Our Play Ground (1) Tangkahan

“Dad, where should we go for New Year Holiday?” ask my oldest child when we got breakfast in the last day of 2019. Dad andd Mom didn’t even think any trip yet, but this question feels deeper than usual. As a banker, this means that Daddy should working extra time in the end of the year and it’s impossible to go out with family (even just to watch fireworks party) because Daddy Will arrived at home so Lately.

Won’t to make his Daughters day gone bad, Daddy promise to came home faster and take a  trip to Sibolga - Central Tapanuli (a city with beautiful beaches and small islands) and Padang Sidimpuan (river and Paddy’s field Garden). Making and decorating our city car being a lil campervan is the great idea also to burn all the kids spirit. 

But the agenda didn’t go according to the plans. Daddy arrived  at 4 am, the Oldest get angry and declined to fall asleep until Daddys home, Moms declines to talk too. “Oh God, this should not happened at the first day of the new year” Dads Thought.

It’s praying time (subuh) when Daddy finally asking moms and Kakak (the oldest) to take a day trip to a place that we never visit yet. “But first, let me take a nap before we go ya, and you can preparing yourself now if you want” said daddy.

January first At 10 am, after taking some breakfast we start this short trip to the unknown place. (Ya, it’s a surprised trip but everyone feels so interesting and can’t wait to much longer to arrived)

It’s called “TANGKAHAN”, It’s placed in the Leuser National Park area in Langkat District, at the border between North Sumatera Province and Aceh Province in Indonesia and We need almost 3 to 4 hours driving from Medan. You can play rafting or just swiming there. There’s also an Elephant conservation that you can visit. You’ll through a route beside the Greatest Batang Serangan River (Sei Batang Serangan) and a large of coconut palm oil field alongside your way.

After a long trip, we arrived at 2 pm and the first place that we visited is The Elephants conservation. Just because it’s holiday time, the conservation closed today. (Oooh our kiddos feels so sad)

We meets bang Nova, a local tourist guide that helped us to find a safety parking spot. Daddy ask him to find us some good spot to visiting in Tangkahan, and he also has a good news for us “even though the conservation closed today, you can still feeding and taking some pictures with the Elephants at 4” tell him. But first, lets take a time to strolling around Tangkahan.

As a holiday destination, Tangkahan has a lot of hostel or villas that you can chose when you come. The prices is between 300 thousands to 500 thousands Rupiah and you can make a reservation whenever you want. For a private, cozy and a comfortable place, there’s also a private hotel/villa with three rooms only, but you have to make a reservation before you come. (Check their instagram account @terariotangkahan).

The time is almost 4 pm when we arrived at a Hanging Bridge (almost 100 meters) across the Batang Serangan River to the Elephants cage.

You have to brave enough to crossing the bridge, but the view under the bridge is priceless. There is 9 Elephants that already waiting for you to feeding and taking bath with them. But for your and the Elephants safety reason, you have to follow all of the Elephants handler instructions.

After a tiring trekking and a cheerful day playing with the Elephants, we finished our first trip “back to mother of nature” at the first day of 2020 by swimming on the Greatest Batang Serangan river.

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