Medan

Built in 1888 by the Sultan of Deli, washed in Malay royal yellow. Royal descendants still occupy some rooms, so only the front hall is open, where court dress is hired out for photos. A pavilion in the grounds keeps a cannon barrel bound up with a legend.

An octagonal mosque begun in 1906 near the palace by the sultan who built it, with black domes sitting above Moorish arches. Visitors may enter outside prayer times, and the doorkeepers hand out long robes for covering up.

The late 19th-century house of Tjong A Fie, a Hakka tycoon who made his fortune in tobacco estates and banking, pairing Chinese courtyards with a European ballroom. Guides take groups room by room, and the upstairs ballroom floor is the original boards.

Medan's old commercial heart, keeping colonial banks and shophouses, the Tjong A Fie Mansion among them. The long-running Tip Top restaurant still serves Dutch-era ice cream and coffee, and at night food stalls set up along the kerb.

A church built in the 2000s for Tamil Catholics, its stacked tower and domes in an Indo-Mughal style that resembles a Hindu temple. Murals inside retell the Bible in Indian dress, and it lies out west in Tanjung Selamat, a taxi ride away.

Medan's oldest Hindu temple, founded in 1884 in Kampung Madras, the city's Little India. The gate tower is packed with carved deities, visitors go barefoot inside, and the surrounding lanes sell garlands and South Indian sweets.

Counted as the biggest Taoist temple in Medan, with stone lions and dragon pillars on guard in a lane near the river. Incense-burners come and go all day so the smoke hangs thick, and around Lunar New Year red lanterns roof the courtyard.

A Karo highland market centre that Medan traffic reaches in just over two hours, far cooler than the city. Passion fruit and tangerines heap the fruit market, and clear days show Sinabung and Sibayak together. Sinabung keeps erupting and stays off-limits.

An active volcano right behind Berastagi, its steaming crater rim reached and left in three or four hours. Cloud builds by afternoon, so set off at dawn, and with many forks in the path a guide is safer. Afterwards the hot springs at its foot await.

A riverside village at the edge of Gunung Leuser National Park, where treks set out to find semi-wild orangutans. Only licensed guides may lead you into the forest, and many trips end tubing back downriver. Medan is three to four hours away by road.

A private museum of stuffed animals gathered worldwide by hunter and businessman Rahmat Shah. Lions, bears and tigers stand life-size, and a cave-like room holds butterflies and insects. Views on hunting and conservation split over it, so reactions vary.

A golden pagoda in the forest at Berastagi, modelled on Myanmar's Shwedagon. Small Buddha images fill niche after niche inside. Remove your shoes to enter, and when highland fog rolls in the gold tower seems to float, blurred.

A Karo village near Kabanjahe where a few siwaluh jabu survive, big timber houses where eight families share one roof. They were joined without nails, with buffalo horns on the roof ends. Few are left, so ask the residents before looking inside.

The name means old fish market, but today it is packed with cloth shops. Batik, songket and prayer-robe fabric sit rolled in stacks and are cut by the metre. First prices are steep, so bargain, and buying several lengths brings them down further.

A Dutch-style building from 1911, still working as the post office across from Merdeka Square. The domed central hall is lofty, and the street noise fades once you are inside. Stamps are sold at the counters, so postcards can go from here.

A waterfall in the Sibolangit forest on the Medan-Berastagi road; minerals tint its pool two shades, jade and white. Reaching it takes hours on a forest trail over slick rock, so people bring a village guide. Rain turns the water brown and the colours go.