Our long waited trip to Lake Toba has finally ended with great experiences and memories. We even met some great friends during this trip. Here is some information to share.
Medan is the capital of North Sumatra province, Indonesia and the third largest city in Indonesia. It is also the gateway to Lake Toba (also known as Danau Toba).
Lake Toba is the largest lake in South East Asia and the deepest in the world. It was formed about 75,000 years ago after a volcano eruption. It is the largest and deepest volcanic crater lake in the world. It's 906 meters above sea level with an average depth of 450m. The lake has an island in the middle called Samosir (guess what, Samosir is the size of Singapore!).
photo by Tommy Lim Samsoir can be reached by taking passenger ferry from Parapat which is about 4 hours drive from Medan in a private car. The road condition is not good and all drivers have terrified yet safe driving skill. Overtaking and making horn is a norm there. While in Samosir, you will find a totally different environment, very clean, calm, cooling and relaxing place.
Hotel/guesthouse and restaurant are mostly located at Tuk-Tuk with cheap price, clean rooms and spectacular view of Lake Toba. If you opt for two-storey traditional Batak house, try not to occupy the upper level due to low water pressure problem.
Samosir has very little streetlight, it is good for star-gazing and astro-photography though :) Power will cut-off whenever there is strong wind, so better to have torchlight with you all the time. The food price is reasonable and taste not bad too. You can find pork served in this island because majority of the residents are Christian.
Besides relaxing or swimming at the lake, there are many interesting places to visit too. For example, Ambarita, where you can see stone chairs of the Ambarita tribal elders held council. Simanindo, a small Toba Batak village. It is a restored house of Toba Batak king now turned into museum with traditional Batak dance performance everyday at 10.30am & 11.45am. At Tomok, you can find King Sidabutar's tomb, vehicle ferry jetty and souvenir shops. Don’t miss the Hotspring at Pusuk Buhit Mountain. You may also drop by Pangururan, the Samosir town/administraive centre to have lunch.
After spending 2nights stay at Samosir, we moved on to Berastagi, about 5-6 hours drive from Parapat (70km from medan). On the way, we visited Sipisopiso Waterfall, the view is spectacular! The waterfall is 120m high and is formed by an underground river which flows out into the Toba caldera. Photo by Adeline Leong The hotels in Berastagi is bit expensive than Samosir but it is consider cheap compared to other hotels in major cities. We had our dinner at roadside of Berastagi town, the food was delicious!
There are two active volcanoes close to Berastagi, Mount Sibayak and Mount Sinabung. Since our flight is at night, we decided to do trekking up to Mount Sibayak to see the craters and sulphur. The journey took about 5 hours and it ended at Berastagi hot spring.
After came down, there is not much time left for us to visit Medan. We only able to visit a unique church named Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni Archdiocesan Pilgrimage Centre (Mary of Our Lady of Good Health). For more information about this church, please visit : http://velangkanni.blogspot.com/
Besides the usual souvenir like keychain, t-shirts or handycraft, you could also try Medan famous Bika Ambon (Honey combed cake) and Kueh Lapis (Layered Cake). We love the Kueh Lapis because it is not sweet at all and with some spices fragrance. As for Bika Ambon, it is so sweet and tasted so artificial.
To conclude with this trip, I would like to thank Henry Manik of Samosir Tourism for his kindness and patience in providing Samosir information as there is very limited information from the net. Samosir deserve to get back its fame as in the 80s-90s!!
Visited May 2009 |