[Global Entry]

There are trips we take for different reasons: for revelry in the company of others, for indulging some need or desire (whether ours or perhaps a family member’s), and for various professional pursuits. And then there are trips that some of us take for the experience of going somewhere and seeing something new, perhaps something unknown, outside the obvious, maybe even outside the comfort zone.

I’d posted a trip report of a non-game journey I took to Sri Lanka last year, and I got some flack for it on RVF because some of the readers didn’t see how the value of the girls there justified the trip. Perhaps they didn’t, but that’s not a trip I regret at all, as I saw leopards and elephants as did my father, and he was elated and delighted as was I. He’s 82.

I write this prologue as a suggestion to those who weren’t interested in the Sri Lanka write-up to stop reading now. This isn’t going to be worth your time, however you value it. That is was more than worth my time, that it checked off my list some imaginary boxes on my desired life experience, well, I’ll agree in advance that this is my own idiosyncrasy, and we’ll leave it at that.

After the big gunners meetup in Bangkok, I retreated to the Conrad for a promotion they are running right now (this isn't my points thread, so I'll leave it at that), and to try to recover and dry out from being in the presence of livers far more hearty than my own. That worked for the first night, when I had a repeater come by for a quiet evening in the hotel, but not so much the second night, which had a later night return to clubbing that left me with little sleep, and a terrible hangover. In addition, and I’ve no idea why, I’d had fits of hiccups since returning to the hotel from the clubs, and they kept me up most of the night, while my date slept. Hard to get it done when you can’t stop hiccupping. One for the story books, I guess.

Papi and I had decided that getting out of Bangkok should take us somewhere which was a bit undiscovered by our group but also on the way to Java, where he needed to be a few days later. For my own purposes, I wanted somewhere inexpensive, interesting, and game wasn’t a priority at all. We agreed upon Medan in Sumatra, which had cheap direct flights from BKK’s DM airport. (There are also direct flights to/from Jakarta, KL, and to Penang, where I headed after leaving Sumatra).

Medan is the fourth biggest city in Indonesia, by population, and the largest on Sumatra, which is the island that runs parallel to Malaysia and Singapore as the west-most portion of Indonesia. Its across the Straight of Malacca from that part of Malaysia, and as a result, has a mix of ethnicities like cities across the straight do (e.g. Penang), Chinese, Indian, Malay, Indonesian and Batak (who comprises really eight sub-ethnicities of aboriginal people who live around Sumatra in the rural areas for the most part, tho I met some Batak people in Medan as well, including an ill-fated Tinder matchup).

The airport in Medan is a fair ride to the city center – rate should be 150K Rupiah (less than US$12) whether you’re alone or sharing the ride so try not to get rolled. Lots of people scamming inside the terminal , so just head out, and use the taxi desks outside. Terminal has several ATMs to get local currency Expect an hour or more to ride to central Medan. (There's a train as well, but given my dilapidated condition, I didn't take it).

Medan has bad traffic like Jakarta and while its quite spread out as a city overall, the city center and many of the sites of interest aren’t that far from each other. Basically a hotel in the center near Merdeke Walk (discussed below) wont be much further than 30 minutes from most of the places you’re likely to want to visit. Sidewalks aren’t in the greatest condition in many spots, so walking can be tough, but Becak (pronounced Be’-chalk), which are basically motorized rickshaws where you sit next to the driver, cost about 20K rupiah for foreigners (locals pay 10K, but good luck). Taxis are fairly available from populous spots, and are very cheap as well, but have a minimum fare of 25K rupiah (or so the drivers say, tho a few times I paid a meter below the 25K). Renting a motorbike is an option as well, and roads didn’t seem too bad, though the rain could be overwhelming at times.

Papi and I checked into one of the two pseudo-five star hotels in Medan, a JW Marriot, and I immediately took a five hour nap to try to recover. It was passable for recovery, and we made it out to Merdeke Walk the first night, hitting a super cheap, super popular dim sum place, Nelayan, left of the Merdeke Walk entrance (i ate there several times during my time in Medan). I would recommend the place highly. Expect to eat to your hearts content for around 6-7 USD per person.

