Walked to the National Museum (200 Baht~USD$7)

Took bus 3 to Chattucak market.

Tea pulling demonstration

Street massage which is popular throughout the city

Met up with Thongek and went around the city.

To Paragon, Siam square.

Central World mall

The King’s signature

Central World mall is one of the world’s biggest shopping mall

Met with another old friend, Kittisak in the evening. Had a sumptuous dinner with Kittisak’s family. Kittisak brought me to another Health Land center for an hour of food massage this time and showed me around the city.

Back to Khao San road, a stall selling roasted insects.

Tried to be adventurous and bought a small bag of insects mix and a can of Nescafe. I had no problem eating the roasted cocoon, but the grasshopper gave me a hard time.

Thailand has a population of 65 million with 75% Thai, 15% ethnic Chinese and other minorities. Thailand is the only south east asian countries that has never been colonized, sort of the buffer state between Burma, colonized by the British and Vietnam, colonized by the French.

The first Thai Kingdom is considered to be the Buddhist kingdom of Sukhothai founded in the 13th century. After the Khmer empire falls, in the mid 14th century the kingdom of Ayutthaya was established.

Red Shirt Protest again

Thongek who is a university friend of mine volunteered to be my guide for the day.
There are so many temples in Bangkok. Visited Wat Pho, a temple which many years ago was a school for massage. It’s also the oldest and largest temple in Bangkok.

Statue of the reclining Buddha, 46 meters long and 15 meters high.

There were some Chinese influences in the temple with some Chinese statues.

Thongek as my guide for the day.

Wat Pho is the birthplace of Thai massage. Statues of some massage techniques.

There are a lot of foreigners and tourist in Thailand. It was much more than I thought. Tourism has become one of Thailand biggest money generator with more than 11 million tourist a year.

The Grand Palace,

350 Baht~USD$11 for foreigners and free for Thai. We tried to use the entrance for Thai but was not successful so decided not to go in.

Lunch (30 Baht~USD$1), a mixture of the internal organs of cow.

Sticky rice with Mango (30 Baht~USD$1)

Since the Chao Praya river cut through Bangkok, there is also the water subway system. Took the water subway

Passing by another Temple, Wat Arun.

to Chong Nongsi skytrain station and to Thongek house.

Thongek drove us to Health Land which is a franchise specializing in massage. There were many people who were waiting. We waited for an hour for a 2 hours massage session, 200 Baht with discounted coupons. That was my first time trying a Thai massage and it’s more physical that I thought. Another friend mentioned that her leg was injured for a week after having a session of Thai massage.

Again the red shirt protest is causing traffic jam on the street.

Dinner at Samboon seafood restaurant with Thongek family. Samboon is a famous franchise for curry crab.

The restaurant is not far away from Patpong street which is famous for its night market and go go bars. Walked passed by the Patpong market.

The street just next to Patpong is a Japanese street with all signs in japanese. The Japanese are one of the biggest contributor to the gogo bar industry.

Just right across the street is another street with gogo bars cater to the gay and lady boy community.

Visited a Jazz club, just around the street from the freedom monument with Thongek and Pichaya.

The train was delayed for another 4 hours again in the morning. When I thought things couldn’t get worse, there was an accident where a car ran into the train and was dragged for some distances.

Passing by the padi field in Thailand

Finally got to Bangkok train station,

Thailand, the land of smiles at 6.20pm Thai time which is an hour slower than Malaysian time after almost 29 hours on the train, terrible!
The journey is only around 1200 km and it shouldn’t take that long.

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Bangkok is a pretty big city with a population of around 11 million people.

Pad Thai (30 Baht~ USD$1) for dinner just across the train station

Took bus 53 to Khao San road where many of the budget hotels are located.

Walked for 30 minutes and then found a place called Live Good hostel (180 Bath~USD$6)

The protest in Bangkok was a hot topic in the news. The protesters are Thaksin supporter and wear red color clothings. The red shirt protest is just around Khao San road, beside the Democracy Monument.

Out of curiosity, I went to check it out. It’s more like a carnival than protest where there were food sellers, massage services and I even managed to get a bowl of free food.

