Medan Tour

Oyeah! I'm finally home, after 5 days of travel to Medan, Indonesia. Here's are some places that I visited during my holiday at Medan. This trip was just only for three of us (my parents and I). My younger brother was supposed to joined us, but he had exams at that time.

I'm too lazy to write a lot, let's the photos explain everything.. ^^


Day 1 - Medan --> Parapat

Bandara Polonia

Polonia Airport where we touched down from Kuala Lumpur. The airport is quite small with traditional architecture. We could see the batik-style motives on the roofs and also the roof itself is designed like Minangkabau architecture.

Istana Maimoon

Dalam Istana Maimoon

We arrived at Istana Maimoon (Maimoon Palace) quite early in the morning so we had to wait for the guard to open the door first. We were the first visitors for today. There are a lot of royal stuffs exhibited inside the palace with yellow distinctive colour. Quite the same with Malaysia where yellow is the royal colour. We could try some of the royal attires but I was too lazy to wear them. So I basically just walked around to capture photos. By the way, there was a donation box inside the palace, near the door. You can donate any amount that you like and the donation will be used for the maintenance of the palace. There is no entrance fee to the castle by the way. =)

Mesjid Raya

Dalam Mesjid Raya

Even though I had been to Medan previously, but this was my first time going to Mesjid Raya. It's not praying time yet, so we entered the mosque just to admire the beautiful architecture which is said to be inspired by the Middle East design. I've been to Iran before, so I could say that the design are quite similar.

Kedai Batik

Before heading to our lunch, we dropped by a batik shop for my mom to buy some souvenirs for my grandmothers, sisters and aunts. This shop sell a wide variety of batik sarong, kain pelikat, and telekung. The price was okay, but not very cheap. My mom only bought a little because there might be a better shop to shop tomorrow. So we saved up a bit.

Lunch masakan Minang

As usual, lunch at Indonesia was always like this. On the table, they will serve plain rice with a lot of dishes. You just chose the ones you want to eat and left the rest untouched or they will charged you for that. Today's lunch was Minang food. My favourite would always be the gulai ayam masak lemak and sambal kentang. Yummy~

Then we continued our journey to Danau Toba (Lake Toba) which is located between hills. Our accommodation for tonight was Danau Toba International Cottage.

Day 2 - Parapat --> Berastagi

We had our breakfast at the cafe downstairs which was basically just a plate of fried rice with fried egg. I wasn't bad at all. Our itinerary for today was to have a tour around Lake Toba and the Batak villages nearby.

Danau Toba International Cottage, Parapat

Danau Toba

After having our breakfast, we took a boat to the opposite side of the Lake Toba. We visited the Batak Village (Kampung Tomok) there. Along the way to the village, there are few rows of souvenir shops selling t-shirts, key chains and other stuffs. But our tour guide said that if we want to buy them, wait until our way back to the jetty. Here you could here the shop keepers shouted loudly about the best price they could give us. However, don't simply fall into their tricks, because sometimes they lied. In front of the Batak house, the Batak people told us story about Batak and showed us their traditional dance. Some old ladies also sold peanuts and they were quite insisting. They forced my dad to buy some but we ignored her. My dad cannot eat peanuts due to his medical condition, gout.

Tugu Kampung Tomok (perkampungan Batak)

Rumah Batak

Naik bot jalan2 Danau Toba

After finishing our tour around the Batak village, we continued our journey to Berastagi. Berastagi is located uphill quite far from Parapat and the weather there was supposed to be cold. Along the way, we dropped by a tea shop at Simarjarunjung. I was already familiar with this place because we had been here before few years ago. We had our herbal teas to refresh ourselves from the long journey. They used to serve banana fritters here, but perhaps they didn't sell it today.

Minum Bandrek (teh rempah)

At Sipiso-piso waterfall, we had a quick stop. The waterfall scenery was very stunning where it fall from a high place on the cliffs. It was beautiful. As usual there are several souvenir shops here.

Air terjun Sipiso-piso

We arrived at Berastagi few hours after, then we checked-in Danau Toba International Cottage. We had stayed here during our previous visits as well. So I knew the place quite well. There is swimming pool here as well. However, the weather wasn't as cold as it supposed to be. I still could go out without a sweater. I blamed you global warming!

Danau Toba International Cottage, Berastagi

Day 3 - Berastagi --> Medan

On the third day, we headed to Medan. But in the morning, we had a stop at Berastagi town which is just a small town where you could find many markets here. You could ride on a horse-cart if you want. We spent few hours in the market buying fruits and passionfruit (buah markisa) juice. They sell good passionfruit juice here. It's a 'must buy' thing if we went to Medan.

Pasar Buah Berastagi

Lunch at Lubuk Idai restaurant. We had seafood here. Sedap betul ikan bersambal kat sini! =d After lunch, we continued our trip to Medan. On our way to Medan, we saw a durian stall and we decided to stop for durian time! Omo, the durians were sooo yummy! And the price was quite okay.

Day 4 - Medan

At Medan, our hotel is situated in the city itself. So, in front of the hotel, there are some shopping mall and supermarket. We shopped there once in a while just to kill our time and to used up our remaining money. I just bought several t-shirts and had Dunkin Donuts here. Dah lama tak makan Dunkin Donuts kann, since kat Malaysia dah ada Jco, Krispy Kreme etc, Dunkin Donuts dilupakan.

  

Dunkin Donuts

In the afternoon, we requested our tour guide to bring us to souvenir shops. I bought a few bookmarks made from goat skin and since it was quite pricey, I pau my mom. Hihihi...

Souvenir shop

Dinner at Putri Hijau Restaurant. This restaurant is quite classy with modern interior. And I was wearing my new sweater in the picture above. XD

Day 5 - Medan --> Malaysia

On our last day, our main activity was shopping. We checked out at noon and had lunch at Simpang Raya Restaurant. We had nasi padang for lunch and we filled up the questionnaires given by our guide. After fulfilling our hunger pangs, we headed to Matahari, a well known shopping mall in Indonesia. It's like Jusco in Malaysia, more towards convenience stores. I spent my last money here buying Transformers toys because I found out that it was quite cheaper here compared to Malaysia. So I bought a deluxe Stealth Bumblebee and legend class Bumbleebee and Scorponok.

Umi tgh isi borang questionnaire

Matahari, syurga membeli-belah

Airport

Finally our 5-day tour has ended. We got most of the things that we wanted and the most important thing that we got from this trip is experience and learning about other cultures.

Ahhh, seronoknya dapat berjalan2.. Tapi itu bermakna cuti aku tinggal lagi seminggu jek.. huhu..