Medan Trip Day 2 – Berastagi – Lake Toba

It was cold at Berastagi and cooler than any place in Malaysia. I assure, I am totally not prepared for such a cold weather whats more when I thought Medan is just a normal city and expecting Berastagi is not as cold as Genting Highland. Anyway, with such a cold weather I have difficulties of going to toilet. Despite the big amount of fruits I haven eaten, it seem difficult for me to do my business!!!
The highland become so much cooler no thanks to Mount Sinabung that burst ashes since September…Oh wait, volcano ashes should be hot, why is Berastagi still so cold….Well, it seem that the ash have causes the sun not to shine in directly to the town and causes rain for most of the night. It was really cold that night as rain nonstop pouring since midnight.
I walk out of the room, to my surprise I saw a mountain with some cloud on it….as if it was bursting out from the hill….Then I close my eye, and re-open back, to my surprise that was actually Mount Sibayak, the volcano that slept for 400 years and suddenly decided to burst. I couldn’t do much besides from taking photographs.
After a good breakfast, we check out and depart to Lake Toba. Initially we decided to try our luck to view 2 volcano in Gundaling hill again but sadly heavy cloud start to close up the entire Berastagi town again and we have to change plan and move on to Lake Toba instead.

One hour journey bring us to lots of farms and plantations. Then the driver divert to a smaller path leading into some farm. I know at that moment we are nearing to another great place which is non other than Sipiso piso waterfall. Sipiso piso mean knife in Indonesian word. The name derived as if the water like a knife cutting through the valley. The majestic waterfall is actually not from a river but an underground water and leak out from the edge of a mountain. It pour down more than 100 meter down creating an illusion of a knife cutting through the valley. Magnificent view. The water splash is so strong that it create gigantic rainbow if the sun shine on it. One can walk down the hill to have a dip in the waterfall but we choose to walk down half hill to catch the full view of the waterfall. It is easy to walk down but the journey up back to the base is not easy. Fees to visit sipiso piso and tongging hill cost 5000rp.

Tongging hill is where most of the car park and a short walk bring tourist to yet another wonderful view. The view of Lake Toba. We left Sipiso piso and Tongging hill and stop at Rumah Bolon. Is a quiet place and kinda eerie if you are alone there. We are the only group of tourist there and it was kind scary. Rumah Bolon is where the Batak king used to stay and meeting of the officer take place. Now it host to a monument and some king grave as well.

The journey to Take toba bring us to Simarajunjung Hill, yet another place for superb view. We have lunch here. Wasn’t anything fantastic and it is costly too. Probably the most expensive food we have for this trip! This place is famous for its fried banana and ginger tea. Verdict, I try better one elsewhere so is your judgement whether you want to stop here for Lunch.

As we need to bring in our minivan, we have to stop at Tigaras, where ferry service is available besides from parapat. Apparently the ferry here is faster compare to Parapat. We arrive early at Tigaras thus we have to wait for an hour. During the one hour, I can observe the life of Batak people where they fish in the lake and some even bath on the lake. There is also banana boat and kayaking around Tigaras.
Oh, I have to mention that all the way to Tigaras from Berastagi, one prominent things that we saw is there is many churches and batak grave all over the place. It is so much that I forgot that I am actually in Indonesia, an Islamic country.
After a short ferry ride, we arrive at Samosir Island. First things I saw in the place is a group of pig running freely and buffalo is everywhere. We soon arrive at Ambarita, a village where serve the olden days court of justice. The unique things about this place is Batak house and the stone chair and execution place where criminals will be beheaded.

I somehow feel the place was haunted. We actually enter to one of the museum which is Batak house converted into a showcase of daily Batak house. It was dark and out of nowhere I knock one of the wood. I can see star for almost half a minutes plus with fever and cold I catch from Berastagi, I am half dead by then.

The next stop is Tomok to view the King Batak tomb. The tomb is nicely decorated with a female figure representing his beloved wife. There is no charges to visit this place but donation is always welcome (by this I mean you have to donate or else get harsh word from the caretaker).
We check into Samosir Villa, a hotel that supposed to be the best of the best in my trip. Turn out to be not to my expectation. More to come in next posting.
We rest a while enjoying the view of Lake Toba.
Dinner is with Today Café just a stone throw from Samosir Villa. I am extremely sick by then and with rain pouring on me after the dinner, I am totally down by the time arrive hotel. I bath and sleep.

Medan Trip Day 1 – City tour to Berastagi

Medan, a town of Indonesia, separated just merely by Strait of Malacca is forth most populated city of Indonesia. Consist of mixture of local Indonesian, Chinese and the batak tribe, Medan is a unique blend of culture, heritage and natural wonder. Our flight took off on time. Thanks to AirAsia again for the zero fare offer, we manage to get a return air ticket for RM 88 per person for the tax, fuel surcharge and other relevant surcharge. Well worth the money consider it will took hours or maybe days if I were to swim across the Strait of Malacca. Main attraction of Medan is non other than Lake Toba, which I would elaborate more in the next few posting. Upon arriving to Kuala Namu International Airport, a brand new airport of Medan, we faster clear ourselves off the immigration and custom clearance and look out for our driver. In Medan they were call pak Supir. Out first destination is to a restaurant in Medan town for breakfast and meet up with our local friend, David. David treats us a good breakfast of Nasi Bamboo and fried meehoon.