Merdeke Walk itself is a restaurant strip which has a walking street. Apart from two foreign fast food places (McD and Pizza Hut), its got about 12-15 local food restaurants. It also seems to have live music acts every evening and is certainly a place where younger people are gathered. During the day its mostly sleepy but there are a few cafes where one could sit, use the decent wifi and pound out some work in relative tranquility.

The second night evening (both of us had work to do during the day) we went over to Sun Plaza, which is a shopping mall. To say this place was popular and crawling with gals in their older teens and twenties would not be to overstate it. I was on a second ill-fated Tinder date, and Papi was reconnecting with a friend from elsewhere, but we all ate together, and I was more than satisfied with the quality of the girls walking around. I’d also add that in the first two days I’d seen less than five white guys in total, and so our presence didn’t go unnoticed either. Its not like Bali, or even Jakarta, where bule aren’t plentiful. You’ll see one or two in passing every once in a while, but there doesn’t seem to be any expat community, for better or worse. On a second visit, I picked a girl up in Starbucks in Sun Plaza my last full day in Medan, but while she was excited to make a Bule friend and whatsapp buddy, her impending marriage was three weeks away and she proactively told me (in a manner that made me believe here that) she's not "naughty". Too bad. She did want to introduce me to her friends (girls) but alas, I was out of time.

After I ejected from the tinder date, and Papi did what he needed to do, we met up again to check out Shoots, which is a billiard hall dance club combination. It seemed a decent place, and there were a few tables of girls, but the place was largely empty. It had been recommended by a Jakarta girl who was from Medan, and we stayed for some cheap drinks (much less cost to drink here than in similar spots in Jakarta), but otherwise timing was not on our side. Moreover, when we left, it was a bit of a nightmare to get a cab back to the hotel. Eventually one turned up from the security guys calling for us – no uber in Medan, for those who generally depend on that. Neither one of us had grabteksi on our phones and I wasn’t down to GoJek during the rain. Plan ahead for that in Medan if you can.

Papi took off the next morning, and I moved hotels to the other "high end" hotel in Medan , the Aston. Just an FYI- the most expensive hotels in Medan run around 700K rupiah a night before taxes, so you’ll top out at around 65-70USD a night including the sizable taxes and fees they put on top. That said, there are innumerable choices for places that cost half that or less. Location of many of them is good, but no intel here on internet, cleanliness, etc. I wasn’t impressed by the Aston, at all, other than the breakfast buffet, which was solid (though the restaurant was a madhouse as it was Chinese NY, and a million Chinese-Indo women were taking selfies like it was the end of the world). For the same cost, the Marriot is a solid hotel ( I normally don’t like Marriots but there was this deal…) but not as well positioned, I’d say, as the Aston.

Inside the Aston there’s a club called Entrance. I did check it out each of the two nights I stayed at the Aston, the first by sitting down for a few drinks and the second I just popped my head in. It was pretty empty both nights, tho supposedly that is the place to go in Medan. The second night was also a weekend, so it was surprising for it to be so dead. Meanwhile there were a ton of people across the street at Merdeke.

Entrance has drinks that are closer to Jakarta prices, and for some reason had a bunch of Waria (Indo for ladyboys) inside, five of whom took the stage at some point to do some half-assed dance review. Probably of the girls, 80 percent of them were hookers, attractive enough for sure, but hookers. It was a fairly disappointing scene and it didn’t improve the next night. I think if you’re in Medan, you can have a look but I wouldn’t plan around Entrance making your night. Further, between the ladyboys and the squirrely waiters/host, the place had a bit of a gay club vibe to it overall, so not to my liking.

While Papi was around, we visited a famous old house of a Sultan and saw some of the sites of Medan and also went to lunch to try the famous Medan soup at some tiny little spot that apparently is known for … Medan soup (its pretty good, but not unlike other soups with coconut milk you may have tried around SE Asia). But I wanted to get out of Medan and around Sumatra.

