Flood in Tebing Tinggi

On the way back to Medan, about 1 hour left before we reached Medan, we passed by Tebingtinggi, a small city where the majority of residents is Melayu. Almost all building is painted in green and yellow, traditional colors of Melayu. The street was so deserted until we were trapped by traffic jam in Tebingtinggi.

We curiously wondered about what is happening since as many times we have passed by this street, we have never ever faced such traffic jam before. As we moved straight ahead we saw the street was wet and the water seemed to become higher covering the street. It not raining when we passed by the flood, but it was very heavy rain last night.








I was a bit anxious to get trapped in the flood and we could not continue back to Medan. Luckily we were on a big high wheeled car Grand Vitara so the car could pass the flood without being stuck and the water did not get into the machine. We pass the flood street for 30 minutes. What a distressed trip passing by the flood street.

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Blocked by Landslide

The first visit to Tampahan in 2009. We went to Tampahan, my late parents in law's home village in 4 January 2009. We spent only one night there, just to see the house, visit the cemetery of my parents in law and to greet the elder who take care of the house and the cemetery. In the morning of 5 January we were ready for going back to Medan. Before departing, as usual we crossed the road off to say goodbye to ompungboru, a younger sister of my husband’s late grand mother. Somebody told that there has been a landslide between Parapat and Siantar in the midnight, but the street was completely cleared already last night by the authority according to them to ensure us to not worry about the trip back to Medan.

It is the last day of long vacation, and so many people spent their holiday in Parapat will be back to Medan at least after breakfast. Avoiding traffic jam, we decided to depart early in the morning. The street was so deserted, so my husband drove the car slowly and relaxed. I tried to call the police at Parapat to make sure about the landslide, but the phone was always engaged. So we stopped by at Singgalang restaurant for a while to asked somebody there. A restaurant owner who is so kind told us that the street is cleaned already. We went off continue heading to Medan. Only 20 minutes from Parapat we were stopped by police men and we saw tractors pulling some rocks lying on the middle of the street. There were still rocks remain on the street. The rocks fell down from the street side hill.





The location where it happened is called Batuloting, means fire rocks. The rocks' friction will make fire. I saw the workers burning the rocks whenever the rocks are too heavy to be tilted up and to pull away. There are 3 cars prior to our car and many cars made a long queue behind us. The street is only passable for one car, so the policemen organized the cars to pass by the street in turn. The cars headed to Parapat were the first turn to pass by, and then after around 30 minutes waiting it’s our turn to head for Medan.








That was the very first time for me to see from a short distance how big rocks from the hill lying on the street. I can’t imagine what will happen when this rock falling down on the passing cars underneath. Luckily we only had to wait for around 30 minutes for the tractors to remove the rocks.

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Boli Boli Hot Spring Water

Between Siborong-borong and Tarutung, southern part of North Sumatera, there is a small village called Sipoholon, a popular place known its baths and sulphide hot spring water. It takes about 30 minutes drive from Siborong-borong to get to the location.

There are many restaurant at Sipoholon provide place set for visitors to bathe hot water. Everyone may take a bath for free in any of the bath rooms supplied with running water and equipped with bath tubs. The restaurant owners expect visitors to take a rest after bathing and, buy some food and beverage from their restaurant in return.

One of the restaurants called Boli-Boli, provides 6m x 10m hot water pool, and a bathroom with a large tub and Jacuzzi, a whirpool bath with a system of underwater jets that deliver water under pressure in order to massage an invigorate the body. Water flows through column to the tub dense clouds of steam, in which the bathers sweated. Finally bathers can be splash or shower with cold water.
Entrance fee to the pool is Rp. 3000,- ; and Rp. 60.000,- per 1 hour spa bathing. Like other restaurants around, there are also many bathrooms with hot water tub can be used for free. The restaurant provide various foods and drinks at reasonable price.


Whenever you take a trip around Sipoholon, the hot spring water bath is a good place to get your body relaxed. Especially when the journey is long and exhausting, spa bathing and Jacuzzi might heal you backbreaking.

