The morning after our trip to see the elephants and our drive back through the deluge, we were up before dawn for an early breakfast and departure for Lake Toba. This was a three day add-on to the Bukit Lawang excursion and was arranged by the EcoTravel group so I hadn’t done much research on it and didn’t know what to expect. But it came with what was described as a “culinary tour” to a local village where we would visit a market and gather spices from the cook’s garden to make our lunch — how could we resist that? That culinary tour was a special experience. Other highlights of this part of our trip included learning about the local Batak people, looking for restrooms in rural Indonesia, the geography of the Lake Toba area, and the ferries.
The Road to Lake Toba
The drive turned out to be an all day affair through rural parts of northern Indonesia. We took a new road being built through the mountains which took us through some beautiful territory but it was slow going with all the construction.
We saw a few big machines for grading and paving but a great deal of the work was being done by hand — breaking up rocks, building retaining walls and drainage ditches, digging and moving dirt. These people work so hard!
After the mountains, we went through an area where a volcano erupted a few years ago, destroying a village and causing the evacuation of many residents to another area. The relocated residents were industriously deforesting the new area to create fields for agriculture. Unfortunate for the forest, but what could they do? They need food.
It was about this time that I really needed to pee and our guide had to ask a shopkeeper at a roadside stall if I could use the toilet in their home behind the store. She was very accommodating, but it was the squat version of course, and I needed David’s help to manage with my damaged knee. This may be more information than you want to hear, but, hey, it’s the reality of traveling in a third world country. Good thing I have done a lot of camping in my life and am used to rustic conditions. Here is the shopfront where we stopped to use the facilities.
About lunch time we came to an urban area called Berastagi where we stopped at a fruit market and then got some food at the Hotel Mexico — why Mexico, I have no idea, the food was not particularly Mexican — but, blessing of blessings, they had a western toilet.
The Batak People
We ate our chicken fried rice in the car on the way to a local Batak village where we were greeted by a guide who showed us around and explained the local customs and the significance of the distinctive architecture of their dwellings.
In contrast to the major religions of Indonesia, Islam and Christianity, he described his community as animists, believing that all things and beings have a distinct spiritual essence. The design of the houses honors gods of the underworld (under the house), the earthly world (the wide middle section), and the heavens (the spire at the top).
Many families share one dwelling but have individual sitting areas and hearths within the space.
The roofs are held up by a complex structure of rafters that provide a lot of space for heat and smoke to rise, keeping the living area clean and airy.
This particular Batak house was built in 1860 and many of these houses are a hundred years old or more. Once we were introduced to this community and its architecture, we noticed these houses throughout our travels in the Lake Toba area.
Lake Toba
In the late afternoon, we arrived at a viewpoint at one end of Lake Toba, where a waterfall cascades from the surrounding plains down a long cliff into the lake.
Lake Toba fills an unbelievably immense volcanic crater, or caldera— actually the crater was created by a super volcano, or four eruptions that happened in the same vicinity over a long period of time. The most recent eruption was about 74,000 years ago when so much ash and gas was thrown into the atmosphere that global temperatures fell drastically for a decade and much of SE Asia and India were covered in a layer of ash. There are other super volcanoes in the world (Yellowstone being one) but Toba is one of the biggest and Lake Toba is the largest volcanic lake in the world. It is so big that it disappears into the hazy distance, and it is impossible to get a photo of the whole thing because of the large island the size of Singapore that rises out of the middle.
After the waterfall lookout, we drove for another hour or so before we got to Parapat, where we caught the ferry to Samosir Island and our lovely cottage at the Tabo Inn. The ferry was painted in cheerful colors and decorated with pretty valances above the windows that fluttered in the breeze. We watched school children playing in the water at the harbor while we waited for departure time, and, on our way to the island, the captain played loud music through enormous speakers for our entertainment. We were absolutely charmed.
Next - Our culinary adventure on the island.
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