I called a girl I knew who was in Jakarta and asked her if she wanted to come up to Sumatra. She’d be both a companion and a translator as English levels outside Medan, well, they’re not great overall (though aptitude was high where I least expected it). She jumped on a plane the next morning and came to Medan.

There were three or four things that looked the most promising/interesting. One was a trip into the jungle at Bukit Lawang. That had been my first choice, but apparently, during rainy season, its not a good time to go. I was told the jungle was a lake several feet deep at the current time and to pick another excursion. So we chose to go to the largest volcanic lake in SE Asia, Lake Toba (which was created when an enormous volcano exploded (and the debris from which may have caused an ice age), which is famous among Indonesians. To give a sense of the size, Lake Toba is significantly larger than all of Singapore., and more than half of it is filled by Samosir Island. Its also the primary home of the Toba-Batak aborigines of Sumatra. On the way back, we’d hit the city of fruit, Berestagi, which is another purported tourist destination in Sumatra Utara (north Sumatra).

I booked a driver (relative for cost/comfort, the flexibility of when to travel not according to bus or train schedules, the speed of getting places (the buses take forever) and guidance, it made sense at around 50/day all in – and I didn’t find a lot of options, those I did seemed less reliable and no cheaper). The website through which I booked the driver is tobatransporter.com. Was 2,900,000 rupiah (a bit over USD 200) (plus tip which wasn’t required but perhaps expected 350,000) for four days, and the driver was available all the time. He didn’t speak English and he also didn’t do as much guiding as he was supposed to do, but he was an expert driver that got us in one piece over mountain roads at the maximum safe speed from place to place. Some of the driving was a bit hair-raising , but he’s definitely skilled. I have his direct contact ID, which would almost undoubtedly yield a lower price than what I paid Toba.

Lake Toba is reached by heading by car or bus to Parapat from Medan, which is around 5-9 hours depending on which you choose. Alternatively, there is a train that goes to Siantar, from which you can then book a car to take you the last hour to Parapat. From Parapat, you take an hour-long slow ferry to Samosir Island, which is a quite large island in Lake Toba. Samosir has many accommodation choices, including small inns, motels and even home stays with Batak people. The ranges of prices is pretty broad, but I didn’t see much costing more than around 35USD at the top for a basic room w/ breakfast. We arrived right at the beginning of the low season, so perhaps its higher normally. Food prices at restaurants were probably a little higher than in Medan but certainly lower than Jakarta. Quality of the food, both Medan dishes and Batak seafood (which is delicious), was high in general and the Batak innkeepers tended to speak really good English, better than many of their Sumatran counterparts. Being in a tourist trade where foreigners come has had its effect (I saw far more bule in Samorsir than in Medan, even with a much smaller population).

Lake Toba is beautiful, scenic and relatively clean as least once you get away from the ferry port. The waters of the lake are volcanically warmed and the island climbs up several thousand meters, from which point you can see well across the island and lake. The one suggestion would be to take mosquito repellent. I got the shit bit out of my ankles just sitting in restaurants there.

Overall Toba reminded me some of Hawaii by its looks. Its significantly rougher around the edges, but polished enough for newer travellers. They have a a few cash machines, you can rent a scooter for 100000 rupiah a day, and you’d have no problem communicating in English once on the island (getting there could be a different matter if you take mini-bus/public transport, though I imagine just repeating Toba would get you there).

Here are a few snaps.


Parapat lakeside, Batak houses.


Batak kids who dive for money tourists throw, on the ferry.




From Toba Village Inn at dawn (suite or whatever they called it).



From the highlands over Samosir.


The high point of Berestagi.

We stayed two days in Toba, or basically got in towards late afternoon, stayed two nights, the day between, and left the morning after. We could have taken more time on the island, but I feel like one more day would have been enough. More perhaps would be overkill, depending on who you’re with. My companion was pleasant, but in English she’s not much of a conversationalist, and I was ready to get away from the mosquitos. I stayed at the Toba Village in, and paid for an upgraded room, so it was around 45USD a night. I would neither recommend it, or not. Seemed fairly basic and average, though the wifi worked well.