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The Royal Palace Chatomuk Mongkul

The Royal Palace at Phnom Penh was the last place I visited in Cambodia on April’s vacation. It was the 18th April 2008. We visited the Royal Palace which in local language is called Preah Borom Reach Veang. The name of the palace is Chatomuk Mongkul, because it is located adjacent to the intersection of four-faced rivers “Chatomuk” including the Upper Mékong, the Lower Mékong, the Tonlé Bassak and the Tonlé Sap. Entrance fee was 25,000 Riel (local currency) or US$6.5 per person. To enter the palace, visitors must wear proper outfits.

Visitors in short pants, short skirts, tank top or the like are not allowed to enter the palace, and strictly no hat neither cap on head inside any of the pavilion within the palace complex

This palace was erected firstly in the reign of King Ponhea Yat in the year 1434, and secondly it was erected in the reign of King Norodom in 1866. This palace is the principal residence of their Majesties the King and the Queen and the royal family; it is like a small town of royal dynasties. This palace compound is 435 meters long by 421 meters wide and a high wall. The Royal Palace includes magnificent temples built in the traditional style. The whole complex wall is decorated with what is called “Seima”-shapes. Most of the buildings include magnificent sculptures are characterized by many tiered roofs and topped by towers which are symbol of prosperity. The Royal Palace is regarded as symbol of the whole nation and all the pavilions are adorned and painted yellow and white. The yellow represents Buddhism and the white represents Brahmanism . The stairway is guarded with Naga figures having many heads, and all pillars are decorated with Kinnoris and Garudas supporting the ceilings.

French pavillion

The picture was taken from the balcony of the throne hall

The Royal Palace consists of seven pavilions with different function. The Throne Hall is used for various purposes including the royal coronation ceremony ; audiences granted by His Majesty and the King on national and religious day, and the presentation of credentials by foreign envoys and formal receptions to distinguished guests both national and international. In the middle of the hall there is a throne symbolizing Phnom Penh as a hill in the center of continents where divinities live – fitting the hall. About half of the hall floors are made of pure silver. No wonder why visitors are banned to enter certain areas in the hall. Taking a photograph of scene inside any pavilion is strongly prohibited , otherwise our camera would be grasped by the hall guard.
Ho Samran Phrum, is another pavilion which is used to keep the royal musical instruments and utensils for the use in the royal coronary procession. The first floor was the waiting room in which their Majesty could take a rest before mounting the elephant that had awaited them in front of this pavilion. Now this pavilion is used as His Majesty King Sihanouk’s museum.

The throne hall

Erna - in front of the throne temple

Another pavilion which amazed me was the Emerald pagoda. A lot of artistic objects are exhibited there. Some of them are Emerald Buddha which is made of emerald. The Buddha sits on a gold throne and wears a gold sash set with diamonds across his both shoulders. The Standing Buddha which was called “Preah Chin Reangsei Reachika Norodom” in the reign of King Sisowath in 1904, is the statue including the pedestal and parasol made of 90kg of gold, and adorned with 2,086 diamonds, rubies and emeralds. There was also marble Buddha stands in a gesture of walking across a river. There were many more Buddha’s statues which were set with diamonds; some were made of gold and some were made of bronze. There were many more magnificent artistic objects on exhibition made of gold, silver, copper, copper alloy, marble, glass and ivory.

Elly with Ben and Naya

The pictures decorated a whole corridor walls of the complex

Walking towards the exit door, we stopped by a room which walls were occupied by many pictures and photographs of Khmer’s traditional costumes , cultural ceremony and other historical pictures of Khmer. Adjacent to this was a museum where we could see the miniature of imagery of the royal coronation procession of his majesty Norodom Sihamoni, the new King of the Kingdom of Cambodia. Before leaving the Royal Palace we wrote briefly about our impression over the royal palace in the guest book. Last but not least, I found people of Cambodia and Vietnamese are very kind and friendly. I hope one day I will revisit Phnom Penh and HCMC.

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One day tour in Ho Chi Minh City

It was the morning of 15th April. Tour de Vietnam. We left the house at 8. The trip to Mekhong river bridge took about an hour. We had to cross the Mekong river by ferry.The gate to the ferry was still closed. The ferry hadn’t arrived yet. Fortunately we didn’t have to wait for too long because it came 20 minutes afterwards. On the deck of the ferry, a few women were selling either green grass jelly, fried crickets, or stewed lotus seeds. Fried crickets are placed on the wide plate made from bamboo skin.

