Outer Mongolia - Places to Visit in Ulaanbaatar (Part 2)

First time flying with Mongolian Airlines

It was my first time flying with MIAT (Mongolian Airlines). It was such a joy to experience the different types of airlines while traveling. Each airline represents the country where they were from. The first thing I loved doing after boarding to the plane was to take out their in-flight magazine and read it. In there, I could find many information about people, places, and so on. It made me understanding more about the country and their culture as well.

Chinggis Khaan International Airport - Outer Mongolia

Chinggis Khan International Airport was located 18 km southwest of the capital, Ulaanbaatar city. By the time we reached, the sky had already turned dark. We were transferred immediately to our hotel - Bayangol Hotel - to have a rest.

On second day onward we started traveling and first, we visited places in the capital.

1. Bogd Khan Winter Palace Museum

The front part of Bogd Khan Winter Palace Museum - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

It was built between 1980 to 1903. It used to be the winter palace where the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutagt (the spiritual head of Gelug lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia), who was also the last King of Mongolia, known as Bogd Khan, and his Queen Dondogdulam - the White Tara - lived and ruled the country for over twenty years. Now it had become one of the oldest and most valuable museums in Mongolia.

The beautiful Peace and Happiness Gate with 2 flag poles - Bogd Khan Winter Palace Museum

At the front part of the Bogd Khan's green palace you could find the Shield Wall (the grey wall on the left), the Peace and Happiness Gate with 2 flag poles (the gate on the right) - to commemorate Mongolia's independence, plus the Three Open Pavilion Gates (the gate in the middle) with no door, where the King and Queen used to welcome the high ranking nobles, state officials, and monks. The gates with no door represented all the goodness and fine things of the universe constantly entering and flowing through their open doors.

Bogd Khan Palace Complex housing the seven 'wisdom glorifying' temples

The Bogd Khan Winter Palace - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

The palace complex was separated into 2 sections: the seven 'wisdom glorifying' temples and the winter palace. After the Queen passed away in 1923 and the Bogd Khan in 1924, their possession of historical, cultural, and artistic values, idols, ethnographical items and household items along with a variety of stuffed animals were transferred to this museum. Many interesting items included Bogd Khan's throne, bed, his ornate ceremonial ger lined with skins of 150 leopards, a pair of ceremonial boots given by Russian Tsar Nicholas II, a cloak made of 80 foxes skin, and so on. They were amazingly beautiful and worth the visit! :)

2. Zaisan Memorial at Zaisan Hill

The outer part of the Zaisan Memorial - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Zaisan Memorial was built on top of the Zaisan Hill to commemorate the Soviet soldiers who had fought and sacrificed during the WWII. They had protected, gained freedom and independence for the Mongolian's People Republic.

The inner part of Zaisan Memorial - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

The monument itself resembled the Mongolian fireplace, symbolizing life. It featured a circular memorial painting that depicted the scenes of friendship between the people of the USSR and Mongolia.

Posing with Mongolian falcon from the top of the Zaisan Hill

Ulaanbaatar with Tuul River view from Zaisan Hill - Mongolia

From this place you could see the panoramic view of the entire city of Ulaanbaatar together with the Tuul River flowing past the city.

3. National Museum of Mongolia

National Museum of Mongolia - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

The National Museum of Mongolia was established in 1924. The museum contained many historical, archeological, and ethnographical artifacts from prehistorical time to the contemporary era.

National Museum of Mongolia Timetable

There were 9 halls inside displaying items according to historical periods and themes, such as: the ancient history of Mongolia, ancient states, traditional clothing and jewelry, the Mongolian empire, traditional culture, traditional life, artifacts from 17th century to the beginning of 20th century, the socialist Mongolia era, and the democratic Mongolia era.

With background picture of Genghis Khan - National Museum of Mongolia at Ulaanbaatar

For a first timer like me, it was a good place to learn about the Mongolian history. As mentioned earlier, I could learn about their earlier life, their tradition, culture, lives, and so on. And when you heard about Mongolia, you would also hear about its famous founder and first great Khan of the Mongolia empire - Genghis Khan, born with name of Temujin (1162-1227).

