this post has been written 1 week ago before being posted here.
it's 2.30am and I'm on a night shift duty as a co-assistant in surgery dept. it's my turn to receive a surgery patient, and my other friends are all asleep as they're done with their patients. I've been waiting since midnight and it seems like no surgery patients coming yet, the ones that come mostly medicine patients.
so here I am writing in my 'batik' book (as it has a Javanese batik motive as cover) that normally I used to jot down notes during meeting or bed-side teaching or ward round. now, being abnormal, I wanna write a bit about my parents visit last week and later post it in my blog.
my brother's message in facebook a months ago really taken me by surprise. he who is now in UK told me that he's buying flight tickets for my parents to come visit me here, in medan Indonesia, for the first time since I started studying here more than 4 years ago.
they scheduled to arrive in here at 1.20pm on saturday 16th July. as i was in my final day in anaesthesiology, I supposed to sit for post-test and not gonna be able to pick them at the airport. but I was glad when a friend, Afiq said he can do that for me. so the night before, i made a sign using a cardboard with my parents names on it so that my parents will notice that afiq is waiting for them. Syaf also later agreed to go with him. I was so glad for their willingness to this. on saturday i finished my exam early, so we all went to the medan's polonia airport together. as there were many people coming out of the arrival gate, i asked my friends to guess as which ones are my parents. Afiq has made quite a number of wrong guesses while Syaf, being very careful, got the 1 guess correct. ten marks for him!
it's 2.30am and I'm on a night shift duty as a co-assistant in surgery dept. it's my turn to receive a surgery patient, and my other friends are all asleep as they're done with their patients. I've been waiting since midnight and it seems like no surgery patients coming yet, the ones that come mostly medicine patients.
so here I am writing in my 'batik' book (as it has a Javanese batik motive as cover) that normally I used to jot down notes during meeting or bed-side teaching or ward round. now, being abnormal, I wanna write a bit about my parents visit last week and later post it in my blog.
my brother's message in facebook a months ago really taken me by surprise. he who is now in UK told me that he's buying flight tickets for my parents to come visit me here, in medan Indonesia, for the first time since I started studying here more than 4 years ago.
they scheduled to arrive in here at 1.20pm on saturday 16th July. as i was in my final day in anaesthesiology, I supposed to sit for post-test and not gonna be able to pick them at the airport. but I was glad when a friend, Afiq said he can do that for me. so the night before, i made a sign using a cardboard with my parents names on it so that my parents will notice that afiq is waiting for them. Syaf also later agreed to go with him. I was so glad for their willingness to this. on saturday i finished my exam early, so we all went to the medan's polonia airport together. as there were many people coming out of the arrival gate, i asked my friends to guess as which ones are my parents. Afiq has made quite a number of wrong guesses while Syaf, being very careful, got the 1 guess correct. ten marks for him!
we took my parents to ayam penyet and it seemed like the food were tad too spicy especially to my mother. then we took them to our house as my parents were just gonna stay in my room. my mother quite alarmed by the number of cats I have at my house haha. though she doesn't like cats, she tolerated with the cats well. as long as the cats not going too far haha.
few hours later we started our long journey to lake toba. the journey which normally takes 4 and a half hour took us almost six hours. no thanks to the massive congestion on the way there as there was a bridge being build somewhere along the way and no proper temporary road or lencongan was made.
we stayed in Siantar hotel in Prapat and we could see a breathtaking night view of lake toba and feel the breeze through the windows. as it was already late, my parents went to bed while me, syaf, afiq and also ridzuan went out and enjoyed the refreshing lake night breeze. Ridzuan and syaf were busy taking photos of danau toba using their expensive DSLR camera. haha
it's already quite late when i woke up on the sunday morning, syaf and ridzuan already awake with their camera on tripod near to the window, taking the sun rise view I guess.
we decided to bathe at the beach for 1 hour before going to samosir island. yes, toba lake is so big that it has beaches at it's side. 1st we went to the lake-bathing place we'd been to few years ago but unfortunately it was closed. there was only i public bathing place opened nearby but it was super crowded that made it impossible for us to bathe. so we went to samosir island right away.
Lake toba is one of the most beautiful place that I've been to, but sad to say that the management of the place is quite disappointing.
