Tabo Cottage, our home in Samosir

Most of the Guesthouses in Samosir Island located at Tuk Tuk, and it took months for me to choose the best accomodation for this trip. Most of the reviewers in Chinese Cari Forum(a great place for me to do homework for my trips) recommended Samosir Cottage, Samosir Villa and Bagus Bay, while some travellers in TripAdvisor suggested Tabo Cottage, Toledo Inn and, Carolina Cottage. 

At the end, we booked a stay in Tabo Cottage even though her price is consider high among the rest. Well, we think we made the best decision.

Entrance to the cottage from main road

Tabo Cottage was built on a big compound area, where the rooms in Batak architecture are surrounded by tropical garden.

                                                                    Batak style cottage.

Restaurant area.View from restaurant.
Such a pleasant view while having meals.

A relaxing place to chit chat and reading books.

I woke up early during the 2d1n stay in Tabo Cottage and I simply love the pleasant and tranquil lakeside area. A great place to watch the sun rise and enjoy the calmness and serene morning in Lake Toba. We did a “short swim” in the pool and lake, but gave up due to the chilling water. *shivering*

Swimming pool that facing the lake

Relaxing in a hundred years old Batak Gazebo.
Puffy face in the early morning.

Tabo Cottage offers 6 types of different rooms, and we stayed at the  Junior Suite for 4(IDR 600K) and Junior Suite for 2(IDR 450K). Both rooms are great and have ample space for us to move around. The rooms do not have air conditioner(well, the cooling weather in Lake Toba is the natural air-cond), but it have hot shower bathrooms.

The restaurants offers Indonesian, Chinese and Western dishes, and the price we paid for rooms are inclusive of breakfast. The breakfast is buffet style and the other dishes are in reasonable price. Foods are excellent and the lake fish is a must try when you are in Lake Toba. No forgetting the lady boss of Tabo Cottage is a Germanese and the bakery by her is delicious. The in house band will entertain us during the dinner time with local traditional songs and musical instruments.

Dining areaIn house bandBreakfast

Tabo Cottage, Samosir Island

Phone: +62-625-451318
Website: www.tabocottages.com
Email: info@tabocottages.com

PS: All the hotel reviews in my blog are not sponsored, I just write out to share my experience. So, if you appreciate my review, please click on the adverts available on the top, so that I can have more income to travel and share all these wonderful experience with you. Tq.

Medan 4D3N trip Itinerary

I have a close gang when I was working in Penang for my PRP training. So, when Air Asia was doing sales, we decided to buy the cheapest International air ticket in list.

Tadaaaa...Medan here we come.

Medan, the 3rd largest city(after Jakarta and Surabaya) in Indonesia. However, we only spent 1 night in Medan city during the 4 days 3 nights trip, because there is nothing much here. We spent most of our time in Samosir Island, a large volcanic island in Lake Toba. When I was studying in Geography in Secondary School, I learned that Lake Toba is the largest volcanic lake in the world.

It tooks about 4-5 hours of car journey from Kuala Namu Airport to Parapat Harbor, the gateway to Samosir Island. Hilly roads and the bad road conditions makes it a tiring journey. But, our moods turned well when we saw the peaceful and beautiful lake.

Mentioned about itinerary, I would say, this is the simplest itinerary I ever made in my travel journey:
First day
Touched down Kuala Namu Airport, head to Tabo Cottage
Second day
Motorbike ride from the cottage to Hot Spring
Third day
Leave Samosir Island. Went to King Sidabutar Tomb, Sipiso Waterfall and Berastagi Fruit Market. Overnight at Swiss Berlinn Medan.
Last day
Back to Malaysia.

I will blog more on the details of Tabo Cottage, Samosir Island, Swiss Berlinn Medan and King Sidabutar Tomb+Sipiso Waterfall+Berastagi Fruit Market in separate posts. So stay tuned!

Peaceful Lake Toba view from Tabo Cottage

Sipiso-piso Waterfall

My next trip....

Hi Hanoi.

Hi Halong Bay.

Hi Mai Chau.

Excited for the last trip in year 2013! 

