Blogs from Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia, Asia
November 29th 2011
It is Saturday morning, shortly after midnight and we experience a typical tropical rain shower. A new waterfall develops - in our room. The water runs down the walls and a lake develops on the floor of the green room. I really do love waterfalls but not in my room. It was a horrible night and as if the water wasn't bothering us enough the prayers were projected through the loudspeakers at 4.30 in the morning. Amazing - NOT! We decided to get up at 6 am in the morning. Yes, you got that right, 6 am! It seems like we are turning into real morning people. We had a quick breakfast and took a minibus to the bus terminal to catch a big bus to Bukit Lawang. The bus ride was quite bumpy and it ... read more
September 11th 2011
8 septembre 2011, On prend notre petit-dejeuner puis on part en jeep, direction Tangakahan, un petit village de jungle encore plus recule. On nous annonce 39 km de route en 3 heures... hein??? Ca semble louche... et en effet, ce l est! La route n est pas pavee, toute defoncee, pleine de cotes en glaise... sans parler de toute la menagerie du coin qui passe sur la route... et des ponts en bois avec pleins de trous... au point que nos ponts a Montreal nous semblent bien solides tout a coup! Vive les Gravol, sinon on aurait pas survecu au voyage! On arrive a Tangakahan, a l office du tourisme. Notre guide nous prend en charge et on traverse la riviere dans un bateau pour le moins rustique... des planches sur des bidons... On arrive au ... read more
September 10th 2011
Bonjour tout le monde, 6 septembre 2011 On se leve tres tot car a 5:30, il faut etre assis dans notre taxi. On prend la direction du 2e aeroport de Kuala Lumpur, dedie aux vols low-cost... il y a des gens partout malgre l heure tres matinale... et qui dit low-cost, dit organisation qui laisse a desirer... on peine un peu a faire notre check-in puis lorsque c est fait, on se gate avec un bon petit-dejeuner chez Dunkin! Les dejeuners locaux sont plutot composes de riz, viandes et cie... tres peu pour nous... Lors de l embarquement, c est la pagaille pour entrer dans l avion, tout le monde se lance partout... c est dans ce temps la que c est pratique de voyager avec 2 colosses! Dans l avion on se croirait chez McDo, ... read more
December 23rd 2010
Leaving Burma proved to be more of a headache than I had hoped for. It was as if the government themselves were clawing at the straps of my backpack at every step of the way. I had checked-in online to save time at the airport. On arrival, I sailed, rather smugly it must be said, past the long line of people waiting to check-in. The long queue appeared to be going nowhere as every person seemed to want to negotiate the size, shape and weight of each bag they owned with meticulous detail. With my little rucksack, a little heavier from the odd souvenir, I glided past and upstairs to immigration. I handed over my passport, departure form and printed boarding pass for inspection. After a brief flick through my passport the immigration official barked for ... read more
November 20th 2010
Horas, horas, horas is a greetings from local dialect ( Batak ) in North Sumatra province. I have been invite by Narasindo Travel and Tours for familiarization trip to know about tourism product and destination that they can offer for tourist in Medan, Brastagi and Lake Toba. I never been there before, so I take this opportunity to visit this places. Temporarily I need to forget about guesthouse, where all lodging and transportion is arrange by this agency. Medan is the 3rd largest city of Indonesia after Jakarta and Surabaya. Located north side of Sumatra, and 45min by flight from Kuala Lumpur, also can be reach by ferry from Penang. The lead majority population is Java Sumatra followed by Batak, and Chinesse people. Old building architecture blend with Dutch design, also can be found in ... read more
June 6th 2010
No alarm this morning but we still woke up pretty earlyish. Left GH at around 11 after saying bye to Fadil and Opick (and seeing some punky monkeys leap about on our roof). The trek through the village is much less fun when you're weighed down with a huge backpack, big swelt on! Grabbed bike thing (motorbike with a sidecar attached to it, like a sideways tuk tuk, 6000Rp) to bus station where we were put straight into minivan to Medan (20,000). It was quite empty when we set off but we knew what to expect. After going at a crawling pace for the next 20mins through the village there were 16 of us (and 4 big bags of fish that were taking up their version of 2 seats) in a 12 seater van!! Squishy :) ... read more
June 2nd 2010
Got ferry at 10am after a hearty breakfast of honey pancakes mmm mmm. Spoke to a couple of girls on the jetty who assured us that the GH we were planning on going to in Medan was still standing (we hadn't been able to get through to them by phone and didn't want a repeat of Padang). We'd decided to get a 7 seater car (65,000) instead of the public bus (22,000) as it was much quicker. The car was supposed to leave at 11am however it soon became evident that we were the only people who had taken this option and the guy was wanting to try and get some more people. He asked us to wait till the next ferry and said if it was still just us then they'd take just the 2 ... read more
February 28th 2010
Tavattiin taas Ika ja lahdettiin kentalta autolla suoraan kohti orankipaikkaa.... read more
December 29th 2009
Hi! We have been completely out of contact in Bukit Luwang here in Sumatra but we've had an amazing time! We arrived late on Xmas eve and just got the first room we could. Then on Xmas day we went and found a better place where the toilet didn't stink so much that we couldn't bare it and then had Xmas dinner at a nice place on the river (to be fair most of the town is on the river but it sounds good!). They asked if I'd be Santa Claus for the children at the local enlish (language) school so I did that yesterday, with Sarah as St Nick's dubiously stereotyped helper 'Black Pit', who appears on most images as a chap reminiscent of the gollywog dolls of old. Regardless it was great fun and ... read more