Other than Indonesian history, I never learned about other countries' history. To prepare myself before visiting this country, I spent some time to learn about him from this BBC documentary. So at least I had slightly idea about who and what the guide was talking about :)

4. Sukhbaatar Square

Sukhbastar Square 

Previously known as Chinggis Square, was the central square of Ulaanbaatar. It was located at the heart of the city and surrounded by iconic buildings, such as: the Government (State) Palace, Mongolian Stock Exchange building, State Opera and Ballet Academic Theater, Central Cultural Palace, and so on.

Sukhbaatar Statue - in the middle of Sukhbaatar Square - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

A large statue of Sukhbaatar stood in the middle of the square. He was one of the leaders of Mongolia's 1921 revolution and who had declared Mongolia's final independence from China. This square was named after him.

Government Palace with monuments of Genghis Khan, Ogedei Khan, and Kublai Khan - Ulaanbaatar

There you could find the monuments of Genghis Khan, Ogedei Khan (third son of Genghis Khan and second Great Khan of the Mongol empire), and Kublai Khan (the fifth Great Khan of the Mongolian empire) - at the Government (State) Palace facing the Sukhbaatar Square.

In front of Genghis Khan monument - Sukhbaatar Square - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

5. Gandantegchinlen Monastery

The front gate of Gandantegchinlen Monastery - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

The first monastery (Gungaachoiling Datsan) was built back in 1809 by the order of 5th Jebtsundamba Khutuktu. In 1838, it was moved into the present location and built along with his private residence. In 1938 the monastery was closed (due to the influence of Communist government) and reopened in 1944. And with the end of Marxism in 1990, restriction on worship was lifted. They started building it again and now it has grown into Buddhist schools, University, library and temples housing hundreds of monks, even hospital, and it is still growing now.

Feeling blessed at Gandantegchinlen Monastery - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Gandantegchinlen - this Tibetan name was translated into "The Great Place of Complete Joy". This place was indeed upholding its name. Let me share you my experience.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, one of my great motivations visiting Mongolia was to visit Buddhist temples. And this temple was one of them. The night I reached Mongolia, I sprained my back when lifting my luggage up into the luggage rack inside the hotel. If you ever sprained your back before, you would know how painful it was!!! I had it once before that and it took me few weeks to recover. So that night, I was feeling horrible!!! It was only my first night reaching Mongolia and there were 7 more days to go!!!

"How can I prostrate fully if my back is paining tomorrow?? It is one of the temples I really wanted to visit!!!" That was the first thought that came into my mind. Followed by, "How can I participate on those activities stated in the itinerary???" - I was referring to horse and camel riding, walking and exploring nature, and so on.

I could not sleep well that night. Went to bed at 12 midnight but managed to sleep only at 2 am. That too, I was awoken 3 times for toilet visit (the cooling air made me visiting toilet easily). At 5 am, the summer sky in Mongolia had turned bright, and I was awoken by it. I slept all night with the pain and despite of cooling air, my body was sweating.

Walking path towards the main temple - Gandantegchinlen Monastery, Ulaanbaatar

The next morning the pain was still lingering there. I had to walk, stand, and sit down slowly. Since we visited so many places in a day, I had to bear with the pain in order to enjoy my trip. This temple was the last place to visit on the day. As I went down from the bus, Sherab asked me how my back pain felt like. I told him, the pain was still there. Then we had to walk a distance to reach the main temple.

In front of the main temple - Gandantegchinlen Monastery - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

In the entrance, I was distracted and forgot about my pain when they said I had to pay Mongolian Tugrik 7,000 if I wanted to take the photos inside the temple (it was common in Mongolia to have such condition including the Palace and Museum that we visited earlier). This time, I was willingly paying the fee because I was longing to visit this temple very much. So I paid the amount and entered.

Gandantegchinlen Monastery - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

I was amazed to see the 26.5-meter-height statue of Megjid-Janraiseg (the Lord who watches in every directions) or Avalokitesvara (Goddess of Mercy and Compassion). I stood for a while, looking up and down throughout the whole statue and smiled for all the joy and happiness for finally meeting Her there.

