Lake Toba

Lake Toba

Longer than planned we staid in Medan because I got sick again (this time a stomach flu) So lots of cramps and I spend most of my time sitting on the toilet and in bed, so that wasn’t a nice experience, but I was so glad we could stay at the guesthouse and there was warm water, a nice bed and even a television (of course only Indonesian television, but well…it was something). The cleaning lady run immediately of to get some local medicine made of herbal things but it worked (well a bit I still got lots of pain). Yeah of course you will say it’s your own fault than you shouldn’t go traveling in a country like Indonesia and eat food that you are not use to, and well yes you are right! And at that moment I also felt stupid for going and being ill all the time, moments like that you just want to go home (so glad I wasn’t all alone and someone could take care of me)

After a few day’s rest I went shopping with a girl from the office to find an uniform for the girls in Simeulue (something not so ugly and Muslim, sorry to say that, but a bit mix of Indonesian and western and modern). That was harder than we thought, the girl from the office really liked other things and when you say it has to be formal they choose a long blouse with all colorful things on it (not so nice to look at, if I may say that). So we went in a big local market with lots of clothes but when they see that you are a tourist they ask double the price and it’s hard to barken with them (luckily the girl from the office was good in it). So we got some blouses as an example for the girls in Simeulue.

When my father came to Medan to work we went with him and a college out for dinner. It was a big market with all eating tents and you could choose whatever you wanted to eat and they run of to get it for you (so you had tickets for all different kinds of eating places). It was really fun and nice to see, especially the karaoke they had. At the and there where big screams and people really were waiting in lines to go and have a go, yeah amazing some really good others really bad, but they don’t care they love it! So there are lots of places you can go and practice your karaoke, even rooms where you can have your own karaoke, haha real fun (you should try to do that in Holland)


Than we took of to Lake Toba, the biggest lake in Asia. Because I still didn’t feel well we rented a car, yes what a luxury. When we drove over the hill I could see this amazing lake: just beautiful. But when we arrived at the ferry we found out that we just missed our boat and the next one wouldn’t leave in 2 hours (we left early that morning to get there early, but we didn’t have luck, yes that happens when you have an old lonely planet and they say there will be a boat leaving every half an hour), but well it wasn’t to bad waiting, we had a nice lunch and a drink. On the boat we met some Dutch people and all carts of places where we could stay, so now we had to figure out where we wanted to stay. It had started to rain and it was really cold at the boat (that also because I was only wearing a dress and I was on the top of the boat, so not the warmest combination). It was a pity that we couldn’t see the view because it was hard to see the hotels properly. Jaques had told us there was a beautiful place run by a German woman which was really good and had a beautiful view over the Lake so we choose to take that one, also the other Dutch couple came with us.
It was a lovely and wonderful place to stay at, and Jagues was right we had a beautiful view over the lake and the food was delicious.
We had a wonderful time at Lake Toba, it was only a pity that it rained at night and than you don’t go out and see other places.

One day we rented a motorcycle and went around the island; which was gorgieus. We saw a lot of things and went to a museum where they had these old Batic houses (actually the whole island was full of these Batic houses, really beautiful, our chalet was also an Batic house so there were plenty on the island). At the museum they had traditional dancing, fun to see and we even joined at one point (in the beginning nobody wanted to go but that’s no fun and of course we would join them; I felt a bit silly doing these movements, didn’t know what it was all about, because it’s all a ritual and a story, but we had lots of fun, haha, you should have see us, well actually you can I have it on video)

In the morning we sometimes woke up by a boat passing with a band on top of it, haha, like a disco boat!

So Lake Toba was really beautiful and nice!