A Day-Trip Without A Single Digital Tech – Back in the early of 2014 when I was in Medan City, my hometown, due to a long semester break, I decided to take a day off from my freelance projects to exploring some great places around North Sumatra, not too far from Medan.
Several days before deciding to travel, I had a hangout with my old friends. As usual we spent hours sharing stories, laughing very hard, and doing so many familiar things together just like the old days.
It was very fun, of course. But something quite different than what we used to do happened that day. I later noticed that we were too busy with our smartphones.
Two of my friends were even playing games on their laptops, while the others, including me, were checking our social media accounts on smartphones.
Although each of us shared our own stories, laughed very hard enjoying those stories, but for a hangout after being separated for months even years, that was a strange hangout.
This digital kala has changed the cultures. We could hardly stay with ourselves without being disturbed by the use of smartphones.
I understand that such a thing happened all the time, and that’s just too bad. After noticing that there was something strange on our last hangout, I decided to test myself whether I could live without a single digital tech or not.
After thinking about it, I made a plan to spend a day without a single digital tech. I was happened to complete several of my freelance tasks.
My client asked me to do a simple translation which I could finish just in a few hours on the day before. So after that I took a day off, wrote an automatic response message to tell my clients that I was off of any jobs, and decided which places I was going to visit.
I made a list of possible great places around Medan or not too far from Medan, which I decided to visit, several of them include:
- Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni, Tanjung Selamat, Medan.
- Taman Buaya Asam Kumbang, Sunggal Medan.
- Taman Alam Lumbini, Brastagi, North Sumatra.
- Sipiso-Piso Waterfall, Tanah Karo, North Sumatra.
- And some major tourism spots around Brastagi, Kabanjahe, and Tanah Karo.
After making that list, I wasn’t quite sure about having a day-trip without a single digital tech. There are several things on my personal smartphone, which I couldn’t live without.
Actually I was quite nervous about that plan because several destinations on the list were the ones that I had never visited. I knew that there’s always the possibility for hard situation. Of course I was worried about my safety.
Not to mention, my parents asked me to keep my phone active so they would be able to reach me easily.
That’s when I couldn’t tell my parents about my fixed plan to take a day-trip without a single digital tech. But when it’s decided, it’s decided.
To make the things clear and because I didn’t want to waste my precious time for that day, I decided to visit the places that I had never visited before.
I re-arranged the list and around 6AM I took a public transport, named Sinabung Jaya, that is usually used by locals who want to go to Tanah Karo and its precincts.
The first region I visited was Brastagi after spending 2 hours of departure. I went exploring some notable places like Organic Markets, The Museum of Karo, Mickey Holiday, Gundaling etc. And from Brastagi, about 15 KM away, I went to Desa Lingga (The Village of Lingga).
It is an ancient village of the past Karonese. There are some traditional houses of Karo, which had been established since 250 years ago.
After spending about an hour admiring those ancient big houses, I moved back to Brastagi. While on the way back, I was told by a local old man, whom I called ‘Kila’ (a Karonese word that represents ‘Uncle’), that I must visit Pasar Buah too.
Brastagi is known as the importer of fresh; high quality greens and fruits. Pasar Buah is a market for organic products, mostly fruits, which is open on a regular basis every day.
There were so many stands by the locals peddling their high quality organic products. I bought one kilogram for each orange and strawberries.
So fresh and delicious. I met with a rambutan seller whose surname is the same with mine and jokingly ordered me to call him ‘Pak Uda’, the same with ‘father’. He was very excited meeting me, so was I, and we had a chat in Karonese language.
He then gave me a pack of rambutan for FREE. When I was trying to pay for it, he declined and said, “No father who’s able to receive money from his son while he can still work.
Every father should give the results of their work to their sons. I can’t give you money, I’m giving you rambutan instead” in Karonese language.
I was really grateful for that, and to be honest, I could still remember the exact words and his expression when he said it to me.
I walked away from Pasar Buah and headed over to Kabanjahe, about 10KM from Brastagi. I didn’t quite remember what time it was, maybe around 2PM.
I know very well that there are so many culinary spots in Kabanjahe, so it wasn’t hard for me to choose what to eat for lunch.
The hardest part was to decide where to have lunch. There are so many available options with cheap price and delicious foods.
In the end I chose Babi Panggang Karo (Karonese Grilled Pork, with pig blood sauce), a non-halal food which is made with the special recipe of Karo.
