Solo Trip : Medan - Part 1

Hi everyone, so after some checklists, tips and tricks, I am gonna proceed to tell you my first solo trip experience. I am not a good story teller and even the trips was last month but I need some to remember some detail at there. Lol. So yeah, hope you are enjoying my experience.

07/10/2018 - Sunday

My flight was on 07th Oct, 0805 (Malaysian Time). I got moved from my house about 0630. Sent by Mr Baka. Lol thanks tho. We both arrived about 0700 and good bye to Mr Baka. Thank you for sending me to airport. *Heart throb* Lol. The flight went well, without any delayed. That day was so sunny and I'm so excited for my first solo trip to Medan. My plan when I'm touching down to Kualanamu Internation Airport, was to go to Danau Toba, then Berastagi and last destination will be Kota Medan before flying back to Malaysia.

I had arrived at airport about 0830 (Indonesian Time). Kualanamu International Airport is just a small airport where we can walk through the whole area. Not really big and I am kinda like it so that I don't have to walk too far just to go to entrance. Out from that airport, besides that airport, on your right side, you can see, there is small bus station. After reading some blogs from internet, so yeah I went to that station, and asked the driver that I am going to Terminal Amplas. You can hop in Damri Bus. Its quite nice with air conditioned. Pretty comfortable for me.

The fare charge from airport to Terminal Amplas was RP 30,000. The journey took about 1 hour plus to arrive at Terminal Amplas. The terminal was kinda old and the bus already kinda old. At that terminal, next I did hopped in Sejahtera Bus for going to Parapat. They took fare for RP 40,000. The journey too damn long. Its took nearly 7 hours to arrive. Dang. Its really scared to see the way the bus driver drove. I can only sleep in order to ignore my dizziness. a lot of peoples had boarded inside that bus. Too many and its crowded. Its make me kinda stuck and dizzy to see this. My first experience on this. Huhu

After the long journey, with no foods at all inside my stomach, I was so freaky hungry. Its make me can't wait to arrive Danau Toba. The bus drove me to Terminal Tiga Raja. I'm freaky hungry but I have no energy to eat, so before I went to ferry, I did bought sim card (took Axis Prepaid - RP 35,000). For me to communicate with my friends and families member. And oh yeah data is truly important for me if I am away for travel or vacation. For ferry fare, I had been charged for RP 15,000. The ferry started to move on 1430. Each of the hotels, hostels, resorts or homestays, they had their own jetty to aboard. Before flying here, I had already booked hostel at Danau Toba for 1 night with charges of RP 60,000. 

The name of that hostel, was Bagus Bay Homestay. For me, I'm taking this as my travel trip, not vacation. So luxury comfortable hotel is not my priority. So yeah if you wanna have some nice hotel to stay maybe you should go for vacation, be a tourist, took a tour guide, all are in your hand. Your choice tho.

I had arrived at Danau Toba about 1600. I'm totally tired. The hostel were easy to find as the location just near with jetty. Checked in done. The room was average. Only queen bed with 2 pillows, sharing bathroom. Inside the room there is nothing except bed, pillows and blanket. I just ... okay I'm cool. Lol. After washed up a bit, I had decided to get foods, but seem I had been lost. I don't know where to go, what to do. I was walking slow thru the valley until I met this one uncle. Really nice uncle. (Forgot to ask his name thou). I did asked him where I can get halal food around here. So he had offered me to bring me to that shop. He ride me with his motor and I'm totally appreciated what he did to me. He even took me back from that shop to my hostel. Without any charges! Thanks a lot uncle!

After ate, I went to shore of Toba. Seeing the scene of it, Masya Allah I couldn't describe it. I will update the pictures once I got my chances. I'm really happy for being here. But somehow I do felt sad, maybe because this is my first solo trip and I felt lonely. Lol. Told this to Mr Baka, and he got mad on me, because he really don't want me to come here. Lol. 

Night approaching and I'm get ready to back to my room. Bought some foods for supper, I'm off to my room, planning my next plan for tomorrow

My budget on 1st day

Hotel : RP 60,000

Damri Bus (To Terminal Amplas) : RP 30,000

Sejahtera Bus (To Parapat - Terminal Tiga Raja) : RP 40,000

Sim card (AXIS - 4GB for 1 Week) : RP 35,000

Ferry to Toba : RP 15,000

Foods : RP 65,000

Total : RP 244,000 @ MYR 74.00 

P/S : will update the picture soon.

