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!
