Story of Bagpacker to Medan

It's never to late to share my travel experiences with all. This time i would like to talk about my trip to Medan, Indonesia. I've been to Indonesia few times already, but to different places. For your information, i have been to Jakarta, Bandung and Batam. Indonesia have various beautiful places that we can visit. Those can be such a worth experience to explore Indonesia. I'm so excited to be back to Indonesia. Alright, let me share my exploration to Medan. I went to a Medan, Indonesia on August 2019.

As always, i will prepare my trip 2 or 3 months earlier before departure. And of course i got the cheapest flight ticket to Medan during Airasia Promo. We don't nee to get a Visa to Indonesia. Malaysian passport's holder have privilege for this. That is a bonus for us. So why not if we use this opportunity to travel to Indonesia and see the beauty in it. Do not underestimate on this country. There are so much wonders you can get from here.This is my first time to Medan. People said that Medan has delicious Indonesian cuisine. I am pretty excited to visit this place. I love food and i like to eat. I got promo return ticket from Airasia to Medan. I went to Medan with my friend. We are bagpackers buddies. Itinerary and accommodation were planned 2 months before. I'm not a last minute type when it comes to travel. This is very important because i wanted to have a smooth travelling experience. I work so hard doing my job and now it's time to have fun and enjoy. 

I had to get a connected flight to go to KLIA alone because my friend who joinned me to Medan leave in Klang. I, who live in Johor Bahru need to take a flight from Senai Airport to go to KLIA. Luckily, i got a promo ticket from JB to KLIA so damn cheap, which was RM12. So, i traveled alone to reach to KLIA by flight. That's not a big deal because i do traveled alone before. Do not afraid to stand on your own feet and believe in yourself. The journey from JB to KLIA is about 50 minutes. After reached KLIA, we ate for breakfast and waited for our flight to board. It tooks about 2 hours to reach to Medan, Indonesia. We touched down at Kualanamu International Airport. The airport is kinda small but has unique design. The roof of the airport is like Minangkabau style, have sharp curve on top. We took some photos as memory. The immigration was smooth and easy. We didn't got problem at all. We were welcomed by the colourful hanging luggages on top of the airport ceiling..so cool and creative!! Then, we quickly looked for simcard shop. The shop is outside the aiport entrance and it was expensive. I wouldn't recommend you to buy simcard here. We decided not to buy the simcard first. We wanted to buy at Medan city instead. After that, we proceed  to buy train tickets to go to Medan city. For your information, the train station is opposite the Kualanamu airport entrance only.

We weren't looking for taxi to go to the city because i've done my research about it and it is pricey. In conclusion, we just took a train to go to the main city. Besides, traveling by train in other country is more fun. We reached the train station and took the first train to go to Medan city. The train is known as Express Train (Railink). It is the biggest airport train services in Indonesia. They provide a smart choice and convenient transport to city through exclusive railway. We bought the ticket at ticket machine. Yes, all train station in Medan must use ticket machine to buy train ticket. No cash. The payment must be made by credit card and luckily my friend got a credit card. Fuhh~~ The Railink is a new train service that have been proposed by Indonesia's Prime Minister. Guess what, we got to ride a new train yawww!! Superb! The train conditions are all new, clean, cool,  and comfortable. The glass window is big and eyes catching to see the outside view. It took about 30 minutes from airport to Medan Station. We enjoyed the outside view that we saw from the train. Then, i fall asleep in the train later.

Few minutes before reach the Medan Station, an announcement had been made to inform us that we were reaching to the station. I could see our hotel from train. The train station is located at the center of Medan. We reached to the station as schedule. At first we wanted to take an Uber to go there. We also tried to ask nearby taxi to send us to our hotel. A taxi driver said that our hotel is far and need to pay additional charges. Woww, this guy is a scammer. He thought that we didn't know the location of our hotel. So, we decided to walk to our hotel only. Actually, our hotel is nearby the train station with 6 minutes walking distance. After checked in to the hotel, we went out to find some food for lunch because we were hungry. There was a famous mall nearby with 10 minutes walking distance. The mall is Centre Point Mall. We need to pass through to the train station to go there for shortcut. The mall is quite big and many people there because it was weekend. We surveyed some restaurant and decided to pick a sizzling hot plate menu for lunch. We were so hungry and tired..we ate deliciously and quickly head back to the hotel to take a nap and rest for evening & night activities. 