Solo Trip : Checklist, Tips and Trick

So yeah, I just done my first solo to Medan on 07/10/2018 until 11/10/2018, in total 5 days 4 nights. Before proceeding my experience at Medan, let see what the checklist I had done, to make my travel trip went smoothly without any problems. (Thanks God huhu)

First of all, we go for checklist which its important for us to bring it to make our travel trip become smooth.

Passport

Yeahhhh, the most important part guys. Passport. We need to have passport in order for us to go outside from your own country. Since I went to Medan, there is no need a VISA for that. I will share the procedure of VISA once I got the experience. LOL. Please make sure your passport validity is more than 6 months from the date you will going to fly. If not, please renew your passport so that there will no problem at all for you to fly. If at Malaysia, the charge for doing passport is RM 200 (validity for 5 years). Not to forget, please do check your education loan aka PTPTN before flying. Huhu

Travel Plug/Adapter

Another important thing to bring along. Every countries has their own way for applying electricity socket. in order to use the plug without any problem, you need to bring travel plug/adapter for you to connect with all necessary electronic devices. Luckily, I don't have to buy since I got it as my door gift from my previous employment.

Camera

Besides than using your phone camera to capture the picture, you may bring camera to capture the beautiful moment. At Medan, I was using Action Camera, not really well known brand but I do satisfied with its quality of pictures and videos (Will share on next post)

Earphone

Being a traveller, especially solo traveller you must be excited to explore new things and new places. It makes you blend with nature and local peoples. But sometimes, you need your pace right? Lol, so the earphone much needed for that. So prepare the earphone for your own usage.

Raincoats

Yes. At first I don't think its necessary for me to bring raincoat, but yeah I do provide it for any circumstances. Before going for travelling, its advisable to check the weather and prepare necessary things. Since my solo trip was going to Medan, and luckily I did bring the raincoat. At Berastagi and Medan, its raining. Not too heavy but it is raining, and this raincoat had helped me. 

Water Bottle

Please prepare small bottle for you to fill water. You don't have to spend every mineral water. 

Wet Tissue

Its much better than normal tissue if you asked me. Huhu. Yeah just in case. There are a lot of things can do by using wet tissue, especially women. Lol

Pen/Journal Book

I do prepare a pen and book for me to record my activities while sight seeing or I must say, during travelling. More over, some places need your arrival form. So you don't have to wait to use other people's pen instead of that you can use yours

Sunglasses

Lol. Definitely needed especially on sunny day. Why not?

Medicines

1 of most important things that you need to have in your bag while travelling. I had prepared nasal filter, some ointments, motion sickness pills, bedbug cream and flu pills (as when I was there, I got flu)

USB Wire

I am pretty sure some of us having more than 2 USB wires. We have for phone, cameras and so on. So I did used my old glasses case to put it all into 1 place. Easy huh? I don't have to put this and there. Make it simple by putting all into 1 case. 

**********************************************************************************

All these was my checklist when I was on my trip. There will vary for some other travellers. Mix match all the checklist to get what you need to do. Besides knowing what to bring and all, there are also some tips that you need to understand, especially for women solo travellers. I would like to share with you some tips for solo travelling

1)   Make sure your phone always ON. Prepare powerbank for emergency usage if you can't find any available plug to plug in your phone. Make sure the line is okay, or prepaid inside your phone can be use. Stay anywhere which safer for you, if your phone dead, and start moving once everything is okay.

2)   Don't asked direction from stranger. The best way to ask are police (if there is police there), shop lot owners (because they can't follow you if they have bad intention on you, and a group of friends/families.

3)   Try not to attract any attentions. Remember you are at other countries not yours. Stay low-key and don't be so fancy (wearing any jewellery can attract thieves)

4)   What happened if you had been attacked by someone? Don't scream, keep calm and try to call the police.

4)   For those who travelling to western country, I got some tips from blog that please avoid to speak English. Maybe for safety purpose I guess. 

5)   Don't forget to bring passport with you, even you are only want to go nearby.

