Cross Selat Melaka ke Medan :-)



This is my second time in Medan. .

First Medan trip was one of the memorable one as for that trip,  I combined my family vacation with friends. Dindi is our friend from Medan who was our degree coursemate, and it had been 2 years since our graduation, and we finally got to plan our rombongan to visit Dindi and her hometown.

This Second Medan trip, was initiated from Durian crave! Dindi and I were chattin in Fbook, and suddenly... tadaaa.... I found myself caught in the Durian feva... I had to taste Es.durian Dindi mentioned. Well... and I miss her :P And my crazy adhoc plan got Zue and Mar's attention....

SHOPPING
(2 famous places) = Pajak Petisah + Pajak Ikan (tp jual kain2) :D

be reminded, it's quite expensive compared to Bandung / Jakarta... but slightly cheaper than the one back here...the key to get a reasonable price is to really bargain :D

 

Some of the Foods we had::

SOTO MEDAN

One of the Kedai yg sedap sotonya dan popular kt Medan:

ES DURIAN

Actually dindi owns a Kepudur Stall (Kedai Pulut Durian) selling varieties of desserts made from Durian... but her stall was closed temporarily. Her stall is kinda similar to this one. This stall belongs to a guy Dindi deals with for Durian supply: (Look at the Menu :P)

We dont have this exactly same dessert back in Msia. But to sum up this sweetie..... Its like Pulut Durian + Ais Kacang/ ABC + Chendol all put together in one bowl! Kebahagiaan yang Tripple !!!

Can u seee the floating durian :D This is Es.Kolak Durian. The difference with Es.Pulut Durian is this one, added with chunk of grilled bananas.

SATE PADANG

Dindi's Sis-in-Law tapau this for us :-) So nice of her...

LEMANG
This one... erm...actually I forgot the real name :P but it has Lemang served together - for breakfast - at Dindi's place. We stayed at her place except on the day we spent in Danau Toba of course :-)

BAKSO and ALPOKAT (Avocado Juice)

LAKE TOBA / DaNaU ToBa:

We stayed in this villa where President Sukarno had once made it his resting place. We felt honored to have experienced a sense of history :-)

The view around Toba. 

 

Unfortunately, timing of our vacation clashed with the public school holidays in indonesia. Therefore Toba became a bit too crowded (including the amount of vehicles) and the atmosphere was very different from my first trip. We didnt get to swim because of the crowd and just when we found a better spot, later it began to rain :( However, the view is breathtaking, the scenery very serene :-)

Ouh how I miss swimming n playing in the lake....
This time around, we went around... feast on the "Mangga Udang" (small cute mangoes)... and made ourselves busy with our cameras :D

 These boats are means of transportation to Pulau Samosir a.k.a Tomok.

SAMOSIR @ tomok

Rented a boat... we went in a group, together with Dindi's friends and staff :-)  12 of us altogether.

top deck

 Besides the Batak Museum, cultural display + shows,  this place is popular for the sorvenir shops.

 

FareWell

Going back to Medan and to Dindi's house, we are welcomed back by this sweet lil girl, Tara (Dindi's niece) :-) very kiut and intelligent girl.

On the 4th day, we made our way back to Penang. Dindi, thank you for everything....
Special thanx to all her family members for the hospitality and not forgetting Azka, for driving us to Toba ;-) We (Zue, Mar and I) will be delighted to be the host in Penang next time.

Dindi, Looking forward to your visit in future. Miss you :-)