Trip to Medan, Indonesia

I'm back from my trip having my study leave in UKM, it's only the beginning... lol.

Well, the trip cannot said to be perfect, but I'm satisfied. I got to see what I should see and enjoyed the moment. =) Me, my sis and my bro reached Medan airport at 1900 hour according to Indonesia's time, we have an hour gap with them. Mr Tan, our tour guide waited for us and brought us to the hotel nearby to wash up while waiting for the rest members to reach who departed from Penang. When everyone was there, we had dinner together at a restaurant and headed back to the hotel room. Our trip only begins on the next day since it was late already.

Waiting at LCCT. =.="

We got our seats at 7D, 7E and 7F. Hehe.

Reached Medan airport.

So excited while got into the room, whoo~.
It's a 5 stars hotel, but I think it just fulfilled 4 stars.. The hair dryer sucks!
Forget about my socks, haha.

On the second day, we departed at 0830 hour to Lake Toba, it took us 5 hours to reach the destination. Along the journey, we visited a temple and the International Wildlife Museum and Gallery and the Palace. We need to pay Rp20,000 for the access of the camera in the museum but I did not grant the permit. I regretted so much as there was a lot to see in the museum, they all are real specimens, including bears, seashells, lions, leopards, small small insects like mosquitoes in complete form! There were many wild animals even moose and rein deer!! I never seen a real one in my whole life, it's my first time seeing them and they were dead! How pathetic.. I really recommend this museum, if you go to Medan remember to pay it a visit, you should see them with you own eyes. It was quite amazing! We also visited the palace of the place.

The temple with dragon head-fish tail on the roof!

At the entrance of the museum.

Visit to the museum. =)

The Palace.

The charming prince and princess. Wahaha!

By the time we reached Lake Toba, it was already 0500 hour, it was almost sunset but we didn't manage to watch it. We headed straight to Hotel Niagara which located on a hill. There was a pool behind the hotel but nobody went swimming there because it was quite cool up there, we wouldn't want to catch a cold. For dinner, one of our dish was a fish from the lake. It taste nice, hehe.. At night, the three of us went to try out their KTV at the opposite building. It was a open space where the customers take turn to sing and everyone can hear it. We were directed to a box and we just realized that the songs were all outdated, they were old old songs. The system wasn't very good as technical errors always happened and the ancient way of choosing songs was not that effective! But no complaint, because it's very cheap, it only cost Rp30,000 per person and we can sing until the door close! haha.. Well, just to experience the KTV in other country, I still think Redbox is the best! ^^

Wish I could watch it, a short and beautiful sunset.
Good things won't last for long.

Our second hotel, Hotel Niagara.

The view from our balcony. ^^

The swimming pool of the hotel.
(Do I look nerd ?! =.=)

Lousy KTV but quite enjoy ourselves.
Our finale was 'The Final Countdown'. hehe!

Me, drinking coke.
Cheers. ^^

On the third day, after checking out from the hotel, we traveled to the lake and visited 2 villages, namely Ambarita and Tomok. We traveled to the villages by ferryboat which provided by them for tourists like us. We took tons of pictures while we were on the way as the view around the lake was super amazing! We were like so close to the clouds. There, we can see the sky, the lake water, the clouds, the mountain...everything beautiful on earth! It was totally a paradise. =)

Part of the lake.

Look at the 3D clouds, so nice! xD

On the ferry. hehe..

Me and the lake.

So close to it...

I believe I can touch the clouds..hehe.

The edge of the lake?

Talking about the villages, in Ambarita, they had their ancient history where the people in the village ate human flesh to increase their cursing power. They used black magic and cursing spell on people, the one that we heard of was used at there too, the love poison. I found it awkward when we were told that the women there usually look after the stores and feed the family, including their husbands. Thus, they have bad tempered and we were advice not to go near their store if we didn't want to buy things from them. Swt. This was scary.. In Tomok, the coffin s were made of volcano's stone. Some with the faces of the king craved on the big stone. The greatest fighter in the village became their king and they ate human flesh too until when a father from Holland came to spread Christian to them, since then, they learned the right way of life.

Village Ambarita.

These houses have at least 400 years history, there're still people living inside.

The calendar which they believed it could evoke spirit.

Tutorial of how they kill a prisoner 400 years ago.

Firstly, they closed the prisoner's eyes with a cloth and ripped off all his (could be a female too) clothes to check the body whether it has any disease.

If he passes the first stage, they'll drag him to the big stone here and slash his body with a knife.

After torturing the prisoner and satisfied of it, they'll use this evil stick to knock on his skull until he has faint.

Lastly, they chopped off the head, eat all the meat and drink all the blood.
It's finger lickin' good!
(DISGUSTING!!!)

Fooling with the wooden killing weapons. haha..

On the way to another village.

Nice view!

Horas, welcome to village Tomok!
(Horas = Bonjour)

Wearing the scarf as a symbol of respect.

Believe me, it was a coffin and the dead body is still inside it!!

Goodbye, Lake Toba.

After visiting the villages, we departed to Berastagi which was also a 5hours journey! It was raining when we reached Berastagi and the weather was damn cold! We visited the market and saw some chariots on the road, horse-ride was available too. Basically we were traveling for hours everyday and just stayed at the tour location for a short while. In conclusion, most of the time we were just sleeping in the bus instead of seeing nice view which I found that was the imperfection of the trip.

We dropped by at the waterfall area to use the washroom nearby, haha!

A closer look of the waterfall.

Oh no, I wasn't shaking.

The market at Berastagi.
Damn the rain, it was freezing up there!

I love this room! It's very comfy!!
Our third hotel room.

On the last day of the trip, we went to the top of a hill to have a closer look at the volcanoes, Mount Sinabung and Mount Sibayak. They were beautiful but I felt like danger was surrounding me because Mount Sinabung is alive! LOL..

The alive volcano!!!!

Mount Sinabung.

The dead one, mount Sibayak.

I stalked it just to take a clearer picture of it!!!

Horse-riding.. ^^

Dear Cinderella, I miss it already!

We headed back to Medan and had a great buffet lunch before we dropped by Sun Plaza for some shopping activity. In these four days, we almost had buffet for every meal but today's lunch was the best! I ate whatever I could, I ate it ALL! xD The shopping mall was nicely built and looking great but I felt bored somehow, maybe it wasn't suitable to go shopping as everything inside were almost available in Malaysia. Haha. And the airport in Medan, although it made convenience to the citizens, but it doesn't look like an airport after all. From the outside, it looks like a shopping centre, and the waiting room is more like a bus station. Sorry for being sarcastism but I wasn't the only one who thought of this. Hehe.

So many choices!

Sushi, cakes... My favourites!! xD

Itadakimas... ^^

Fruit juice!

Well-decorated fruits in glass. ^^

At the shopping mall..

My last photo in Medan, with the spinning door. LOL.

Our flight delayed about 25 minutes as expected as we were boarding on Air Asia. swt. I'm so glad that my friend willing to pick me from LCCT to UKM. He was the first friend whom I met after I came back from Medan and I appreciate that. We had a late dinner together at Look-up Point before the night ended. Such a coincidence, we got to watch some fireworks from different places while eating, those were for the celebration of Deepavali I guess. Though lousy but it was a good memory to me. :)

That was the end of my journey to Medan. The lake is really very a nice place to visit, a paradise which I found my peace of mind there. =)