Lake Toba

Britteney and I began our amazing trip by flying into Medan, Sumatra, where we (eventually) met our van to bring us the 4 hrs+ of winding roads to Lake Toba. Upon arrival, we called the hostel owner and he asked if we'd met the driver yet. I said no, but we were not hard to spot in the crowd. A black and a white lady sorta stand out in North Sumatra. I mean come on, really. 

Passing the acres and acres of palm tree forests was so refreshing after the overcrowded, polluted East Java we were used to. This part of the country is scarcely populated, the air is so fresh, and we were just happy to be in a new place! 

Next, we hopped on the ferry over to the island in the middle of Lake Toba. (Lake Toba was formed by a volcano that erupted 74,000 years ago, wiped out the pre-human population in SE Asia, and then the crater caved in. Thus, a crater lake. This is the deepest lake in the world today, reaching 450 meters in some places. Yikes! Here's a link to the LEGEND OF LAKE TOBA as well. 

On the ferry to the island. For a landlocked midwesterner, I sure do love water! Also, I have not felt such a freshness in a long time as was felt crossing the world's deepest lake, knowing that my amazing vacation was beginning!
 

This place is so darn gorgeous!

Britteney and I getting ready for a day of 15 miles of hiking back and forth around Tuk-Tuk and Samosir Island! Whew! She was the best travel buddy, so flexible, up for adventure, and one of the funniest people I have ever met!

Here I am, getting ready to hike to that waterfall in the distant background!!! 

      Air Turjun (waterfall): This trail up into the mountains was lots of fun…if you are adventurous! We just kept asking locals where the trailhead is because it looks like you are walking onto someone’s road or into their yard…The trail up the mountain was hard (almost impossible) to find during rainy season as it was overgrown and there was a lot of runoff water. upon entering the trail, there was a huge puddle of water with big ol' cow pies, and Britteney was like, "Um, are we sure about this??" I was like, "YES! We are doing this, lady, you got this!" And that is how her running shoes ended up in an RIP state. Sorry about that, Britteney! We hiked up maybe 45 minutes, searching for the trail. This involved me gleefully smashing through brush trying to find the trail while Britteney thought I was crazy. I finally found a big, white water irrigation pipe that would lead us all the way up. The trail crossed the river, and after that the trail was impossible to follow because of mud, so we didn’t make it to the waterfall swimming pool, but it is promised to be amazing!!! Off-roading (hiking style) is my favorite, so I'm so fortunate Britteney put up with me doing it! 

View from halfway up, which is about as far as we got! 

KING SIDABUTAR GRAVE

The Batak king who adopted Christianity is

buried in Tomok, a village 5km southeast

of Tuk Tuk. The king’s image is carved on

his tombstone, along with those of his bodyguard

and Anteng Melila Senega, the woman

the king is said to have loved for many years

without fulfilment. The tomb is also decorated

with carvings of singa, mythical creatures with

grotesque three-horned heads and bulging

eyes. Next door in death is the missionary who

converted the tribe, the career equivalent of

boy-band stardom. (I borrowed this information from Lonely Planet!)

We were asked to put these shawls on in order to enter the burial place. 

Traditional Batak houses have 2 points at the end of the roofs. One is for the parents, and one for the child. It is the parents' hope that the child will have a better life (up and out!) than the parent. The Batak colors are also black (netherworld), red (this world), and white (the heavens).

Carving of the nativity...here we are in the tropics a week before Christmas, weird! 

I have a new goal: taking pictures of Bapaks smoking. Sorta strange
as I don't love smoking, but the way they take drags of their cigs is picturesque...

 The Bataks are Christians, which was so interesting for us, as we live in basically 100% Muslim communities. People wearing shorts, drinking beers with the tourists at night, waking up at a "normal" hour (7 AM+ instead of 4:30 AM for the first prayer time). We were not there on a day that we could go to church, but it would have been cool to have done so. Here are some shots of the intricate graves they build to honor their dead.

Christian Batak graves. This is for one person...

One can see here that there are multiple places to be buried within this grave. A body is put at the bottom, and then about a year (??) later, moved up to make space for when a new family member dies. 

Britteney posing by the lake while we wait for our lunch from the sketchiest waitress/cook ever. She was either high on the marijuana that was legal in Tuk-Tuk, or she was just plan strange. If I remember correctly, Britteney said something about crazy eyes and warnings from her mom to be careful around people with crazy eyes!!! 

The Batak roofs were originally the hairy part of a coconut tree, but due to
worries of fire and modern access to tin, tin is the way to go now!

The stone chairs, where Batak tribes met to discuss important things, such as punishments for law-breakers.
The Batak used to be cannibals in times of war, but that practice has long stopped.

 The nightlife at Tuk-Tuk was, well, rather scarce! Juan our hostel owner (pictured below), recommended we go to Roy's Pub. After an amazing dinner of pizza, we headed over, only to find we were some of the first people there (trend in my life anytime I go out...why don't people arrive until like 11 PM? I am TIRED by then!) Anyways, the local band was great, taking our Journey and Bob Marley song requests and singing with such gusto that we simply had to dance a bit! We also played pool, which is probably a very un-ladylike thing to do in our Muslim communities, so it made our pool-playing time here even better!

Our hostel owner, Juan, who was a hoot!