Theysza Guesthouse Samosir

... It is busy, noisy and polluted with traffic fumes. The morning after our arrival, we went for a walk around the city and found that it is no place for pedestrians. The pavements (when there are any) have huge holes in them, the traffic lights no longer work and there are so many cars and motorbikes that it is virtually impossible to cross the roads safely. Thankfully, our room was at the back of the hotel away from the main road and was windowless (there ...

... part in the festivities. This case it was a dance and guess you was picked!

Next day we spent lounging by the lake and swimming in the lake. It was mega cold, but you kind of got used to it. After we had went swimming we got surrounded by a load of Indonesian kids. Then there teacher came along -turned out that they were english students- and explained that they let the kids loose on the unsuspecting tourists to help them with there english. Then he asked if would mind being in a ...

... to 10,000. Read more here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catas trophe_theory These days the island of ...

... a drink at a cafe there and the old lady was too lazy and busy cliiping her toenails to give us a menu. She shouted from her chair "DRINKS, SPRITE, EATING". We stayed there probably a total of 20 minutes and then left! Back on the scooter we went to check out some views of the lake but apparently didn't go all the way to the top. It was still a cool place. To chill...not for the hot springs.

... a small fortune for the day) was useless in all respects - he knew nothing about the island (a typical response to "when was this built? by whom?" would be: "a long time ago - by the Batak people" which we had already deduced ourselves!) He also kept asking us for more money having already told us the tour was "all inclusive". He was also very boring, having no sense of humour and repeating everything he told ...

... grandeur of seeing orangutans in the jungles of Bukit Lawang, solitude of Lake Toba, and the horrible act of taking public transport daily in Indonesia in 5 rushed days. I finished my time in Indonesia by scrapping my return ticket by ferry to Malaysia and splurging for a $35 Air Asia plane ticket. Well worth the price. To complete my adventure and stories from Indonesia, as I waited at the Medan airport, a security guard walked ...

The day following the trek we were back on another rickety old bus, bumping and weaving our way back down Sumatra. Yan sat happily beside us, having decided it would be best if he escorted us down to Lake Toba, even though we insisted we'd be fine. "Oh I'd like to, now that I feel we are friends bla bla bla". We've definitely heard that one before Yan, we knew he was just doing it to make a few bob. We spent the night in a 'nothingness' town ...

... there, we hiked through the jungle for about 1 hour to reach our next overnight stay - Anas Homestay. The home stay consists of a few ramshackle houses, a cozy lounge/kitchen/dining place and a very natural toilet and shower (using water fresh from the dirty creek). But the views are lovely, especially watching the sunset going down in the Indian Ocean. We relaxed, ate, drank beer and played games. The next morning, we left for Lake Maninjau passing a little ...

... my next financial investment will go into a dictionary. Thanks to Dewi, we made our way into town. First thing I bought was a SIM card so I could call the guesthouse which we then eventually found. I stayed at Poppies place, which is run by a friendly and english speaking owner with whom I contemplated about the state of affair of Indonesia which looks rather bleak. To thank Dewi for her help, I invited her out for dinner as I wanted to have my first taste of Indonesian food. The ...

... baggage loader at the back was shaking visibly jumping to their commands. Well seems these must be militants where are there weapons? Sure enough out comes the nine mil. Now some people, myself included, need an elastic band tied around their nuts to sing soprano. A very well built militant with a pistol did the trick for the money changer. I stopped trying to be invisible when the gunman started bashing his gun on the side ...