RM600 4D3N Lake Toba & Medan
Flight ✈RM149 return
Accommodation 🏠RM240
Transportation 🚗RM100
F&B🍴 RM100
Entrance fee🎫RM10
Day 1 (26/7/2018)
12pm
- Depart from Penang International Airport to Kualanamu International
Airport
12pm
– Arrived (Malaysia time 1 hour ahead of Indonesia)
1pm
– Took share taxi to Parapat TigaRaja Harbour, IDR 150k/ RM43
6pm
– Took ferry to Tuk Tuk, Pulau Samosir from TigaRaja Harbour, IDR15k/RM4
7pm
– Check in hotel (Toba Village Inn), IDR 250k/RM71.
8pm
– Dinner at hotel’s restaurant IDR 90k/RM25
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| Turn right at the airport exit. This is the place where we look for taxi to Parapat. |
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| Taxi company name- Nice Taxi. |
The
journey to the harbour was very bumpy all the way. The driver opened his car window
along the way and we “ate” a lot of dust and sand. The driver also smoked a few
times along the journey. We remained silent throughout with the driver's
driving skills, as long as we are able to arrive at our destination safely. The
driver took 3.5 hours to arrive at the harbour (include a 30-minute stopover to
have lunch/toilet break). We arrived at the harbour at 4.45pm and the next boat
departs at 6pm. However, the boat departed at 5.30pm. We told the staff our hotel’s
name when we paid them and they will drop us in front of our hotel. After checking
in, we took a break and shower before we went for dinner. Unfortunately, due to
a heavy downpour we couldn’t take a stroll around the island. We have to settle
our dinner at the hotel’s restaurant.
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| Lake Toba's view along the journey to Parapat. |
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| TigaRaja Harbour. |
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| Waiting depart to Pulau Samosir。 |
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| Sunset on the lake. |
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| Arrived at Tuk Tuk, Pulau Samosir. |
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| The room is decent. We can chill at the balcony. |
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| Dinner tonight - Grilled pork with rice + Ginger Lemon Tea. |
Day 2 (27/7/2018)
After
a night of rain, the weather was very cooling in the morning. Temperature was
about 23 degrees Celsius. After we had breakfast at the hotel’s lakeside restaurant,
we took a lot of photos by the lake. Lake Toba is the largest volcanic lake in
the world and it is located at an altitude of 1000 meter above sea level. The
temperature is naturally lower than the city of Medan, and the air is cooling.
The natural scenery is also very beautiful, we can literally sit back and relax
by the lake for one whole day. Too bad that we only allocated a one night’s
stay here. It’s better to stay 3D2N to enjoy the lovely and chilly weather.
Day 2 (27/7/2018)
9am
– Breakfast (Provided by the hotel)
10am
– Take photos around Lake Toba
12pm
– Check out
1pm
– Return to Medan city from Parapat. Ferry - IDR 20k/RM5.8, Share Taxi - IDR
90k/RM26, Lunch settle on the van - IDR22.5k/RM6 (Food bought from
convenient store)
7pm
– Check in hotel (Aryaduta Medan), IDR 425k/RM127. You can stay at a 5 star
hotel with a very affordable price in Medan.
7pm
– Dinner at Merdeka Walk IDR65.6k/RM19
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| Ala-carte breakfast, choice of American breakfast, Indonesian fried noodle/rice or variety of pancakes. |
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| View from the hotel's lakeside restaurant. |
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| Hotel's surrounding. |
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| This little cat was so cool at the first but it became so manja after playing awhile with it.
|
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| It's a gloomy day. |
Upon
checking out, we told the receptionist that we would like to go back to TigaRaja harbour and she called the respective person to pick us up at the
hotel pier. When we arrived at the harbour, someone approached us and asked us
where are we going. He offered us IDR 90k per pax and sent us directly to our
hotel at Medan. We are sharing a Toyota Innova with 4 more locals who is going
to Medan too. We took up the deal as we think the price is very reasonable,
much cheaper than the price from airport to Parapat yesterday. However, the
journey to Medan was rougher than the journey from the airport to Parapat yesterday.
The car was packed with a total of 7 people. We barely have space to move our
legs and body. The driver arrived in Medan in 4 hours time. Then, he used 2 hours to
drop off people in different places in Medan city (the driver was not very
familiar with the route + traffic jam). We are the second last passengers to
get off. By the time we check in, it’s already close to 8pm. It is recommended a
group of four to travel here because they can rent the entire taxi and arrived
at your intended destination directly without overpriced fares. After shower, we
took a stroll to Merdeka Walk (a tourist hot spot for food) and had our dinner. In
fact, it is just a street with about 10 restaurants. Nothing special about it.
We choose to dine in at an Indonesian food court, similar to our mamak stalls. After
that, we went to look for a convenience store to shop for some snacks.
It’s
actually quite difficult for us to look for convenience stores and not like in Thailand
or Taiwan where you can find it everywhere. The nearest convenient store from
our hotel is nearly 1km away.
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| Taxi campany located right in front of TigaRaja harbour - Bagus Taxi. |
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7 ppl packed like sardines in the Toyota Avanza.
|
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| Spacious and comfy room. |
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| Dinner tonight - Kuey Teow Goreng and Mi Udang Galah. |
Day 3 (28/7/2018)
9am
– Breakfast (provided by the hotel)
12pm
– Check out, grab to Pasar Rame IDR 8k/RM2
2pm
– Lunch at Ayam Penyet Ria IDR49k/RM14
3pm
– Tjong Ah Fie Mansion IDR35k/RM10, grab IDR7.5k/RM2
5pm
- Walk back to the hotel and pick up luggage, grab to hotel nearby airport
IDR68,000/RM20
6pm
– Check in hotel (Thong’s Inn Transit Hotel, Kualanamu), IDR180k/RM51.
