By: Hafiz Jasri
Cold, but not as cold as your ex’s heart. Far? It only need you to sleep eight times to reach the Sumatera’s most popular tourist spot; Berastagi. But sleep on the journey to the destination is just a daydream for a Kuala Lumpur guy like me who used to have a smooth ride way back in my country. Here, the roads are narrow and not well-maintained as Malaysia’s full with vehicles and yes, the ride was so exhausting eventhough I only sat at the back row chewing snacks.
The wonderful nightmare were just only started. Upon reaching the foot of the mountain, there is several local’s souvenir’s shops on the roadsides. But we did not stop since it was to early and we will visit the shops later on our back home journey. From there, you can see the road are climbing the mountain with an unbelievable degrees. The real challenges began. We need to drive almost one hour uphill through a bends road. Those who are nausea, prepared your own plastic bag to vomit into.
Most of the tourist will ride a local tourist bus which they called “angkot”. It is a huge van decorated full of colour to attract passengers. It might seems heavy with that humongous look, but it climbed the roads like a toddler when you asked what things that they chew in their mouth. More surprisingly, they manage to intercept others vehicles without facing any difficulties. It seems dangerous and yes it is. They might be a collision if they did not intercepted properly. Having a butterfly in the stomach is a normal things and you can keep your eyes closed to eradicate the fear.
Berastagi is a highland tourist spot that located at Mt. Sinabung; an active volcano that can erupt anytime. For those who do not know where the place is, it is basically located at Karo, North Sumatera. It is only a hundreds kilometer away from the capital of Sumatera which is Medan. The traffic condition make the mobility disrupted. Therefore, the journey might took a longer time. Berastagi can be compared to our own highland tour since both of them are promoting the highland cultivation products such as vegetables and fruit. It were also known as the Cameroon Highland of Indonesia. The only thing that distinguished these two places is Berastagi is huge and does not have a dam like CH.
We drop our anchor arround 10 in the morning. The first place that we stop by is the building of the Lumbini Temple or Candi Lumbini. The candi is the highest candi in Indonesia and it can be spotted miles away since the building itself is tall and located on the high ground with an astonishing gold colour that represented the magnificence of the building with the unique shapes of a bell. It is a temple for the Buddhist to devote themself in Buddhism. The temple was not an old building. It is not like Candi Borobudur that was build since thousands of years ago. The temple was build in 2010 and basically it is a replica of the Shwedagon Temple, Yangon, Myanmar.
You will not see so many people infront of the temple. Those people are going to the backside of the building where a wonderful park with magnificent views resides. Upon our visits, it was raining cats and dogs. We only stop there for a while but still, the scenery never fails to amaze us. Before leaving the place, we stop by the free pubic restrooms. My expectation of filthy toilets are gone. There is no keeper there but still the restroom are clean. The pipe water there are as cold as rubbing ice directly onto our skins. It was refreshing.
Next we are moving to the second checkpoint which is Berastagi Highland Park that is located not too far from the first checkpoint. On our journey, we can see numerous plantations area. On the roadsides, there is a old couple segregate the tomatoes according to their size and ripeness. The tomatoes are freshly picked from the small farm besides their stall and according to my aunt, it will be transported all around Indonesia since Besrastagi is the main sources of vegetables. We also had time to bought a couple pack of strawberries sell on the roadsides. Legends said that if you eat a strawberry freshly, it will be sweet but if you bought it there and eat it somewhere else it will become sour.
Almost time for lunch. We manage to be at the park around 1 pm. It is the hill area with a carpet grasses. We need to pay Rp. 100 000 per car as an entrance fees. Upon the gate, we are given a set of kit since the park is wide and windy and it is included in the fees along with a roll of mat. We open the mat’s roll under the shaded tree surrounding the park. We did not bought any food for our lunch since we had prepared our lunch earlier at home.
With a cool air accompanied by a nice weather, we did not realize time had pasted by. We fill our time there having an outdoor photo-shoot. The place gave a
Upon our journey back home, we did not miss the chance to stop by at their market. The market is not to far from the park and were also along our way back home. Therefore, no need to travel more.
Mock Photoshoot Session
Here, we can find fresh fruits and vegetables. Most of the local farmer open a small stall to sell their significant product. Flowers and plant can also be bought here since the weather here is suitable to cultivate them. The market were also been use as a Horse Central. Where horse riding services are provided here and there is many horses wait to be ride. The high altitude make the air in the body are being release, so drinking “Air Jahe” (ginger) will help to release the air and helps to prevent nausea.
One day is not enough enough to be spend here. I did not have the chances to explore all of the attractions here due to the bad weather and lack of time. But nevertheless, the main landmark have been visited. There will always be tomorrow to discover new things and we did not explore all of it so that next time we will have an excuse to visit the place again.
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