Heya,

I am a big fan of Sumatra, but I wouldn’t recommend Medan as a spot to stay for more than a couple of days. The Muslim areas of Indonesia tend to be the friendliest to foreigners- in my opinion- but Medan is an exception to that rule. Sumatra lost a LOT of tourism after the tsunami ten years ago and hasn’t quite recovered. There is an abundance of guesthouses and tour guides, but very few tourists meaning there is a lot of attention on you.

If you can handle not great internet speeds, I would spend most of my time in chill Lake Toba and make my way up to Pulau Weh (passing through Bukit Lawang for orangutan trekking- truly incredible, check out Thomas’ treks- and Banda Aceh for the tsunami museum). Spend the rest of your time chilling and diving on Pulau Weh.

Let me know if you have any other questions about Sumatra. I loved it, but Medan wasn’t what I was looking for. There are far friendlier cities for that big, not too developed, bustling city feel if that is what you are craving!

There is a reason why Indonesian cities (outside Jakarta and Bali) aren’t nomad hotspots - Indonesian cities are traffic-clogged town-planning disasters.

Medan is the gateway city for Lake Toba, which is a cool place to hang out. I spent a month by the lake to write and get away from city distractions. Lakeside guesthouses can be found for $10 a night. The internet is not the best so it’s not a place to be if you need speedy internet.

Having said that I still recommend travelling around to these provincial cities to see Southeast Asia outside the capitals. I’ve taken several flights on AirAsia to random places whenever there is a sale on.

If you are looking at flights now I would avoid Sumatra as half of the island is on fire, creating the worst haze on record in Southeast Asia.

Here's a selection: nomadlist.com/places-in-asia-with-low-tax

Best to book an Airbnb for first 2/3 nights, then drive around and find a place yourself. Many apartments have a VACANT sign. Although renting 3 weeks is quite short.

I’d say Hep A & B and tetanus were essential anywhere in Asia. There is now a vaccine for Dengue fever, available in Indonesia & worth considering.
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Dengue_fever#Vaccine

I lived in Ubud for over a year and got no vaccines except Hep A and tetanus.
I got bitten by a dog there, very severe bite. It was my friend’s dog, so I knew it wasn’t rabid, however, no hospital would admit me for treatment until I got a rabies vaccine.
They run out of rabies vaccines on the island at times, but luckily they had it. I needed 3-4 in a row for possible post-exposure. I didn’t want to get it, but i had to.

Really depends on when and where you’re planning to go in Indonesia.

IMHO, the CDC and Travel Health clinic suggestions tend to be over cautious for most travelers. I think they’re written as if everyone is going to do aid work in some far off jungle village.

Routine + Hepatitis A & B + Typhoid and you’re good almost everywhere globally…

Note: the reason to get Hep B, is because if you end up in a local hospital (this is a a risk globally), plus it’s cheap and free of major side effects.

Japanese Encephalitis - Not unless you’re going somewhere rural where to JE is actively prevalent (ie. somewhere very rural…) .

Regardless of JE, take precautions against mosquitos… because there is also Dengue & Malaria…

However personally… forums are the last source I would trust on this topic… go talk to an actual doctor

If you’re thinking about heading to Bali, definitely get the rabies vaccine. The island has a rabies problem, there are a lot of aggressive stray dogs, and the island isn’t well equipped to deal with it.

No experience with adobe connect, but I ran the test from the UK server, these are the results

it says LAN speed and:
BW Test Results: up=2382.9 kbit/s, latency=28 msec, down=605.2 kbit/s

This is from Canggu btw.