Wonderful Indonesia (D3 and D4: Siantar and Tarutung)

There were so many first times happening starting from the first mid-night flight to tasting the king and queen of fruits (Durain and Mangosteens). So on my third day in Medan, I had my first time experience to visit the bean-curd tofu factory and tasted the fresh products manufactured there. Soon I was enjoying the exotic view of Sipiso piso waterfall and even a part of so-much-heard of Lake Toba. Lake Toba is the largest lake in Indonesia. Now this Lake Toba was not in my surprise list but I must say that its real beauty was yet to explore in the few coming days.

Sipiso piso waterfall

In Bhutan, Tsirang is known as the yellow valley for the abundance of orange it produces every year. But I have never been to this yellow valley of Bhutan. I have nothing to regret even if I cannot visit in the future as I had my first time experience of visiting an orange orchid in Siantar and be able to pluck the orange right from the tree myself. The orange and green surrounding with the clear blue sky above made a perfect setting on a sunny day to have some beautiful pictures clicked. 

I tasted varieties of fruits that day. The first one would be again so-much-heard of durain. It was not allowed in air conditioned places and hotel rooms for the strong smell but the people loved so much. So I was alerted of its smell from the way it was not allowed in certain places, but when I tasted it, the smell wasn’t that strong and I ate around one whole of it. Then I knew its strong smell as I kept burping with its smell till the time I slept that night. I had mangosteens and salak fruit which were all new and first time for me.

Durians in my hands

Passion fruit, salak fruit, mangosteems in my hands

 

Welcome to my orchid

I don’t remember when was the last time I had a fresh spring water bath (may be long long time back) but that evening I enjoyed being in the spring water after I was so much hesitant to soak myself in it at first. The spring was surrounded by trees and animals (monkeys) and it was so much natural.

The next morning, I was again standing in front of Avalokitesvara praying at the Kwan Im temple for the third time in Indonesia, far more exceeding my expectation. This ended my stay in Siantar as our next destination was Tarutung. Thank you Siantar for so much of hospitality

Pemadian Air soda water

After a six-hour drive from Siantar, we reached Tarutung, south of Samosir islands. Here was the one of only two Air soda waters in the world: Pemadian Air soda water where I soaked myself in the bubbling soda water and learnt to float on the water surface. It was sad that I didn’t know swimming but I really enjoyed being in the water with the floating tube and being pulled here and there by the people who knew swimming and at times not moving from a particular spot as I was scared of being drowned.

I am thankful for being in the land of volcanic islands where I had the experience of visiting the hot spring water coming from the volcanic eruptions. The water was very hot (naturally) and made our skin very red when we soaked our legs there. Tarutung visit came to an end with visiting the Air Soda water and hot spring water.

So next was to the Samosir islands, crossing the beautiful Lake Toba…

(to be contd)

Thank you Rima for so many beautiful pictures!