After Toba, we headed to Berestagi. The highlight of Berestagi was actually getting there. Instead of taking the ferry back to Parapat our driver took the back way off Samosir, which led through some pretty bumpy trails. That’s wasn't the hair raising part. After getting off, we climbed up some mountain roads to what had to be about 5000 feet elevation along these roads with cutback after cutback, some with guard rails, and some spots with nothing. Eventually we were driving through clouds, passing traffic in front of us on a two lane road with trucks coming the opposite direction. The driver did a great job, but to say I felt safe, well, that would be an overstatement. Some amazing views of the lake and the valley however.

Berestagi itself was less than exciting. While its pumped up (well pumped up to travellers in as a tourist destination, its basically a retreat for Sumatrans with a bit of money to go to a mountain inn, at least in my limited experience). Hotels were more costly here, but not worth the money for sure. The Grand Mutiara, where I stayed, didn’t even have Wifi despite being a 4+ star resort, and we were booked into a room with two double beds (not a big issue in and of itself, but the place was just shabby - more 2+3* type room).

I would generally recommend to miss Berestagi, other than to treat it as a stopping point perhaps between two other cities in Sumatra Utara.

Overall, I think the takeaways are is that Medan could be a decent city from which to base - low cost, internet and cel covered seemed fine, friendly people (much shyer girls than Jakarta but far higher exotic value, for whatever thats worth). Lake Toba is a nice place to visit for a few days, with company as well, and if you bother to make it to Sumatra Utara, it should be near the top of the list. I would rather have gone north to Banda Aceh or some beach place if I had more time than to have stopped in Berestagi, but I don't regret the itinerary.

[Papi Rico]

- Great to explore some uncharted territory with Global Entry, albeit for only a few days. Next time I'll convince you to take a becak from the airport.
- Appreciate the Lake Toba/Berestagi portions that I couldn't check out.
- North Sumatra should be on our collective watch list as a region with extremely sweet and some very hot girls who are increasingly finding professional incentives to stick around rather than jetting to Jakarta/Bali.

[bootyhuntah]

Nice report. I visisted this city 3-4 years back and the highlight for me was this place, Macehat Coffee, with perhaps the best coffee I tried in Indonesia. Though I didn't take much interest to the women there, the Javanese babes were quite.

[Chaos]

Great report Global.

I also spent some time in Medan,Lake Toba and Bukit Lawang a couple of years ago.
Was there in August and the Lake Toba village was pretty dead at the time.

I had a Russian girl with me and together we explored on a scooter pretty much everything that Samosir Island had to offer. Almost no other "tourists" around. Also did some pretty cool jungle trekking in Bukit Lawang meanwhile orangutangs were pissing on us from the threes above.

Pretty good experience overall apart from the vicious stomach disease that struck me. Had to stay in bed for days and ultimately I ended up at the local chicken house doctor being severly dehydrated. More about that here.

I don't think I'll be visiting again.

[Global Entry]

That sounds fairly awful, Chaos, but of course I am not surprised a traveller like you has been there. You've the luggage stamps to make anyone envious of your journeys.

I might recommend avoiding meat in third world places with limited refrigeration - will cut down heavily on the chances of stomach trauma from parasites/bacterial infection. Eating vegetables and eggs, especially eating spicy/vinegar heavy foods can also lower the risk. Not much to do if your hosts simply have dirty hands.

I wouldn't hesitate to go back - in fact I was invited to a wedding in Medan by the girl i picked up in the Starbucks (her wedding, ). I probably will decline that invite, as I'd rather head somewhere new next time. But overall, I didn't find the place unpleasant at all.

Just clicked your link - I remember those photos...What's next on your map, Chaos? I'm in BKK perhaps five minutes walk from where you and I first sat down for a beer a few years ago.