6)   Especially for women travellers, avoid to use handbags. Please use sling bag and make sure to put in front of your chest for safety purpose

7)   If you are notice that you are been followed by someone/strangers, don't straight away go back to hostel/hotel/places that you wanna go. Stop for awhile at any shop and waiting until its safe to move.

8)   Be careful with hotel/hostel peoples. They more likely can rob you compare to outsiders

9)   Don't play too much with your phone. Be alert.

Hat Yai 2D1N - Day 2

06/08/2018 - Sunday

Sleeping on unusual bed, which not same as my bed, made me super can't sleep at all. I'm only sleep after 0200. Sigh. So on the next day, all of us wake up about 1000. We went for bath, and packing up our things. We were decided to check out early and went for last shot at Hat Yai Town. The check out things was under Nana's care. So while she went settle that, since the hotel allowed us to put our bags for awhile, Kak Zai and I went to small corner of the hotel, and put our things there.

From Kosit Hotel, we took Grab to go to 1 of viral dim sum restaurant, Chabura Dim Sum. Their location is at 430 Ratthakan Road, Sapan Dam, Khlong Hae 90110 Thailand. After we back from Hat Yai, we also heard 1 good place for dim sum. Maybe I will come again to cover some places that I didn't have time last time.

Me (pink tudung) and Kak Zai (grey tudung)

Me and Nana (Peach tudung)

The place at Chabura was quite neat and when we were arrived there, there was alot of vistors. The choices of dim sum was quite good also. We also did tried their ala carte dish. Not my cup of tea but yeah, quite nice for the appearance. I don't remember how much we paid on that day, but I'm pretty sure that the price wasn't expensive at all. So after eating, we took Tuk Tuk to go to Lee Garden. Again. Sigh. Lmao. To be honest, three of us kinda really into 7-Eleven at Thailand. For god's sake, their 7-Eleven was so awesome. I am Malaysian, and I am proud to be Malaysian. But seriously, their 7-Eleven was so better than at Malaysia. More on food varieties and personal stuffs that you can get from their 7-Eleven. Last time I did watched 1 video about Japan's 7-Eleven and it's really gave me an inspiration to save more, and go there. 1 fine day, Leya!

At 7-Eleven, you also can take a chance to taste their coffee choices. I did tried their Cappucino. And it's damn tasty. Haha. I'm not too keen with coffee. Truly is I don't like any kinds of coffee, but this. This is so tasty, I am even bring back the cup as my own sourvenir. Hahaha rofl. When you buying at their 7-Eleven, I'm not sure whether it's store promotion or what, but after we paid our things, we will get some coupons. From that, we can used it up and redeemed the coffee.

Nearly to 1500, three of us made sudden plan which we wanna go for manicure and pedicure. So on the way back from 7-Eleven to Kosit Hotel (to pick up our bags before back to Malaysia). Seriously I was trying to recall the price. My heads still can't get the answer. Haha. I guess I am too old already. Sobss. If I'm not mistaken, it was about 350 THB, for both. Manicure and pedicure. We were also on that time wanna go for more, but looking at our wallet, really made me wanna cry tho. Lol. That why I did mentioned earlier that this is not budget trip. If you're looking for budget trip to Hat Yai, this is not your good references. Ill tell you why. To go on budget trip, you shall not shopping like crazy, go for massage or manicure. We wanted some pleasure moments at Hat Yai, that why we didn't put any budget on it. We just go for it.

Yeah, please ignore big thigh there. Sigh

Okay back to our journey here, after we were done with the session, quickly we went back to hotel to pick up our bags. We took Grab from hotel to Terminal Bus/Taxi for us to Thai-Malaysia Border Terminal.

We bought van ticket here for 50 THB, so damn cheap. If compare while we were coming yesterday. Disappointed. But hey, lesson for us tho. At least the next visit we already know where to go and all. I will repeat again to Hat Yai soon. There were some places we didn't go since we didn't have enough time. (1 night at Hat Yai, what you expect, Leya? *rolling eyes*

The van only move when all the passagers are inside the van. We were moved from Hat Yai Bus Terminal about 1830 to border. To make the journey more interesting, seriously three of us be like forget about when will the border close and whether we are able to buy the ticket on time. The adrenaline rush comes straight into our mind. Actually I don't mind to stay another 1 night here. Same goes to Nana. Nana will back straight to KL while Kak Zai will stop at Alor Setar, since she adding 1 more off day. We did arrived at border at about 2000. We were quickly run towards border to chop out from Thailand. Oh yeah, at van also, we got new friends who also travel to Thailand for hiking. 2 malay guys from KL. So there were 5 of us, running to train station to get our last ticket after chopping out the passport. Due to short of time, we took taxi (MYR 5 per pax), asked the driver to send us to train station.

