Lake Toba

Lake Toba. Paul didn’t know much about it, but he had an extra day in Northern Sumatra and thought: “Hey it sounds cool… Danua Toba. Cool climate. Volcanic Caldera. Agricultural heartland of Northern Sumatra. Home of the Christian/Animist Batak people…. Let’s check it out.”

Infrastructure in Northern Sumatra being what you might expect, the highways are all one lane roads, potholed, twisty, dusty and packed with honking motorcycles, scooters, bikes, trucks, vans and buses. The buses and vans were all decorated which was pretty awesome. These old beat up Mitsubishis would have a full underkit, spoilers, and chrome rims. They were covered in neon orange paint, or decals of Mickey Mouse, giant-incredibly muscled bulls and Charelton Heston from the Ten Commandments. They were often packed to the roof with passengers. Literally. People would sit on the roof of a van ripping down a tiny road at 100 plus kms an hour. With their kids. And a picnic lunch. Crazy.

We (Paul chartered a mini van with two Danes) took the back road to Lake Toba because our driver had never been that way and wanted to take a picture at the border between North Sumatra Province and Lake Toba Province. It turned out to be a great idea, as it didn’t take much longer (what’s another hour on a 7 hour ride) and we passed through farmland and tiny villages. Betel nut chewing old women, and men on donkeys turned to wave and smile at us as we bounced our way through their hamlets.

Eventually we made it to Lake Toba and took a boat from the harbour to TukTuk a peninsula on an island in the middle of South East Asia’s biggest lake. Paul met a Russian fellow who had been on the trek into the jungle with him, and they ended up sharing a room at a resort on the peninsula that night. Cost us each $3 and there was air conditioning. J

The next day Paul had until 1:30pm to poke around the traditional villages and go for a swim in the refreshing waters. Then it was back on the boat and into a mini-van that would take him back to Medan.

This time the ride back was excruciating. The van was filled with locals, and Paul had to share a bench seat with two of the largest Indonesian men he had ever seen. Stocky, overweight and broad shouldered, they made for singularly poor traveling companions! They did help Paul identify some edible food at the bus station we stopped at for dinner so it wasn’t all bad.

We arrived late into Medan, and Paul found himself a nice squalid box of a hotel room to crash in before boarding his morning flight back to KL and on to Bali to meet up with his wife and the Rieus.