We woke up early by default again, probably because of how bright it was early in the morning. Had breakfast where we had dinner the previous night. No photos of breakfast because I was lazy and it wasn't that good. The waffles were made using a sandwich maker and I didn't eat much. That's probably one of the reasons why I didn't gain any weight despite going overseas. Haha.
We took a short walk after breakfast. The weather was cool and the sun was shining which made it quite a nice combination.
We were saying that these photos could look like scenes out of a Western country instead of Indonesia because of the coniferous trees. Don't you think so too?
I like taking photos of pretty looking flowers. Suddenly remembered that I have photos from Gardens by the bay not uploaded on my blog yet, but I don't think I will. It has been a year, or almost.
A direct shot of the sun! And of course, everything looks dark against the sun.
This is quite a nice shot of the volcanoes. There're 2 volcanoes in Berastagi, Sinabung and Sibayak, but don't ask me which is which. I don't have the memory space for such information. Haha.
More flowers.
And a photo outside our room. It really feels like a high class resort.
Checked out of the hotel and arrived at a place where we could get a better view of the volcanoes.
Spotted a white horse over there. I was really amazed at the sight of horses. Somehow, I just really like horses.
With my colleagues
We were supposed to visit so many places along the way back to Medan but I was mostly glad that we didn't. I was feeling very tired and just wanted to sit around and not walk at all like a bum. I still had a lot of rupiah left. How could I have spent much at all, looking at the photos, so I was kind of eager to get to somewhere where I could spend them all, really. After our tour guide in Batam told us that they change their currency very often, I didn't want to risk hoarding any rupiah and having them devalued to half of what they were worth.
The driver learnt along the way that a colleague and I are christians when we declined going into a temple he drove us to, so he offered to bring us to a church. But in the end, it was a catholic church and we obviously didn't understand anything due to the language barriers and not really relevant as well.
Our last stop before arriving in Medan was Maimoon Palace.
On the itinerary it states that it is the palace of the Sultan of Deli which was built in 1888. Certainly didn't look that old. There were many school children, whom I assume were there on school excursion trips. This was already in Medan so the weather was no longer the chilly and nice weather that I liked but one similar to Singapore's.
And it was time to go to Medan Mall where we could have our lunch and dinner, since our flight was at about 7:35pm, ie 8:35pm Singapore time.
Had Texas chicken for lunch because the colleagues wanted to. And Red mango as well! Tried it for the first time and I was sold. It tasted like ice cream, its texture and all. The price was comparable to Singapore's, though I've never bought it here before.
And my colleagues weren't feeling very well so they didn't feel like eating, but I didn't want to leave without having one of these. So, I had it all on my own, but suffice to say that I didn't finish it.
Didn't get to shop much because the prices of clothes there were really expensive. An ordinary top that you can get for $24 or so from a blogshop cost $40 over there. I wasn't intending to buy clothes so I wasn't really bothered by the prices. I was just worried that I'd have to bring back the excess rupiah and made a promise to myself that I would not be stepping into Indonesia again, at least not within the next 3 years.
It was until the last minute, when I already resigned myself to the fact that I'd have lots of excess rupiah to bring back that I spotted a bookshop selling English books. It was my haven, really! I had already set aside money for my departure tax and tips for the driver, so I could spend all I had on books. I emerged from the bookstore a happy girl with 4 new books and an empty wallet. Haha I actually told the cashier to help me count how much the books cost and to hold them for me while I looked chose more books to buy. I actually got my bible from over there.
Then it was home sweet home! But before that, there was quite a delay before we actually managed to board the plane.
I thank God for keeping us safe and letting us meet the right people who were so helpful towards us during the drip. Indonesia is not a safe place to be but we survived in the end!
And like I mentioned on facebook, whenever I go to Indonesia, I never fail to realise how blessed I am to be where I am. I guess life is all a matter of circumstances. You can't choose where you are born, to what sort of parents you are born to. And in the past, I always believed that hard work would suffice, but after a while at the workplace, I realised that I had been thinking of just the ideal situations and not real life ones. There I was in Singapore complaining about the MRT delays while the people of my age in Medan were thinking of where their next meal would come from. I am really pampered, most of us. I complain of just a little bit of hardship but I guess it's all a matter of comparisons again. Comparing myself with a villager, I feel blessed, but comparing myself with someone with better circumstances, I would get upset too.
But above all these and since some time ago, I stopped comparing myself to others because I found myself never happy. I might not be the happiest girl now, but compared to the previous me, I am really happier.
1 comment:
haha nvr take pics of the books tt u bought^^
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