Despite the statue was not the original that was built back in late 18th century (as it was dismantled by Russian troops in 1938 by the instruction of the Communist government), Mongolian people had built this replica back with all of their hearts and souls; from their donation and hard work, featuring precious stones, silks, gilded with gold leaf, filled with tons of medicinal plants, sutras, and mantra. I could feel their intense loves and devotions there.

Avalokitesvara 26.5-meter-height statue at Gandategchinlen Monastery - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

I put down my bag at the side and started to prostrate three times all the way down to the floor. Amazingly, my back pain was all gone. I continued my prayer after the prostration and I cried. I cried because I felt so much happy and grateful for all the good karma, for the fate to finally visiting this country, this temple, Her, feeling homely (it looked just like I was inside the temple in Tibet itself), and for finally able to prostrate because the pain had disappeared. I was feeling joy for Her love and compassion and very thankful for everything that happened in my life.

Thank you SB, thank you, thank you, and thank you... So, imagine the back pain that usually took weeks to recover, it was suddenly gone after visiting this temple. It was a miracle, at least for me. And yes, it was really the Great Place of Complete Joy... :)

6. Cashmere Factory Store

EVSEG Factory Store in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Cashmere Factory Store was a must visit place when you went to Mongolia. They had many different shops around the Ulaanbaatar city, such as: Gobi Cashmere Factory Store, Altai Cashmere Factory Store, EVSEG Factory Store, GOYO Cashmere Factory Store, and so on.

You could find a very good quality cashmere with a reasonable price. Most factory store was set with international standards separating man and woman section for the convenient of the customers. As mentioned in previous blog post, Mongolia produced second largest cashmere in the world. So if you really needed one, why not? It could be a great gift to give too!!! And if you were just want to see the whole range of it without traveling to too many shops, just go down to the next place here.

7. State Department Store

State Department Store - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

This place was a must-go place if you liked shopping and wanted to purchase the local products. Established in 1921, this landmark building was the largest and most luxurious store in Mongolia. Here you could find a good quality cashmere located at second floor featuring many different well-known brands of cashmere shops.

Souvenirs were sold at sixth floor. The prices were reasonable too. If you bought more quantity, they offered with cheaper price. This was where I bought most of my souvenir!!!

It had supermarket as well on the ground floor offering many food and beverage (including Mongolia liquor). A really one stop shop for everything that you need. Highly recommended!!! :)

And if you did not have enough Mongolian Tugrik on hand, worry not, as you could pay using US dollar with the rate converted directly on the spot at the cashier (No need to trouble yourself to find money changer).

8. Tumen-Ekh Folk Song and Dance Ensemble

Tumen-Ekh Folk Song and Dance Ensemble - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

This was another must-do thing when you visited Ulaanbaatar, which was watching the Mongolian traditional folklore show. With our tour, we were brought to this place called Tumen-Ekh Folk Song and Dance Ensemble. and according to the reviews of many others, this place was simply the best. Not based on the stage and theater condition, but the quality of the performers. In fact the place was quite small and really packed of tourists like us. The later you reached, you had to sit down using pillows underneath on the staircases and some had to sit on the floor very close to the stage (due to the seat space constraint). So better to come in much earlier before the show started. The performances, other than singing, dancing, playing the various traditional musical instruments, and acrobats, they also showed us about how the Shamanism was usually being done. There was religious mask-dance that was pretty similar with Tibetan mask-dance with the old man with white hair and happy smiling face as one of the main characters.

A fantastic Mongolian throat singer :) - Tumen-Ekh - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

But my favorite was the performance done by the man on the picture above. He was performing the Mongolian throat-singing. I found it very unique and required a great amount of efforts and talent to perform. The overall show lasted for about an hour and it was really worth visiting!!

