Lake Toba also known as Danau Toba by the locals is a lake located in the northern part of Sumatera, Indonesia. It was said to be the site of a supervolcanic eruption during prehistoric time about 70,000 years ago.

Lake Toba view

We depart from Medan, Indonesia’s third largest city in the morning. The driver took us through an adventurous ride overtaking most of the vehicles on the way. After the 4 hour ride, we arrived in a small town just by the lake called Parapat. It was a peaceful small town with quite a number of hotels & guesthouse around.

Niagara hotel

a view from the room balcony

We spent the night at Niagara hotel which was the best that one could find in the area. The actual condition of the hotel doesn’t really match the 4 star rating claimed by them. Looks more like a 2.5-star to me. However, the view from the hotel was nice where you can have a great lake view from the hotel room.

the ferry

Next day we took the local ferry to transport us to Samosir island. Samosir is the home for the natives known as the Batak people. My grandma once told me stories of the Batak people whom are famously known as cannibals in the past. However in the present days those cannibals don’t exist anymore.

the scenic view

As we reached the island, we were greeted by the guide there and he starts explaining about the map of area.

The guide at the island brought us to walk along one road where we visited the traditional Batak house and we were also given brief explanations of the history.

with the traditional Batak house

Further up there was a graveyard area of the previous Batak rulers and also they have the Batak museum at the end of the road.

the cemetery

batak museum

After nearly 3 hours at Samosir, we took the ferry back to Parapat. There were several nice small waterfalls that could be seen on the mountains area.

the beautiful waterfall

On board the ferry on the way back to Parapat, there was this group of local youths entertaining us with their performance. Their performances were very good although they only perform local songs.

 Upon arriving in Parapat, we continued our journey towards Berastagi, another town in north Sumatra.