A story of two little pigs and their adventures: Lake Toba and Medan

Another trip with our travelling group, Road Less Travelled – this one was extra special because it was over Chinese New Year and we also had Candice’s brother Curtis visiting us from Melbourne. What better place to go to in Indonesia than Medan, the capital of North Sumatera, where many ethnic Hokkien Chinese live. Didi, our tour organiser was from Medan and so this was also a trip home for him.

Candice at Danau (Lake) Toba

Nat and Curtis jump for joy

Sunset on Samosir Island

So basically, Medan is Indonesia’s 3rd largest city and is normally nothing special, even if you count the nice Chinese and Batak food. The plan was really to head to Samosir Island in the beautiful Lake Toba. Samosir is almost the size of Singapore which is quite impressive considering it’s an inland island. Samosir and Lake Toba were absolutely stunning. They are actually quite high above sea level so the climate is less humid and conifers actually grow on rolling hills. It was such a relief to swim in clean, fresh water without fear of getting sick.

Lake Toba

Paddy fields on Samosir island against a backdrop of mountains

So anyway, seeing as Chinese New Year fell on a Friday, we only had to take one day off work to fit the trip in. And boy was it packed! Our schedule:

Day 1

- Medan to Tebing Tinggi for lunch, stopping on the way to buy durians. Then to Parapat where we caught the ferry to Pulau Samosir. We stayed at a hotel called Carolina and swam that afternoon.

Day 2

- Rented motorbikes which we used to travel about 50km around the island to the hot springs. Beautiful scenery and churches. We stopped at a Batak museum where we also witnessed a traditional dance. Lunched at a Lapo with pork. The hot springs were really hot and we had a pool all to ourselves as we were the only ones there. Stopped at Prayer Mountain on the way back where we saw the stations of the cross and heaps of durians on a tree. We stopped at Tuk-Tuk for souvenirs on the way back. Swam again in the lake. That night we partied it up at “Sekapur Sirih”

Day 3

- Took a ferry back to Parapat where we drove for a couple of hours to the 120m high Sipiso Piso waterfall, touted by some as the highest waterfall in Indonesia. We then had lunch at another roadside Lapo feasting on roast pork. We then stopped at Berastagi, Medan’s equivalent of Puncak. A nice market town. Arrived in Medan at Didi’s house, freshened up and then went out for CNY dinner. Watched the fireworks and lanterns in the sky from the top of his house.

Day 4

- Tour of Medan: Chinese house, Istana Maimun, Al Mashun Grand Mosque, Buddhist Temple, lunch at Lapo again, oleh-oleh shopping and finally hanging at Sun Plaza shopping centre before flying home to Jakarta.

Lake Toba is the heartland of the indigenous Batak people. The Bataks are Christian and so Samosir Island (and North Sumatra in general) is dotted with churches, sometimes every few hundred metres. They also eat pork with a passion and we were fortunate enough to visit several Lapo (or Batak eating houses) during the short time we were there. Mmmm, roast pork. Passion for pork is also shared by the Chinese who form a large minority in Medan. Coupled with the fact that they have amazing durians, this makes food in North Sumatra unusually good by Indonesian standards.