Well, there were many other places that you could visit in Ulaanbaatar that I did not mention here (since I did not go), such as: Choijin Lama Temple, National Amusement Park, various museum, theater, and so on. If you had many days to spare, then you could check for more recommended places to go. But if your time was quite limited, then the above places should have been good enough to visit. Next post would cover other places outside Ulaanbaatar. Stay tune! :)

Outer Mongolia - Introduction (Part 1)

Chinggis Statue - Outer Mongolia

One fine afternoon I had tea with Susan at Serangoon NEX. Suddenly she asked me if I was interested to join the tour to Outer Mongolia. I knew her not so long ago. She loved travelling and had traveled to lots of places around the world. She did many research on travel lobang during her free time and it was one of her enjoyment. She told me about a travel agent that offered this tour, and especially for this, they even chartered a flight for this destination. I asked her about the price and everything, and agreed to her almost immediately.

Lovely view of sheeps and goats living in harmony :) - Beautiful Mongolia!!!

23 years ago I visited the Inner Mongolia, which was a part of China. It was the my first time experiencing the local China tour from Beijing, together with my schoolmates. It was also my first time experiencing desert, grasslands, drinking horse milk, and staying a night inside the Mongolia tent (ger).

A place rich in nature - Outer Mongolia

I thought, well, it was 23 years ago, and I had never been to Outer Mongolia before. Though their lifestyle might be similar, but I was sure that there must have differences between the two countries, especially under different governance. But what attracted most to me from this tour, was that the itinerary included the visit to 3 different Buddhist temples. For the past few years I had grown much interest in visiting different Buddhist temples from all over the world. I just felt I was very lucky and had great fate in visiting those places, to pay respect to the guru Buddha, and feel at peace.

With travel buddies exploring Mongolia!!! :)

After both of us signed up, our two Bhutanese friends also showed their interests in visiting this country and four of us were just nice became the travel buddy for this trip, sharing our room and ger,  exploring places, and spending most of our time together.

The capital of Outer Mongolia - Ulaanbaatar city

For the start, let me share a little bit information about Mongolia (also known as North or Outer Mongolia). The capital, and also their largest city is Ulaanbaatar.

Vast and empty - Outer Mongolia

At more than 1.5 million sq km, Mongolia is the 18th-largest and the most sparsely populated sovereign state in the world, with population of only 3 million people. Wow!!! Can you imagine??? Compare it to Singapore that has only 723 sq km with almost 6 million population!!! :D

Ger at country side - Outer Mongolia

30% of Mongolia population is nomadic or semi-nomadic. The majority of its population believes in Buddhism, where the second biggest one believes in nothing (bon - Shamanism). Tibetan Buddhism spread in Mongolia in 16th century and by early 1900s, almost one-third of the adult male population were Buddhist monks.

Gandan Tegchinlen Monastery in Ulaanbaatar - Mongolia (Main center of Mongolian Buddhism)

However in 1911, after the collapse of Qing dynasty, Mongolia declared its independence and shortly came under the control of Soviet Union, whom had aided to achieve the country's independence from the hand of China. And in the late 1930s, the regime had sadly closed almost all of Mongolia's over 700 Buddhist monasteries and killed at least 30,000 people, of whom 18,000 were lamas. With it, the number of Buddhist monks dropped drastically from 100,000 in 1924 to only 110 in 1990. With the fall of communism in 1991, the country had managed to restore the religious practice back. It also allowed other religions (Christian and Catholics) to spread in the country. (Source: wikipedia.org)

Ovoo or sacred stone heaps in Outer Mongolia

Ovoo are sacred stone heaps used as altars or shrines in Mongolia folk religious practice. It is made of rocks with woods. It is often found on top of the mountains and high places. We saw it often throughout our journey. It serves as site to worship heaven and lesser gods led by Shaman, and also for Buddhist ceremony. When traveling, it is common to see people circling it three times on clockwise direction with a hope of having a safe journey.

Mongolians

Their official language is Mongolian and their current second language is English (replacing Russian - although Russian language is still frequently spoken there). And surprisingly, Korean language has also gained popularity there as ten of thousands Mongolians work in South Korea. The influence of Korea in the country is very significant as well. Many Korean companies, restaurants, stuffs, food and beverages, are there.

