Company Trip 2012: North Sumatra (Day One)

My company trip came and ended. While it was not as exciting as trips to Bali or Taipei of my friends, this trip was still very memorable and fun for me. It was a good chance to hang out with my colleagues after spending months and months working.

This time, our trip took us to North Sumatra of Indonesia. This was my first company trip overseas since I joined Esmerk. And I’m a bit embarrassed to say that this was only my second overseas trip and the first time traveling on plane. So one could imagine the excitement I felt when I first heard the destination. I made all the preparation early on and received travel tips from friends to make sure I could enjoy the experience fully.

It was a three-day two-night trip, where we travel between Medan, Brastagi, Parapat and Lake Toba. As expected, there were long bus rides between the destinations that were far apart. Fortunately, the rides were painless and quite exciting at times. More on that later.

Our flight was on 6 April 2012, departing from LCCT at 7.40am via AirAsia. I had to wake up earlier than planned as I had to pick up two colleagues, Carrie & Krystle, from their home as they couldn’t get a taxi. I brought them to my home and left at 4.30am. We picked up another colleague, Deepa, in Subang Jaya and headed straight to LCCT in a one-hour journey.

We reached LCCT around 6am. As I was scheduled for the first flight whiles the other three on the second flight, we split up to look for our separate group. After meeting my group and went through the necessary procedures, we waited a short while before boarding our plane. I took the window seat, which was great as I wanted to look at the view once we’re in the air.

Three Musketeers??

Ready for Indonesia!!

Can't wait to get on the plane

After its pre-flight checks and easing the plane onto the runway, we were off. I can feel the G-force from the sudden acceleration and see the ground moving away as we flew higher and higher. I can see all the buildings, the streets and the rivers getting smaller and further away. I have a slight fear of height but I didn’t feel any fear at all. I was relaxed and excited. As we climbed further and further, we passed through layers of clouds and finally reaching above it. It was an amazing sight! A sea of white fluffy clouds below with the sun shining through them. There was nothing as far as the eye could see, only the light blue sky above and around us. If only I had my camera with me at the time.

Finally, as we were arriving in Indonesia, the plane started to descend. I was half expecting the sensation of dropping like when I took rides on roller coasters, but fortunately there was nothing of that sort. At first, I saw a lot of farm lands with few buildings in between. Slowly but surely, more buildings appeared as we were approaching Medan. We touched down at 7.35am local time, which was an hour slower than our time.

And all these time I forgot about my worries that I might experience air-sickness. 

After another round of procedure, we went outside and met with Hidayah’s friend, Suriaty Chen, who at first I thought was our tour guide. As the next flight was to arrive an hour later, we decided to have our breakfast at a nearby local restaurant.

It was raining in Medan earlier, so everywhere was wet and a bit muddy. Me, CC, Leslie, Iris, Elaine, Huei Ling, Chui Ling, Sin Sin and Hidayah squeezed into the SUV that was designed to take seven passengers excluding the driver. After arriving at the restaurant and finding our seats, we ordered wan ton mee and curry mee. The wan ton mee was a lot different than the ones we have in KL. The noodle was thicker, sort of a mix between wan ton noodle and instant noodle. They don’t use soy sauce; the ingredients were chicken meat and pork, and a bowl of soup. The dish was tasty and interesting, although I did find that the pork was a bit salty.

Where we had our breakfast

Sin Sin, Hidayah and her friend Suriaty Chen

Enjoying our breakfast

After our breakfast, we headed back to the airport just to find that the other group has just arrived and the tour guide was already there. After saying good bye to Hidayah’s friend, we followed our tour guide to the bus and begin our trip in Indonesia.

Our tour guide was called Moris from the Lovely Holidays travel agency. He’s very fluent in English, so we had no problem understanding everything he said. After stopping by at the agency’s office to make the necessary report, we arrived at Maimoon Palace, the palace of Sultan Deli at 9.40am local time. Moris gave us a brief history lesson about the palace and the Dutch influence in the design. After that, we were given free time to take photos. There was a service available for tourists to wear traditional clothing and pose as kings and queens for a fee. Jusman jumped right into it while Melissa joined in after much coaxing from everyone. They posed at different places within the palace and everyone followed them and took photos like paparazzi. For some reasons, Jusman looked either strict or bored in my photos while Melissa looked really sweet with her smile.

Walking to Maimoon Palace

Listening to tour guide Moris

Sultan Jusman and Permaisuri Melissa

Posing for the Esmerk paparazzi

Our next stop after the palace was, surprisingly, a modern clothing shop called Fashion Outlet. We reached there around 10.30am local time. While there were different types of clothes available, Moris advised us to just pick the jeans as there were branded and sold for a cheaper price, while others like the t-shirts can be found everywhere else. Calvin was the first to buy an item from the shop while See Teng was looking at the boxers she wanted to buy for her husband. Only a few of us bought something from there, but Jusman bought the most clothes, something he did throughout the trip. The only thing that Elaine and I wanted to buy at the time was a bottle of water, as we started to get thirsty from the heat.

Our next stop was a traditional batik shop at 11.15am local time. The clothes and fabric there was not unlike our batik back in Malaysia. Only some of the ladies bought a few things there, while the guys hung around chatting and taking photos. Kind of what typical guys and gals do when at a clothing store back home. Haha…

At 11.45am local time, we arrived at Restaurant ACC for our lunch. We were expecting to be served with local dishes and were looking forward to it. We were served with local dishes, but we didn’t expect the dishes to be in such small portions. Everyone was looking at each other, somewhat dumbfounded.