Back to Khao San road at night.

Got a cab (20,000 Ruppiah, 10 minutes ride) to the airport at 5.30am in the morning.

I was joking with the air ticket seller yesterday to give me a morning call and she really did, I never expected it and that gave me a good impression about Indonesians. There is an airport tax of 75,000 Ruppiah which must be paid in Ruppiah.

Sriwijaya Air

So far in my trip, this is my 10th flights. Usually I avoid flying, but because flying is inexpensive in Indonesia and the road transportation is bad, I flew 3 times in Indonesia and that saved a lot of time.

On the plane, noticed that many Indonesians were flying to Penang for medical treatment, Penang is trying to attract medical tourism money from Medan since it’s just 40 minutes flight away. Taxied down at Penang at 9.20am Malaysian time (an hour ahead of Indonesia time) and my parents picked me up. I just have a few hours to kill before the 2.20pm train to Bangkok.

It has been many years since I last took the ferry to the mainland.
Ferry

Leaving the port

There is a daily train from Butterworth to Bangkok at 2.20pm (112 Ringgit.~USD$33, 20 hours ride). The train station is located right beside the ferry terminal in Butterworth. The train was delayed for 30 minutes and departed at 3pm.

Inside the train

There were only 2 coaches, so the train was pretty short compared to those in China with at least 15 coaches.

The train moved pretty slowly. It was supposed to cross the Malaysian border to Hat Yai, Thailand at 6pm but the train only crossed the border at 9pm.

Waited for the boat to Parapat at 8am but somehow the ferry missed me. Got on the next 9am ferry (7000 Ruppiah, 40 minutes ride) to Parapat.

On the way to Parapat

Parapat Port

I decided to skip Berastagi and other scenic cities on the way and took the 9.45am bus to Medan.

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Even though it’s only around 170km but the bus ride took around 4.5 hours

and got to Medan Amplas terminal around 2.30pm.

Had my lunch, figured out where to stay for the night then got on an Angkot, shared mini vehicle to Masjid Raya area.
Before

After, this tiny vehicle managed to cramped 14 people in it.

Masjid Raya area is where most of the budget hotels are located. Stayed at Hotel Zakia (55,000 Ruppiah).

However, I would have chosen Hotel Residence if I were to pick again.

The Grand Mosque

I was thinking about visiting Banda Acheh up in the north but changed my route to Bangkok instead because of time constraint. For the past few days, the protest in Bangkok was pretty big in the news, but I am hoping things will get better in the next few days. Flying straight to Bangkok will cost around USD$300. A more budget is to get to Penang then go overland to Bangkok by train.

There are ferries departing every morning at 11am to Penang. The boat ride will take around 4-6 hours. However, the port is in Belawan which is another 30km away and cost around 45,000 Ruppiah. By taking the boat, I’ll have to leave around 8.30am and probably arrive at 5pm Malaysian time which is an hour faster. There are also a couple of low cost airlines flying daily from Medan to Penang, AirAsia, Srivijaya Air, Lion Air and FireFly. Those cost from 300,000-800,000 Ruppiah depending on supply and demand.

Since there is a train leaving from Penang to Bangkok at 2pm, I tried to get the morning flight. After asking at the 4th travel agency, I managed to get a seat on the 7.20am Srivijaya Air fllight (485,000 Ruppiah~USD$50).

Walked around the city for a couple of hours. The air in Medan is quite polluted by the many motorbikes and cars on the street.

The street is dusty and not very pedestrian friendly.

The old city.

Managed to walk from Masjid Raya area to Carrefour, passing by Lapangan Merdeka and breathed in a lot of polluted air.

A roundabout in the city

Medan is the 3rd largest city in Indonesia and the largest in Sumatera. There is a big ethnic Chinese population here and surprisingly the Hokkien (FuJian) dialect they speak is quite similar to the Hokkien used in Penang.

Got on a Becak, a three wheeler.

to Jalan Majapahit which is famous for Ambon and Layer cakes, Marquisa juice and other Indonesian local products.
One of the shop recommended.