We then left for Maimoon palace. Entrance fees is merely 3000rp which is about a ringgit. There is nothing much to see inside except some portrait of the kings and queen and the royal seat. The building is build using wood but was very well maintained. Next we stop at Masjid Raya or the grand mosque. Well, Malaysia have many grandeur mosque compare to medan and it wasn’t anything to shout about about the Masjid Raya. However we do stop by for some photography.

Done with Islamic culture, we head to Cemara Asri, South East Asia biggest Buddhist Monastery. Beside the temple is a small lake with lots of tree. Surprisingly there is many Chinese crane bird and other migrating bird around. Cemara Asri is situated in Cemara Square, a richly and well planned township. Most of the residence here are Chinese, some migrating from Acheh after the racism and racial killing back in 1990s.

We bid farewell to David as we need to pardon ourselves to Berastagi, medan version of Cameron Highland. Road to Berastagi is hilly and narrow but our superb driver make it as seem as eating a peanut. We stop at Velangkani Church, a church with Indian temple architectural. This church situated at some isolated village on the way to Berastagi. Totally to my surprise that there is such a magnificent building in the middle of nowhere. The journey to berastagi take 3 hours and it was lunch time by time we left Velangkani Church. There is nothing much around for us to eat. We have no choice but to endure some hunger during the journey.

We were then taken to Taman Lumbini, a few kilometer away from Berastagi town. It was again magnificent to see another great architectural in the middle of farm! The journey into this wat requires our minivan to pass through dirt road with tomato and strawberry plantation on both side of the dirt road. We are so hungry by the time we arrive there and we saw a big banner bearing ‘Vegetarian food set lunch for 15,000rp’. OMG is so cheap and we are so hungry thus we headed to the wat and make some offering. The rain started to pour down as if the end of the world. It was so heavy and cold since we are at the highland and we have no choice but to abort our intention for vegetarian food and skip our lunch.

Pak supir wanted us to check into the hotel since it was raining and Gundaling hill seem not possible at this hour as the cloud is so thick that it close the 2 volcano. However, I instructed the driver to send us to the fruit market instead and buy some fruit. The market itself is worth visiting as it offer wide range of fruits with multicolors. I personally love to see how fresh and nice is the carrot. We bought passion fruit, persimmon, mango, limau manis and raspberry. We spend 100,000rp for fruit but is definitely worth the money invested.

We check into Mikie Holiday Hotel, which will be posted in another posting. At the cold weather, I decided to dip into the swimming pool as there is many people there. I regretted. I catches a cold not long after that. Dinner was at the hotel restaurant as we are lazy to walk to town and do not want to ask the driver to send us to the town. The food is worth the money paid for though it is consider expensive back in Malaysia. At night we hang out at the hotel area and walk a little bit nearby the hotel. This is when my macho behavior (giving away my jacket to another friend who don’t have it)….and cost me a fever and flu for the next 2 days!!!

Cambodia Trip - Summary

Cambodia Trip	Siem Reap	Siem Reap	SR -PP	Phnom Pehn	Phnom Pehn
Breakfast	On flight + Complimentary from hotel	Pre-pack from hotel + picnic kit	Hotel	Hotel	Hotel
Morning Session	Tara Boat Tonle Sap Tour	Angkor Wat (Sunrise), South gate, Bayon, Baphuon, Palace Enclosure (Phimeanakas), Terrence of the Elephant, Terrence of Leper King, Victory gate, Thommanom, Chau Say Tevoda, Ta Keo, Ta Phrom, Banthey Kdei	Artisan D'Angkor and walk around siem reap neighbourhood	Grand Palace, Silver pagoda, NagaWorld, Vietnam Cambodia Friendship Park, Independence Monument, Killing field	Central Market, Wat Phnom, Post office
Lunch	Tara Boat	A café in between Ta Phrom and Banthey Kdei	Banyan Tree, Kampung Thom	Tuk Tuk Café, Tuol Sleng	Tea time at Gloria Jeans Coffee Riverside, Lunch at Lemongrass café
Afternoon session	Relaxing in hotel	Hotel complimentary massage + swimming and jacuzzi	Bus journey - Giant Ibis	Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Russian Market	Airport
Dinner	Cambodian Soup Restaurant, Blue Pumpkin	Hotel complimentary Khmer dinner	Jaan Riverside	Mekong River café	On board
Nightlife	Pub street + Night Market + Massage Blue Hatha Massage	Pub street (Khmer idea) + Night Market + Linga bar performance	Phnom Penh Night market and riverside	Phnom Penh Night market and riverside + massage
Stay	Golden Temple Hotel	Golden Temple Hotel	Angkor International Hotel	Angkor International Hotel