Medan Trip 23/5 - 26/5: Part 2 (Samosir Island - Berastagi - Medan)

Hello hello people!!

Yeah..yeah..I am as slow as snail in posting entry but I am super busy at office since I m back from my cuti-cuti Malaysia with kiddos! Don't worry, will share a bit here and there about it soon but as for now, lets continue with my trip to Medan ok.. Sabar para pembaca yang dikasihi sekalian (*cehh, ayat minta kasihan ba itu..hehe) and be ready for super long post!!

On 25th May, after a restful night at Samosir Villa Resort, Just and me (*forgot to inform that we were roommates during this trip) woke up early and go snapping pics for remembrance around the hotel area and also in front of our room which was facing the magnificent Lake Toba. The hotel was beautiful artificially but the services were poor and the staff was kind of rude (*the buffet breakfast also 'poor' - broken glass and plates for guests?? What the...). Our room have no AC, toilet paper and water heater! We were not expecting this but we were too tired to argue. Just and me open our window to let the lake's air/breeze coolant our room or we going to feel like in oven..

Room 07!

Breath-taking view in front of our room

Another breath-taking view from left side of our room

Peace all the way from Samosir Island!

Group picture (minus the pacik)

Part of the front view of the Samosir Villas.. Snapped from speeding boat, jadi dapat half seja..haha!

Cruised back to Parapat (Ajibata Jetty) around 10am and we head off to our next pit stop which was Simarjarunjung where we had our IDR65k lunch only after 3 hours after we had our brekky.. Adeii, ketat perut tapi saya makan juga sebab the lunch cost me around RM20++ people! Tapi menyesal saya sebab tidak pi rasa2 tu teh herba.. It was included! Menyesal tahap gaban because Simarjarunjung is known for its Teh Halia.. Dapat rasa pisang goreng seja but to me, it was same taste as our own pisang goreng, in other word not that special (*smile).

Writing/words on the wall caught my attention - meaningful!

the bus stop area in front of Ajibata Jetty - lengang!

Front yard of Simarjarunjung Restaurant

Inside the Restaurant and the house of teas..

Peace, it's makan time!

Rupa pisang goreng di Simarjarunjung - biasa seja kan..

The ingredients for herbal tea

After early lunch we continue our 1 1/2 hours journey along a bumpy road (*yeah, this time worst than the day before -_- ) to the famous Sipiso-piso waterfall.. Luckily the view of the magnificent lake Toba was breath-taking and as always my amateur hands keep snapping the view with my compact camera. Errm, actually keep snapping dengan harapan ada juga yang 'tersangkut' cantik..wakaka!

Akhirnya, dapat juga snap pic yang buli tahan (-_-) haha!

The road to Sipiso-piso Waterfall

The Sipiso-piso Waterfall was indeed so beautiful but the place were crowded with people picnicking there and the smell from the public toilet also kind of disturbance to my sensitive nose. The place was not well managed/maintained - vandalisme. We only spent like 30min there to snap pictures of the Waterfall (from afar because we didn't have much time to go down the stairs and see it closed-up). I bought a tee there but I forgot to buy FM of Sipiso-piso Waterfall..Huarghhh!!

Souvenirs shop at the entrance of the waterfall

OMG! Magnificent kan..

Ini gaya wajib ok! Wakaka!

The view is great..tapi vandalism on the wall bikin sakit mata. Kalau grafiti buli accept lagi..tsk..tsk

I wish my house built in front of this view..

I was here !

Next stop was Berastagi, a must visit place that famous for its colorful fruits and vegetables market where we bought some fruits, more FMs and souvenirs. Oh well, fruits were everywhere and I was expecting the price to be way cheaper than our local pasar malam but disappointed to know that it was the same.. Saya ingat kalau persaingan banyak, harga pun murah2 la kan...Hurmmm... I tried to look for Sipiso-piso FM but I was out of luck because the shopper have no stock of it. 

Macet people!

Fruits and vegetables are everywhere!

 

I bought the seeds of this 2 flower

The journey from Berastagi to Medan was the most challenging because of the bumpy road and heavy traffic. We only managed to reach our hotel, Soechi Intenational Hotel around 11pm but I only went off to bed around 2am, after I finished up this novel with title 'Teduhan Kasih' (*wink2). Dinner? Errr, we stopped by at the 24 hours shop (Indo Marek) to buy instant noodles etc and have dinner in our room that night because we were too exhausted..

 
The next day, on 26th May, the last day of our trip, we went for souvenirs hunting at Kedai Batik & Telekung Wajir (*didn't buy anything there) and Pajak Ikan (*bought 5 set of toddler shirt-pant and 2 t-shirt, telekungs and kain pelikat for souvenirs). We didn't have much time to do the city tour to Maimom Palace and Masjid Raya but we were taken to this place to snap some pics (in front of it hokeh) since it was in our itinerary, after we had our dinner at Ayam Penyet Ria Restaurant. The lunch was F.O.C, gratis from our tour agency (*smile)..We didn't even have time to stop by at Hajjah Mariani/ Zulaikha/ Rika / Amanda to shop for lapis legit, bika ambon and brownies but it was understandable, so we placed our order for thru our tour guide..

Telekung yang bersepah-sepah sampai ke lantai dan dipijak-pijak..tsk..tsk

Pajak Ikan Street

Restoran Ayam penyet Ria ya tuan2, puan2 - Oh my..I look fat here! LOL

Picture with our tour guide, Pak Adam

We were here!

