Indonesia
After an eye-opening experience in East Timor, we headed for the Samosir Island.
Our first stop was Berastagi, a small town which economy mostly depends on tourists. Berastagi is 2 hours by bus from Medan. The main attractions were the two stratovolcanoes and we were in for some climbing.
What are stratovolcanoes you might think? Well, stratovolcanoes are shaped like high cones and made of layers of lava and tephra. They even regularly have explosive eruptions which basically means that we were pretty badass and adventurous to go on a trip like that. But all worth it if you ask me. The view was amazing but oh boy do I feel those leg muscles! As The Beatles would scream, I got blisters on my fingers! But in my case, more on my feet.
So we spent hours of marching up and down and we decided to just go on one volcano because we just had enough of it. We opted for a small tour around the town. The population is mostly Muslim and I was intrigued by these weird looking houses and decided to get more information about them. They are called “long houses” or "Batak Toba houses". They made me think of a Harry Potter movie, quite magical in a way.
From Berastagi we headed to the Toba lake. However we didn’t go straight to the Toba lake where we would take our ferry to our next stop, we travelled out of Berastagi first on a more natural adventure namely the Tahura National Park. It’s a beautiful spot for exploring the jungle. We saw the magnificent Sipiso-piso waterfall which is simply a natural wonder and such a beautiful scenery. It reminded me of some sort of vortex that I could be sucked into.
So we’re back on the road again and came across one of the hot springs located at the base of Mount Sibayak, we plunged in it for some "therapeutic bathing” which made us 5000rp poorer but heavenly relaxed. We had quite a funny moment when one of the primates of the jungle decided to join us.
Until we were all wrinkled up from the water we dried ourselves off, put our marching shoes back on, and went for the Toba Lake. We had one last stop at a local family. It surprised me that, how little some people may have, they’re always so hospital. We even shared a meal.
When we arrived at the lake we took the ferry to the Samosir Island which is situated in the middle of the lake. We visited 3 small towns, Tomok and Ambarita which are known for their graves of the kings of Sidabutar and Batak Toba. We also saw the traditional homes of the Batak.
At last we visited the museum of Simanindo where we saw a traditional dance performance of the Batak toba tribe. I was amazed by all the colors and even tried the dance out for myself.
Greets
Jihane
Sources:
https://www.panoramio.com/photo/31123376