It's a 'chun choi' world out there

Medan-Prapat-Samosir-Brastagi-Medan

The above summed up my itinerary while in Medan, Indonesia from June 13th to 17th, 2010.

13th June
Medan is something like Ipoh, just multiply it by about 5 times to get a rough idea of its size. A city of about 2 million, the people come across as genuine, hard-working and resourceful. First evening was spent shopping in Sun Plaza, located at the city-centre and touted to be the most happening mall in Medan. And Grand Antares, being our 4-star accommodation for the first night, gives us the best of the best in the service industry in the form of a receptionist by the name of Irma. Dedicated, emphatetic, helpful, gentle, kind, cheerful, calm, resourceful, initiated are just a few adjectives inadequate of describing this special person. We owe a lot to her.

14th June
A long and winding ride to Prapat, the jetty town off Lake Toba. We spent the night at the chalet overlooking the lake. Constant splashes of the wave against the hotel's wall provides the only sound for the night. Otherwise, it is completely serene, calm and quiet. On the way to Prapat, we stopped by at Dodol town, to buy what else, but dodol. Permatang Siantar was the next town and by about 5pm, we were greeted by a majestic view of Lake Toba. Our guide and driver, Ronnie, provided detailed description of each unique feature of his country, answering every and any questions we threw at him. To call him professional is an understatement.

15th June
Woke up early to enjoy the ferry crossing to Samosir, a town on Lake Toba. There, we rode motorbike as well as bicycles. This provided us an opportunity to get up close and personal with the daily lives of the local people. What was supposed to be an hour motorbike ride ended up taking almost 2 hours and a half because one of my friends tried going around the mountain range, without realizing that the mountain range stretches over a wide expanse of the lake, impossible to go around it in an hour or so. We were then taken to view hanging stone (Batu Tergantung), a popular legend told to all visitors of Medan. We spent the next half day driving to Brastagi. Along the way, we stopped at Si Piso Piso waterfall. The 100m fall is simpy majestic to view.

16th June
Brastagi is a town full of fruits and vegetables. It is also dotted with mountains and former volcanoes. One exploded so hard that it split into two, now known as gunung Sebayak and gunung Sinabung. We also tasted for the first time avacado juice mixed with milo as well as terong belanda juice. Both were tasty ad indeed did a good job moving the bowel of one of my traveling mates we had to stop a few times for toilet breaks. A 2 hour ride was all we need to make it back to Medan. I rested in the hotel room while my traveling mates went and enjoyed what they called the best seafood they have ever tasted. We also went to a cake shop selling kueh bika ambon.

17th June
A walk to the town in search of Soto Sinar Pagi. It was definitely worth the search. The soup was more pungent compared to the Malaysian's version and they serve rice with it, instead of noodle. The black chilli sauce is second to none, perfect with its mixture of chilli seeds as well as fried onion. A quick dash to the airport and we were back on Malaysian soil.....

More on our bad experience at the airport.... AGAIN.... on the last day of our trip in my next posting