Common industrious area just outskirts of Ulaanbaatar city - Mongolia

Coal mining outskirts the Ulaanbaatar city - Mongolia

Their two biggest economic activities are in minerals mining (coal, gold, copper, etc.) and agriculture (herding as well). The country produces second biggest Cashmere in the world (after China).

Ulaanbaatar city view from Zaisan Hill - Outer Mongolia

The contrast of high rise buildings with traditional tent located at the surrounding of Ulaanbaatar city - Mongolia (Photo courtesy: Sherab Tenzin)

According to our local guide, in city like Ulaanbaatar, the citizen must buy land or own apartment, while in countryside they can stay every where and move around wherever they like. The rental cost of 2-bedroom apartment in city area is around USD$500/month. As for the ger, it is usually stayed by people with lower income. They do not pay for central heat as it is not available. They still use things like wood, clothes to burn and generate heat for them to keep warm, especially in winter times. That is why the air pollution has become more prominent in Ulaanbaatar as many ger set up surrounding the city, not yet those mining activities that is also happening not far from it. And therefore, many people prefer staying in smaller town to avoid the air pollution.

Mixture of housing and ger (Mongolia tents) at countryside - Mongolia

How Mongolian 'chop' or reserve their plot of land (using half-cut tyre) so that other people will not occupy the space

Mongolian government gives 700 sqm land in small village for free to all citizens. If nearer to Ulaanbaatar, they are given only 500 sqm. Many have used it to plant vegetable or rent it to company. For nomadic people, during winter time they will stay in front of big mountains to protect them from wind. During summer they will move four to five times depending on where the grass grow.

Livestock everywhere you go in Mongolia

Generally Mongolian eat lots of meat like beef, mutton and chicken with very less fish. During summer they eat meat lightly and eat more dairy products like milk, cheese, yogurt, curd, and so on. While in winter they eat more heavy food to survive (meaning more meat). Many of them depend their income from cashmere (sheep wool), meat and dairy production. People from city buy all those products from them. So they are all food self-sufficient and able to consume healthier local products.

Nadaam Festival celebrating 3 manly sports in Mongolia - wrestling, horse racing and archery (Photo courtesy: journeyinmongolia.com)

They celebrate 2 big festival every year. First one is Tsagaan Sar (Mongolian Lunar New Year) - usually in end of January or February, and another one is Naadam Festival - celebrated every summer throughout Mongolia across every province, in most towns and villages. They celebrate their three manly sports, the proud of Mongolians, which are: horse racing, wrestling, and archery.

Well, hope with that information, you can imagine how Mongolia as a country look like and how their people live their life. More about the places will come at next posts :)

Books read for the first half of the year 2019

Book quote by Neil Gaiman (Pic source: Google.com)

Below please find the list of the book I read for the first half of the year 2019:

January 2019

January 2019: 

1. Nine Perfect Stranger - Liane Moriarty

2. Teachings from Tibet: Guidance from great Lamas - Nicholas Ribush

3. Family Trust - Kathy Wang

April 2019

April 2019: 

1. In Love with Butterflies and Other Stories - Sonam Tashi and Riku Dhan Subba

2. Best Foot Forward: A Pilgrim's Guide to the Sacred Sites of the Buddha - Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse

3. Love, Lies, and Indomie - Nuril Basri

4. Adele - Leila Slimani

May 2019

May 2019: 

1. The Immortalists - Chloe Benjamin

2. The Girl in Room 105 - Chetan Bhagat

3. Our Secrets and Lies - Sinead Moriarty

4. Rosie Result - Graeme Simsion

5. The Next Person You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom

June 2019

June 2019: 

1. The Movie that No One Saw - May Seah

I was busy traveling back in February and March, therefore no single book I managed to read. Nevertheless, it was not about the quantity, but the quality of the books that I read that was important :) 13 books for the first half of the year. Not bad lah... hahahahaha... The spirit of reading was still there.

