Grand Mosque of Medan

Here is our visit to Medan's largest mosque, the Masjid Raya Al-Mashun.


Here it is!


"Wow!" Steve commented to the friends that took us, "And what is -this- building?" They replied, "Ummm. That is the bathroom." haha.

This is the entrance, as seen when you leave the mosque... which I guess makes it the exit.

Here is Steve, having to put on a skirt-thing! (If you wanted factual cultural observations, you are totally at the wrong blog.)

Sign!

Here we are in front of the mosque! I got to wear a scarf on my head! (and by "got" I totally mean "had").

Inside. But not INside inside. We weren't allowed in there.

Door!

INside inside. Though we couldn't WALK in, we were allowed to stand right in the doorway and take pictures. This was the men's half, which explains all the mid-day sleeping going on. Am I right ladies? haha.

Stairs! When someone is making an announcement or something they do it from up there. This is on the women's side.

Another stair thing, on the men's side.

Awww!

These are our friends. Chally and Liza

What lovely windows!!

Seriously. Nice windows.

Maimoen Palace

Earlier this month Steve and I went to Maimoen Palace, which used to be the home of the Sultan.


Here it is.

Here we are going inside...

Here is the throne inside... ooooh.

And here are Steve and I ruling with iron fists. Please note our regal lack of smiles. When we were first sitting down I had started to sit in the chair Steve is in (because it was closest to me) but the worker there yelled "NO!!! You sit in THAT one." and motioned to the one I am in in this picture. Why couldn't I sit in the other chair? Because, if you look closely at the top of the chair legs, you'll notice his is a measly ince and a half taller than mine. How dare I try to sit there.

Lake Toba!

Steve and I went away to Lake Toba for our anniversary weekend (May 6-9) this month! It was wonderful! Hard to believe we've been married a whole year now! Here are some pictures!


The touristy part of Lake Toba is on a tiny island! So we took a ferry there!

Used for fishing. These things were everywhere!

This is the view from our room! AMAZING!!!

Vacation=Allowed to show shoulders! Yahoo!!

Another great view I got. haha.

This was also taken from our room. Steve sure loves laying around in the sun... And that diving board. I would like to mention that it doesn't look very scary there, but it's quite high off the water! And the water is sooo rough! But amazingly wonderful.

On the Saturday night they had Batak entertainment! (Batak being a people group)

Here is a dance. (Not pictured: Steve and I up there with them, although we DID both go up there and dance, along with some other crowd members. They made us.)

One day we rented a motorbike! It was so much fun!

He was a very good driver.

Please read that sign carefully. Yes. Magic Mushrooms. Those were advertised on nearly every sign on the island! (I didn't try any).

Here is Steve, (pretending to be) at work in a woodshop.

Here is all the woodwork that was (not) made by Steve!!!

Someone in the market painting her wares.

This is a normal Batak house.

This is a Batak house made just a bit nicer for white people (pictured) to take pictures in front of it.

Tourist Batak house.

Cute stone men.




Random (huge) fire we saw on the side of the road. So. Confused.


Beautiful pink water lillies!!