It's a 'chun choi' world out there

Our last day in Medan was spent looking for Soto Sinar Pagi. After a short walk fom our hotel, we found the stall. The food was good. After that, we headed for the airport. And this was where trouble began all over again.

Right at the entrance to the airport departure lounge was the security check point. Out of the blue, a person who acted as though he was from the airport authority asked us to take out our passport and flight itinerary. He grabbed all our passports and dashed off to the check in counter in such quick succession that we didn't have time to re-act. Before we knew it, he already started filling out forms for us. And then he held on to our passports and proceeded to queue up. However, he jumped queue a few times and these made us uncomfortable as there were many people already in the queue.

Thanks to some slight foresight, after obtaining our boarding pass, I insisted on taking back our passports and I forcefully grabbed them from the man's hands. After proceeding to pay airport tax and getting our boarding pass stamped, we immediately walked into the departure hall. This was when we heard him shouting angrily at us. The last person in my group overheard him muttering something about us not paying him. We didn't turn back to look. We just walked on.

We realized that he was a tout trying to fleece easy money from unsuspecting tourists. He helped to fill up the form and expected us to pay him. We didn't want to because we didn't ask him to do it in the first place, and it's not that we were illiterae and couldn't do it ourselves.

But what really gave me a sense of insecurity is the fact that he managed to trick us to part with our passport. What is he had ran away? What if he refused to hand us back without paying him a hefty sum? I learned my lesson. We must never let our guards down, not just in Medan but wherever we travel.

After all the bad experiences at Medan airport both when arriving and while departing, I really feel SERIK about Medan. This is one place that leave me with a 'bitter after taste'. Most places, we may feel like visiting again but not so for Medan.

Please be careful of airport touts in different forms..... they are quick..... they are cunning..... they will fleece you...... so beware......