Medan, Indonesia (Part 1)

Most recently, I went to Medan, Indonesia for 4D3N with my girl pal, Felicia, during recess week. You might know Medan for its famous Lake Toba, but in case you didn't know where Medan is:

Medan is the capital of the North Sumatra province in Indonesia. Located on the northern coast, Medan is the fifth largest city in Indonesia behind Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, Bekasi and the largest Indonesian city outside Java. - Wikipedia for you :-)

Our Medan trip was an impromptu 30 min decision because "Jetstar got 2-to-go......, how about Medan?" Then we booked it. As both of us had no idea what Medan has, we researched online to check where should we go and how should we move about when in Medan. Because safety seems to be an issue there (I guess when 2 asian girls head there, we were not so willing to risk our safety), we were told we should get a driver because otherwise it is almost not possible to get around. We googled and found this site called 'Toba Transporter'. Toba Transporter basically has packages that includes a car, driver, hotel and basically covering your entire trip. You can choose according to the number of days you will be at Medan and the number of nights that you want to stay at the various places (mainly Medan city itself, Samosir, and Berastagi). We had the 4D3N package, spent 2 nights in Samosir (Lake Toba) and 1 night in Berastagi.

DAY 1

Our driver picked us up at the airport when we landed at around 11:45am Medan time (Medan is one hour behind S'pore, just like Bangkok). We had a seven seater car for the 2 of us (yes it was great there was so much space!) and headed off for lunch before going on a 4 hour car drive to the pier, where we had to take a ferry to Samosir island. The car ride wasn't that bad because it was rather smooth but it took longer than expected and we missed the 5:45pm ferry that we should have taken:( And ended up having to wait till 9pm for the next one - which was as you can imagine mega URGH WHY. But because the driver was so nice and acted like it was super normal, we just waited.... What saved us was the view of Lake Toba in front of us while waiting, further with the beauty of the sunset.

After waiting for hours, after sharing 3 places of maggi goreng for dinner, we were still waiting...... hence the faces. (HAHA)

We figured that we as Singaporeans are too fast paced - we plan everything, what must we do and where must we reach by this time etc; while for them - 'No time, no target' was what we concluded of their lifestyle (kinda, right?). And from there we decided that this will really be a very chill trip, which was what we intended anyway, away from school and stress.

Anyway, after this we finally took the ferry - not your ordinary Singapore to Batam ferry. The ferry could take all the cars along with it! We were technically in the car, on the ferry. How cool. Well it was a first for us, so thumbs up! What was even better was that during the night, the weather is cool - about 22 degrees aircon temperature - and windy too! It was a slow day but we had many precious conversations which we were really thankful for:') Also, we saw many stars that night~

DAY 2

Woke up to this view the next morning (straight out of our room). We spent the first two nights at this place called 'Toba Village Inn'. It is just a quaint little place with a breathtaking view. Note that the rooms have no air-conditioning - probably because of the cool weather at night. However, if you are planning to go there, please bring your mosquito repellent. No, I did not bring mine:( Also, just fyi they have no hair-dryer if you have thick hair and will die without a hair dryer (like my friend who was super unhappy about it lol). So bring your own.

Needless to say, we took TONS of photos. The photos that you are about see are NOT photoshopped although we really look highly photoshopped into the beautiful background.

Ugly face to prove that this is real and not photoshopped.

We hopped onto the car again and went to a few places.

Traditional Batik houses

Really pretty prints and weaves that I love.

Felicia's new found friend.

Asians selfie everywhere and anywhere.

Tribal queen takes a selfie.

Our very nice and cool driver asked to help us take a jump shot so we did.

More greens and blues as we travel along. On the way to the hot springs, we stopped by the road when we spotted some pretty turquoise coloured water *.* Apparently it's the sulphur water from the mountains hence the colour.

We only dipped our legs into the hot spring water because the pool that could let you soak inside didn't look too......safe for letting your whole body in. And they did not have any proper place to let you change - toilets had no doors up on that mountain. Pictures below are the actual spring water that was flowing down from the top of the mountain and it was super clear and hot (but pretty hence anything for photos lol).

After our late lunch at a town near our hotel we wandered on our own and found this little pavement that had an endless view of the beautiful lake. We stood there for more than a little while because it was just therapeutic.