Can you feel my heart beat?:-)

Plearnwan Eco Vintage Village, Hua Hin

Plearnwan is derived from a combination of the English words 'Play and Learn', together with a Thai word ‘Wan’ that means yesterday.

When you are coming from Bangkok, you will definitely see this eye-catching huge brown color entrance to the eco village on your right. No entrance fee is needed upon admission and it open daily from 11.00am to midnight. There are shops selling clothes, foods, watches, vintage goodies, etc etc. The compound isn’t big so we just spent an hour here, walking around and taking pictures.

Plearnwan is actually built up on an open lawn area,
with  2-storey buildings around. Giant vanilla sundae. Nom Nom
Fall in love with the vintage watches here.
Bought 1 at THB400
Expensive but worthy because
I simply love the numbers in Thai wordings

Besides shoplots, there are several spots that nice to take pictures at.

There is a ferris wheel ride and some mini game stall at the end of this area.

Some interesting facts that you might wish to know about Plearnwan:

a) Outdoor Movie
There will be a movie on screen on Friday&Saturday, starting from 19:30 onwards. m33iyin didn’t have the chance to watch it.
b) Piman PlearnWan
If you wish to have a nice sleep at this retro area, Piman Plearnwan is the place that you should book your room at. Piman Plearnwan is the place that offers you Thai classic bathroom style
c) Official website
Visit http://www.plearnwan.com/ for more information on this eco village.

The Shorea, Jelebu

Idk what I have been busy for lately. Definitely not just sleeping and working, I just simply lost the mood to update my blog. Was having severe emo-ness since I back from my Lake Toba trip and a Shorea stay with my besties in Penang and UM. I not yet finish writing my Bangkok and Hua Hin posts, then now Lake Toba and Shorea, upcoming will be Hanoi.

Ok, stop nagging like an old lady. Decided to blog about The Shorea today and postpone my Bangkok, HuaHin, Medan trip.

 My friends enquired me about this wonderful place
after I uploaded a picture in FB,
so I should make a introduction to everyone
who interested with this place.

The Shorea is a boutique resort hotel built within a tropical forest reserve at Jelebu, which is only a 30 minutes drive from Seremban town. The Shorea has only 4 villas available for rent(so do advance booking before your visit), which are Villa Shorea(largest villa), Villa Bougainvillea, Villa Kemboja and Villa Halia.

The quiet, little hill road to Shorea.The small road sign.

The Environment Villa on the left is Villa Bougainvillea,
top is Villa Kemboja.
On the left is dining area and Villa Shorea.

Inifinity pool and Villa Shorea.

Plunge pool

Both infinity and plunge pools are salt water pool with no chloramines. Hence it is easy for the eyes and skin.
Nasi lemak as breakfast.

We booked the Villa Bougainvillea, which can accommodate up to 5 peoples(ngam ngam for us~) at RM1500 per villa night,inclusive of breakfast. Villa Bougainvillea contains a king-size bed, a daybed, private kitchenette with cooking facilities and an outdoor balcony.

Sundeck area underneath the Villa Bougainvillea.No air-cond in the villas(only fans),
the chilling temperature at night is cooling enough.Love the design of bath tub.

When we were there, the guests for Villa Kemboja are not reaching yet. So, we have a chance to look at it. Villa Kemboja is perfect for couple stay. It has a King size bed, private kitchenette with cooking facilities, a barbeque area within an enclosed dining courtyard and a balcony.

Five of us didn’t have a "full attendance" meet up since we graduated, and we do cherish this wonderful time that we spent together. We enjoyed our endless chit chat session, had fun playing in the pools, steamboat under the starry night and took endless pictures. The Shorea is a perfect place for us to did nothing, but to relax.

Foods for steamboat are self prepared.

So, looking for a place to escape from the hustle and bustle of life?
Just reserve a room at:

www.theshorea.com

PS: All the hotel reviews in my blog are not sponsored, I just write out to share my experience. So, if you appreciate my review, please click on the adverts available on the top, so that I can have more income to travel and share all these wonderful experience with you. Tq.