The evening sightseeing around Medan city was quite busy because local people just end their office hour. I think, Indonesia is almost same with India when comes to traffic jam. The hotel that we stayed are so beautiful. I took some photos in the hotel even the hotel's staircase, lobby and room corridor is so classy and modern. After done with the photographs, we book an Uber to visit around the city of Medan. We went to Graha Maria Annai Velaykani, Raya Mosque, Maimun Palace, Medan City Hall and again to Merdeka Walk at night. We also went to a not-so-popular-mall that i already forgot its name, the mall is opposite to Raya Mosque. Guess what! We were so lucky that we bought a damn cheap simcard and very cheap sandles. But, there was a funny story during our shopping at the mall. We've planned to buy a pair of sandles each. After we entered the mall, we asked the local people there where to find 'kasut' or known as shoes. But they misunderstood the 'kasut' word. They thought we wanted to find 'kasur'. 'Kasur' in Indonesian is bed...LOLLL. Funny right.. :D Then, we booked a Uber to go back to our hotel because we were very tire to walk. After reached to our hotel, we walk across our hotel to go to Merdeka Walk to grab some dinner. When you come to visit to Medan, you should try the delicious Indonesian cuisine here at Merdeka Walk. There are variety of restaurants that sells nice food. Basically, we kinda confused to choose which restaurant we wanted to dine in because those food looks tempting!! So, we simply picked a restaurant to fill up our stomach. After finished the dinner, we went to see a mini concert not far from the restaurant and finally head back to hotel to rest because the next morning was a very longggg journey. The journey that we've been waiting for.

The next morning, after having a simple breakfast, we book an Uber to send us to Medan bus station. Why? Because this is the cheapest way to go a trip to Danau Toba. Actually, we were a bit late to book the Uber. But luckily the first bus trip to Danau Toba at 8am was still there. We reached the bus station almost 8am and i could see the bus was getting ready to move. Our Uber driver quickly drove and send us at the main door of the bus itself..HAHAAH!! Yes, we went to Danau Toba by public transport only and by our ownself. It was very cheap guys. Trust me! Oh ya, well of course we were the only foreigner in the bus. Majority in the bus were Indonesian. The bus is very old school. It really shows the Indonesian style. It took 4hours 30minutes to reach to Danau Toba. At first, i enjoyed the outside view but in the end i loose hope and fall asleep..zzzZzzzZ..of course the bus had several pit stop because this bus do take people at certain bus stop. During the stop, forsure there will be some local people sells food, souvenir and musician came inside the bus and sold their stuffs. We didn't buy anything. We just saw their culture and admire their hardwork. Then we continued our journey to Danau Toba and we almost reached to the destination. We were so excited because we could see the Lake Tobe already. It was mind blowing and seems like we were at different world. The view was superly superbbb! I couldn't believe that i've actually saw Danau Toba, the famous volcano lake in the world. The lake is so big and blue colour. The mountain view also is so overwhelming. We were really excited to get out from the bus.

Danau Toba is located at Parapat. So the last pit stop is at Parapat. So, our bus stop near to Ajibata Port, Parapat. This port is like a ferry jetty to go to Danau Toba. We walked to the Ajibata Port to find a ferry counter ticket. We bought 2 tickets and waited for our ferry. While waiting for our ferry, we took some photos of the nearby ferry there. The colours of the ferry is so cool guys!  A few minutes later, our ferry to Lake Toba is ready to take off. We were so excited. The ferry is kinda open air ferry with simple chairs, very minimalist yet unique. There also sell nuts, tea and coffee in the ferry. As usual, we didn't bought any of them, instead we enjoyed the scenery and surroundings. Along the journey to Lake Toba, we were accompanied by Batak's traditional songs. It was our first time listened to that kind of songs. AND we were the only foreigner in the ferry and few of them interviewed us. They were very friendly and nice. I'm speechless to see the view and unbelievable that i am actually in a ferry on top of Lake Toba that once upon a time was a volcano crater. The biggest explosion that causing the shape of the mountain changed and created a deepest crater in the world. Yes, Lake Toba is the deepest and one of  the biggest crater in the world...and i'm literally on it!! I looked down to see the lake from the ferry and i imagined what if this lake is suddenly explode again??? Hahaha..pretty crazy right. The surrounding reminds me of Teletubies mountain in Teletubies TV show. The mountain view is so green and awesome. Couldn't take my eyes of it.

We were on the ferry for almost 20 minutes and finally arrived to Tomok Village. The village is for Batak people. It is quite big. It has unique house design and architecture. It almost looks like Minangkabau but the house is bit lower, small entrance door and staircase. The purpose of small and lower design of entrance door is to make sure the guest respect the house owner and for safety purpose. Then, we learned some history about Batak's and legends. Those stories were so awesome and magical. Oh ya, for your information the symbol of Batak is lizard. Yes, lizard if the greatest animal in Batak's tradition. You can see a lot of lizard around the village. We also explore the Batak Museum. During the ancient years, they believed in sorceries and practices with it. Various of unique stuffs and props from previous years can be seen in the museum, such as sorcery wands, ancient books, magic stuffs and unique creatures. After done the exploration and learned the history of of Batak, we continued our activity for shopping. Souvenir shopping is a must..DAMNN! there were longgggg rowww of shop lots in the area. It seems like never ending shop lots. I am really excited but confuse at the same time to decide which shop we're going to enter. Guess what? We can't even decide one! Well, basically, you have to choose based on the price and the bargain. Yeahh this is what i do when i wanted to buy some things to bring back to homeland. Finally, we just choose 1 shop to buy souvenirs and bargain lots..LOLL!!

