Sweetest Escape

Early October, some parts of Sumatra were hit by the earthquake. So sorry for them. :( That another big disaster worried everyone, so did some of my closest friends and family, because I would go to Sumatra. Yet not to West Sumatra, they were still worried. But it was not that hard to convinced them, thanks God! So I prepared my stuff and let's go to Sumatra!

Finally after one and a half month waiting, I got my ticket to ride! Holiday!!! Escape from my routines after hectic midterm test week. This time, my aim was visiting my boyfriend. :)

Friday, Oct 23, 2009. Ready to go! Flew from newest terminal of Sukarno-Hatta International Airport, nice terminal. :) And the plane was on time, I liked that! After around 2 hours and 15 minutes on the plane, finally North Sumatra! It was my first time and I always excited when visiting a place for the first time.

ED was already waiting for me outside the terminal. I was so happy to met him again. :) Finally finally... I missed him so much!!!

Medan, another big city. Before we went to ED's home in Pematangsiantar, we stopped by for a while to bought something and ate. I was very hungry! We took becak to a Carrefour. Becak with motorbike. For sure we will never find this kind of vehicle in Jakarta, but stupid Hanny! I forgot to take the picture of it. :(

I didn't find Medan is an interesting place to explored, so we just hurried and continued our trip to Pematangsiantar. It took approximately 3,5 hours to reached Pematangsiantar by shared taxi.

Almost midnight when we finally arrived in Pematangsiantar, so not many things that we could do. ED always said he lives in a barn, and I saw it by myself. Maybe it looks like a barn, but I like that place. A basic house with big garden.

Next day, I found out that Pematangsiantar was a "funny" town. Why funny? Because for me, that town was really different with Jakarta, for sure, and I think people there sometimes take care so much of another people. Maybe it's good, maybe it's not. Hehe... Everytime I wandered around the town with ED, even he's been living there for a year, still some people we met in the street called him, "Hello mister!" Hahahahaha... :D

Another funny thing was no girls go out at night! Maybe there was some, but I didn't know. mmm I wanted to tried tuak, so I asked ED to brought me to tuak shop where he usually drink tuak. But we had to ask some of his friends if it was good or not to brought me there. Hehe.. crazy! I said, why not? I want to go there? I can go everywhere I want in Jakarta. And again, stupid Hanny! Pematangsiantar is definitely not Jakarta. I forgot to adapt myself with the situation and condition there. :(

Only two nights in Pematangsiantar, after that we went to Tuk-Tuk Village in Samosir Island, Lake Toba. Another new place for me. Took one hour by Vespa to reached there.

Oh my goodness, Lake Toba was really impressive sight to the eye! When I was about to arrived there, I could see that that big lake was really mesmerizing, with the hills and village surrounded the lake. The weather was a bit cold, but I liked it. We took boat to get to Samosir Island, and it took around 45 minutes. We didn't go to Tuk-Tuk directly by that boat, we went to Tomok instead, because it was cheaper. 15 minutes drove, then we arrived in Tuk-Tuk. Again, my eyes were shimmering by the scenery. Small, quiet, and beautiful village! With nice weather. I love this place!

There was a lot of guest houses there, but almost all the places looked empty. Only few tourists there. We got a really cheap price for our room, 50.000 IDR/night. A traditional Batak house with upstairs balcony. I really liked that room. Food and drinks were not so expensive though. Maybe because it was low season. But then ED told me that about 15 years ago, a lot of tourists came to Tuk-Tuk, so people built guest houses. But some years later, people who went there getting less and less. And it happens 'till now. So, that's why price there is not so expensive, even it's touristy place.

We enjoyed our time a lot there.. But it was always raining all the time, so we could do nothing but stayed in our room or in the bar the whole day. Some times the weather was good, so we could swim in the lake or take a walk around the village. Enjoyed the view and feel the fresh air. Every Wednesday and Saturday night there's Batak dancing permormance in Bagus Bay. People there always singing all the time, greeting tourists, so friendly. You would never believe it when you only see their "hard" faces. It was really changed my opinion in a good way about Batak people, no offense but it was true. But one thing which I didn't really like was people always asked me about my ethcity. I don't like to ask nor answer about ethnicity or religion because somehow it could change your perception about someone.

Some nights there was funny and unforgettable moments between ED and I, like the electricity off when he was rolling a joint and before we ate mushrooms, we had a good conversations. Ah! Again, I tried mushrooms there. But still I didn't feel the effect. Strange! I really want to know the effect! ED and two other persons who were with us that night were really stoned. It was funny seeing them like that, hehe because I was sober. ;)

We spent six days in Tuk-Tuk. I was sad when I had to leave that place, because I knew I would miss this place so much. And I forgot to bring my scarf, I think it was a sign for me to be back there someday.

This place is highly recommended for relaxing and good for laid-back people. It was really the sweetest escape I've ever had. Thank you, Stephan Stange... :)

Check out my itinerary!

PS: Sorry I didn't take so many pictures there.