Lake Toba 30.6-3.7

We arrived to the town of Parapat on the shore of Lake Toba after a 3 hour drive from Berastagi in a tourist bus (which was more like a big fancy car). A public boat took us from Parapat to the island of Samosir, which floats in the middle of Lake Toba. It is actually not an island, since its connected to the mainland by a thin stretch of land.

The three nights that we spent in the village of Tuk Tuk on Lake Toba we stayed at Tabo Cottages, a German owned (and colonized) hotel. The room was funky with colorful walls and a blue and yellow bathroom. It was still colder on Lake Toba than in Banda Aceh and Medan, so there was no need for aircon or a fan.

First day we walked around Tuk Tuk and were a bit disappointed since the village felt mainly deserted with many empty and abandoned houses and shutdown hotels. Lake Toba used to be filled with turists but since then things seemed to have changed a lot. Batak people inhabit the shores of Lake Toba and there are still many traditional Batak houses around with amazing carvings and decorations.

 

Our hotel had a nice pool area overlooking the lake. Here recharged out batteries, after our illnesses, by sunbathing and eating the fruit(one and a half kilos of mangostines and passion fruit) we'd bought from Berastagi. And as an icing on top of the cake the hotel next to us had cute bunnies! Perfection. The weather was strange on lake Toba. It reminded us of the Finnish summer; rain and thunderstorms taking turns with sunshine.

Other things we did during the next days included kayaking around the shores of the lake and driving around the island with a scooter. Tuk tuk and its surroundings are quite green so the views were pretty nice!

Lake Toba's speciality is BBQ fish straight from the lake which we also dared to taste. Verdict, delicious! Or not so much to Rosanna's liking but Oliver quite enjoyed it.

There were many sights around Lake Toba, from which we chose to go and visit the ruins of an ancient Batak village along with over 300-year-old stone chairs in the village of Ambarita and the nearby ancient praying site Pangulubalang. 

Our last day in Lake Toba happened to be a Wednesday, when a restaurant near our hotel had a Batak dance show. So we spent our last evening enjoying a traditional Batak dance and singing performance. It was pretty nice with young girls dancing first and then a bit of an older band performing traditional Batak songs. We participated in couple of the songs which was quite hilarious!

Finally it was time to leave Lake Toba and head to Medan to catch our flight to Penang, Malesia. As a last picture we chose this one about the burning night sky over Danau Toba.