After eating my lunch, I was too full to continue walking/traveling. I sat for a while and occasionally listened to the chatter of Karonese around me.
There was a couple of western tourists sitting next to me, and they were the ones the local Karonese were chatting about. It was quite fun to hear it out.
Sipiso-Piso Waterfall was on the top list of destinations I made before, but after looking at the clock, it was impossible to get there.
So I decided to end my trip that day and went back to Brastagi after walking the streets of Kabanjahe for a couple hours.
I also visited Pasar Buah once again to buy high quality fruits as a souvenir for my parents. Once I got there, I didn’t see Pak Uda anymore.
A fellow fruits seller told me that he went home to get prepared for attending his relative’s wedding party. After I was done with my business, I took a public transport heading to Medan City.
I dropped off in an area called Penatapan. Penatapan is known as a place where you can get delicious roasted corn sold by the locals, located along a long road headed to Medan, Jamin Ginting Street.
I stopped by just to enjoy some roasted corns and drinking coffee, also enjoying the wind blowing; slapping my cheeks and hair.
I also drank a sugarcane juice, purely made without any artificial sweeteners. The price in total was not too expensive, besides, I could interact and play with so many kinds of monkeys, at the rear of the cottage, which called imbo by the locals.
So after spending a full day traveling around Tanah Karo, North Sumatra, I went back home.
So here’s the list of destinations I visited that day:
- Mickey Holiday, Brastagi
- The Museum of Karo, Brastagi
- Gundaling, Brastagi
- Desa Lingga, 15 KM from Brastagi
- Pasar Buah, Brastagi
- Monument of Heroes, Brastagi
- Kabanjahe
- Penatapan, Deli Serdang
Most of destinations on the list I first created were the ones I had ever visited, so it was changed so much on the simpulan list.
Actually the most important things on this article are not the destinations I have visited, but my experiences and the advantages of traveling without a single digital tech in hands.
I’m trying to tell you how fun it was, and how great it could affect you too. My day-trip without a single digital tech was really wonderful, and I’m willing to do that over and over again.
A day-trip without a single DIGITAL TECH gave me these advantages:
- I could enjoy my day-trip perfectly. No distractions, no notifications, everything you might imagine all this time while having a trip.
- The best help I could get was me myself. I could only rely on myself at anything. I found myself so useful that day because the one I depended on was myself.
- I could enjoy all the activities perfectly. My vision worked great, so active as it should be.
- United with the atmosphere wherever I was.
- And so many other things that I cannot describe.
But, there are always pros and cons in everything. So here are a few cons:
The disadvantages of traveling without a single digital tech
- No camera no documentation. I always love to have pictures for documenting my trips.
- No favorite musics. I always listen to my favorite musics to enjoy my trips, but that was an exception.
- I missed so many calls from my friends and parents, and also missed so many job offers from my clients.
- That’s all
That was just one of my ideas to have a full day without a single digital tech. After that trip I always try to find many ways to have a beautiful day without any gadgets and other digital techs.
As a freelance web developer and blogger, as you now, I always spend hours everyday working in front of computer and interacting with others through smartphones.
Without even realizing it I am always stuck with techno-stress, which is no good at all. Maybe you feel the same way.
I’ve done several activities for a day without digital tech that I’d always love to share with y’all. Since technostress is no good at all, you might want to get yourself free for any kind of digital technologies, just for one day, and you can do that by taking your time to:
- Go to random places with your friends. Going to some new places is great, try it!
- Do sports! Swimming, jogging, trekking etc. Make sure to pick sport you’d love to do and also pick the good spot.
- Forget Malls! Back to Nature!
- Do you love culinary? Try the best ones in your city.
- Make yourself busy by doing your non-tech hobbies, whatever it is from reading books, knitting, attending local festival, going to museum, going to city park, watching live music, anything you’d love to!
- Yoga? I’m not much into yoga, but if you have it in mind, don’t hesitate to try it too!
So that was how I enjoyed my day-trip without a single digital tech, and those are the ways you could try to enjoy yours too.
A day-trip without a single digital tech is really good for every traveler. Maybe that’s something you can do to maximize your traveling experience.
Where to Stay?
There are a lot of hotels in Berastagi and Kabanjahe, depending on your need. Use the Agoda’s Search Engine below to find hotel nearby that suits your need:
Was it helpful? I hope so. Enjoy your day.
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