I have no head cover so can't enter the area - RESPECTO!

We arrived at the airport around 2.30pm, 3 hours before our departure to KL. The airport was small (*didn't notice it when I 1st arrived because we were rushing that time) and crowded..
 

Gaya happy mau balik suda...hehe

Masa datang 1 bag-pack seja, balik ambil ko tambahan 1 beg yang beratnya 10kg - so ladies, please purchased your additional luggage ok!

 At 5.25pm Medan time, we departed and reached KL about 55min later..Pheww!

Overall, as I said I enjoyed this whole trip but I think our time was so short that everything were done in rush, that I don't have the time to feel the excitement kicking in like my trip to Langkawi where I spent lot of quality time to learn about the Island and even to mix with people on that Island. But as I said it was understandable. However, I do wish that next time, I will have the chance to venture the Samosir Island (hiking or jungle trekking or swimming in the Lake Toba), learn the place and its culture and mix with the Batak tribe etc..God willing!
 
That's the end of my Medan group trip story.. Gumbiranya hati sebab managed to finish it within 2 weeks. I hope my story is not too boring and all of you can imagine what I see, what I feels a nd what I experienced during this short trip..


Until next entry people! Happy weekend!



Note:-
1) Every pictures were snapped by my Nikon coolpix compact camera and my samsung note camera - raw and no editing done (because I don't know how to edit it..hahaha!) except for resizing. Kalau tidak cantik, anggap ja cantik kio sebab sia  ni bukan professional photographer. Saya main snap ja..haha!

2) If you are reader from Indonesia and you feel offended with words or pics or even my opinion/perspective, please accept my sincere apology because I didn't mean to offend anyone with this post. This is merely my honest opinion (not a review), experienced while I travel to this area.

Mission In Progress!

Hey you all! Miss me??

Been super busy at office these few weeks and actually still busy till Chinese New year holiday. Well, I have an hour before going back home, so I am taking this opportunity to 'mengular' and sharing few things with you all.

Remember when I said I am going to travel alone soon in my past entry? Yep, I have planned everything and hopefully those 'everything' will goes smoothly. The hardest part was getting 'green light' from the husband. I been planning all of this project of mine since December last year and only 2 weeks ago did I got his approval though he is still a bit reluctant to let me proceed with this whole 'lone ranger' mission of mine (*roll eyes). Thank you so much  for letting me doing this and take care of the children! I'll buy you nice souvenirs okay (*wink2)!

Just when I thought I have everything in hand, I got an email from the site where I booked my hostel/hotel, informing me about refunding me because the hotel/hostels I booked were full, that there was a technical mistake / miscommunication between them and the hostel/hotel management. Honestly, I was panicked but thank God that I managed to find another place to stay and this time I booked it directly from the owner.

Initially, I was planning to go by bus/train, but yesterday I changed my plan and decided to go there by flight instead. I know it means extra budget but at least it save the traveling time.. *Ayat bikin sadap hati seja tu.

I have done my 'homework' to google up all the place I must go, things I must do and souvenirs I should buy and make a list of it. I also been reading tips about traveling alone from online forum/discussion and takes note about it especially tips concerned about safety matter. My hubby said, "semangat giler die!".. LOL!

Gosh, Times up! Have to go back now to fetch my kids from their daycare center. I'll try to post about my preparation for this mission of mine again soon.. And Nope, I won't spill out my destination until mission accomplished! To those who knew (Attn: Just), psstt, diam2 dulu ah!

To those live in Putrajaya, Labuan & Kuala Lumpur, Happy Holiday!

Note: Below Pic have nothing to do with the entry.. Seja2 mikirayou! HAHAHA!

Pic at genting last Sunday :P

Now Or Never

Pic of the recent book I am reading (edited)

As people busy planning their upcoming CNY holiday, I am busy with my own planning to tick off one of my wish list this year as well... Since I am too chicken to travel as lone ranger to oversea, I decided to do it locally and it going to happen soon (*winking)!

I am always craved for challenge and activities that will give me a rush of adrenaline and my coming soon lone ranger trip gonna involved activities such as trekking, hiking and if there is any available; bungee jumping! Yay!

I m not going to reveal where I am going because everything is still in planning and I am still asking people around and searching here and there about the place I m going to, things to do there, hotel/motel/backpacker hostel I can stay and also how to move around there.

Some people might think I am selfish or crazy but I just want to make my dreams come true when I am healthy and have energy to do it. Being married with 4 kids doesn't mean I can't live my life to the fullest and make my own dream come true right? Before this I was too concerned about certain parties happiness that I forgot about my own dreams and happiness.. My kids are exceptional tho.. I also got a bad critic from my in law side but this time I just ignore their negative thinking because I know I am not anything wrong and I am doing all of this making my dreams come true project at my own expenses.. I don't want to live in regret when I know I can achieve one or two of my childhood dreams but never try or fight to make it real.. Semangat tomod tih (*LOL)!

That's all I wanna say for now. Tomorrow I am going to write a donation petition for this charity event I am going to join next month and hopefully will get some support/donation  from my fellow follower and also from those who stop by my blog. So, stay tuned for tomorrow entry ya!

Happy Friday & Happy Weekend in advance everyone!

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