The next day after our arrival in North
Sumatra would be energy spending, as we were all going on a full-day
trip around Brastagi. I actually underestimated this town in the
first place, but the visit proved me wrong. There was a lot to take a
look in Brastagi. Anyway, our journey started with an early breakfast
at the hotel, as usual. I had a plate of omelet and fried rice to
kick off my day. My dad apparently already took off earlier in the
morning for a stroll. The clear, unpolluted sky in the morning
allowed him to take a snapshot of a nearby mountain which the hotel
overlooked.
Once the breakfast was done, we set off
on our first destination of the day. I was made curious with brief
mentions from others that we were going to see some sort of a “golden
temple”. A place like that in this
pretty isolated hillside place almost sounds impossible. However,
when the van started to enter a smaller road with rough surface, a
glimpse of blinding gold color reflected by a tall object in the far
distance caught my eye.
The van reached the
parking lot of the golden temple tourist area: Lumbini Park. As soon
as we got there, the golden object became clearer to us. It was much
taller than I expected, with pointy golden, needle-like structures
that scrapes the clear blue sky. No admission ticket was required. By
just signing a guestbook and putting off our shoes, we were free to
roam around!
Lumbini
Park temple was seriously an interesting photography object. I mean,
it's not everyday you get to see something that is pure gold and you
can touch it immediately. Yes, tI'm talking about the whole building
construction was almost polished with gold color with elaborate
decoration and carvings. I was not convinced, though, that it was
real gold. Not so much known about the park as we didn't take a
guided tour. Meanwhile, some areas remained plain and smooth. The
vast yard outside the temple had the smoothest and cleanest marble
floor I've ever walked on.
Without further
ado, we took a look around.
The inside of the
temple, which is a vast hall with barely any gold color, is decorated
with red Oriental ornaments. The center of the hall is apparently a
prayer spot with an altar of Buddha and offerings.
We didn't spend a lot of time there that we decided to go out and stroll to the garden.
The garden, likely
other spots in and around the temple, is unexceptionally beautiful,
with elaborate flowers growing on each side that are still carefully
preserved as well as statues of animal that really go together with
the concept of nature. The temple also has a forest located in the
lower ground that provides some sort of tracks for visitors to step
into. However, to enter the forest, we had to go through a far, high
stairs that go all the way down.
Definitely not an
option for any acrophobics. Andros, however, decided to follow the
track. Since he didn't come back, we all thought he might be missing
somewhere in the forest. All of us that stayed in the entrance of the
forest managed to identify any person spotted in the forest and see
if it was him, but apparently he went out from the other exit.
Later on, after the
visit was over, we went off to another destination, which is
Gundaling. Gundaling is just another recreational place in Brastagi
up on a hill, where visitors could take a glance of both two
mountains that surrounded the areas (I forgot what the mountains were
called). The place definitely offered an extraordinary scenery
overlooking Brastagi town as well as the mountains mentioned.
Then, we descended
down and settled in a small warung where the dads spent their
time eating another round of durian. Inez went on horseriding while I
followed afterwards (we could've done that at the same time, but my
mom didn't allow me to ride a horse at first, until she finally
changed her mind). I forgot the name of my horse, but she was
literally a black beauty. I think she got a fancy name too, but
really, I forgot.
So I rode her
around the block of Gundaling hill. The hill definitely offered a
much better, smoother surface for horseriding and not to mention, the
scenery along the road is just astounding (it overlooks the scenery
of Brastagi town from the heights). Midway, the horse trainer asked.
“Do you want her to run?” I was like “But I've never been on a
horse that runs.” He said. “Well, it's worth the try.” I told
him to ask the horse to run a little slowly. It was a little shocking
at first, not knowing that being on a running horse could actually
make the rider bouncing up and down on her back. After getting more
comfortable, I asked the trainer to make the horse run a little
faster...and she did!!!
Boy it was one of
the most adrenaline rushing moments I've ever been through. I was
literally bouncing up and down while managing to maintain my balance
at the same time, but luckily, I was gripping on the saddle grip
instead of the normal reins. It was tense but fun at the same time. I
felt like in some sort of a war movie where the warriors traveled
from one place to another on a running horse. Not long afterwards, I
reached the warung where I started and paid the trainer. The
horseride today was much more fulfilling!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Well, it was lunch
time. The Tanu and Gunawan families wanted to have Karo's Roasted
Pork for lunch. Since my family can't eat pork, we decided to go eat
somewhere else.
After my family was
done eating, we went to pick up the Tanu and Gunawan family, and they
were all but intoxicated after eating pig's blood as a sauce (gross).
They said it tasted good, but I could tell from their red faces that
pig's blood is definitely not the safest option to eat while
traveling.
Well, since
apparently most people were too weakened by the pig's blood sauce, we
decided to go home and take a nap. Then near dinner time, we went out
to Restoran Asia for dinner again. Before going back to the hotel,
the moms went to the adjacent stores to buy some snacks for
tomorrow's roadtrip. We were going to another destination tomorrow,
Prapat (Lake Toba). Mr. Deni notified us that en route to Prapat, we
would most likely not to find any restaurants or stores, since we
would pass mostly remote areas. So snacks to be eaten for lunch along
the way should be highly considered.
We called it the
day after dinner! Can't wait for the roadtrip tomorrow!
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