Danau Toba

After the waterfall, my friend and I got on this fun little bus headed toward Parapat, the main port on Danau Toba (or Lake Toba).

According to my brochure, Lake Toba covers 1,265 square kilometers (488 square miles). It is the largest volcanic crater lake in the world, and has the highest altitude of any of these types of lakes.

When we arrived, we boarded a ferry headed for Samosir island, located in the middle of the lake. This island is famous for being the homeland of the Batak people, the second largest ethnic group in Indonesia. They are generally Christian and enjoy a fair amount of pork.

Anyways, hanging on the side of our ferry were a bunch of little kids begging for us to throw coins into the water. If you threw in a coin, they would dive into the water after it.

This child is in the process of crying, “Coin, mister! Coin, coin!” Who could resist? I emptied my pockets, then I emptied my friend's pockets, then I changed a few small bills into more coins.

Then we were off across the lake. The scenery was beautiful.

As we arrived, though, we found out we were 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the town where hotels were located. It was getting dark and no public transport was to be found. Rather than be swindled out of a few bucks by the motorcycle taxis, we marched into the darkness to find the town and our hotel.

Eventually we found it. It cost 50,000 rupiah for the night (about $5), since it wasn't tourist season.

The next morning we marched back toward the main road to find a bus to the Batak cultural museum. Along the way I took this shot. Notice the waterfall cascading down the mountain.

Although Samosir is an island, it is not a small island. It stretches for about 45 kilometers (27 miles) in the lake. Anyways, the bus was equipped with a rather loud speaker system pumping out traditional Batak music. I found it rather pleasant.

We arrived at the first tourist object, the stone chair of King Siallagan. Apparently the king liked to sit on a stone chair to judge lawbreakers. Here's a picture.

ere I also got swindled by an old lady selling souvenirs. She offered me 10 key chains for 120,000 rupiah, which was ridiculous. I countered with 50,000 thinking that made more sense. She was too quick to accept my offer. Only later I found out I could have gotten 10 for about 20,000 rupiah if I had been a little smarter. I am constantly getting cheated by little old ladies!

Oh well, live and learn.

On to the Batak cultural museum.

There we found a great source of information for my friend. It was a genealogy chart for the Bataks.

Since my friend is also Mormon, family history is very important to him for religious reasons. We took a series of pictures of the chart to make sure he could access his ancestors' names.

We then watched a traditional Batak dance. It involved the story of a young man courting a young woman and eventually getting married (symbolized by using the same shawl).

Afterward, the audience was invited to participate. Leaving my camera in the hands of a very capable German woman, I did my best to embarrass myself in public.

After a quick  it was back across the lake to return to Medan.