The 2 gentlemen was helping Nana to bring her stuffs (she was bringing a big luggage just to shop alot of yogurt drink). While Kak Zai and I were running like hell, just to go to the counter. And yes, Allah really took care of us, and we were managed to buy the last ticket. Thanks God!

I didnt taste yet, but Nana buy it so much haha

I am providing you some pictures inside Thailand's &-Eleven, which I really hoped that Malaysia's 7-Eleven can do this also. Should I send the feedback to Malaysia's 7-Eleven pertaining of this? Lmao.

Lucky us. The last ticket tho

At last, like finally we were managed to get in into train. Our depart time was on 2034. There were 5 of us entered into train, but our ending destination will be different. Kak Zai was stopped at Alor Setar Station, me myself was stopped at Bukit Mertajam Station while Nana and another 2 gentlemen, they were off at last station, Butterworth Station since 3 of them will back to KL via bus. Even we went Hat Yai only for 2D1N but the experience tho, definitely we won't forget it. I am probably will come back to Hat Yai. With family maybe. Hope all my plan goes well. Amin.

So yeah, like I did mentioned again before. This is not budget trip. It's trip, we can called it "Plan lantak hg laaaaa". Lmao. I don't know what to say in English. Lol. Next post I will write about Medan. Oh yeahh. Excited huh? Lmao

As I told just now, yeah about Medan. I will go for my 1st ever solo trip. Yeah, I admitted that just closeby from Malaysia, but going there alone, really tough I guess. Well we will wait for that. Lol. 7 October, wait for me.

Catch up later guys!

Hatyai 2D1N - Day 1

Hi everyone, it's been so long I didn't update here. Huhu. So yeah, it's been a month plus since I'm back from Hat Yai as my short escape vacation with my fellow friends. Really close since we were at university life. I could say our friendship had already into 12 years, and it's still counting. So back to the topic, my sweet escape was on 04th August 2018 until 05th August 2018.

Hat Yai is a city in Southern Thailand near the Malaysian Border. Located at 7*1'N 100*28'E, it is 946 km (588 mil) South of Bangkok and has a population of 158,218 (2012) in the city itself and about 800,000 in the greater Hat Yai area. Hat Yai is the largest city of Songkhla Province, the largest metropolitan area in the south, and the third largest metropolitan area of the country

So let's begin. Oh yeahhh. It's been a month, and please apologise if I did missed the points.

04/08/2018 - SATURDAY

This plan had been planned by me and my friends, Kak Zai and Nana. We had planned a month before we went there. Nana were in-charge on hotel booking for us. And Kak Zai is more on organize our activities at there. Me? Laying down, be cool lol. Since Kak Zai and Nana was from Kuala Lumpur, so they had to get on ETS from KL Sentral to Padang Besar. They took ticket at 2300, Friday 03/08/2018, and the price if I'm not mistaken was MYR79 one way. You may refer to KTM website about the journey and the price of ticket as well. We were decided to go for backpacker, whereby we were there without any tourist guides. So yeah, meanwhile me myself were from Penang so my journey started on the next itself. For me to grab the first ticket on 04/08/2018, which was on 0530, I wake up early. Luckily I did managed to get Grab on that early morning (MYR16). Everything went well. Not waiting for long, I just hopped into the train on time. The journey took about 2 hours +-. I did managed to arrive at Padang Besar Station about 0730, while at the same time, Kak Zai and Nana already arrived there, waiting for me since 0530. Lol

Captured this on 05/08 - Still valid tho I guess

The counter for the next train from Padang Besar to Hat Yai will operating about 0900. Three of us had decided to not to wait for this train. We can't stayed idle for 2 hours waiting for counter to be operate. Hell no. Lol. So yeah, we went around to ask the railway staff on how to get into Thailand border. It's walking distance from Padang Besar Station to Thailand Border. 15 minutes walking distance I guess. I am cool with that. From the station, you can also get the van to go Thailand Border. Can go with the van from Padang Besar Station to Thai-Malaysia border, got your passport to chop by them, and straight away go to Hat Yai with that van. But if I am not mistaken, the fare quite pricy. It's about 200 THB per pax.

