After getting tanned in Pulau Berhala, now let’s move to the mainland of the North Sumatra. Here there are so many places to visit, from Medan, the largest city in Sumatra, the breezing Brastagi to the magnificent Lake Toba. Here’s the deets:
Medan
Medan can be reached from many major cities in Indonesia, from Jakarta, Bandung, Batam, Surabaya, etc. The international flights such as from Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang are regularly operated. The Kualanamu airport is convenient, and it can be reached by any mode of transportation, from cab, bus, or even train. We took train from the airport to Medan. We took Airport Railink Services which charged us IDR100,000 (USD7.70; EUR6.8) per person. This Korean-made train is very convenient and it only needed 30 minutes to Medan.
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| The Great Mosque of Medan |
The Indonesia’s third largest city for me is most like Manila: crowded, messy, tricycles everywhere. There are many places, from historical to modern. The most iconic building here is the Great Mosque of Medan, Maimun Palace which lies right behind the mosque and Merdeka Walk at the city centre.
Alright, let’s skip the building-things and fast forward to culinary (Hurray!!!). Medan has many places to satisfy your gastronomical desire. There is Ucok Durian (smells goooooood!), Bakso Amat, Bika Ambon, Bolu Meranti (the latter two is cake, and it’s WOW!), amongst many.
Ucok Durian is located at Jalan Wahid Hasyim.
The durian rocks! It’s smooth, sweet, even though some people do not like the smell (what’s wrong with them?). The smallest one costs USD3/pcs and the bigger one costs USD8/pcs. They also sell durian cake and frozen durian (it’s a must-try!!).
Bika Ambon is dessert cake. It’s the most popular cake and a must-buy-to-take-it-home if you are about to leave back from Medan, beside Bolu Meranti. Jalan Majapahit is the mecca of those cakes. Along the street you can find numbers of shop selling the signature cakes in Medan.
Brastagi
Brastagi is a small town in the mountainous area, 60-70 km from Medan and more than 1000 meters above the sea level. Not surprisingly, it’s cold here. From Medan, we took mini bus that charged us IDR10,000.- per person one way. It was only 75 cents and four of us were like “what??!” surprised by how cheap it was for 70km trip!! The minibus is fast and at some point I was like in Too Fast Too Furious the movie, as it’s up and down and ups and downs and it kept moving fast like hell. But it was exciting^^
Brastagi is renowned for its fruits and vegetables. Maybe as the climate is good to cultivate the farming so many of agricultural products especially fruits we can easily find here. What to see in Brastagi are Pasar Buah Brastagi (fruit market), Museum Pusaka Karo, Gereja Inkulturatif Karo Santo Fransiskus Asisi (Catholic Church) and hot springs in Gunung Sibayak.
Pasar Buah Brastagi is the central market where we can find various fresh fruits and vegetables. There were so many of them that I didn’t recognize which was what fruit. Seriously. Some of it were I firstly saw. It’s a must to visit this market if you come to Brastagi.One more thing, we ride a horse going around the traditional market. Soo fun!!!!
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| Eating fresh tomato at Pasar Buah Brastagi |
Nothing much to see in Museum Pusaka Karo. I dunno why most of museum I visited were so silent and boring or is it just me??? I dunno. Anyway, we donated some currency we had to add the museum’s collection. I gave my Peso and Malaysian Ringgit and my friends gave their Singapore Dollars and Bath. And of course, like any other Asian habit, selfie. Lol.
The architecture of Gereja Inkulturatif Karo Santo Fransiskus Asisi was adopted from the traditional house of Batak Karo with the dominant colors of black, white and red. This Catholic Church was inaugurated by the Archbishop of Medan and you can see the inauguration ceremony in the pictures displayed in the church.
Brastagi lies above 1000 meters above sea, no wonder at after 2 pm the air becomes breezing and getting cold by the sunset. We got ourselves warmed by visiting the hot spring in Gunung Sibayak. For your information, it’s a mountainous area and volcanically active hence there are many hot springs spread out. It was sooo exciting to soak in the hot tub with natural hot waters, in the cold weather. Soooo rejuvenating. I knew then why Japanese loved the hot springs much!!!!
Toba Lake
This is the only place we missed to visit as we were running out of time. This is the largest lake in the Southeast Asia and I would like to come back to the Nord Sumatra for this!
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