, in the heart of North Sumatera, Medan.

I was pickup by a friend of mine, Sondy, well actually I never met him before, we just chatted by phone and he is at the same company with me but stationed in Medan, but after several moments we spent together, believe me I consider him as a friend, not just a colleague J

First it’s nice to know that he’s younger than I thought, cause he has a very heavy accent on the phone, plus he said that he already married for the second times, whuuaa when is my turn yah ? he he he. Another thing is he is a Moslem, which is surprised me also, cause his name definitely is not a Moslem name.

So, my story begun when I check in at the hotel, somehow I don’t understand why, the receptionist was very slow and we need to wait excessively long only to get the room key after several hum and tapping on their table.

After shalat, we decided to go to Masjid Raya to break our fasting there, and guys, the scene there was hard to describe. Behind the Masjid Raya there is a big pedestrian walk straight to Istana Maimoon, and during the month of Ramadan, this pedestrian was full of small “tend restaurant” offering thousand kind of foods from Indonesia and Middle East. When I said tend, the roof is really like a tend they’re using during Hajj at Arafah, Saudi Arabia. To saw thousand of peoples with colorful Islamic clothes chatted, laughed and poured looked for food and the air full of shalawat from Masjid’s loudspeaker, boy, it’s a truly spiritual experience for a city guy like me.

For instant I felt something creeps in my heart, I felt Ramadhan … Alhamdulillah ….

So after looked around we decided to order the famous Soup Tulang, and the problem begin. When we want to pay, the price is very expensive, according to Sondy the actual price is more than a half, but what can we say, the waiter insist that it is the correct price. When I saw that Sondy started to get angry, I tried to calm him by saying that we’re still fasting and we must control our temper.

He just looked at me and said, OK, paid the bill and then asked the waiter to leave.

When we break our fasting he become so quite and after finished his meals he said that he will go for a while to do something. After wait for around ten minutes I told to the couple in front of me that my friend was looking for a trouble, just wait for a couple minutes more.

And it’s true, not long after I said that, I heard someone yelled and maybe ten blocks from me there was a bunch of people tried to hold my friend punched the waiter.

Well, actually he already punched the waiter 4 times at his jaw, but not a “deadly” punch. And you know what, Sondy was right, the waiter is not an actual waiter from Soup Tulang restaurant, so he’s acted like calo and mark up the price.

After the situation is under control, I said to him, “Wow, it’s a hard city yah”

And he said, “Yup, definitely, Ini Medan bung”

medan
october 4, 2006
joeffry