Stewed lotus seeds. It tasted like stewed peanuts

About an hour and a half later, we reached the borders of Vietnam. We stopped at the nearest restaurant to have lunch first. While we were eating, the driver and staff of the travel agent helped fill in the forms needed to exit Cambodia and enter Vietnam. To enter Vietnam, nothing was charged on us, Vietnam and Indonesia are both members of ASEAN. On the other hand, though Cambodia is also member of ASEAN, we had to pay Visa on Arrival to enter it. This is because one of the main incomes of Cambodia comes from tourism.


Since the first time we entered Vietnam until approaching Ho Chi Minh City which was known as Saigon, the streets environment were neat and clean. Unlike in Cambodia, where all letter written in Sanskrit inscriptions, in Vietnam all is written in Latin inscriptions with diacritic marks over some vowels .

A monument in the city hall of HCMC

There were a lot of parks in the city and the pedestrians were quite large. It reminded me of Singapore’s Orchard Road.

We stayed at Thanh Long T@n Hotel. 19-21-23 Truong Dnh St. It was strategically located near the shopping center Bien Tanh, touristic spots and food market. After taking a rest for a while in the hotel, we went down to eat.We ate at Pong restaurant, where Bill Clinton had had his lunch a few years ago on his visit to HCMC. In the afternoon, we bought souvenirs at Bien Tanh. Here you can shop using USD. Local currency is called Dong. 1 USD = 16000 Dong.

On the next day, 16 April 2008, everyone got on the city tour. It costed $10 per person. Our first destination was the War Remnant museum, where there is a historical collection from the Vietnam war. On a half way to the museum we stopped by to take picture at the city hall. The city hall was surrounded by St. Mary Catholic church, the oldest church in HCMC, the Central Post Office and the Jamiul Muslimin mosque. At the main office we saw the collection of telecommunication devices from the first world war era. Here we could buy souvenirs which is much cheaper than the price on souvenir shops we visited last night. This had caused everyone madly spent more time to choose and buy some more souvenirs until being screamed by the tour guide to get back on the bus.

St. Mary Catedral

The central post office

Jamiul Muslimin mosque

It took about 20 minutes from the city hall to reach the War Remnant Museum.

Naya and Ben (my nephews)

In the main room of the museum there are collection of pictures of war victims and disabled persons as an impact of dioxin war spreaded by Agent Orange on the Vietnam War. Besides pictures, there are also collection of rifles, revolvers, mortars and handguns used during Vietnam War.

At the right side of the museum were prisons. They were dark rooms no more than 1 x 1.5 m2 with steel doors and a small divan made of cement.

Marida (my youngest sister) in front of the prison

One of the rooms that made me shiver was where the guillotine was kept. The guillotine was used to cut the heads of the prisoners. I’d always imagined the sharp side of the guillotine was horizontal. In fact, it was diagonal, 45 degrees. Under the place where the head to be cut is placed, was a container. My mood was mixed up with anger, fear and sadness imagining what the container was put for.

The guillotine

Most of the war victims who suffer from disability work in craft houses making crafts / unique souvenirs of Vietnam out of egg shell and sea shell.

War victims (mostly disabled) are making carved crafts

Some of the craft works

Afterwards, we headed for the palace of the President of Vietnam. The building is quite old, but has a contemporary style. Entrance fee is USD6 per person. Children under 5 are free of charge.

The President's palace

One of the palace's guest rooms

Last the tour guide took us to the basement. There were a lot of old communication devices there. Some of the rooms were divided by long and narrow corridors. It was said that they were used for hiding from enemies.

Then we went to visit the oldest pagoda in the HCMC.

The main entrance gate of the pagoda

L-R : Erna, Naya, Marida, Elly

The last place we visited was the central market. At the first level of the market most vendor sells Vietnamese traditional woven and imitation branded goods such as leather bags, belts and purses. I did not go to the second level to see what people was selling there but I guessed they were selling the same kind of goods.

Erna and Pricilla in front of the main door of the central market

The central market

In the evening we went to Saigon Square, a shopping center in HCMC. It was only 2 km away from the hotel where we stayed. But because we weren’t aware of it, we took a taxi there and had to pay 25000 Dong.

We went back to Phnom Penh on the 17th April 2008.

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