Love the smell of you (Instagram: rimareyka.writes)

Hope your spirit of reading is still there as well!!! Keep reading and you can recommend me any other books to read. I usually read fictions, Buddhism, motivational and those types of books, It has already mid-August now. Hope everything goes well on your side. Wish you a lovely life doing things you love doing as always.... :)

Laid Back Lifestyle

Welcome to Indonesia!!!

If someone asked you what type of life you would like to have in this lifetime disregard the current place that you lived in, what would be your answer??? Well, apparently many people would answer the opposite from where they stayed right now. For example: people who stayed in villages, they would dream to live in metropolitan city; people who stayed in mountain areas, they would dream to stay near the beach, and so on.

For me, who was born and grown up in metropolitan city, once I stayed in mountain and village for about 3 years. That time I did not understand much yet about happiness, neither thought about it. Therefore, I found the place was terribly boring!!! But you know, I guessed millions people would dream of living in such place at least once!!! And yes, if you asked me now, I would still hope to go back there and stay there one more time. But forever? Perhaps not, because I still preferred to stay in tropical rather than four-season countries.

Horas - traditional greeting of Batak Toba

For the past 4 years I was lucky enough being able to visit and stay at the place of my dream. Recently I visited it for the fifth time. It took about 1.5 hours direct flight from Singapore to Kualanamu Airport in Medan. From Medan I still needed to take about two-hour car ride to Pematang Siantar. If went to Prapat (where the boat was docked to transfer to the Samosir Island), I would need another hour of car ride, plus about an hour boat ride to cross over the Lake Toba (the biggest lake in Indonesia). Yes, that beautiful place was called Samosir Island.

Samosir Island - Indonesia

Last year my relatives with families and friend built a place there to stay and I was very lucky being able to stay there for free and comfortably. The location was really good, about 15minutes walk from where we were dropped by the boat. It faced the lake (although not directly - you could go there in five-minutes walk), and at the back, it faced the paddy plantations. Depending on the season, sometimes it could be greenish and lovely. Sometimes it could be so dried. And sometimes you could see the plowing process using machine done by the farmer during plantation time.

Fresh and cooling mountain air :)

The air was cooling and fresh. There was no need to install air-condition inside the building. Just opened the door, it already felt like air-condition being installed (despite hot sun was shining above in afternoon time).

Front and back view :)

The rooms were simple and cleaned. Each was equipped with indoor toilet. If I were lucky, the room was even having balcony facing the paddy plantation at the back or big windows on higher floors that facing the beautiful lake. The highest floor was third floor. There was wifi as well although it didn't reach the back of the building. But it was good too so I could sleep early at night and having enough hours before the roosters started singing as early as 5 to 6 am in the morning.

Tell you, OMG!! At first I wasn't get used to it. When I visited Indonesia, many factors forced me to get up early in the morning. If city area like Jakarta, the sun started to rise at 6 am and by 7 am, the sky had turned bright and made the temperature warm. If the place that you stayed near the mosque (as majority of Indonesia population were Muslim), the prayers sound could be heard as early as 4.30 am. And another one was roosters sound.

It wasn't only one or two roosters around, mind you. Their numbers were enough to play orchestra from left to right. Hahaha... I felt like crying on my first night sleeping in Pematang Siantar, and started feeling regret of not sleeping earlier the night before. So when I reached Samosir, I told myself to sleep early - as early as 10 pm every night - to fulfill the minimum of 8-hour sleep, so I wouldn't get annoyed by the roosters sound, and instead, appreciated them more (no need to turn my alarm clock on).

Mango season now

Every morning when weather was good (luckily it was all good when I was there), I went for a morning walk at 6.30 am. I made a big round walking around the lakeside, with its ups and downs, passing by many guest houses, resorts, restaurants, shops, and so on. Not only that. There were abundance of fruit and vegetables trees too!!

Learn various fruit trees here (dragon fruit)

Durian, mango, avocado, passionfruit, candlenut, dragon fruits, winged beans, chilli, lemon, and so on. One of the motivation to walk that early was to find the fallen fruits from the trees. Hahaha.... You could always find a free one! :D But don't anyhow pluck the fruits of someone's trees. The owner would be unhappy with it!