At Border Padang Besar - Hat Yai

Oh yeahhhh

Since we didn't go for that option, so we walked from station to border. Once we got there, there were alot of visitors (or I can say "Malaysians"). We did save our time by walking to border, without went thru via train. We went there, got the chop from Immigration and tadaaaaa, we are in Thailand!! And oh yeah, we also met with a group of 4 girls, who also on their way to Hat Yai Town. To save more money, we were agreed to share among 7 of us, got 1 whole van to bring us to the town. The fare was 800 THB. That means its was 110 THB per pax. The journey from border to Hat Yai Town took us about 4 hours. (It's like Penang to Kuala Lumpur!). As you know, the difference time zone between Thailand and Malaysia was 1 hour. Please alert your time once you were entered Thailand

The van sent the group of 4 at their hotel. Then our turn to hotel. We were arrived on 1100. So Nana did booked at middle of Hat Yai, and the hotel name was "Kosit Hotel". I am not sure the charges in THB, but we booked it for MYR120. MYR40 for each of us. Quite afforadable right? The room was nice and we were comfortable with the bed and all the equipments. Once we had arrived, we tried to check in earlier than the allowed time, and luckily, the room was empty and we were allowed to check in even not at 1400 yet. Lucky us! 

Can only snapped on next day. Lulz

Our next plan was to eat. Too damn hungry on that time, so we're quickly checked in and washed up ourselves. For first place to go, we went to 1 Muslim restaurant where it's not really far from our hotel (forget the name of shop, but the foods nice tho). It's walking distance, and while walking, you can see the face of Hat Yai Town. Really nice tho. Even their face probably like me (Hahaha, BTW I have siamese blood), but yet it's still make me feel like I am not at Malaysia. Maybe due to their language. But don't worry tho. They can also speak in Malay fluently. So to those maybe not really keen in English, you may just talk in Malay with the local. 

1st food once came here. Nice tomyam!

So done with our eating session. We then walked towards Robinson Mall. One of mall inside Hat Yai Town. We really not buying anything there, just well girls right? We went for window shopping. Probably while dreaming to have a rich husband who allowed me to buy anything. Lol. JK.

We were just awhile at that mall, not taking too much time. The mall just same as what we have at Malaysia. After that we moved to go to Hat Yai Railway Station. To snap some good picture, and since three of us never hopped in open air train at Hat Yai.

After having some fun there, again we moved to "Talad Sot". This name been told by Nana. She said that she and her family was calling this market as "Talad Sot". Not sure tho if they got another name for that market. Inside there, I am guarantee that you will definitely wanna buy alot. Three of us being shopaholic all of sudden. Haha. You have to know how to bargain the price with the local. Some of it were selling quite expensive, so yeah. Sharpen more your skill on bargain babe! We just being lucky since Nana with us. And some of her tips really helped us.

MYR was not really performed well, so we were kinda felt the difference between exchange rate. Last time on 2013 and 2014, I did went for Krabi (2013) and Koh Lipe (2014), the difference not really much, but this time I can feel the difference. Sobsss. Hoping MYR can perform well soon. Chaiyok Malaysia!

At Hat Yai, to move to one place to another place, you can get 'Tuk-Tuk", resembles as small van. But kinda open air where you can see more the Hat Yai Town. Normally Tuk Tuk is cheaper, so you need to survey first the price before hopping in. Normally if not mistaken, note by Nana, the price was only about 20 THB to 30 THB (BTW, Nana's mother was originate from Thailand. So she was been here so many times at some place at Thailand).

Oh yeah, about the data or internet connection, Nana did told us that she had the sim (AIS Simcard). So we just need to reload. We were done all the necessary things about sim at Robinson. We went for reload the credit and choose the plan. We had chosen 4GB and open the hotspot so that three of us can share the facility. Its shall enough tho. Some more, at hotel we had free WIFI. The free WIFI was quite nice and okay.

