:4D3N Medan - Lake Toba Summary:

4 Day 3 Night is just nice for a trip to Lake Toba, providing you arrive in the morning and leaving in the evening. It's good to arrive earlier on day 1, because the last ferry to Samosir Island leaves at 7pm. And from Medan airport to the jetty, you need to allocate around 5 hours car ride.

The whole 4 day 3 night tour can be summarize as:

Day 1 - 13/9/2012 - Polonia Airport Medan - Parapat - Samosir Island

Day 2 - 14/9/2012 - Visit Whole Samosir Island & Tele (Batu Kursi Raja Sialagan - Menara Pandang Tele - Pangururan Hot Spring - Tomok)

Day 3 - 15/9/2012 - Parapat - Bukit Unta - Simarjarunjung - Sipiso-piso Waterfall - Rumah Bolon - Berastagi (Fruit Market) - Overnight at Horiston Berastagi

Day 4 - 16/9/2012 - Berastagi (Pagoda Steel, Mt. Sibayak, Velangkany Church) - Medan (Cake shops) - Polonia Airport

Total damage is RM630 - includes RM73 air ticket that we got from Air Asia zero fair! And souvenirs, 1 hour massage (RM30) arrange by Samosir Villa Resort (ah, DO skip this. It's a waste of money. Total waste. Oily and I don't call that massage. I call that rubbing! Darn it.).

We took the ground package from Danau Toba Travel. Total cost is IDR2350k for 4 day 3 night and we shared it among six of us. Cheap and budget enough =)

Hope you have fun too!

:Medan-Lake Toba Day 4:

The final day of our trip. Another tiring car travel day. Our first stop of the day is Pagoda Steel.

We spent some times here while waiting for the clouds to clear before heading to the volcanic mountain.

After the rain goes away and the skies brighten a bit, we head to the volcanic mountain, Mt. Sibayak.

I'm quite 'disappointed'. I thought when they mention stopping at volcanic mountain means i will get to step on the volcanic mountain. But in reality, actually we only stand at a hill opposite the mountain to view the volcanic mountain.

We then stop to have our lunch before heading back to Medan. Warung Bahagia, which famous for the soto and pecal.

Pecal.

Cap cay

Lele Bakar

Kangkong sambal

Fu Yong Hai

Delicious lunch! After done, we head back to Medan. A long long journey car ride.

Our last stop is Velangkany Church before transfer to airport.

Overall, this trip is quite tiring due to the long time spent in car. But it is all worthy when we reach Samosir Island for the relaxing environment. Just sit by the lake, doing nothing :)

Berastagi is a good place not to be miss out as well, for the cold weather :)

For a RM500+ trip, I would say it's worthy :)

:Medan-Lake Toba Day 3:

Day 3. Leaving Samosir Island to Berastagi.

Good bye Samosir Villa Resort.

Our tour guide brought us to one of the look out point in Samosir Island before leaving. It is really nice how the yum cha place in Samosir Island/ Berastagi having the lake view and cold breeze. Very comforting.

After capturing picture, it's time to leave Samosir Island.

We were stop by the road side to have pictures of Bukit Unta. Nice nice view :)

Then we continue our journey to Simarjarunjung for the famous herbs tea and fried banana. Sorry to say, but I think the herbs tea is not nice and Malaysian fried banana is nicer.

We had special fried rice for our lunch.

And capture nice view from here. Very nice view! Mini Switzerland?

We then continue our journey and stop by Sipiso-piso for the waterfall.

It's raining, so we had our tea time in one of the shop here. I forgotten the name of this but it taste not bad. Malaysian call this Lontong.

Sipiso-piso waterfall.

View from Sipiso-piso

We then move on to Rumah Bolon. Nothing really special here.

And finally after almost 8 hours car ride (include stop by the above places), we reach Berastagi. Tiring journey indeed. The weather at Berastagi is same like Malaysian Cameron Highland. A bit cold. We went to fruit market to do some shopping.

And had the jagung bakar! This grill corn tasted superb!

Us :)

And finally check in to Horiston Berastagi for a rest. This hotel cost us IDR430k/night/room.

Very fast, it's already Day 3.. left one more day before back to reality.

The trip was so far so good but the car ride is really tiring. One of us even vomited because the journey not only far but also curving bumpy road. Please remember to bring some asam or oil.

:Medan-Lake Toba Day 2:

Day 2: waking up to fresh air and re-energize.

We had the buffet breakfast provided by our resort. Nothing fancy or delicious. Fried rice, fried meehon and fried indomie. And toast, coffee, tea. We had this for all 3 morning during our trip @@

Group photo while waiting for our tour guide/ driver to get ready.

Our first stop is Batu Kursi Raja Sialagan. Our entrance fees are all included in the package.

While our tour guide paying the entrance fees, we were approached by someone who we thought is the staff of this place. He brought us around and explain the history of this place to us.

Interesting story about history of Orang Batak.

This is the story teller. After finish telling us the story, he demand for IDR100k from us. We were shock! We then ask our tour guide and he explained that the entrance fees are included in the package but not the 'tour guide' from this place. Duish! We paid him IDR60k after negotiation. We feel so cheated. But looking at the good side, we won't have this interesting story to listen about if he didn't approach us. We feel cheated because he did not inform earlier!

