Medan Kota

10 Things you must Do in Medan

Frankly, its not easy to come up with this simple lists, not that there are too many to recommend, but there are not much to make into the 10 must do lists..

1.    Enjoy Indonesian Seafood @ Jimbaran Restaurant (not Jumbo nor Cemara Arsi!)
2.    Have a TWO hours Indonesian Massage with TWIN therapists @ Eucalytus Spa at Griya Dome for Rp 225,000 = USD$ 23!!!
3.    Buy half real/half imitation Polo Ralph Lauren clothing at a fraction of the original items.
4.    Buy Pirated movie CD… dirt cheap @ Rp 10.000 per piece plus 1 Free for every 10 purchase
5.    Dine 5* luxury Chinese Dim Sum @ Taipan Restaurant at Capital building.
6.    If Durian is your kind of fruits, try the famous locally made Pancake Durian at Kedai Tiramisu @ food court level at Sun Plaza for Rp 12000 a piece
7.    Ladies! beautified your hand and feet at any salon for just Rp 110.000 = USD$ 12 (for both manicure and pedicure)
8.    Stay at the newly built 5* luxury hotel – The Aryaduta Hotel @ simply USD$83 nett per night!
9.    ……
10.    …..

For both point 9 and 10, I’m gonna leave it blank for all other Medanese to help me in naming it.  Everyone of us have many different feel, so feel free to drop any suggestions.

Popularity: 31% [?]

Durian… widely known and revered in Southeast Asia as the “King of Fruits”… Its distinctive odour, which is regarded as either fragant or overpowering and offensive…

The Asian love it but its being highly banned from Hotels and Airports. Thailand being the most famous of them all, is also a place where Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian considered a Durian heaven… BUT then, we Thais like the Durian differently from these three other nations… ???? well, the Thais prefer it slightly more crunchy .. the not over ripe version….while the rest of of the world like it soft and mushy…

once, my in-laws were trying to buy the fruits from the Thai local market, and as Thais like it slightly more crunchy, the seller keeps showing him the less mushy ones… and when I explained to her, hahah…. she lets them eat for FREE and as they decided to buy 1, she gives an extra of 11/2 for free… that’s in addition to those that they were already enjoying while waiting for the fruits to be packed…. and if you try to get it from the local supermarkets, its those ones that you will often find @ the sale corners

over the years, the fruits have been developed into many delicasies… such as durian cake( Clover bakery Medan is famous for it), durian cracker, durian sticky rice, durian jam, durian brownie… and now, Medan has come up with the ever famous Durian Pancake.. it first started from Taipan Chinese Restaurant and since then I have seen Bank serving it @ Client gathering…. the whole room smells!!! and I have to close my nose till the end of the banquet….

apart from Taipan, you can get it from the Tiramisu cake shop @ SunPlaza on Food Court level… my hubby loves it and I hate it… each time that he buys it home, I have to quicky placed in an air tight container, even with that, the smell stays for days in the fridge….

Popularity: 57% [?]

Medan-Penang-Bangkok-Penang-Medan  ……     This is my new found route to get to Bangkok thanks to AirAsia…  currently, getting to Bangkok can be made with AirAsia via KL, Malaysia Airlines or Silkair via Singapore…  as I was searching for a cheaper way to get to Bangkok for the up coming June holidays, I try the newly introduced Medan-Penang route with AirAsia and to my astonishment, including the cost of me having to stay overnight at the current 5star G hotel in Penang for both transit (in and out of Medan), I am still having my saving of Rp 6.000.000 for my family of 4!!!!…  and what I like is the fact that coz its on AirAsia route to Penang, it is often not as crowded and less hassle at the airport unlike with KL route…  so we will gonna try this out and see how it goes…

Songkran Festival (water festival) @ Thailand

If you happen to have free time around 10 – 14 April, try visiting Thailand to experience the Water Festival… I guarantee 100% of fun and laughter for ALL ages….  the best location to experience is in the North @ Chiangmei where the original tradition begins…  This is the time where the local Thai celebrates their New Year and coz its the time of the year where Thailand is at its hottest, hence splashing each other with water has become the custom for it….

Route to take include:

Medan-KL-ChiangMei-KL-Medan  or Medan-S’pore-ChiangMei-S’pore-Medan

Things to prepare before you go off…

1. Big Swimming goggles (to protect you eyes)

2. the tiny water bucket (buy from Medan for convenience sake)

3. rain coat for children (some people splash with icy cold water)

4. Big Huge water gun..

5. ”Zip lock” to keep your money and belonging (its very wet)

To experience the fun, you can hire the local Tuk Tuk to take you around the town while you play at the back of the car (no need to walk)..  don’t worry about running out of water as there are places along the way for you to refill your water.

The best about ChiangMei is that its a lot cheaper compared to Bangkok in all areas… food are wonderful, Spa at its best and cheapest, shopping is the extra perks, many adventures for both young and old but best of all, people are the friendliest there…  but be warn that its quite different from Bangkok…

try it and you will be thankful…

Popularity: 41% [?]

Oh well, I am doing this just for fun to see how these company work… Currently, I am a mystery shopper for Bare International and am doing it on behalf for Sony Ericsson… I have the options to do as many outlet as I want which the company will appoint you. The pay is Euro 7 per store, its definitely not much but like I said, its just for fun.. at the end of the survey, I have to do report which takes about 10 mins… so really its not a hard work.. I chose to do 3 outlets at Sun Plaza, Millenium and Medan Fair.. they do want me to do a survey for a telecom shop at Jl. Asia but coz of traffic, just couldn’t be bother to go to the area (not worth for my time and car petrol)..

If any of you are interested, register with them at Baidata The company will email you every now and then for jobs available in Indonesia. They do often have quite a lot of jobs if you are based in Jakarta… by the way, its an international company so its all around the world.. Thailand, Malaysia, US, Singapore.. The pay varies, I did came across a survey for Harley Davidson in Jakarta that pay EURO 47.. not too bad right?…

Alternatively, you can check out paid survey which give you a huge list of companies that employ people like us to do survey for them… as for accepting the USD$ or Euro, dont worry, they do pay direct to your paypal account…

Popularity: 10% [?]

This has to be one of the best promo I’ve ever seen….  If you hold the Citibank Platinum or Ultima credit card, consider taking up the offer they are having with Malaysia airlines on business class…  for ticket to KL and Penang, its about $50 more to enjoy the business class…  but the best destination to take up is PHUKET at only $375!!!! and its on Business class!!!   normally, for me to get to Phuket, I would choose the route of Silkair to Singapore and continue with Tigerair to Phuket (the safest and most comfortable and the cheapest) or alternate route will be Airasia i.e MES-KL-Phuket.. ( thats cheapest)..

lets see… so if u do the calculations for the singpore route, it will actually work out more expensive by almost $100 compared to the business class promo…  best yet, hotels in Phuket are in mid season for now till 31 March which the Credit card promo also ends….

and the most amazing is that, did u know that if you choose to fly out to Bali from Medan, its about Rp 3.500.000 return on economy class with Garuda? so, isnt it much better to get to Phuket, for the more exotic destinations….?  accomodations, service level, food and shopping in Phuket is a heaven place…  check out www.phuket.com for the best offer for hotel… its the site I use for all hotels booking in Thailand…

Popularity: 21% [?]