No place to go but Brastagi Highland

I wanted to post pictures from the holiday but I think I’ll post it at Medan Daily. Anyway, I’ve just dug my blog’s archive and realized that going to Brastagi Highland during the Idul Fitri holiday has been quite a ‘tradition’ for us during the last 3 years.

Nov 2006. Family dinner at Grand Mutiara Hotel

November 2006, I went back home for a week (my last year in college) and went to Brastagi Highland with my auntie and family whom came from Jakarta, my family, and grandparents. That was my first time met up with my cousins since year 2000. We stayed in Grand Mutiara Hotel.

Oct 2007. With cousins.

October 2007, I went to Brastagi Highland with my family. I was working as a packaging designer and had a one week holiday. We stayed in Grand Mutiara Hotel again and coincidently saw my Ku-ku there.

Front view of Grand Mutiara Hotel

October 2008, I went to Brastagi again with my family and stayed in Grand Mutiara Hotel again. I am a ‘free man’ now. I mean, freelancer.

Whoa, 3 years in line, same destination, same hotel. You may want to ask,”No where to go for holiday already hah?” The truth is, YES! Brastagi Highland is the nearest holiday destination from Medan (2 hours journey by car) where you can stay and overnight there. Forget about Pantai Cermin (Mirror Beach) cause it is no where near fun or relaxing for me. I wish we have other destination like Orlando golf or cleaner beach. *dream on*

While for the hotel itself, it’s because we like the room and the services there. Besides that, we get discount price (about 30%, depends) almost every time.

I wonder if I will go there again with my family during Idul Fitri holiday next year.

Back from holiday

I’m back from 2 days holiday at Brastagi Highland. I still miss the cold weather, the green scenery, and the relaxing lifestyle. Oh.. heaven…

With such a cold weather, it wasn’t an issue for me to walk an ‘extra’ miles. I hardly exercise nowadays. Put a computer and a treadmill in front of me, I’ll opt for computer. Gotta change the habit, I know.

Let me lazying around for today since it’s Sunday. Will post more pictures tomorrow. Too lazy to edit.

Survey of the day: Fall TV Season Has Begun

Off to Brastagi Highland

I’m going to Brastagi highland with my family. It is 2 hours away from Medan, my hometown.

We’ll be staying at our favorite hotel, Grand Mutiara, for a night.

Will be back tomorrow afternoon or evening.

Weekend break: Brastagi Highland

It was a great weekend getaway. The initial plan is to have a one day trip to Brastagi Highland and places around it. From 7 people, we settled down to 4 people. Cause the car rental with driver was too expensive for some of them.

But something happened few hours before the departure. One of the friends’ grandma passed away so she couldn’t join us. We have booked the car rental and couldn’t cancel it. So, there we went, just the three of us. This is my very first time going there in such a small group of friends. I must be outta my mind already.

We sticked to the initial plan and took off from Medan at 6.45am. It took approximately 2 hours journey. We stopped at the corn stall to grab a few bites of the corn and enjoyed the fresh air. The weather wasn’t so friendly yesterday. It kept on rain and stop for the whole day.

After that, we continued the journey to Grand Mutiara Hotel. Jan wanted to have the Pisang goreng madu - fried banana with honey. We thought that they didn’t have it for breakfast, but nope. So there we went, having our most expensive fried banana ever. 1 plate for IDR.15.000, excluded 10% tax. I never know that Grand Mutiara Hotel serves such a crispy banana. The overcharged price was worthy.

Three girls, beautiful scenery, plenty of free time, and 4 digicams. What a perfect day to take pictures! After the breakfast, chat, and pictures, we went to Mikie Holiday, Tongging, and SiPiso Piso.

Meet Canon and Lumix.

We took pictures everywhere we went.

Started with one person picture

Continued with 2 persons

The three of us

at the swimming pool

at the playground

Notice there is a few pictures with the 3 of us? Wondering who was so kind to help us to take those pictures? Alright, I’ll share the secret. It is courtesy of self timer (10 seconds) and the poles + chairs~!

That is how we set the digicam for the 3 poles picture. I’m so proud of my friends. They are the creative accountants ever.

Total usage for the trip is IDR.242.000 per person, consists of transportation, breakfast, lunch, and miscellaneous fee (parking fee and entrance fee). Consider expensive for a day trip. But, once in a while is fine.