Speaking about Rantau Prapat, I want to highlight the hotel.
This is a town that absolutely bigger than Aek Kanopan. In the administration level, this town is classified as Kota Administratif, meaning not yet the real Kota.

Since we need to stay overnight here, so we booked a hotelroom. With the help of the husband’s friend there, he helped us to choose the best hotel in town. He gave us two options but we pick Suzuya Hotel. The rate is not too expensive, around IDR 240,000 to 420,000 per night.

When we arrived, I amazed with the condition of the hotel. It’s such a nice and clean hotel. I was surprised that we can get this kind of services at the hotel at this kind of city. The hotel is on the second and third floor, meanwhile there is a supermarket at the ground floor and the dept store at the 1st floor.

So yay.. when the husband was on meeting, I can sightseeing at the dept store and then continue with shopping at the supermarket.
After moving to Aek Kanopan, I got crazy when I’m in a supermarket. I feel want to -and I do- buy all of the things that I see there. The house is quite empty, no furniture, no stove, no washing machine, etc so I always get crazy to see them.

So housewife, choose only this hotel if you are visiting Rantau Prapat and need to stay overnight here =p

About last week, the husband needs to attend meeting at Rantau Prapat, around 1.5 to 2 hours driving from Aek Kanopan. We went on Fri afternoon and get back on the day after.

On the way back home, about 20 mins from Rantau Prapat, there is a place that they claimed as tourist area, called Aek Buru. There is a board on the entrance road but I forgot to take the picture. It is about 5 km from the main road but since the access road is bad and narrow so we need almost 30 minutes to get there. Moreover, the car is not ranger yet. It’s sedan. We need such a ranger car for this off-road access.

It said that the tourist area is a beautiful spot beside the river. But after getting there, we were confused. It’s just a common spot beside the river without any facility or something that can affirm that this is a tourist area. You can see yourself on the picture below.

But since we had arrived here, we took some pictures though.

When we were about to leave this place, a woman and her son came. They took a bath there, washed their dishes and clothes.

Ok then. I think the government need to revise the information on the board then.

After the wedding, I joined him going back to Aek Kanopan. This was my first time visiting here.
Arriving in Medan, we had lunch first at Nelayan. The specialty is Bola Roti. It tastes soooo good. With the shrimp in it and the bread surrounds it.

Then we started our journey to Aek Kanopan. It is about 5 hours driving from here. We will pass several small towns, like Kisaran, then followed by others place which names starting with Aek, like Aek Batu, Aek Loba, etc. Both side of the road was palm and rubber plant. Since it was late at night, we can’t see much.

Finally we arrived.
Here are what I can tell so far..
This town is quite big especially because of so many plants in it. But therefore, the populations are not high. The people are about 50% Batak and 50% Melayu. Most of them have tan skin. Since my skin is quite light, so when I pass by, everyone will see me, and even they will also stare at the husband whose skin is darker than me.

If they are brave enough to ask, they will ask several questions that we have noted as most frequently asked, like:
- Where are you from?
- So you’re just moving here.
- What are you doing here?
- So you are newly-wed.
- Where are you living here?
- Etc.

And for these, we have prepared our standard answers. Hehe..

Sometimes –actually I would like to say, most of the time- we feel like an alien here. Wherever we go, people will stare at us.
We can’t define yet, whether it’s because of how we dress up, or because of our face, or our skin color, or what.

But living for several days here, I have noted several things which I want to say as the beauty of this town.

Several days ago, we passed by a football field where there were a ‘Pasar Malam’ for children. They played Upin Ipin at the ‘Layar Tancap’. Wowww… I can’t find ‘Layar Tancap’ anywhere nowadays, but I can find it here.

At another moment, we passed by a photocopy shop, the advertisement is ‘Paling Murah… Fotokopi Rp. 200 per lembar’.
Whaatttt!?!? In Bandung, it even will not cost us more than Rp 50 per page. Is the place too far from modernity or the year is not yet 2010?

Another thing is about the language.
Yesterday, we were asked by several people. The questions were just completely similar to what I have mentioned above.
When answering the question about what we are doing here, the husband said that he is working at bank, of course in Bahasa, but the word bank should be spelled like in English (beng). ‘Kerja di beng..’ It just sounds funny to me.

Then another person asked about where we live here. Then the husband said, ‘Di Ledong Timur, di pasar’.
What?! I never know that there is a market nearby our house.
So then I asked him where the market is. He said, ‘Di pinggir jalan besar, itu namanya di pasar, klo pasar, disini bilangnya pajak.’
Oo.. ok.. there you go!

