Lake Toba (Sumatra)

We took a trip to Lake Toba just over a year ago on a 4 month backpacking trip round South East Asia and would go back tomorrow given half a chance. It was one of the places we'd heard to much about and our Rough Guide gushed over the natural surroundings and beauty of the place so we knew it had to be one of our top stops.

WHERE IS LAKE TOBA?

Lake Toba in Sumatra is the biggest lake in Indonesia and is a truly beautiful place worth a visit if you ever get the chance to visit this country. It's one of the largest islands in the world, with plenty more to see, but we loved Toba.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Danau Toba is here today because of a volcanic eruption thousands of years ago, which blew off the top of the volcano (a huge volcano by the way) and the remaining crater became a lake over time, now containing a central island in it (Samosir Island) over 5km long. The lake itself is around 35km long if I remember correctly, pretty amazing, and quite deep (half a kilometre, you wonder what lurks under there at that depth!). So based on the size of the lake (20 miles?), take a moment to imagine the size of the original volcano... pretty impressive. Toba was populated originally by the Batak from Bali, and still has many of the old settlements you can visit as well as tombs and relics.

MEDAN - SMOG PORT OF ENTRY

Our first place of entry to Sumatra was Medan, the main port in the north of Sumatra and WELL worth avoiding if you possibly can. Unfortunately, it is the quickest way to get to Toba whether flying or coming over by boat, so you really can't get around going through Medan unfortunately. My recommendation would be to catch the first bus out of there and head for your chosen spot in Sumatra before anyone can grab you or before you miss a connection. If you are unlucky and have to stay in Medan you will have a choice of around 3 recommended hostels for tourists, not much when you consider the size of this main city and how many people live here. No-one speaks English and no-one much cares about tourists - it's a fend for yourself job. We had to do it - I got food poisoning in Medan (only time during 4 months in South East Asia), our clothes were filthy from smog and we got done on exchange rates to the tune of £25, 3 days of our budget money (we were spending £10 a day each).

FROM MEDAN TO LAKE TOBA - LONG & WINDING ROAD

Anyway, once (finally) out of Medan you can reach lake Toba via several routes, one of which is by getting a bus to a town on the edge of Toba called Parapat. We got a local bus - a hair rising experience but fun, on top of the bus as there was no more room inside! We stopped in the town of Brastagi on the way, a lovely place but beware of the local market, the stench is quite incredible and you do feel all eyes are on you. This was a lesson to both of us as in this area you are the only white people and do feel that people are judging you, and quite often just plain gawking. You learn to understand it but at forst ot can be disconcerting. An interesting to note is that sweet potato is one of the most grown vegetables here, so I would have been in paradise, but our hostel lady didn't want to serve me such 'poor' food... they grow so much of it here in the volcanic soil that it is deemed a food for the poor, there you go, but I love the stuff! In Brastagi we climbed a volcano and ate plenty of good food, then headed to Lake Toba a few days later via 3 different buses, including chickens, full-on smokers in a confined space, babies galore and one of the bus conductors hanging out the door precariously, clamboring up it, down it, on the sides with one hand - loving it to bits....! Talk about job satisfaction.

WHERE TO STAY

Once you reach Toba, you get a ferry over to Samosir island, beware of touts that may be hanging around in Parapat, offering hostels, drugs and more. Once on Toba we chose to stay far away from the main port and headed along the main road past the rice fields to a quieter area to 2 hostels, one of which was Mama Teresa (Mama Te). It was worth it, the only bad thing about being here was that you had to walk a couple of miles to reach Tomok and pass hundreds of huge black spiders on the way. We're talking scary here, even my other halfs machismo didn't last long.. he found them interesting and wanted to look at them 'cause he found them so amazingly threatening and huge! These spiders are also intelligent - they share webs. You will see from 3 to 12 spiders in the same web, how very cosy. You could stay in Tomok, but we found it quite impersonal with too many guesthouses and not much to see here. Better to stay somewhere further out and walk into this town once in a while, although we only did this twice in 6 days.

WHAT TO DO

Mama Teresa offered fantastic food, as did the neighbouring hostel where we also stayed (the guilt thing again) and we relaxed to our hearts content, as well as swimming in the beautiful, clean, purple-blue haze lake. You will see the odd fosherman in his canoe quietly floating, completely stress-free and enjoying his job, something you rarely hear of these days. Bring plenty of books, or spend *quality* time in your room and enjoy the sun and peace & quiet...

Tomok village doesn't have much to see apart from tombs of the Batak King, but there are plenty of stalls willing to charm you into buying something you probably don't need. Don't be too harsh on them as they have suffered greatly as an after-effect of the Bali bomb, affecting quiet places like Toba despite having happened so far away from them. However, on the other side of the sword, if you buy from one, you may have to buy from more as you will feel guilty... we managed to be nice but learnt the hard way that you have to avoid eye contact and not stop after a while, or you'd be left with no money as a result of those guilty feelings! You will also find a few places for food here, restaurants galore but sadly either closed or empty, again a result of the Bali bomb. We found a lovely lady serving around 3 meals, we chose soup and were acompanied by the most loving cat you've ever seen, who actually clambered onto me (gently) and nuzzled into my neck. It's one of my most memorable moments and I cherished the kitten for the short time we were there.

SUMMARY

This was one of our top 3 destinations in South East Asia (the others being Mount Bromo in Java, and Kanchanaburi in Northern Thailand)We could have done more at Lake Toba/Samosir, there are several trek routes to cross the island and see some of the settlements but we were more in a relaxation mood. Still, if you fancy it do the walks - make sure you wrap up at night though as it can get quite cold.

There you have it - needless to say I loved the place so can't say much against it, apart from feeling sad that terrorist attacks have affected it so badly. If you get a chance to visit please do - everyone there is so happy despite everything and so very welcoming, you'll want to go back time and time again for R&R just like we do!