About 1600 we went to Klonghae Floating Market. We went there using Grab. Seriuosly it's much better to use Grab. More comfortable and cheaper than using Taxi or Tuk Tuk. Floating Market, the hot spot that you need to come if you are deciding to come to Hat Yai. There were alot of peoples there. The clothes that they sell was quite cheap and maybe you can again do the bargain skill. Why not. Lol

Actually there was alot pictures that we snapped here, but I don't know why the picture can't went thru PC. I will upload again when available. Really nice place, with nice foods of course. The price? You need to survey, there were cheap and quite expensive. Depends on your taste, friend. At first when we were planned to come to Hat Yai, we did survey 1 restaurant. Viral before we came here. The name was "Klonghae Seafood". Seeing from maps, I can see the distance not really so far, so we were decided to walk to that restaurant. Seem I had a bit knowledge on maps, so both of them just followed me.

Really damn nice foods. Super cheap for me! Because for all these kinds of food, I am pretty sure I can't get this kind of price at Malaysia. There are 2 kinds of packages that you can see. Firstly, for 289 THB, you can go for everything and everywhere. They did served buffet and seafoods. So with 289 THB you can go for both. And of course we went for that packages. We were digged in like pigs! Damn you girls. Lol. The second packages was 279 THB, where you can only enjoyed the buffet side. So just differences of 10 THB, why not we went for the most one?

Am I sleepy or too full? No one knows. LOL

Seriously we was started eating from 1800 until 2000. Especially myself. I was eating too much, and I didn't regretted at all. Due to eating too much, three of us decided not to go to Asean Night Market. We were heard from other travellers that Asean Night Market is quite simple and they asked us just go to Night Market at Lee Garden area. So after eating, we were back to our hotel to keep our shopping bags, got washed up and went out again towards night market at Lee Garden area.

See, how nice their food. Drooling. I am the big fan of prawns. So really Hat Yai is the food heaven for me. You can easily got nice food. Big thanks to Nana tho. Haha. We were literally almost finished our money. Haha. Too crazy offers and alot of peoples to be honest. I did bought Hat Yai t-shirts for my families members. Not forget to Kak Zai and Nana. They bought clothes, shoes and more. Please take note guys, this trip is not budget trip. Unlike some other posts at Facebook where they did promoted how cheap the budget to go to Hat Yai. Three of us had set our minds that we went there, to enjoy and have fun. And yes we are! 

Nearly 2200, I told to Nana and Kak Zai that I am too tired to walk for more. Unlike both of them, they still wanna go for it. Sigh seriously they didn't even tired. Lmao. Actually after our session at Lee Garden's night market, three of us planned to go for massage. (Here, there was some incident happened to me. Sigh. Will tell the whole story after I'm finishing my post about Day 2 at Hat Yai on next post.

So back to our topic, while Kak Zai and Nana continuing their search on buying things. I went to Motor Taxi, for me to back to hotel. Can't afford to walk tho. So with 30THB, he rode his motor to my hotel. Quite scary tho, when he rode fast and go between cars. I really like to ride fast or drive fast, but obviously I'll do that if I'm the one who ride or drive. Hahaha. But yeah, I did arrived to hotel with safe and sound. Its took about 5 min journey only. Quite near but nah, I can't walk for more.

About 2230, Nana and Kak Zai had returned safely to hotel. We decided to go for full body thai massage and the shop just closeby with the hotel. Really convenient tho. We paid 350 THB for 1 hour massage.

So here you are. Day 1 post from me. Will continue on the next post on day 2 at Hat Yai.

Ramadhan Al Kareem

Not too late if I wanted to wish to all Muslim, Happy Ramadhan Al Kareem.

Day by day, and we are now going to 8th of Ramadhan. And really, Allah SWT really care about me.

He had shown me what if I still staying at the same stage and yeah, I know He want me to change.

Change for good.

Sometimes, in order to be happy, we will hurt so badly so that we will appreciate what is love?

What is happiness?

And yeah, I guess I can say that I had learnt so much until I am clearly need to knock my head.

And today, 23/05/2018, I am physically, mentally and emotionally ready to enter,

To enter new phase in my life.

I'm ready to grow more and get even better than before

I know I am deserve to genuinely happy. Even I am happy with myself

Keep love yourself, Leya. And God will do a really good favour to someone who always keep trying

All I need is to keep strong and to keep calm. Let them with their dramas.

- Leya
23052018 , 11:05 PM
Penang, Malaysia