LAKE TOBA & MEDAN Jun 2010

A less travelled destination, an exploration to the land of north sumatra.

Before embarking on the journey, i was full of worries. Worries of natural disasters, worries of lack of information, worries of violence and worries of the place. the trip cleared up myths, cleared up worries and most importantly cleared the mind of a hectic life.

Previously, i was one of those worried about travelling to indonesia yet wanted some affordable adventurous unqiue destination to travel to. i am not a city girl when it comes to travelling, always preferring quiet scenaric places to relax the mind, away from the hustle and bustle of life.

All i can say about lake toba, it is indeed a quiet scenaric place with beautiful clear fresh lakewaters still considerably untouched by the effects of tourism. There are tourists, but mainly western backpackers. So few singaporeans have stepped their foot onto this little island that we, the trio have been mistaken numerous times as Japanese, koreans and malaysians. yet none guessed we were from singapore. if only we had more time, if only we had more money, a trek would sum up the trip really well.

No matter how the pictures are taken, it seems really hard to capture the actual beauty of the place, which does not even have enough information on the internet or on guidebooks that we have some trouble planning an extensive trip.

a simple snapshots of the place to sum up the trip. our little comfortable traditional house with really affordable rates and clean spacious toilet which i appreciate lots. though we had to scoop around the house, afraid on knocking our heads on the low ceilings.

Playground is a common sight, with one right outside our house.

One of our favourite pasttime is to explore other accomodations to use their facilities, to make up for our budgeted stay. There was even a german lady when opened an place for accommodation with really well maintained gardens and even breakfast buffet suitable for foreigners travelling there.

Pillion motorbiking experience around Samosir island, an island as big as Singapore but with little development in most places, still maintaining the traditional houses and lifestyle. Motorbiking is definately not easy to learn within an hr for us to safely ride around the house. A pity that the broken heart waterfall with no water falling though.
Hotspring! we reached the foot of the volcano, reaching the source of hotspring with steaming rocks and lava stones. we went for a short soak for our feet. since almost all of us had fresh wounds, we could not soak in the waters.Food was much of a luxury with really delicious food. We had quite a bit of pleasant surprise with an super oversized springroll with fries that sent us laughing hilariously as we were expecting a small portion. Banana porriage was cerals. cottage pie was mashed potatoes and magic mushrooms with drinks was priced at 85,000rp (~S$13). Linda had really lovely food which we had to wait for more than an hr for it to be served. Satay was super good, mee goreng too. The pace of life is slow there but the food is made of real ingredients, hence the taste of food was strong.

Companions for the journey :) chatted lots, walked together lots, explored lots and bargained lots and most importantly, shared the experience together. Thank you.

Despite being the 4th largest city in Indonesia, Medan itself has really nothing much to do. Lake toba was unexpectedly more expensive than expected, hence we went on a budget from the 3rd day at lake toba. Unexpectedly we ended up having problems finishing our cash in the city with shopping not to our taste and food not as delicious. Finally on the last day, we had a sumptuous meal of dim sum and real chinese porriage coupled with 'Knight and Day' movie. Good funny movie. Traditional massage was the finale for the 2 gals. Finally we shopped at the bakery which amazed me with the range of bread and fanciful cakes. Thereafter, it was home sweet home.

Our feast in our hotel in medan on our final night, enjoying dinner with world cup screening with the comforts of room. *smilez* our main night activity revolved around watching world cup, with its free screening in Indonesia, it was widely watched.

To Mr Ong,
i love you. you have never failed to be beside me whenever i need you. Thank you for understanding me so well too.