I arrived in Medan city early in the morning and I was planning to stay at a hotel. I was thinking since Medan is the largest city in Sumatra and the forth largest in Indonesia it will be something worth visiting. But when I saw the chaos I decided to leave, the hotel front desk told me the same thing to leave because there isn’t much to see and decided to head to Lake Toba. Lake Toba is the largest lake in the word that was formed from a volcano. It’s bigger than the country of Singapore. Some scientists believes the lake can explain how previous climate change happened.
I took the bus to Lake toba, about 5 hours trip. I found this trip easier because I was tired I slept right away and I sat in the back so I didn’t see what the driver was doing. Eventually, we arrived in Lake Toba and took a little wooden boat to the island of Samosir. On Samosir there are many villages and many hotels and accommodations. Although I made a reservation at one of the hotels in Tuk-Tuk village but when I arrived they said they don’t have anything. I just walked to another hotel next to it and got myself a room. It’s not expensive; a basic room cost around $18, it varies from one to another. I heard some tourists staying at other places for $9/night. I didn’t do much on the first day since I got here in the evening. I just went out for dinner and went back to get a good night sleep.
The next day on the island of Samosir. I went for breakfast and then rented a scooter to go around the island. I visited a museum that shows the traditional life of the Batak people on the island. People are very friendly but they try to sell you something all the time and they’re not afraid or shy to tell you that they want money. After the scooter trip and going to the museum and missing the Batak traditional dance 🙁 I then went to a restaurant to have lunch. I start talking to this girl on the other table, she was chatting with the owner and seemed to be very outgoing, her name Suha. She happened to be from Jordan and she lived in Canada for a long time. I was really surprised and impressed because I never would have imagined meeting someone from Jordan in this part of the world and who’s traveling on her own. Although I was planning to go to Jakarta but Suha suggested visiting another city north of here, so that’s what I decided to do to go Butik Lewang. While I was going to the hotel someone handed me a flyer saying if I need to see the traditional dance to show up at a restaurant at night. So I went there and it was a little walk, and indeed there was a traditional dance. I met 2 nice girls from England Sarah and Kate who live in Brunei and shared their experiences about travel and life in Asia. They also gave me some suggestions and tips for next destinations.
