It has been almost 2 weeks since I arrived back from Medan. The second schooling term has also begun with plenty of activities happening and lots of paper work to be done. So, before I get too busy and forget about my recent holiday experience, allow me to steal some time from my tuition class to pen down my review in my humble blog.
Well, I had spent a total of 4 nights in Indonesia, arriving on the 30th of May 2013 and leaving on the 3rd of June 2013. Went there with a bunch... not bunch, a trio of friends. Meaning there were 4 of us in total.
Medan
A city with a post colonial look to it, the evidence that it was once ruled by the Dutch. Medan city is busy during the day with cars, motorbikes, tricycles, bicycle and people bustling at every corner of the city. However, it is the opposite during the night as shops closes as early as 5pm. Medan drivers are quite professional with their driving skills. However, they still gave me quite a shock during my trips around the city and the way to Lake Toba.
During my stay at Medan, I lived in 2 different hotels. On the first night it was Alpha hotel, the hotel is clean, with good wifi connection and nice workers and receptionist. I had problem with the shower in my room though, it was too close to the wall, it might seems that the hotel wants the guest to practically wash the wall while they take their shower? The breakfast was not really to my liking as I find the food either too salty if not too sweet.
The second hotel was Wisma Sederhana Budget Hotel. Well, don't be fool by it's name. It might be a budget hotel, but I think it should be rank 3 stars. Nice rooms, with better facilities compared to Alpha Hotel, it even has a reflexology center with a 30% off during Happy Hours. A little misunderstanding during our booking as we were given the wrong room, but the staff were quick to offer us another room which we gladly accepted only to realized that it smelled of cigarettes. The breakfast was quite a surprise as we were served instant noodles, maybe we had our hopes too high.
The BIKA AMBON is a must buy cake. It is only made in Medan. There are 2 flavors to it. I bought 2 boxes and regretted it. Should have bought more. My students were asking me to bring more to school, they love it! Lucky kids!
We were unlucky on our first night in Medan. We had dinner at a so called Chinese Street. The food was terrible and they charged at a very high price.
Lake Toba / Semosir Island / Tuk-tuk Island
We headed to Lake Toba on the 31st of May after a night at Medan. We started our journey at 8am. It took us around 5 - 6 hours to arrive at the Raja Tiga ferry port. Along the way to Lake Toba, I enjoyed learning and seeing the culture and lifestyle of the local people. We stopped for lunch during midday and later a shop called PATEN, but I would prefer it to be call the noisy shop as the products are all named with words repeated twice such as "Tang Tang", "Tong Tong", "Ting Ting", "Pang Pang" and even "Ping Ping".
My heart goes out for the students I see walking back home after school under the scorching heat. As young as 6 years old walking, running and playing by the road on their way home. I was actually worried for their safety, looking at how close the cars, trucks, vans and motorcycles zoom by at top speed. How bless are the students back in my country.
The view on the way to Lake Toba was amazing, lost for words..... a picture paints a thousand words.
Lake Toba, the world largest volcanic lake in the world is actually formed at the opening of a once active volcano. The view at the peak of the volcanic lake was much much more stunning. Traveling across Lake Toba to Tuk Tuk Island or also known as Semosir Island made me appreciate God in a whole new way. It was just amazing to know that all I saw, felt and experienced was made by Him and it was written long ago right at the beginning of the bible.
We arrived at Tuk Tuk Island at 4 - 5pm. Rows of shops can be seen on both sides of the road as our van left the ferry. We decided to go for a walk and to shop for some souvenirs… slippers actually. The shop owners were so determined to get sales. From the beginning of the 1st shop till the end, the words "welcome", "keychains", "cheap cheap", "come see", "nice nice", "I give cheap", "how much you want?", "can lah", cheap already", "T-shirt" can be heard from every shop. In the end, we managed to buy some slippers after 20 minutes of haggling with a shop owner. We also visited a mini Batak (local lake toba people) museum.
We stayed at Pandu Lakeside Hotel. The room was spacious, nice view of the lake. Oh! Before that, the weather at Tuk Tuk Island at night, FREEZING COLD! It didn't help as the hot water at Pandu Lakeside Hotel was switched on twice a day and only an hour each time or only while stock last. 2 nights 1 day, I had to shower in extremely cold water, it was a miracle that I didn't turn into a block of ice.
The hotel was also near the main road and it wouldn't be a nice place to stay for guest who prefer to sleep in late into the morning as it is noisy. Wifi connection is only available at the lobby area with very slow connection most of the time.
The food on the island for me was just okay, maybe due to the overly promotion online had highly raise my expectation on the taste and quality of the food. However, there is a nice cafe called Buddah's Cafe that sells nice ice - cream. There are also bicycles and motorbikes for rent on the island. My advise, go for the motorbike unless you have the stamina to cycle up and down the hills and steep road on the island.
The next day, 1st of June. We went around visiting historical and cultural sites.
1. Ancient Batak Village at Ambarita
2. A Church Retreat Center
3. One of the viewing tower
4. Ice - cream time at Buddah's Cafe
5. More sceneries and view of nature
Actually, there are other places that we have visited such as the Batak Museum (another) but most of our time was spent on the road traveling from one destination to another.
2 days and a night at Semosir Island, it was time for us to head back to Medan. However, we took another route back to the city. Allowing ourselves to see another part of this beautiful land.
Brastagi
We departed from Pandu Lakeside Hotel at 6:30am, once again our van driver was rushing to catch the ferry. We had our breakfast at the ferry port; Indon Noodles, instant noodles actually. Soon we were sailing across Lake Toba once again and arrived at Tiga Rasa port in no time.
Once again, we were educated with Batak culture as we arrived at another traditional Batak village. This site was a bit more run down.
Off we speed off to our next visitation site. A beautiful waterfall. Once again, the view was amazing. This site also sent me a warning that I need to exercise more, I gave my friends a shock while climbing back up after enjoying the waterfall view, returning with a pale face and cold sweat. Sorry guys!!!!!
We then head on to the fruit market and then to the hot spring. At the hot spring, I was disappointed with the condition of the place. It seems that private companies have taken over the area and are earning money from the hot spring that comes freely from nature. Compare to the ones we have in Sabah, I would give thumbs up to the condition the Sabah government had maintain the hot spring with free proper pools for the public.
To killed time while waiting for our van driver, we had tea in a coffee shop. I ordered ginger tea, but I was unable to even take a sip of it as it smells strongly of black pepper and just by the lick of the spoon sends a hot, chocking sensation down my throat. One word to describe; terrible.
The hot spring was our last visitation spot before returning to Medan City. We had seafood for dinner and head to the hotel for our final night. The next day, we took the effort to find a post office and sent a postcard back home to a dear friend of ours. A massage session before heading to the airport, painful yet relaxing. However, I wished that the massage therapist didn't talk so much during the session.
In conclusion, Medan and Lake Toba was a pleasant holiday for me throughout the whole trip, I would proudly say that I spent less than RM 2,000.00 with leftovers from the whole trip.
We also had a nice driver/tour guide, Freddy. He is an experience man and knows the place well, pardon his too fast and furious driving skills that gave me a few heart attacks. He entertained us with his jokes, is friendly and polite, even brought us to places that were not mention online. Best of all, he charges at a very reasonable price. Here's his number 62081396400881, just in case you decide to tour round Medan. He goes to other parts of Sumatra too!
Lastly, the trip might be fun, enjoyable with the nice views and culture to experience but without my friends, there will be no laughter or smiles which is the most important ingredient in life. Thanks guys! You know who you are!!! :)
I think that is all about my Medan trip. I'll save my Batak stories for another post.
Signing off,
Bell Bell