Berastagi - 13 Dec 2016

Well after all, late in the evening we arrived at Berastagi small town. Berastagi means "Rice Store." Surrounded by few mountains and two closest volcano are Sibayak Mt and Sinabung Mt.

As a small town located at 1220m from sea level and almost 70km from Medan, but still it took us around 2 hours to get ourselves to Medan, due to its nature.


We had checked in at Green Garden Hotel. No lift. For two storey hotel it maybe no need to install a lift but it is very troublesome for us to bring up our luggage and stuffs to our room. 

The spirit of celebrating Xmas is everywhere. For a place where majority of people is Catholic, the preparation for the celebration can be seen at any place. 

Yeah, the staffs are always ready for us, but to share a difficulties with anybody else, actually not so nice.

I brought my luggage to my room without any help from the staff, not because of I am so stinggy  but the major problem is my luggage was damage due to bad handling procedure of AirAsia. Seriously, I still feel so bad and nobody told me that I can claim insurance if I am covered. 

So, I will keep this into my top priority, no more fly if with AirAsia unless the route is no covered  by other flight.

For our last night to be in Indonesia, in detail Medan, I chose to spend my whole night in hotel after my dinner. To go out for a night market, I felt so lazy. Besides that, raining is still there for all night long.

There, at lobby hotel, I enjoyed my short conversation with out tour guide, Pak Ono. Surprisingly, he is a local people of Berastagi. Being in Berastagi, I feel look alike I was in Cameron Highlands an in Genting Highlands. Cold and misty.

See, my room is facing the swimming pool. Just for view. Only a treat for my eye, not for my body. I could not think that I able to hold the coolness of the nature plus the water.

While waiting for everyone get ready, I walked around to enjoyed every single inch of Berastagi.

Eventhough I can find this flower in Malaysia, but still I attracted to it because of its heavy blooming.

This one still in her way to bloom.  

Well, do you see something cloudy at the sky? 

That is Sinabung Mt which was erupted early in the morning by forming a giant mushroom and clearly can be seen by everyone.

My student told me about the eruption, and he is so lucky to view the best view of it while me can see this only.

Better than nothing. 

View of local house around the hotel.

Parking area in front of Green Garden hotel. 

Done checked out.

So, in our early days we will head to local market. Berastagi market actually the best place for shopping fruits and maybe some flower seed.

I am not saying the price is really cheap but what I mentioned is best place. Variety of local fruits such like local persimmons, "salak" fruits, local lime or "buah jeruk", avocado, and much more...

To get there from Green Graden Hotel, it too almost around 5-10 minutes only by bus.

From far, these were attracted me so much. I always get mad with these beautiful plants and flowers.

If I could stay here for long and long, I will just for enjoying these beautiful flowers. But, as a career person, I was not given that kind of choice.

Closer, more beautiful.

Closest, most beautiful.

Horse carriage is everywhere here to bring you to explore the city. 

With a time constraint, always Pak Ono gave us half an hour or 20 minutes, never more than that, I just took a picture of it, I cannot ride it because I need to be hurry.

Aware of horse poops...  Always watch your steps.

Berastagi local market, here is the best place for tourist to bargain for special price.

Luckily I am, I met a very humble seller which is so friendly. Happy to spend my money to her.

To get to this fruits market, we must get into any of small path in between shop lots. There are hidden. I got myself there by following someone in front of me. If not, for sure, I cannot get myself there easily.

Since there is our main target, we have to ensure ourselves being there. We were expecting for local fruits earlier from Danau Toba.

Fruits here are not so cheap, with average price IDr 15,000 to IDR 20,000 per kg (MYR 5 - MYR 7) but affordable, and if you are looking for something different and love to try something new, you can buy any fruits here.

There is no other stop for us to get fruits.

I bought local red potatoes.  I buy it because of the colour. Funny right?

"Balloon Tree"

Done shopping. Time frame that was given completely finished. We returned to the bus.

But still we had to delayed since some of us went to toilet, IDR 6,000 per entry.

Time to leave, bye-bye Berastagi....

Leaving city of Berastagi, heading to Medan. On our way, I snapped some view of the journey, but all of them snapped from inside the bus. 

 The crowd city of Berastagi..

Petrol station... 

I caught her.... Do not touched her, or some of her toxic will hand over to your finger tip.

Wow, so fancy...  

Agricultural is the main activity for locals. 

Okay, now everything of Berastagi were leaving by us. Two hours needed to get Medan. Now and on, I totally flatted. Slept and kept sleeping without realizing that I was losing the beautiful view of green scenery.

Some of us requested to go back to Pasar Ikan to get some sarung, telekong and kain sulam.

While me totally forget about the Sindikalang Coffee. The local product that I wished to buy from my first day, but forgot, beside that I don't know where I able to get it.


Since I feel that I have no chance to get my coffee, slowly I comfort myself to forget it. Should be in plan, go to Istana Maimun, but the reality, No.... We just passed by. Minority always lose in voting.

So, I do not want to expect much. Stayed in the bus while they were shopping. Enjoy chatting with a group of students  until they had done their shopping. After that, we were moving to the airport. On the way, we stopped at 2 places, first at the cake house, to buy layer cake ("kek lapis").

I feel so in blesses, I found Sindikalang Coffee there, at the cake house, but my IDR cash totally at the bottom. I borrowed some IDR from my student and replaced it with MYR. With it I bought two different Sindikalang Coffee, a bit frustration since I cannot collected all of the Sindikalang Coffee variety.

What I realized, in Medan, better you pay everything in IDR compared to MYR, it charged you higher than the exchange rate. 

Soon after that, we had our dinner at Restoren Nasi Ayam Penyet Cindelaras. Our first meal also here, and also our last one.

Almost at 6.oopm local time we arrived at Kualanamu International Airport. my special thanks to Pak Ono for his hardwork to ensure everything on track and we faced no problem.

He accompanied us until checked in. Oh my God, how helpful he is. 

More few pictures in the airport. Frequently international airport will be decorated to represent the local products especially in tourism industry.

I love it, really cool, no rushing.

Replica of Istana Maimun inside the airport. 

Batak Architecture of roof always every where. 

Flight delayed an hour due bad weather. Some said, it is normal for AirAsia to delay their flight due to lack of number of passenger for the trip and one of the way to overcome it by merge the flight. However, I got the information said that in Kuala Lumpur, there was really heavy rain which cause to delay to flight schedule.

Top of it, we arrived Malaysia safely. Alhamdullillah...