off to toba

Toba is a beautiful lake, and the village of tuk tuk is basically tons and tons of empty guest houses ligning the side of the lake, all desperate for your business. All this means is very very cheap rooms and great value for money. The water in the lake isn't too cold either, and thats coming from me, the one who whines like a bitch when it comes to being cold. However, i really should have taken to heart what they said about the place in the guidebooks, as there really is nothing to do here but sit and do nothing (or drink and smoke the time away) or swim, and you can only swim for soo long, so i quickly found myself bored and frustrated.

lake toba

       On my first night  i was strolling when the guy from the bamboo cafe next door invited me in for a chat. He was sitting with 3 17yr old students from Medan who had come here to study. Robi (thats the guys name) did the usual S-E-Asian thing of trying to fix me up with one of them, but they were a little too young for me. Then he bought out the jungle juice, the same stuff i tried in Ketembe, a local spirit made from palm trees i think (palm wine) and he kept forcing me to drink more and more of it (it doesn't taste great). Got talking later on to a Manchurian couple.

on the boat

       Had a very lazy second day, just swimming in the morning then walking around the village in the day and arranging to go motorbiking around the island with the Mancs (Stuart and Susan) the following day.

        Anyone who has been reading my blogs soo far, (there may be one person out there who's interested) will know how much i love motorbiking (well, there scooters really) so today was gonna be a great day whatever. Riding around the lake was a fantastic way to spend the day, a must for anyone visiting here. Every time you start to take it for granted you just have to look to our right (or left if you go the other way around) and you are presented with the most amazing view of the clear, clean blue water and the hills rising up behind up it.

from my bed

       First stop for the biker gang:- Ambarita, where we couldn't find the main sight. Not that bothered about missing it, we blitzed onto Simanindo, where we paid the ludicrous entrance fees and then sat and watched some of the locals perform a traditional Batak dance. I believe the only way they could have performed with any less enthusiasm would have been if they were dead, and were being moved by strings by puppeteers (though that would have been much more entertaining). Needless to say, they did not earn their money and the highlights were Stuart and Susan taking part and the fat man attacking an egg with his staff (see films).

       We also stopped at some hot springs, though the day was far too hot for them and we all felt like we were gonna pass out after about 10 minutes in there. Having made it to the other side of the lake by now, we began to make our way back to tuk tuk, with a rain cloud now fast on our tails. Wasn't many more significant sights on the way back, besides more villages and the obviously beautiful natural view, though we did stop in tomok village and checked out the stone sarcophagi and the masses of souvenir shops 'hey mister i give you good price, cheap price' before returning to tuk tuk, having about three hrs rest then having an excellent dinner of grilled fish and salad. great end to toba and i left the next morning for Pulau Banyak.

room view

batak house

gado gado

batak dancing

she looks happy

dancing2

yeh, you get that egg

fun

weird stone building

stone sarcophagus

to do with burial

doesn't that look wicked