Is Medan the worst city in the world? An Australian expatriate in Jakarta whines his heart out.

An Australian Associated Press article about Medan, “Worst. City. Ever.” published in the Age newspaper by one Adam Gartrell begins vitriolically:

Dear Medan. I hate you.

Not happy

I visited you recently and found you the most unpleasant, charmless and thoroughly depressing city I’ve ever encountered. And I’ve visited plenty of s—holes in my time.

Adam, who lives and works in Jakarta as AAP’s South-East Asia Correspondent, says Indonesia’s third biggest city and the capital of North Sumatra province, has

no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

From arrival at the hellhole of Polonia airport, and possibly getting off on the entirely wrong foot by paying a visit to the airport toilets consistently rated among the filthiest in the country (2007, 2009) the nightmare begins, with Medan said to be a city bereft of the important things like taxis, trees, good hotels, and restaurants. No mention of whether the girls of Medan are as miserably unappealing as the rest of the place however.

Medan’s closest claim to fame and the only thing to be considered a tourist attraction is its “big mosque”, he says, but that is not nearly enough to make up for its heinous deficiencies.

I understand now why you consistently feature on people’s “Worst. City. Ever.” lists.

While out one night scouring the streets in vain search of food fit to be eaten by a white man Adam’s hotel room is broken into and thousands of dollars stolen. Later, the hotel staff are distinctly and suspiciously unhelpful

Can you say “inside job”?

Medan doesn’t just bite you in the wallet however, as a night later after moving to another hotel Adam is assailed by a swarm of Medanese mosquitoes in his bed.

Mozzies never take any interest in me but your Medan mozzies made quite a frenzied exception.

The side effects of a visit to Medan can even last for weeks afterwards, as Adam some time after returning to Jakarta is struck down by a terrible illness put down to the workings of an intestinal parasite of Medan origin, but happily

I didn’t get malaria

He ends on a suitably bitter note theage

I’ve never been so happy to board a plane as I was the one that whisked me away from you, Medan. And I never want to see you again.