8pm
– Dinner at hotel’s restaurant IDR79k/RM22
Medan
City free and easy. There are many colonial style buildings along the streets
of Medan, mostly built during the Dutch colonial period. We wanted to buy some souvenirs and we try to search online and see if Medan
has a market like the Chowrasta Market in Penang. Our first stop was Pasar Rame
(Pasar Ramai). The Grab’s uncle told us that because many people visits this
market every day, so they named it Pasar Rame. Indeed, there are lots of people
and also lots of things for sale inside the market. There are dry and wet sections
in the market, selling from fruits and vegetables, seafood, groceries to daily
necessities, clothes and shoes, but no souvenirs! Clothing sold there are not
as attractive and up to trend enough like those in Pratunam Market, Bangkok. It
is just an ordinary market and resulting us leaving empty-handed. However, if
you want to experience the customs and tradition of a typical Medan citizen,
you can visit here to try their food and snacks. We had our lunch eating Ayam
Penyet at Thamrin Plaza (next to Pasar Ramai). What again if not Ayam Penyet in
Indonesia! Thamrin Plaza is an air-conditioned shopping mall which is much more
comfortable than the Pasar Rame. After eating, we bought some snacks at the Matahari
Supermarket, on the lower-ground floor as souvenirs. We don't have much hope that it
will be as good as Big C in Thailand, but we can still find different varieties
of local snacks and instant noodles, it’s worth checking out.
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| International Breakfast Buffet. Lots of choices. Me and my friend still eating after 10am. 😋 |
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| Hotel's entrance. |
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| Hotel's surrounding. |
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| Can choose to enjoy breakfast at pool side. But you get to enjoy secondhand smoke too 😂 |
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| Just spend around RM200++ per room per night and you will be able to stay in a 5-star hotel in Medan. Reward yourself a short getaway to here. ✌ |
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| On the way to Pasar Rame. Vehicles and train are sharing the city's road. |
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| There are a lot of cars on the road no matter what the time is. Jakarta should be even worst. |
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| Pasar Rame entrance，beside Thamrin Plaza. |
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| Ayam Penyet Ria located at the ground floor of Thamrin Plaza |
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| This is sooo good. Crispy outside and juicy inside. |
The
second stop is the Tjong A Fie Mansion, former residence of Zhang Yaoxuan, who was
appointed as the Kapitan in the Chinese community of Medan. He is actually the
nephew of Cheong Fatt Tze and he built his mansion inspired by his uncle's mansion. This mansion was established in 1900. Compared to the magnificent
charming mansion of Cheong Fatt Tze, this yellow-green mansion looks serene but
still gorgeous. The guide told us that one of the Zhang Yaoxuan’s granddaughter
is still living in this mansion. I like heritage architecture and I enjoy
walking and looking around while taking photos inside this beautiful mansion. Entry
fees is IDR35,000/RM10.
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| My favourite part in the mansion is the windows. |
Later,
we walked back to the hotel to retrieve our luggages and took Grab to our hotel
for tonight. It is difficult to find a shop selling souvenirs or postcards in
Medan. I should have looked for it at Lake Toba. We arrived at Thong’s Inn
Transit Hotel in Kualanamu after a one hour journey. We moved to this hotel because
it near to the airport as we will be taking the morning flight to return to
Penang on the next day. We don’t want to be rushing so we planned to stay nearby
the airport tonight, else we can still stay at the Medan city for one more day.
Kualanamu is similar to Kota Warisan, a small town nearby KLIA in Malaysia. There’s
nothing at the hotel’s surrounding, no eateries and places to chill. We have to
settle our dinner in the hotel’s restaurant.
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| Views on the way to Kualanamu. |
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| Very new renovated hotel. But air pollution here is serious, very strong smell of something burnt. |
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| Dinner tonnight - Besides Ayam Penyet, Soto Ayam is another favorite Indonesian food of mine. |
Day 4 (29/7/2018)
6.30am
– Breakfast (provided by the hotel)
7.30am
– Departto the airport (free airport transfer by the hotel)
Trip’s summary and learnings
-
Lake Toba is worth visiting for those who prefer a short getaway from the city
buzz. Chilling whether, nice people, beautiful scenery and budget friendly, similar to Cameron Highlands. Now, AirAsia and Malindo offers direct flights to
Silangit Airport (1 hour drive to Parapat harbour) from KL. We can visit Lake Toba
directly without transit at Kualanamu in the future and also skip the 4 to 5
hours “bone-breaking” and sandy dusty road trip.
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Not recommended to buy local SIM card because it does not come with unlimited
data and the price is not cheap either (2GB, IDR 100,000/RM28.50) . Thus, I
purchased my own telco company roaming package (2GB RM25 – 72 hours)
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Local driver’s driving skill is super horrible. Most of the countryside roads have
only two lanes (back and forth). They are used to overtaking cars frequently
even though there are cars coming from the opposite direction while the drivers
would return to their own lanes before the two cars collide. Road conditions
are quite terrible though. Big and small pits everywhere. Throughout the
journey, I was “thrown” around the car and I felt like my bones were almost
broken along the journey to Parapat and back to Medan. But it was worth the
journey to visit the cozy and breezy Lake Toba to chill yourself in the luscious greenery and blue waters.
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It’s better to travel in a group of four to ease the arrangement of transportation
and accommodation and to avoid troubles of sharing taxis with strangers.
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| See You Again, Medan. 👯 |
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