Even the ferry we boarded took longer than it supposed to to samosir island, the boat went around near the prapat hotels, the same place again and again looking for more passagers. suach a waste of time. and it moved so freakngly slow that it took 1 hour toreach tomok in samosir island. and we were given only 1 hour to shop in tomok, off course we 9or my mother to be specific) needed more than that.making a long stody short, we missed the ferry to go back to prapat. haha.
and on the road way back to medan, it was jammed again. it makes me wondering why can't they build a better road to such a high-potential place for tourism.
on monday i could not hang out with my parents as i was in my first day in surgery dept. spending all day in hospital and only be back at home at around ten o'clock.
uckily dearest friend, tipz voluntereed to take my parents to a pajak ikan, a famous shopping heaven for kain telekung and other txtile products. not only she brought my parents there, she also spent her time with them untill nght. shopping with tips would be the most wanted experience for everybody as she knows how to get the best stuffs with the best deal. haha. she also made my parents tasted several local delight like bakso, pempek palembang & others.
and in the morning before i left for the hospital on the same day, i bought the famous lontong and nasi gurih for my parents to taste the indonesian breakfast. alo bought a few risol, a cylinder shape kuih with raw chili in it! be carefull if u're to try it later!
i came back home at ten, and fauzan suggested that we borrow hanim's car and take my parents out for the medan night sightseeing. so that night we went to the majestic raya mosque, and also to the Maimum palac,the only remains of the melayu deli sultanate which now has perished.
we had supper at warung pak Im by the roadside in Pringgan (the place for cheap malaysia's teh tarik) and before heading back, my parents wanted to see the adam malik hospital the place where i'm doing my clinical.
we reached home at 2am and we only had 2 more hours before going to the airport. at 5 am my parents went inside the airport leaving me in medan, homesick than ever.
my parents visit was okay i think. and i wish they stayed longer as there are still many places they haven't been to, food they haven't tried and most of all, i wish we had more money to spend on. haha!
and 1 thing I can say when looking back into this, I am so glad and touched with the help of my beloved friends who have helped me a lot in many possible ways.
few hours later we started our long journey to lake toba. the journey which normally takes 4 and a half hour took us almost six hours. no thanks to the massive congestion on the way there as there was a bridge being build somewhere along the way and no proper temporary road or lencongan was made.
we stayed in Siantar hotel in Prapat and we could see a breathtaking night view of lake toba and feel the breeze through the windows. as it was already late, my parents went to bed while me, syaf, afiq and also ridzuan went out and enjoyed the refreshing lake night breeze. Ridzuan and syaf were busy taking photos of danau toba using their expensive DSLR camera. haha
it's already quite late when i woke up on the sunday morning, syaf and ridzuan already awake with their camera on tripod near to the window, taking the sun rise view I guess.
we decided to bathe at the beach for 1 hour before going to samosir island. yes, toba lake is so big that it has beaches at it's side. 1st we went to the lake-bathing place we'd been to few years ago but unfortunately it was closed. there was only i public bathing place opened nearby but it was super crowded that made it impossible for us to bathe. so we went to samosir island right away.
Lake toba is one of the most beautiful place that I've been to, but sad to say that the management of the place is quite disappointing.
Even the ferry we boarded took longer than it supposed to to samosir island, the boat went around near the prapat hotels, the same place again and again looking for more passagers. suach a waste of time. and it moved so freakngly slow that it took 1 hour toreach tomok in samosir island. and we were given only 1 hour to shop in tomok, off course we 9or my mother to be specific) needed more than that.making a long stody short, we missed the ferry to go back to prapat. haha.
and on the road way back to medan, it was jammed again. it makes me wondering why can't they build a better road to such a high-potential place for tourism.
on monday i could not hang out with my parents as i was in my first day in surgery dept. spending all day in hospital and only be back at home at around ten o'clock.
uckily dearest friend, tipz voluntereed to take my parents to a pajak ikan, a famous shopping heaven for kain telekung and other txtile products. not only she brought my parents there, she also spent her time with them untill nght. shopping with tips would be the most wanted experience for everybody as she knows how to get the best stuffs with the best deal. haha. she also made my parents tasted several local delight like bakso, pempek palembang & others.
and in the morning before i left for the hospital on the same day, i bought the famous lontong and nasi gurih for my parents to taste the indonesian breakfast. alo bought a few risol, a cylinder shape kuih with raw chili in it! be carefull if u're to try it later!
i came back home at ten, and fauzan suggested that we borrow hanim's car and take my parents out for the medan night sightseeing. so that night we went to the majestic raya mosque, and also to the Maimum palac,the only remains of the melayu deli sultanate which now has perished.
we had supper at warung pak Im by the roadside in Pringgan (the place for cheap malaysia's teh tarik) and before heading back, my parents wanted to see the adam malik hospital the place where i'm doing my clinical.
we reached home at 2am and we only had 2 more hours before going to the airport. at 5 am my parents went inside the airport leaving me in medan, homesick than ever.
my parents visit was okay i think. and i wish they stayed longer as there are still many places they haven't been to, food they haven't tried and most of all, i wish we had more money to spend on. haha!
and 1 thing I can say when looking back into this, I am so glad and touched with the help of my beloved friends who have helped me a lot in many possible ways.
