rina H.
The location worked well for getting around. Poda Coffee and Restaurant is an easy walk away, and the busy Saturday market takes about 10 minutes on foot. That area has two bus companies with service to Lake Toba. Becaks sometimes wait outside Angkasa Raya, though they also pass by regularly. Locals who knew the area described it as the relatively poshest place in downtown Sidikalang. For a stay out among the coffee fields, there’s also an atmospheric, comfortable plantation home listed on AirBnB and rented room by room. You can ask the owners of Poda Coffee and Resto about it. Google Maps showed everything correctly. I paid 250.000 IDR a night for an upstairs “Deluxe” room, one floor above ground level, roughly 18 square metres. It had a large, comfortable double bed that wasn’t too soft, green sheets, bright green paint, dark floor tiles, and looked a little worn but not badly. Two small windows with slightly darkened glass opened onto a deep courtyard, so there wasn’t much daylight, but street and mosque noise were limited. I sometimes heard a pump at night. Other “Deluxe” rooms apparently have two single beds and just one small window. There wasn’t a proper wardrobe, only luggage racks and a rail for hangers, but no hangers. I didn’t ask for any. The small desk was partly taken up by a medium-sized flat TV and free drinking water, and there was one rattan chair. No fridge, fan, or aircon. In mid-March I didn’t miss the fan or aircon. The western shower got hot water once I switched on the bathroom light. The bathroom had some natural ventilation but no electric fan. The western toilet worked, though there was no toilet paper or holder, and reception didn’t have any to give me. There wasn’t a sink in the bathroom or bedroom, just a mandi bucket. I had to ask reception for a towel on arrival. The maid changed it the next day, but the day after that I came back at noon and found none. Reception said all the towels were still drying outside. When I said I wanted to shower then, they fetched one from the laundry line, warm and dry. My room was cleaned each morning. I don’t think there’s breakfast, and the lobby is just an unattractive little waiting area that mostly seems to be a staff hangout. Wifi worked only there, not in my upstairs room, even though staff had said it would work in the room. Mobile reception in the room was so-so. Reception staff varied in English ability and friendliness, and none seemed to have much of an overview. They might answer “Yes” without understanding what you’d said. Sometimes reception was unattended for a few minutes, and it would have been easy to take a key to an occupied room and help yourself to someone’s things. Nothing happened to me. Electricity worked only while the rough wooden key tag was in its slot, so you couldn’t charge anything without it. There were two power cuts in my three days, though the generator started quickly. Laundry was fast, good, and inexpensive, since the hotel sends it to an outside business, but one plain shirt came back that wasn’t mine. My reservation email in English got no reply. An Indonesian friend called and booked for me in Indonesian, receiving confirmation by phone. When I arrived, they had no record of it, though rooms were available. They showed me two vacant rooms in the “Deluxe” category when I asked.