Huge lemon - gift by the house owner :)

If you would love to have or even buy, you could ask politely to them. Sometimes they might just give it freely to you. But honesty was something that the local people there practise! Fyi, majority of people who stayed in the island was Batak Toba tribe and majority (93% of them) was Christian. It was generally safe to stay there. You could even leave your building wide open with vehicles being parked outside as no body would enter without permission, would never even think of stealing and robbing. They were friendly too. So it was another plus point to stay in the area.

Pork steak and beer Bintang from New Tomok Restaurant

The living cost was still very low (a plate of breakfast noodle cost IDR 8,000 (USD$0.60), a plate of pork steak cost IDR 40,000  (USD$2.90), and a big bottle of local beer (Beer Bintang) cost IDR 35,000 (USD$2.50). Batak people ate a lot of pork. Lomak - a local restaurant name - sold a very delicious babi goreng or fried pork - traditional Batak dish. Grilled fish and lobsters were also famous in the island. The main catch was their chili. It was spicy and delicious!!! So next time when you went there, please do not order "nasi goreng" or the famous Indonesian fried rice all the time!!! Instead, try any of their pork dishes and seafood!!! :)

Weekend market at Tomok

On Sunday morning I went down to the weekend market - near Tomok. You could find many fresh vegetables, fruits, fishes, even coffee powder there. Nearby there were rows of shops in traditional Batak house roof style selling shirts, souvenirs, sarong, Batik patterns clothes, shawl, etc. Just make sure to bargain and compare from one shop to another as they would open the price quite high and targeted much higher price to outsider and tourists.

Souvenir shops at Tomok

Motorcycle were available for rent. Not necessary to wear the helmet and it was not a very crowded place (except for the major holiday time such as: Chinese New Year period, Christmas, and Lebaran - Eid al-fitr). Just had to be careful as it was mountainous road that was full of ups and downs, some of you might not get used to it. You could explore the areas with it, or even on foot. Many beautiful spots in the islands and not forgetting the lake water sports like banana boat (when you're in a big group), speedboat, and so on.

Laid back lifestyle :)

For myself I would prefer to just relax in the building, reading books, and having cold beer. It was perfect for me :D

Banana boat - Lake Toba 

At night it was very quiet except for the animal orchestras sound. Hehe... When the sky was clear, you could see many stars above. Drop of rainwater sound was soothing too. But the lightning was too much only. Hahaha.... scary.... :P

Stone chair of King Siallagan

There was traditional Batak cultural performance too in the dancing show Sigale Gale, Stone Chair of King Siallagan, etc. You could even learn the dance there. Nearby the area you could also visit the Batak Museum, to learn more about their history, culture, lifestyle and so on.

Beautiful scenery from Hotel Silintong

Well, I might not be able to purchase a land there, build the house and spend the rest my olden days there but I had already been feeling very grateful for the opportunity to go there and spend many valuable times over there. Could not thank enough for everyone who made this possible (you know who you were!!!).

With this post hopefully you know where to go next time to experience such a laid back life that was not so far from Singapore!!! :)

Sunset Catcher

Treasure our precious - (Instagram: Rimareyka.writes)

These few days the weather was beautiful and it allowed me to go for cycling around the Waterway Park. If I was lucky enough (which I did), I could catch the sunset towards 7 pm in the evening. As I was still proudly calling myself as the 'sunset catcher', let me share some beautiful shots into this blog post. Hope you like it! :)

Sunset from Waterway Park, Singapore

Lush greenery and the beautiful sunset at Waterway Park, Singapore

The sunset from Waterway Point - Punggol, Singapore

With my loyal bike :) - Waterway Park, Singapore

Hidden among the bushes and trees - Sunset at Waterway Park, Singapore

Lucky people who always passed through this road!!! - Sunset at Waterway Park, Singapore

Tried hiding away??? I knew you would not!! - Sunset at Waterway Park, Singapore

Beautiful sunset allured me to catch its view non-stop!!! - Waterway Park, Singapore

Finally last view before saying good bye and see you again next time!!! Sunset at Waterway Park, Singapore