I believe that there are so many unique things that I can share here. So just wait for other posts.

By the way, Happy Birthday for Mama today..
Wish u all the best!

Another bad story about the wedding, but this time is about the photographer. This was included in the wedding package from Li*** Bridal, named Bl**z. We especially me since the husband was not in Jakarta, experienced bad things in cooperating with them. So the photo will be edited and printed at their vendor in Jembatan Lima. This was where the problem is. As a customer, I think I have right to just wait for the photographer to follow up all of the processes to their vendor. But it didn’t happen here. The photographer asked me to proceed there myself, asked/called the editor myself, etc etc, which I don’t want to do that way. I think I should only coordinate with the photographer meanwhile the rest should be proceeded by them.

I was angry with this but it still happened and happened again until I got the album. Phiuffhh.. what an unprofessional photographer!

Lesson learned… be careful with this Bl**z!!

Now, I would share about the wedding first. What I want to share is about my experience regarding to the wedding tailor. Based on googling, I found one tailor in Pasar Sunan Giri which was appeared several times in the result, named with 3 letters with Q at the first letter. I was disappointed by this one because it was delayed for several times meanwhile the wedding date was getting closer and closer.

At first, he said that it will be finished 2 months after. On the date, I came but unfortunately the design was not fit my request and the size was not fit yet. He promised that it will be finished a week after. I came again but again it hasn’t finished yet, even they haven’t touched that yet.

I need to go back and forth there for several times. It was far and the date was closer. It led to a frustration for me. Finally, it has finished but it was too close to the wedding date, meanwhile I still need to put the ‘payet’ on it. Uuuhhh… Need to work overnights. Fortunately it was not that bad. Thanks God!

But lesson learn, stay away from this tailor!
-- I’m sure you will know what it is if you ask mr. google --

Finally, I can post again in this blog. I will start with what I am doing currently then I would like to share about what has happened during my blogging-break.

So here it is.
For the past (I think around) 1.5 years, I was too busy with the office stuffs even to have a special me time. Even lately -since I got two projects to be handled- I came home late, around 8pm to 11pm, and then I still need to do homework till early morning or wake up early morning to do the homework. These happened again and again, day by day. This was unavoidable because my work required me to do so many meetings during the day, with the client, the team, my boss. The result of the meetings means something to be worked on which usually were paperwork.

Another thing is since I got married, we faced a long distance marriage since I worked in Jakarta and he worked in somewhere in the jungle of North Sumatra. Because of the location of his place, the signal for mobile phone is so bad. It has caused us frustrated when in our tired condition we need to maintain our communication but the signal is so bad which in turn drive me mad.

So it led us to rethink this solution, for me to move to his place, meaning I need to leave my work.
Talked to the bosses but after such discussions, I take an unpaid leave so when we move back to Jakarta, I’ll work there again.

Now, here I am. In a small town –can I say it town or should it be titled a village?- named Aek Kanopan. This place is about 220 km from Medan, about 5 hours driving if the traffic is not too crowded. You can’t expect faster since the road is quite narrow and with chuckholes. With palm or rubber plant beside the road and no light available, you need to drive carefully to avoid the chuckholes. Last week, we saw a truck bringing oil palms tumbled on the road. Maybe because of the chuckhole.

What I’m doing here? So many things. I listed down the things that I want to be accomplished during this leave, the main purpose is to re-manage my life, fulfilling the need of my heart, mind, body and soul. Referring to Stephen Covey’s term, I am now sharping my sow. So I have so many reading materials accompanying me, be it for the general knowledge or for my spiritual enlargement, I also bring all of the tools to accommodate my hobbies which I can’t do lately, I can do physical exercise in the morning after the husband went to the office to keep me fit, I can do experiments in cooking, etc etc.

Beside of that, I also run the housewife job, which when I’m doing it, I realized that this is indeed a job. You need to manage your work matching with your time, everything should be done daily so you don’t have any outstanding on the day after. Otherwise, you will be stressed out. So this is indeed a job!

O ya, speaking of cooking, this is the beauty of this small town. The husband will get back home during the lunch time so we will always have lunch and dinner together, hence I always cook twice a day, noon and evening. But actually I enjoy this.

So all and all, I think that this is the real freedom for me. I can manage my time, my schedule, my targets, etc.
However, this will not last forever, just a temporary situation, thus I need to catch up with all of the targets.

Anyone want to join me?