After all that, we really weren't quite sure why we'd come or what we were going to do. Well, OK, why we'd come was obvious. Danau Toba (Lake Toba) is the crater lake from the most recent (75,000 years ag0) supervolcano eruption -- the only one in human history, I think. Evidence points to climactic disturbance across the world, with sediments cored from Lake Malawi in Africa, and there is speculation that it may have almost driven the human species to extinction. The lake itself is over 1,100 square kilometers -- the largest crater lake in the world, one of the largest lakes in the world, and one of the deepest too. Of course we weren't going to let ourselves get that close to something that amazing and not make the effort (can't really even complain about a 13-hour drive!). Pulau Samosir (Samosir Island) got created in the ensuing milenia (abot 33,000 years ago) when two half-submerged volcanic domes were connected by a resurgent dome.
Pretty darned cool.
Plus, the Batak people believe it to be the piko of the world -- the center of creation of the human race.
Pretty darned cool.
Plus, the Batak people believe it to be the piko of the world -- the center of creation of the human race.
On the first day we decided to walk from our hotel in Tuktuk to the main town of Tomok where we had read that there was a museum with Batak artifacts. The Batak are a pretty widespread people with several major groups and languages. In Batu Katak and Bukit Lawang, the people were Karo-speaking and many of the indigenous families had adopted Islam. In Samosir they speak Toba and most of the indigenous people are Christen. This leads to some of the same dynamics you have in Bali with mostly Muslim tourists visiting a non-Muslim part of the country. The most obvious place of conflict is with the eating of pork (which is culturally important to most Batak groups, I think). As you get deeper into touristed areas, big signs announcing Masakan Muslim (Muslim Food) start to crop up on warung and restaurants -- there is a real fear of being unsuspectingly served pork in your meal.
I think it was about 4-5 km into Tomok -- nice walk but hot! The museum was interesting: it belonged to an older man and many of the items were things that he had been given by his parents and grandparents. Other items he'd gone into the hills and traded with still-traditional villages for the stuff. He also had a little gift shop with stuff that he and other old men/friends had carved.
Given the number of families that wanted to take photos with us, I don't think a lot of white tourists go to Tomok, but there are a huge number of Sumatran daytrippers (especially during the Lebaran holidays, I think) and the place was buzzing! You had to walk the gauntlet through clothing and souvenir shops to get from the museum to the town and we noticed that so many Sumatran families had matching shirts. We decided we needed to get some too. We also learned that HORAS is Bahasa Toba for ALOHA and is used as a daily greeting.
Given the number of families that wanted to take photos with us, I don't think a lot of white tourists go to Tomok, but there are a huge number of Sumatran daytrippers (especially during the Lebaran holidays, I think) and the place was buzzing! You had to walk the gauntlet through clothing and souvenir shops to get from the museum to the town and we noticed that so many Sumatran families had matching shirts. We decided we needed to get some too. We also learned that HORAS is Bahasa Toba for ALOHA and is used as a daily greeting.
We decided that we'd take a moto-becak home rather than walk but the guy wanted Rp 200,000. I was pretty sure from my time in Yogya (they don't have them on Bali) that it shouldn't cost more than Rp 30,000 so I offered him Rp 50,000 firm. He refused to go below Rp 150k so we kept walking. One of the vendors selling peanuts (a typical N. Sumatra snack that people buy and take home with them) must have told him he was crazy because he ended up sending her after us (we were going the opposite direction as him so he couldn't follow) and telling us he'd take us for Rp 5ok.
After the first day, we decided that Samosir was probably nicer than Medan and we decided to stay an extra night (total of 4) at Toba and one less night (total of 2) in Medan. I'm glad we did.
On the second day we rented scooters and scooted all the way around the island. We stopped at some archeologically-important sites and it basically took all day. The people we rented the scooters from also had a restaurant and when they heard that we were interested in traditional Toba food they lady suggested we come for lunch the next day and she would prepare Naniura for us. It's a 'gold' fish that is split open, "cooked" in lemon all night and then doused in spices all day. Actually, the whole reason this came up was because our hotel restaurant didn't open until 8 or 9am and we'd gone looking for breakfast. We had eggs and rice and they were blown away when we asked for sambal. And the sambal on Samosir is mostly a traditional one that gets a lot of it's flavor from a spice called andaliman (I looked it up, it's the fruit of Zanthoxylum acanthopodium). I am completely 100% head over heels with that flavor and the fact that we liked it so much and could handle the heat blew everyone away and got us the Naniura invitation. In anycase, it was awesome. We both got an adventure with the scooters (Kalani caught on pretty quickly) but we also got an amazing lunch on our last day.
On the second day we rented scooters and scooted all the way around the island. We stopped at some archeologically-important sites and it basically took all day. The people we rented the scooters from also had a restaurant and when they heard that we were interested in traditional Toba food they lady suggested we come for lunch the next day and she would prepare Naniura for us. It's a 'gold' fish that is split open, "cooked" in lemon all night and then doused in spices all day. Actually, the whole reason this came up was because our hotel restaurant didn't open until 8 or 9am and we'd gone looking for breakfast. We had eggs and rice and they were blown away when we asked for sambal. And the sambal on Samosir is mostly a traditional one that gets a lot of it's flavor from a spice called andaliman (I looked it up, it's the fruit of Zanthoxylum acanthopodium). I am completely 100% head over heels with that flavor and the fact that we liked it so much and could handle the heat blew everyone away and got us the Naniura invitation. In anycase, it was awesome. We both got an adventure with the scooters (Kalani caught on pretty quickly) but we also got an amazing lunch on our last day.
When it was time to leave we contacted Imran for help and he put us in contact with Maria -- the same woman who'd helped us to charter the boat from Parapat to Tuktuk! This time we spent the extra for a private taxi (which allowed us to leave an hour earlier than the shared cab departed). And, now that Lebaran holidays were over, traffic was also a lot lighter. The drive to Medan only took a few (4? 5?) hours and we got to our hotel with enough time to explore the neighborhood in daylight.
Medan is a fine city but not as fun as the more rural parts of Sumatra. Our hotel the first night was right in the middle of the thick of town. Lots of tailors and fabric vendors on the streets around it which made me wish I had enough time to have something made for me.
On the seond day we went to the national museum and then I talked Tim and Kalani to coming to an ulos store. Ulos is the traditional Batak fabric and I'd seen some in the museums and thought it was beautiful. Immo and Diana gave me money for Christmas for buying some special fabric in Indonesia and I wanted to have something from Sumatra. I should have taken photos of the store. It was amazing. Like a rainbow.
We spent our second Medan night in an airport hotel, took the 4am shuttle and flew out on the 6am flight. I think we parked in the exact same spot as we did on the flight to Medan, but this time they let us stay on the plane!
On the seond day we went to the national museum and then I talked Tim and Kalani to coming to an ulos store. Ulos is the traditional Batak fabric and I'd seen some in the museums and thought it was beautiful. Immo and Diana gave me money for Christmas for buying some special fabric in Indonesia and I wanted to have something from Sumatra. I should have taken photos of the store. It was amazing. Like a rainbow.
We spent our second Medan night in an airport hotel, took the 4am shuttle and flew out on the 6am flight. I think we parked in the exact same spot as we did on the flight to Medan, but this time they let us stay on the plane!