[Biologist]

I am loving all of this Indonesia data coming out on RVF lately! I would rep you again if I could Global Entry.

[worldtraveler3]

Good travel data sheet
But was there much in term of game?

[Global Entry]

Its slow-roll game, I think for the most part. Medan girls are open to meeting foreigners, but they're shy, and seemed conservative so its not gonna be a quick thing. If you want easy indonesian girls head to Jakarta or Bali or Bandung, not to Medan. But if you're in Medan, there are girls. I opened several girls and got numbers.

[Uptown]

I'll be there in 2 or 3 weeks if anyone wants to meet. I can speak indonesian pretty well and know what I'm doing when it comes to the country.

Feel free to shoot me a message. I'm more than happy to play translator for another orang asing or bule.

[Uptown]

I just finished my trip to Sumatra with only 1 notch on the island from a German backpacker I met.

Padang
I was trying to find a bar/club on a Sunday night and had no luck at all. This city was deserted when it came to nightlife. A lot of pros who will get driven past in a car and the pimp will honk at you... no thanks.
I went to the beach 30min from the city: Pantai Air Manis. There are some islands off the coast that are cool to check out, being Pulau Pisang besar/kecil (Banana Island big/small). As well as that there's a beach with surf but it was pretty bad that day. If you want VERY good surf, there are some islands which was a 6hr boat ride away.
I met up with a Tinder woman who I pipelined a few weeks prior. We ate martabak (so tasty!) and ended up going to a bar named 'bat and' SOMETHING. It's near the Chinatown part of the city so it won't be too hard to find. It's an abandoned lot which is turned into a very nice bar and there are plenty of areas to isolate. The bartender was staring at us the whole time as it's pretty taboo to kiss, and he knew exactly what we were up to.
We went back to my hotel and she told me she was a virgin. I tried to escalate but her pants wouldn't come off. Ended up getting a very good handjob before dropping her back at midnight on the scooter I rented for the day.

Medan
In Medan I met with a Chinese-Indonesian woman who seemed very Westernised despite never going to a Western country. We talked a lot and I never got the chance to isolate and kiss her on the first date, as well as that, some of my hip-holding escalation was pushed back. I later found out that in malls (Sun Plaza in this case) she would walk past and see a lot of people she recognised and didn't want to be judged.
Our second date she suggested Karaoke right after we ate Yum Cha at Nelayan in Central building (central something mall) (I loved the suggestion for the Merdeka Walk one, but the one in this mall had a lot more variety!) As soon as the lights turned off in karaoke we were making out like it was going out of fashion. She told me she had to go home at 9pm after I tried to pull her to my hotel. A traditional Chinese family really does keep their eyes on their children 24/7 even though she was 25. We organised to meet the next morning where she would give me a 'massage' because i was extremely sunburnt from Padang (wear sunscreen, kids).
I went out to a club (The Entrance) that night and got handed drinks all night by the dancers because I was incidentally helping them entertain some Chinese women that I swear looked like men by dancing with them - I was just having fun and being a fun person. Not another white person in sight in the club as well. I ended up making out with one of the dancers and getting her snapchat. I tried to organise a date later on but it seems like she is completely nocturnal and flakey as all hell.
I woke up completely hungover with a heap of miscalls from the previous night's date telling me she's outside the hotel. I got dressed as soon as I could and met her out the front, brought her in, and we got down to business. She was yet another virgin and I got a blowjob followed with her leaving on her own accord (as I had to travel to Bukit Lawang in a few hours).

If you want to hear more about the off the beaten track travelling in Sumatra, I'm happy to write more about Bukittinggi, Danau Toba, and Bukit Lawang which were the places where I just relaxed; plus there wasn't many bars or Tinder there.

[balybary]

The lake toba is worth visiting for the scenery, people are welcoming, the water is extra clean, accomodation are cheap... but don't go there expecting to meet beautiful ladies. They are in the big cities. Some average girls are working at the lake resorts.

Some picture of people in
this flickr album.