Got some stuffs to bring home and had Sate for dinner (17,000 Ruppiah).

The bus cramped many people in it. I think there were 7 people in the row in front of me.

Finally arrived at Parapat at around 10.30am. The 500 km ride took almost 17 hours!
Parapat is actually a small town beside lake toba. Lake Toba is the largest lake in South East Asia (1130 km^2) and was formed when a giant volcano erupted around 70 thousand years ago. Archaeologist mentioned that the eruption killed most human then and caused volcanic winter which decreased the earth temperature for few years.

Indonesia has a lot of Volcanoes, a lot of it are still active.
Volcanoes in Indonesia

Samosir is something like an island in the middle of Lake Toba but is connected to the mainland as well. The size of Samosir is similar to the area of Singapore. Tuk Tuk is at the eastern tip of Samosir where most of the hotels and guesthouses are located.

[mappress]

Took the hourly ferry at 11.30am to Tuk Tuk.

Kids swimming in the lake

Met a German lady who is the owner of Toba Cottage (50,000 Ruppiah) and managed to convince me to stay there.

Rent a motorbike (40,000 Ruppiah) for a few hours and ride around the quasi island.

Lake Toba area is populated mostly by the Batak people. Many years ago Batak was a cannibalistic tribe where they ate human. People in Padang area are pretty conservative Muslims but the Bataks are very strong Christians. There are around 6 million of them living around Northern Sumatera.

View around Samosir

Batak architecture

Tomb of a Batak King

Today is actually a public holiday in Indonesia. It’s the day of Silence, Hari Raya Nyepi which is a Balinese new year celebrated by the Hindu. I heard that in Bali, even airport is shut down to keep the sound level low.

Because there are so many different ethnicities in Indonesia, the government is trying hard to unite the country. Races are not that obvious since everyone speaks Bahasa Indonesia fluently. Unlike Malaysia, on Indonesia national identity card, ethnicity is not a required item. Only religion has to be shown on the ID, there are only 5 major religions (Islam, Buddhist, Hindu, Protestant and Catholic) that can be chosen, atheism and agnostic are not one of the option so pretty much everyone has to pick a religion.

View of the volcanic mountain Singhalang from Hotel Orkid rooftop.

This is the typical Padang style restaurant where plates of different dishes are stacked behind the window.

Food is served in plates and half serving of meat cost 8,000 Ruppiah.

Bridge

in the middle of the town which links Fort de Kock, a fort built by the Dutch and Bundo Kanduang Park which also have a mini zoo in it.

Traditional house

Kids

The weather in Bukit Tinggi is quite unpredictable, even though it’s sunny in the morning but it poured heavily at noon. It has rained 3 times since yesterday afternoon until now. Met an Indonesian friend yesterday and he wanted to show me around. We went to see Sianok Canyon (Ngarai Sianok).

Just right below is Lubang Jepang, meaning Japanese hole.

During world war II, Bukit Tinggi was the headquarter for Japanese army in Sumatera. There is an underground bunker and a network of tunnels built by the Japanese.

Faddy who showed me around with his van.

Booked a bus ticket to Parapat from the front desk at the hostel (175,000 Ruppiah). Those guys at Hotel Orkid were pretty nice and sent me to A.L.S bus office for the 5.30pm bus to Parapat.

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The road is pretty windy and narrow going around the jungle in the mountains. Infrastructure in Indonesia is still under developed. When it rains, the road will be blocked by landslides.

Padang food (11,000 Ruppiah) again in the morning.

Indonesians are a bunch of friendly people,

after eating the shop owners invited me for a chat. My spoken Malay is not that great so it’s a good exercise for me.

The weather in Padang is warmer than Jakarta. Had coconut Padang style coconut water (7000 Ruppiah).
Coconut water seller

Typical local houses

Padang just lies beside the sea

and is an earthquake prone area. There are earthquake happening every few days. The September 2009 earthquake was a big one measuring around 8 ritcher scale.

