1

Try Liberta Guesthouse - the number and e-mail address in in the LP book. I know that Mr Moon doesn't accept reservations unless from past guests - for obvious reasons; but a call to them will confirm whether they are fully booked for that period (with past guests returning).

Having just left Tuk Tuk, and spending some of that time over the Christmas period, I do know that most of the guesthouses raise their nightly prices by as much as 400%!!!! over certain holidays, I'd hazard a guess that Chinese New Year will be one of those holidays. Just for your info, there are around 1000 rooms available within the Tuk Tuk area.

Medan to Parapat - minivan (65,000) will take around 4 hours (they say), but you could add some more hours onto that!! (It took my minivan an hour to get onto the Sumatran Highway). Local bus (22,000) will take longer. Private cars can be rented for the journey - i heard they cost around 600,000 (ish).

Bus from Banda Aceh to Medan will take around 12 hours for an a/c bus (120,000), they leave all day from the new bus station in BA. You can also get an express bus which i believe leaves around 8pm?? and is non-stop (200,000).

No idea what the average cost of a BA to Medan flight would be - I've paid as little as (280,000) but that was booked well in advance on a promo booking.

Enjoy your travels.

2

Text below is pasted from Wikipedia:

By plane
Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport, (IATA: BTJ, ICAO: WITT) is named after the twelfth sultan of Aceh, Iskandar Muda.

Airlines fly daily between Banda Aceh and either Medan, a 1 hr trip, or Jakarta, a 2 hr 40 minute trip.

AirAsia, Kuala Lumpur. [1], daily flights
Batavia Air, Jakarta-Soekarno-Hatta, Medan
Firefly, Penang, [2] , Malaysia's community airline now flies from Penang to Banda Aceh every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
Garuda Indonesia, Jakarta-Soekarno-Hatta, Medan, 3 daily flights from Jakarta and two daily flights from Medan. The Jakarta-Banda Aceh direct flight on Garuda takes 2 hr 40 mins on a Boeing 737, although it is often changed to stopover at Medan without warning. Seasonal to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia during the Hajj season
Lion Air, Jakarta-Soekarno-Hatta, Medan. They have two daily flights from Jakarta and one from Medan.
SMAC, Blang Pidie, Meulaboh, Simelue, Takengon, Tapaktuan. Flies daily from Medan to Nias Island and Simeulue Island.
Sriwijaya Air, Medan
Susi Air, Meulaboh

3

Thanks, dc1 !!!

So you're there !! How was the weather like? Was it raining? Normaly it's rainy season and I'm quite afraid that it will be raining all the time ...

Thanks for your information. We're going first to Pulau Weh and we'll try to think it over once again - whether we change our plans and take a bus or a flight to Medan.

Bye,

Marbea

4

Local holiday periods at Toba are really awful, unless of course, you're the group making all the noise and generally dumping rubbish and allowing your kids to run riot all over the place. Avoid at all costs, imho.

5

Hi Marbea,

I started to write you a note but then realized that the itinerary you put up above is the new one NOT the old one.
Am I correct?
Pamela

Edited by: pPamela

6

Weather is OK. Bus 120K every hour fine 15 hours. At the back bay there will be rooms DT. Bargain hard over your length of stay, from like 50K. Been there in CNY. Often TUK Tuk these days is too quiet. No worries.