Soulful Escapes: Medan Off the Beaten Path

I briefly mentioned my trip to Bali with J in my previous story. 

After another little drama, before we flew to Medan, we spent a sleepless night at Jakarta airport. We had booked accommodation before flying to Medan, but we decided not to take it because we might not make it to the airport on time if we had to stay quite far from the airport. Finally, J canceled the reservation and we both dozed off, almost looking crazy at the airport. As someone who rarely travels by plane, I had no idea how we were supposed to rest properly, even for a short while.

Okay, forget about us not resting properly, and then flew to Medan. Which then caused another unnecessary argument with J, triggered by fatigue and our souls wanting to jump out to fight. But, all of that was eventually quickly forgotten. Every time J and I tried to adjust and match ourselves. Of course, it wasn't easy. We both have different cultures, thoughts, and very different ways of living, naturally, little friction will often occur.

We arrived in Medan after waiting almost half a night at the airport to fly in the early morning.

Now, let me take you to the unusual tourist spot that made my vacation with J really very memorable. I was personally really interested in vacationing in such a place, far from the crowds. And, this year, my dream of vacationing in the forest, mountains, plantations, and whatever it's called, came true thanks to J.

The journey from the city of Medan to the forest was very time-consuming and energy-draining, but also fun. After arriving at Kualanamu Airport, we took a train to the city of Medan, for about 1 hour journey. From the city of Medan, we took another train to the city of Binjai, for about 30 minutes.

Then, from Binjai train station, we continued by taking a "Rio" minibus to Kabanjahe. J sat behind me because of his long legs and needed more legroom. I sat in front while looking at the hot and crowded city of Binjai.

After about 2.5 to 3 hours of travel, because the bus often stopped and parked, we stopped at a location called Pamah Simelir. From Pamah Simelir, then M, the owner of the farm, would pick us up with his old Ford car and travel about 45 minutes into the depths of the forest and his house.

Along the way, I was invited to be tossed around in the middle of the wheel of life. Although the view was very pleasing to the eye, the right side of the road was a deep ravine. Several times I was worried the car would fall into the ravine. But, because the driver was professional and spoke German with J throughout the journey, I could dispel that worry.

Here I didn't talk much with J because of our unnecessary argument at the coffee shop before Martin picked us up. I felt annoyed and of course, J also looked very annoyed. Finally, I let J chat with M in German, which he missed very much because all the time J had to speak English with me and didn't understand Indonesian at all. Maybe we were both just tired and didn't want to give in to each other. Our annoying nature is our default mode and we can't avoid it.

Okay, let's just switch to the story about the farm owned by M. M, a man who is also a German citizen, married an Indonesian woman, a native of Batak Karo, and bought a former oil palm plantation in the depths of the forest in Langkat Regency, Medan, North Sumatra.

The story of buying the former oil palm plantation is no less long and dramatic. The big dream of this couple is to restore the former oil palm plantation and return the endemic that previously existed in the forest. Very noble. They then opened a road to enter their private forest area, with the help of an excavator, which of course took a lot of time and money. Then they built a cottage which is now no longer inhabited, created an Arabica coffee plantation, and built a small guesthouse whose construction took one year because it was done by M himself (it's hard to believe this one person, amazing!). From the guesthouse, we could see far into the mountain range, and see monkeys swinging on trees with the help of binoculars accompanied by the sound of a river from a distance.

When we visited, J and I didn't stay at his guesthouse but stayed in a tent at M's house which was also still half-finished. More practical and economical. Our vacation activities were quite a lot here, aka vacationing while helping the farmer uncle work, especially those related to coffee.

We were greeted by the same full moon we had seen in Bali.

In the morning, we had breakfast with homemade German bread, said M. He meant he made the bread himself. M said German bread tastes different from most Indonesian bread. Yes, I've read a lot about this; bread in Indonesia is not meant to be filling, it's just for snacks, while bread abroad is meant to be filling until lunchtime.

M's homemade bread, fresh from the oven.

After a pleasant breakfast, our activities would continue by harvesting cherry beans in the Arabica coffee plantation. Sometimes, I also helped sort the coffee beans after being dried. Separated into three parts: bad coffee beans, incomplete or damaged, normal coffee beans, and male coffee beans. This is where I learned how to differentiate between "male" (peaberry) coffee beans and "female" (normal) coffee beans.

On the left are the 'normal' coffee beans, and on the right, are the 'male' ones.

Other activities sometimes I sweep the inside of the house, wash dishes, or cook if M is busy all day for example. Usually, M would be busy in front of the coffee drying machine for half a day while recording the results in a book regularly, from the temperature, results, and all other detailed things that I don't understand. Still continued by packing coffee orders from his loyal customers.

Sometimes I would also walk around the flower garden owned by M's wife who has various types of flowers, there is even a kind of greenhouse that is abandoned because M is now busy taking care of the children.

M's wife's flower garden is slowly becoming overgrown.

I also tried Nagami oranges, the unique thing is that the skin is enjoyed because it tastes sweet and fresh, while the contents are sour. Writing this, I remember the sweet and sour fresh taste. I also often ate raspberries that tasted sour and fresh, J said it tasted almost like wax. In my opinion, it tastes like eating flowers.

In total, we were in Medan for exactly 10 days. J and I went down to the city of Medan to visit popular tourist attractions in Medan. The most memorable was when we visited the museum. Suddenly J became a famous artist. Many students visited the museum that day too, there were probably more than 5 groups from different schools. And, suddenly J was surrounded by many fans, from being asked to take pictures together to being invited to chat for quite a while. While J was busy serving his fans, I could only laugh and take pictures of him from a distance.

If you are interested in vacationing on a farm in Medan that I told you about, please read the information here: Juma Enintha Farm

Happy vacation!