We then continue our journey to Menara Pandang Tele.

Nice breathtaking view of Samosir Island up here :)

After that, we continue our journey to Pangururan Hot Spring. We had our lunch here, because if so then the entrance fees to the hot spring is free.

Indomie goreng.. again.

I tried the special burger. Haha.. I don't like it. It's different from Malaysian burger. I miss burger Ramly, all of sudden. And there is so many flies here!! See that?!

View while we having lunch =D

After lunch, we walk in to the hot spring pool.

It is sooooo damn hot! We don't even can dip our feet in @@

We then head to Tomok for shopping. Nothing to be buy actually. Just get some magnet as souvenirs.

Because our tour guide feel guilty for our disappointment of feeling cheated this morning, he spent us on this Patung Sigale-gale dance show. We didn't enjoy and join the dance neither. The first man in the row there who teach them how to perform the dance is kinda cheating also. Step 3: take out money from your pocket, move near the patung sigale-gale and place the money on its hand. Culture shock we have. @@

Our tour guide then brought us to Batak Museum. Nothing interesting here either. We then requested to go back to our resort. Today's trip is very tiring. We had been inside the car traveling around from 10am~4pm. And also having culture shock of the people there. Well, they just want to earn a living. :)

We go back to our resort and enjoy the evening view.

At night, we walk out from our resort to have dinner at Sekapur Sirih. Price is moderate expensive. Taste is OK.

:Medan-Lake Toba Day 1:

My first oversea trip for year 2012. Finally an oversea vacation after 10 months! Gosh! Again.. how did I survived these 10 months?! Time flies =] 

We woke up 3am in the morning to board our 8.45am flight. Duish! I really feel like a zombie. The flight is only 45 minutes and we reach Medan airport at 8.45am as well. Medan time is one hour late than Malaysia.

Hello Medan! My thought from my view of Medan town from inside the plane: Medan town looks undeveloped. So many tiny houses that looks like kampung house.

We had pre-booked driver, Mr. Jumadi and Mr. Wong Ryant. They pick us up from the airport and start our journey to Samosir Island.

We were stop at Dodol Donnie Sei Buluh Perbaungan for a quick lunch and some tidbits shopping. Honestly, the food stall here looks so unhygienic. So many flies sit on the foods, but the people there still enjoying their foods ignoring the flies as if the flies won't bring any danger. Having a sensitive tummy, I dare not eat but because I'm so hungry, we ordered Indomie. At least it is from packet. A bowl of indomie and a bottle of teh bottle cost me IDR14k.

We then continue our journey to Tigaraja harbor to catch a ferry to Samosir Island. The journey from Medan to Tigaraja harbor took us 5 hours. Other than Dodol Donnie Sei Buluh Perbaungan, we also stop by Double Bread Patent Cake Shop. I spent IDR100k here buying ting ting, teng teng, tang tang, tong tong. Hahaha.. funny name. It is actually peanut biscuits kind of thing.

Not forgot to mention, the journey was crazy. I salute indonesian driving skills. They just overtake using the opposite lane, hon here and there, speed and emergency brake the whole journey. To avoid vomiting, I sleep, it's also because the drive makes me dizzy.

Our journey then continue with a 45minute rides of ferry. Continue dizzy.

Reaching our villa! The ferry stop us directly in front of our villa =)

We stayed at Samosir Villa Resort which cost IDR350k/ night for deluxe room.

Our room facing the lake.

Nothing fancy. Just a basic room. But Samosir Villa Resort claimed to be the newest and nicest resort in Samosir Island. Perhaps. But mind you, there is no air-cond, considering the quite cold weather. But what disappoint us is that there is no fan too! Although the weather is cold, but I prefer to have a fan for air ventilation. We then requested it from the reception and they provide us one. Don't worry, if you had any problem with the facilities, just approach the boss at reception. He is a very friendly guy.

After leaving our luggage in the room, we head to the cafe for our tea time. I am super hungry that time. We ordered Seafood pizza and corn soup. This cost us IDR68k. The pizza is yummy!

After our tea time, we had 'fish spa'. From our room, we get direct access to the lake. The water is so clear that you can see many fishes there. But too bad, when I soak in my feet, the fishes ran away. LOL. We felt so cold to just jump in for a swim. Yes, you can actually jump in for a swim.

This is the area I love most. I enjoyed sitting there with the cold breeze, a glass of fresh juice (I ordered orange juice which is so super duper sour that I don't really enjoy :P) and the peanut cookies bought from Paten. They have lazy chair up there for you. Pure relaxation =)

About 7pm, the skies turned dark. We had a stroll outside to see what can we get for dinner. But after a short distance walk, the road is not lighten up anymore, so we walk back to our resort for dinner.

I had nasi goreng samosir which cost IDR69k, include a can of Bintang beer and a glass of juice. I felt that the rice is so spicy, but my friends say it is not. Err.. something wrong with my spicy tastebud. The satay is very yummy! Seriously I think Indonesian satay is better than Kajang satay. The fried chicken, as usual, Indonesian fried chicken - it is small and hard.

That's it for day 1. Stay tuned for day 2 :)