The night before Joey and I left for Danau Toba we met some locals at the mall who asked us to join them for beer at the park later on. They were our age and seemed really nice so we decided to go. When we got there the park was full of kids who were bmxing on the half pipes and lots of bystanders were either eating or drinking and watching the kids for entertainment. It was actually a lot of fun. The locals we met up with also had really good english so we could pretty much carry on a conversation without having misunderstandings. It was awesome to converse with young people our age from Indonesia. They were pretty much just like us. It's weird to think that despite coming from completely different worlds, how similar we are.
The next morning we woke up bright and early for our minivan ride to Danau Toba. It was one cramped ride. I think the cheap public bus option could possibly have been more comfortable. Our driver was absolutely an insane driver. Constantly speeding up and slamming on breaks. Passing dangerously. I was so sick. Both Joey and I have gotten used to crazy driving and rarely get car sick, but this guy was nuts. We were certainly glad to arrive at the ferry in Patapan.
The lake was absolutely stunning. So big and vast. It felt like being back home on the lake. I love the smell of lake water and the engine fumes from boats. Brings back good memories of my Papa's Rum Runner on Harrison lake. It was a change from being on a boat in the ocean. The ride wasn't so windy and bumpy! I could relax. On the boat ride there we met a Malaysian couple named CJ and Matthew. We were planning to stay at the same place so we just started talking. They seemed really cool so we planned on renting motorbikes the next day and exploring the island of Samosir.
That night we joined up with our new found friends for some dinner. Matthew and CJ were doing as the locals do and enjoying a magical mushroom omelette. Joey and I decided to pass. By the way, magic mushrooms are completely legal in Indonesia because it is apart of so many indigenous people's culture. Next thing we know Matthew is in La La land and cannot stop laughing. Meanwhile CJ has a headache and doesn't feel anything. I imagine that it was just as fun to watch Matthew as it would have been on mushrooms. It made for an interesting night! I'm sure CJ had a great time trying to take Matthew back to the room that night.
The next morning, Matthew was back to his normal self and we were all ready to set out on an adventure around the island. We stopped to enjoy the scenery and take some pics. Matthew and Joey got to talk about cameras a lot. CJ and I got to pretend we were interested a lot. Haha. The scenery was amazing. Lush green rice fields on the beach and rolling hills in the distance. Such a great place to spend the day.
We headed to the "Batak Museum" which turned out to be pretty lame, but had a toilet so that was cool. We had been told about the hotsprings at the other end of the island that were apparently quite nice. When we got there there was garbage floating in the water and big pipes that redirected the hot water to some pools at this one really dirty looking place. We took one look at the pools and decided it was better not to. There was a lake right there anyways. There had been a really nice beach we had seen along the way that had bright blue water and thats where the four of us decided to go. The water was quite nice. Not too cold, but refreshing!
After our swim we thought it would be a good idea to check out a lake on top of the mountain that apparently changed colours at different times of the year. We headed up a treacherous road where Joey and I nearly bailed off our motorbike a couple of times due to slipperyness and huge potholes. Finally we made it and the scenery paid off. The lake was just a normal lake colour but the rice fields and water buffalo grazing in the pastures was still very beautiful!
The next day we said good bye to our new found Malaysian friends. We spent most of our morning planning out our trip which was quite frustrating. In Indonesia you can only purchase plane tickets online if you have an Indonesian, Malaysian or Singaporean credit card. If you don't have one of these you must brave the english barrier and give the airline a call. It was horrible. It was like calling a call centre in India. I had to spell everything out using the Police Alphabet. Skype also didn't make matters better when it decided to end my call! Joey convinced one of the women that worked at the hotel to help us out. We found out we had to go to the airline's store to pay, or pay on the day we left at the airport.
Later on I took a cooking class with a lady named Hetty. I had a great time learning how to make traditional batak indonesian food. Especially because I chose vegetarian options. Hetty was a really great teacher. She was also very friendly and great to talk to. Joey worked while I played in the kitchen but he joined me for dinner later on. During dinner we met an American couple named Meaghan and Matt. They were really friendly so we invited them to try some of my creations. We invited them to play some cards later on that night.
Meaghan and Matt met us at our hotel to play cards (they were staying there too) and we had a great time just talking and playing rummy. During all of this there was a massive thunder and lightening storm. It was so cool to see the whole sky light up every time lightening struck.
The next morning Joey and I were up bright and early to start our journey to Berastagi. We had to be quite creative to get there by public bus because there is no direct public bus between the two places. We had to transfer a lot and try to get over language barriers. After about 7 hours of traveling we were finally in Berastagi. We had heard so much of this place, but were quite disappointed at what we saw. It just looked like another junky, dirty Indonesian town.
Joey ran into Ali and Rachel who were some Canadian girls from Victoria that we met in Medan. We were trying to plan a trek with them, but Joey and I ended up opting out of the trek and left the next day to Bukit Lawang because we wanted to see monkeys!
Joey and I really enjoyed Danau Toba because it wasn't too hot and it was just so relaxing.
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