Lake Toba is one of the biggest crater lake in the world. It is located in Sumatra Island, North Sumatra province, Indonesia. you can fly to Medan and then drive to lake Toba. There are actually many good places to visit in North Sumatra.
Medan is the biggest city in North Sumatra and the culture thre is very diverse. The culture of Batak and Chinese blends well so you can still hear people speak Hokkianese, one of Chinese dialect here. Even some Batak also can speak this dialect.
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| Lake Toba Map |
Berastagi is a mounteneous area near Medan. The climate is cool and many people come here just to spend weekends. Another town is Pematangsiantar, a town you can visit on the way from Medan to lake Toba. Last time I visit this town and eat one of the best noodle soup in my life, with pork charsiu (red roasted pork belly).
Most food here contains pork, since Batak is mostly Christian, they enjoy pork delicacy as much as Chinese. if you want to try alcoholic drink, you can buy "tuak", a traditional Batak rice wine. the color is white and it is also cheap, around IDR 25,000 (around USD 3) a bottle. You can find it in almost all restaurants and " lapo " (small traditional Batak restaurant). If you really want to experience the Batak food, you should eat at lapo. You can find some food made from dog meat and also food from pork blood.
The combination of Batak and Chinese, both are famous of eating "every living things" makes North Sumatra the best place for fear factor. The resemblance of Batak and Chinese culture makes them easy to assimilate. Some of my friends and relatives of my wife actually are Batak-Chinese couples.
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| Lake Toba |
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| Port at Lake Toba |
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| Lake Toba |
The combination of Batak and Chinese, both are famous of eating "every living things" makes North Sumatra the best place for fear factor. The resemblance of Batak and Chinese culture makes them easy to assimilate. Some of my friends and relatives of my wife actually are Batak-Chinese couples.
From Pematangsiantar you can then continue driving to Lake Toba. You have an option to stay on the main land or in Samosir island in the middle of lake Toba. There is a ferry on the lake shore that can bring you car across the lake to the Samosir Island in the middle of the lake. Last time when I was there, the fare is IDR 90,000 (around USD 10) one-way. athe first town you visit in Samosir is Tuktuk. There are many choices of avcomodation there. The cost is from IDR 50,000 to 250,000. Last time I just came to an accomodation and stayed for 1 night.
Another place to visit is Tarutung, a small town where the first Batak church was established. Tarutung is a cool place with still surrounded by forests. Tarutung now is still the center HKBP (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan), Maybe the biggest church group in Indonesia.
It was started long time ago when Ludwig Nommensen from Germany came as missionary to Batak land. He is the successful missinaty in batak since before him missionaries were killed by Batak. There was a assasination attempt toward him before by poisoning his food. He did not eat the food but his dog, Tuan Sipakur ate and died. The dog now was burried near Nommensen grave that you can visit here. When visiting his grave you also can take a look at his framed picture and his very old safe that nobody knows what is inside since it was locked and not opened since his death.
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| The grave of Nomensen |
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| Nommensen Picture & Safe |
Another place to visit is Tarutung, a small town where the first Batak church was established. Tarutung is a cool place with still surrounded by forests. Tarutung now is still the center HKBP (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan), Maybe the biggest church group in Indonesia.
It was started long time ago when Ludwig Nommensen from Germany came as missionary to Batak land. He is the successful missinaty in batak since before him missionaries were killed by Batak. There was a assasination attempt toward him before by poisoning his food. He did not eat the food but his dog, Tuan Sipakur ate and died. The dog now was burried near Nommensen grave that you can visit here. When visiting his grave you also can take a look at his framed picture and his very old safe that nobody knows what is inside since it was locked and not opened since his death.
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| Salib Kasih (The Cross of Love) at Tarutung |
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| Salib Kasih (The Cross of Love) at Tarutung |
In Tarutung, there is a place called Salib Kasih (the Cross of Love), the place where Nommensen used to pray for Batak people to be saved. It is beautifully located in a hill near Tarutung (about 15 mintes drive) with the view of Tarutung town below. You also can visit the first chuch built by Nommensen (HKBP church).
From Tarutung you can drive to Sibolga, a small town near the beach. Sibolga is famous for its seafood. On the way, you can see many monkeys beside the street and you can feed the monkeys. There is also one waterfall betwen Tarutung and Sibolga.
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| The Church of Nommensen (now HKBP) |
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| Monkeys on the way from Tarutung to Sibolga |
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| Waterfall between Tarutung and Sibolga |
Nearby you can also take a visit to the grave of Sisingamangaraja XII, one of the famous Batak kings who died when fighting with the Dutch colonoalist long time ago. It was said that he is bulletproof and the Dutch could not kill him before. His power only disappear when he is in touch with blood. So during the fight the Dutch shot his daughter first and then shot him when he carries his bloody daughter, he was in touch with his daughter blood then.
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| Impression of Sisingamangaraja XII |
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| The grave of Si Singamangaraja |
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