We found out later that these were Minangkabau cuisine and this was how the dishes were served. We were a bit worried that after this meal, we’ll get hungry really soon. Fortunately, the rice was in large amounts and they did add a few dishes like fried chicken, albeit in small sizes. 

Minangkabau cuisine

Everyone was a bit surprised by the small dishes

Sitting down for our meal

Looking pretty before eating

 Due a change in the schedule, we headed for Brastagi first instead of Parapat after our meal. Everyone was a bit tired and sleepy at that time, and since our destination was hours away, we took a short nap on the bus. Some of us took some photos along the way as we headed for higher ground.

Napping...

Snapping photos...

At 2.15pm local time, we arrived at a rest stop called Pondok Durian Ula Lupa. After the toilet break, we took some photos and bought some snacks and beverages from the small store. I spent my first Rupiah in this trip by buying a large bottle mineral water and a Minute Maid Pulpy orange juice. It felt a bit weird at first, when I have to spend thousands just to buy the two bottles. I have to keep reminding myself that one Malaysian Ringgit equals to around 2,900 to 3,000 Indonesian Rupiahs. Later throughout the trip I joked about feeling filthy rich, spending thousands and thousands on shopping.

The "Forgetful Snake Durian Hut". Lol...

After leaving the rest stop, it started to rain. Along the way, we saw a lot of small and large farm lands growing various vegetables like cabbages and carrots. Some of the interesting and common sights we saw were the small farm lands between houses and shops, and the thin, two- to three-storey, expensive-looking shop houses in tiny villages with decrepit wooded houses.

At 3.10pm local time, we reached the replica of the Shwedagon Pagoda at Taman Alam Lumbini. The pagoda was huge and there were a lot of people there visiting. Unfortunately, the rain was getting heavier and I was reluctant to remove my shoes and socks to get inside. So I have to settle with taking photos outside. We really had to go back to the bus 20 minutes later as the rain was pouring.

The Shwedagon Pagoda replica

As we were heading for the Central Fruits Market before our final stop at our hotel, we were stuck at a traffic circle. As we were waiting, I saw a motorcycle strapped on top of a local bus. It was really crazy to see these kinds of things, not to mention seeing van-sized buses zipping around with several passengers on top, which was surprisingly common here. 

Motorcycle nicely tied to the bus

No seat in the bus? No problem, just take the roof!

Oh, did i mentioned earlier about the bus ride being exciting? Well, the first thing I noticed while on the bus was that there were quite a lot of honking. Then the bus would swerve  in and out to overtake vehicles in front of us. At first, I thought our driver was the only one doing this. I was wrong. It seemed that every driver on the road was doing it. At times, the bus was on the opposite lane and the oncoming vehicles were so close, I almost thought that we would crash. Our driver managed to reenter our lane in time as cars or trucks passed by us very closely. We realised soon that this was very common here and the driver was very skilled in this, so we were fairly relaxed throughout the journey.

We finally reached the market at 4.15pm local time. Another surprising thing to see was the horse rides offered there. One of the last things I expected to see in places like these was horses. One thing I did expect when I saw the horses was the poos and pees all over the place. If it wasn’t for the rain, the smell may actually be a lot worse. I bought a couple of key chains at a nearby shop before heading for the market. We have to be extra careful when walking around avoiding the “land mines”. I saw some stalls selling rabbits, big and small. The funny thing was that among the rabbits, there were two guinea pigs. I felt sorry for the rabbits as the net they stood on was too big for them, it can’t be comfortable for them. There was another stall that sells puppies. Then I remembered Moris said that they do cook dogs for food, so I started wondering were these rabbits and puppies sold as pets or foods. I didn’t go further into the market as the rain was still heavy. A few of us stayed that some nearby stalls and enjoyed some corn-on-a-cob, which were quite tasty and juicy.

Horses for rides and photo-taking

Cute bunnies

The steel net doesn't look comfortable to stand on

Tasty corn-on-a-cob

We then slowly head back to the bus for our 15-minute ride to our hotel, Sinabung Resort Brastagi.
 

 Finally, our hotel!

Everyone was tired...

 We reached to hotel around 5.10pm local time and not surprisingly, the first thing that Elaine looked for was the swimming pool. Everyone was tired and just wanted to head to our rooms and rest a bit before our dinner. We were worried at first when Moris told us earlier that there was no hot water available, which we later found to be not true.

The room me and Nic were sharing faced the front of the hotel. It was just nice, until we found out the rooms on the other side have the amazing view of the swimming pool, the garden and the volcano far away. Those rooms have wall-mounted flat-screen TV, while we only have the old tube TV; they have balconies, which we don’t have; they have stainless steel shower head that looked like they were from a home-improvement catalogue, our shower heads looked old and were not functioning like it used too. I jokingly made a fuss about it throughout the evening.

Our room

Lame TV...

Flat screen TV on the wall!!

 We busied ourselves taking photos in and around the hotel. The garden and the swimming pool were the best spots for the purpose. At around 6.23pm local time, a double rainbow appeared at the garden side. Cameras were snapping away, trying to take the best shots. Finally, our dinner started. After enjoying our meals, we hit the showers.

The garden and swimming pool

Double Rainbows

Afterwards, some of us just walk around the hotel, enjoying the cold air. Elaine was already in the pool when I was there, despite the darkness. We were just enjoying the quietness and the relaxing atmosphere after the day-long hassle from Medan to Brastagi. Before long, we were heading for our beds, getting as much rest as possible before another long day ahead.