Buildings destroyed during the 2009 earthquake

Padang Minangkabau architecture

More pictures about the Sumatra earthquake on Boston Globe

Pasar which means market in Indonesian/Malay language, it sounds similar to Bazaar used in the middle east and central asia.

Dried anchovies

Went to a meeting point for cars heading for Bukit Tinggi at 1pm. Waited for 1.5 hours for the mini van (17,000 Ruppiah) to be full before the driver started driving. The mini van managed to cramp 10 people in it plus a boy. Bukit Tinggi is just around 90km away but the trip took 2.5 hours because of traffics and rain.

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Since it’s raining, paid the driver another 15,000 Ruppiah to get me to Hotel Orkid. Got the cheapest room (40,000 Ruppiah).

Bukit Tinggi is a small town located 930m above sea levels and the weather is cooler here than Padang. Both Bukit Tinggi and Padang are very close to the equator.

Jam Gadang, clock tower is located at a square just arcross Ramayana shopping mall and Pasar atas. It’s a popular place for locals to gather around especially during new year. The Muslims around this area are more conservative, Valentine’s day and Christmas celebrations are banned here.

Met an Indonesian Chinese guy and he brought me to try out local street food.

Street food is pretty popular, sometimes it’s hard to walk around because there are street food at most pavements.

Mie Kalimantan.

Met up with Yannuar at Senayan Plaza.

Found out that many of my university friends from Indonesia went back to Indonesia recently and were quite successful in business. Yannuar started his own coal mining business few years ago and expanded to oil digging and owning power plants in just few years. Indonesian Chinese are pretty savvy business people and have good a business network.

Jalan Mangga Besar has a lot of Chinese places, they even sell Shangdong dumplings.

Got on the Damri bus (20,000 Ruppiah, 45 minutes bus ride) from Gambir station to the airport. Luckily it’s Saturday and the traffic was not that bad, managed to arrive at the airport just an hour before my 7pm Lion Air flight to Padang. There is a domestic airport tax of 40,000 that is required. However, the flight was delayed for 1.30 hours.

Sumatera stretched for around 2000km from the northern tip to the south of the island. Padang is at west Sumatera and is frequently hit by earthquake. The last one happened on September 30, 2009, just around 5 months ago and killed over 1100 people. Padang is mostly inhabited by Minangkabau people and Padang cuisine is pretty famous, with hot and spicy as the main flair.

Got to Padang airport at 10pm after the 1.5 hours flight. The airport is 20km away from the city and got on a Damri bus (18,000 Ruppiah)

to Padang city at 10.30pm. Since I got no idea where am I going to stay, got off the last stop and tried searching for a cheap place. Walked around and found nothing that fit into my budget then took an Ojek (motorbike taxi) to Wisma Salleh (75,000 Ruppiah).

Had Padang food (11,000 Ruppiah), Padang food is spicy.

my second meal for the day at 11.45pm.

Got on the 8.30am Parahyangan train (85,000 Ruppiah) from Gambir train station to Bandung.

On the way, the train passed by some paddy field

and tea plantation

, hills and jungle.

Passing by the southern slums in Jakarta and some ramshackle wooden houses on the way. There are still many poor people living in Indonesia.

Arrived at Bandung at around 12pm.

Bandung is the 4th largest city in Indonesia with a population of around 2 million and is called Paris of Java. It’s around 180km away from Jakarta and is situated above 750 meter sea level so it has a slightly cooler climate. The city was a resort city for the Dutch Colonials in the 19th century.

Lunch (36,500 Ruppiah)

Walked around for an hour and then took an angkot (mini van) towards Ledang to Jeans street, Jalan Champelas. This area was big in textile industry in the 90s. Currently, there are a few factory outlets for reject goods and distribution outlets for local designers.

Superhero statues

Big statue of Rambo

Jalan Bagra, was a shopping district during Dutch colonialism.

Asian African conference museum.

Bandung was a host for the Asian African conference in 1955. The conference objective is to promote world peace and oppose against colonialism.

Jalan Africa Asia

Got on the 3.35pm train (85,000 Ruppiah) back to Jakarta.

and arrived at around 7pm.