Some of the junior children at Lake Tekapo School, in the South Island of New Zealand, have sent their Flat Stanley’s on an adventure to Indonesia. Their class is learning about different cultures and their Stanleys are going to help out by sharing their experiences in Indonesia and maybe other destinations.
After the uncomfortable 13 hour bus ride up to Banda Aceh, I decided the Stanleys and I would be taking the one hour flight to Medan, then a shared taxi to Parapat, on the edge of Lake Toba. The taxi ride took us about four and a half hours.
Lake Toba is in the crater of a super volcano. At 100km long and 30km wide, it is the largest crater lake in the world and the largest lake in South East Asia.
I wonder how that compares to Lake Tekapo?
There is an island in the lake, Samosir, that is nearly the same size as Singapore.
We took a ferry from Parapat to Tuk Tuk, which is a region of Samoir Island.
The view from the ferry looking back at Parapat
Another ferry on its way to Parapat
Once the boat arrives at Tuk Tuk it drives along and drops people off at their accommodation.
The ferry dropping people off
One of the best things about staying high up in a volcano crater was the weather. After sweating in 30+°c temperatures since I arrived in Indonesia, 27°c was cool and dry. The lake is 906 meters above sea level.
Enjoying the view from Tuk Tuk
Samosir is home to the Batak people. They speak Batak and write in Batak script.
Batak houses have boat shaped roofs.
They are built on stilts to protect them from flooding
Even their tombs have boat shaped roofs
A Batak lady weaving material
This photo from Google Images shows Toba Batak script
Every morning, fishermen went out in their boats. Some fished with nets and some fished small cages.
Our transport around the island
A Jackfruit tree
Fishing
Some of the food I ate
Lake fish curry
Pisang Goreng (fried battered bananas with honey)
Soto Ayam (battered and fried chicken in a coconut curry with rice noodles and rice
Some of the sights I saw in Tuk Tuk
I found this guy in my clothes.
The sewing shop
The grocery shop
The quiet roads
Indonesian tourists come to Lake Toba for the water sports - banana boat rides and jet skiing
Using plastic bags to keep the birds away from the rice
Waiting for the rain to go away...
While it was raining...
...Looking out the same window 5 minutes later
We got stuck in the rain again and this lovely family gave us hot drinks and invited us into their house to get warm.
