Indonesia: Summer - May 2015

 

This is my second trip to Medan-Lake Toba-Berastagi area. The first time I went there was in 1995 with my university friends. Normally when I went to visit the same city, I can appreciate their development over the years but somehow when I went to Lake Toba I personally think that the area was better looking back in 1995. The water was cleaner and greener. The area also felt more magical. Now, it just felt tired. It is no longer thriving with visitors.

President Joko Widodo recently announced that they have plans to revive the area. His first order was to dismantle all the fish cages that pollutes the lake. I hope he will succeed. It is such a waste not to optimise the tourism potential of the largest volcanic lake in the world.

This trip marked my flying with Air Asia after boycotting the airline for so long. The last time I flew Air Asia was in 2008. This was also my first trip flying via our new airport KLIA2. I was quite impressed with KLIA2, I did not expect that our new airport is so huge with many restaurants and retail outlets. The Air Asia flight was however delayed. Why am I not surprised?

For this trip I went with a group of friends, so it was great fun to reunite with old friends and make new friends even though everything else was lousy. We bought our own plane tickets and the hire a local tour for the ground arrangement. Our tour operator over promised but under delivered. The reason why I decided to join the trip was due to the visit to Batu Kapur Hot Spring, unfortunately that and a few others in the itinerary were conveniently forgotten due to lack of planning and time constraint.

The transport provided from Kualanamu Airport to Lake Toba was horrendous. They squeezed all twelve of us (with our bags!!) into a van for a five hours drive in a hot weather. The aircon was not strong enough for the weather. During the trip my friend's Delsey luggage was damaged due terrible stacking of the bags during the long journey.

Out of the three hotels, two was fortunately okay. One was very dated. Since this is a full board ground arrangement, the food provided was quite tasty but the portions were very stingy. Our last dinner, the restaurant's cleanliness was questionable. I was strucked with diarrhea for the first time during overseas travel. Luckily it was mild so by the time I reached home I was almost recovered. My stomach is usually very tough after going through a few boarding school and colleges :P I suspect it was the spicy sambal or the soursop drink that caused my downfall. Serve me right for eating uncooked dish and drink iced drinks at dodgy places!

For this trip the total damage was RM820. Air Asia flights (RM245), Man Togie ground arrangement (RM375) and shopping (RM200). Lessons learnt from this trip are cheap trips not necessarily value for money and I truly don't like to go on a shopping trip. So tiring.

Our itinerary:

28 May 2015  Kuala Lumpur - Kuala Namu - Lake Toba

29 May 2015  Lake Toba - Berastagi

30 May 2015  Berastagi - Medan

31 May 2015  Medan - Kuala Namu - Kuala Lumpur

I've uploaded 92 photos for your viewing pleasure. You can access them at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mkhasha.n.travels/. Go to the photo albums.

Njoy !!

Santai, Shopping, Solace - Quarter 4 2007

 

I started my one-year career break (2007/2008) with a short "santai" holiday in Port Dickson. A town of one hour drive from Kuala Lumpur. For those who are not familiar with the Malay language, "santai" means relaxing.

 

Nothing exciting happened though. Even the sea looked a bit sombre in late October. The raining season had just started..

Next I went to Bandung, Indonesia with my mom for a shopping excursion in November. We managed to grab Air Asia "free" tickets. It actually cost us RM350 and we need to book 7 months in advance!

 

Bandung is well known for their factory outlets, fake branded handbags and Muslimah fashion apparel. We didn't buy any fake stuff. No point toting "branded" fakes.. I would rather buy cheap originals anytime :)

 

We bought a lot of spicy snacks. It was really cheap compared to Malaysia. The only complain was.. we should have bought more ;p I bought a lot of tops too from their factory outlets and my mom bought a lot of fancy head scarfs and "jubah" at their market.

 

All in all it was an enjoyable mother-daughter shopping trip. The weather was also quite pleasant. The hotel we stayed was pretty good too. Within walking distance to the market. Very convenient cause we can then unload all the stuff that we bought at the hotel before we continue our shopping. What is with women and their shopping huh?

 

Year 2007 was wrapped up with a spiritual journey to Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia in December. I just realised something.. I did my own version of "Eat, Pray, Love" in 2007 prior to the debut of the film in 2010 ;p

 

This was actually my second time to these Muslim holy cities. The first was back in year 2002. We went for a small pilgrimage then called "umrah". The visit was coupled with a visit to Iran. In Iran we explored Tehran, Mashhad and Qom. We visted Iman Reza's, one of 12 imams of Shia, shrine at Marshhad and his sister's shrine Fatimah at Qom.

 

What I remembered most about Iran was apricots and cherries. They were in abundance and really cheap! I taught the apricots were small peaches back then! They were really sweet. The cherries were superb too. Iranians love to eat fresh salads. The meals served during the tour were normally consist of rice, grilled chicken/mutton/beef and salads. No special gravy.. just olive oil and mint.

 

Their heritage buildings and shrines were covered by small mirrors. Very beautiful engineering. Their women at small town were required to cover themselves with a piece of big cloth called "chador". It doesn't have to be black though, it can have prints and be colourful ;p Women at big cities like Tehran were more modernly attired. The cars were mostly old Datsuns. Consumer goods choices were quite limited but those available were pretty cheap. People there who can speak English can speak very well. Enough of Iran. I have more to tell but I digress ;)

 

Back to my spiritual journey.. I spent a total 44 days. 34 in Mecca and 10 in Medina. This pilgrimage cost around RM10k per person. The weather was pleasant and I can sum up my experience with one word: INSPIRING. It inspires me to think about my beliefs. I'm still thinking and reassessing them as we speak :)

 

Point to note: All the pictures were taken before the facebook and smart phone era where every single thing must be picture-recorded for posterity ;p So please forgive the small number of photos. Most especially in Saudi Arabia. I don't bring camera to business trips. More so during my journey to find solace. So all the pictures were taken using my pathetic camera phone.

 

Back then in 2007 we were not allowed to take pictures in the holy mosques so no cameras were allowed. If you bring any, it will be confiscated. It is much different now with the advent of smart phones with excellent camera. They finally realised that it is futile to prevent people from taking pictures in the mosques ;p

 

You can find the 20 pictures of Port Dickson, 34 of Bandung and 18 of Mecca at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mkhasha.n.travels/. Go to the photo albums.

Njoy!

Indonesia: Summer - June 2003

This visit (28 June - 1 July 2003) was actually my second trip to Bali. The first trip was too short that I simply didn't get why people love to go to Bali so much. One of my friends is so crazy in love with Bali that she said she is quite happy even if the only holiday she get to go every year is to Bali! I actually signed up for another trip to just to make sure I didn't get it wrong. Was I abnormal?

I went with the girls this time and had a good time at spa and shopping of course! The tour if I'm not mistaken costs me RM1.2k for 4 days 3 nights (full-board). We stayed at Nusa Dua area. Oh by the way, I am not a secretary. I just joined them cause they are such fun-loving-sporting group :)

Frankly, Bali is still not one of my favourite places to go for a holiday but I can understand why a lot of people love it. By the way, there is no actual "summer" in Bali. There are only "rain" or "shine" season ;p I just put "summer" for the sake of title consistency with the other postings :)

If you are interested, you can browse more pictures at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mkhasha.n.travels/. Go to the photo albums.

I must apologise though that there are only a few of them. I just realised that most of my Bali pictures have my face in it. Thus I can find only 17 neutral photos :P

Do enjoy them anyway.