We're done shopping and we need to find our way back to the ferry. I guess we were quite far from the starting point and a bit worried if we couldn't reach to the jetty on time. After 15-20minutes walked, we reached the jetty. We were so lucky that we reached on time because the ferry was getting ready to move. We quickly bought the tickets and quickly get inside the ferry due to the weather. The rain is on the way and it's coming. Wow! this is a great adventure, i think! We could feel the rain at Lake Toba inside the ferry and at the same time was kinda nervous. It was heavy rain and we were actually on top of the Lake Toba, the deepest volcano lake in the world! Uurrggghhhh...! This was a wonderful experience ever. I could feel the rain because the ferry is kinda open-air-ferry. As usual, the passengers were local people but we were the only Malaysian there *awkward much* Few local people asked us where are we from and what's the purpose to come to Medan. We greeted and talked to them normally in Bahasa. They are friendly and nice people. So, don't afraid to chit chat with them. I love this travel vibes. The best part of travel is to meet new people and share some experiences with them. I really enjoy this part so much because they don't know me and i don't know them but the vibe is cool. In the end, the rain stopped after we reached to the last jetty and went back to our bus. It's just a local bus and the price was so cheap. As usual, we were the only Malaysian in the bus. Nevermind, we already get used to it. It was a long day journey but we managed to do what we wanted to do and we really having so much fun. The trip to Lake Toba/Danau Toba was worth!

We took an Uber from the bus station and arrived to our hotel around 8.30pm. We were exhausted. We took a bath and grab some dinner opposite to our hotel. There were huge and various of restaurants just across the street. When you go to Medan, you need to explore the pure Indonesian cuisine. For those who really wanted to try the real indonesian cuisine, this place is FOOD HEAVEN! No regret. We can't even choose which restaurant we wanted to dine in because there were variety of choices there. Those looks delicious and tempting. We walked from the 1st restaurant to the last restaurant to see the variety of cuisine they were selling. We were so excited and couldn't decide which restaurant to choose. Finally we came to an end of all restaurants and we decided to eat a real indonesian cuisine which i forgot the restaurant name. It was so delicious and the owner gave us a voucher to be used for the next day..yeayyy! After done with our dinner, we walked around to see the city at night and we came across to a live band nearby. We stopped for awhile to see the live band and straightly went back to the hotel. We were so tired due to our Lake Toba activity for a whole day. It was mind blowing but we were extremely exhausted. We slept early on that night and wanted to wake up a bit late for the next day.

The next morning, we woke up around 10am. Before we started the day, we took a breakfast at a restaurant in front of the hotel. Our plan today is to explore Medan and the buildings there. Actually, there are quite of few historical buildings near to our accommodation. We planned to take a look at the buildings after done with the breakfast. After that, we wanted to buy some stuffs and grab some food to be eaten in our hotel room. As been mentioned, our hotel is behind the Medan City Hall..yess we were staying pretty near or next to the hall. We visited the hall during daytime to take some photo. We also went to Lonsum Building. That is the famous and historic building in Medan that have been build during the Dutch colonial. It also known as 'Gedung London Sumatera (LONSUM)'. The shape, architecture, physical and function of this building is unchanged till now. It always remain the same. For your information, this building is the first building in Medan that has elevator inside. The building is beautiful and the strategic location is famous for photography spot. Then, i also saw the historic of Medan Post Office and Medan Indonesia Bank which have been there for many many years. It clearly shows that Medan has been influenced by Dutch based on the historical buildings shape and design.

Before the final day of the vacation, we packed up all our stuffs and get a breakfast before checked out from the hotel. Gonna miss the gorgeous 5stars hotel! Our flight was in afternoon around 1pm. So, we went to a train station nearby and took a train to go to airport. It only tooks 30mins for us to arrive to Kualanamu Airport while enjoying the Medan's view besides the train window. This vacation was the wonderful experience ever to see volcano's crater in real. It's such a great experience. AND this is my 2nd volcano trip in Indonesia. Volcano, more to go! *astonished*

P/S: More trips to Indonesia soon.....YEAHHH!!!!

p/s: Checkout my travelling photos in https://web.facebook.com/LIMIPHOTOGRAPHY