Samosir Island

Left: Danau Toba in Sumatra, centre: Danau Toba, right: Tabo Cottages in Danau Toba

Well he wasn’t wrong at the end of the last blog, we are certainly relaxing here, partly as there is not much to do but mostly as my ‘digestive’ problems are still apparent. I decided not to eat the day of the journey, see if that helped. 

Active Sinabung from the Homestay in Berastagi

Fortunately the journey went ok, albeit at 10.00am rather than 2.00pm due to the presence of two Thai girls in the homestay who had stayed one night in Berestagi and had one night to spend on Samosir Island, so for the same price as the tourist bus the four of us were driven in Abdy’s car with three rows of seats at a time to suit us! Must be better I thought, I’ll have a bowl of soup, but no! 

Restless Sibayak from the Homestay in Berastagi

Stupid thing is I feel fine, hungry even, but I can’t be getting much nourishment from anything I’m eating as it passes through! I’ve now tried a Chinese herbal thing from Mery, Imodium which has made no difference so we are onto the big guns, the antibiotics I’ve been carrying, not sure where they came from and they are slightly out of date, but we are assuming this may well be better than buying here where drugs could be anything! So keep everything crossed, that I can stop having everything crossed!

A final bye-bye from Mery and Abdi in Berastagi. The two Thai girls are on the left, Mery is holding Charlotte, Nachelle is in front, then Jackie, me and Abdy on the right

Our first view of Tuk-Tuk peninsular from the ferry on Lake Toba

Anyway, Danau (Lake) Toba is the largest volcanic crater lake in the world and Samosir Island inside it is the size of Singapore. Most of it is uninhabited, and the tourists are limited to Tuk-Tuk, but we are happy here. Tabo Cottages where we are staying is a beautiful hotel/resort with a pool about 12’ from the edge of the lake, so you have to ask why. It is run by a German with a high ‘Eco’ feel, just wait for the picture of the bathroom, with a German bakery on site. I’m not a huge bread fan, I can take it or leave it, not like Brian who had real cravings while we were in Malaysia on the last trip, but I have to say the bread for toast at breakfast is the best bread I have ever tasted. Afternoon tea and cakes are pretty good too!

Arriving at Tabo Cottages

A ferry arriving at the little dock at Tabo Cottages

So we have whiled away a couple of days on sun loungers by the pool, under a very substantial gazebo to keep the virtually equatorial sun off enjoying the cool breeze that passes over. The temperature is wonderful, don’t get me wrong, I’m hoping for cloud if we go out cycling tomorrow as it is very hot in the sun, but the room only has a fan, no aircon, and we are even sleeping under a little blanket! There are puppy dogs to play with, fresh lake fish to eat, what’s not to like? The cats are a little standoffish. If that’s all I have to complain about it can’t be bad.

The swimming pool and, no more than 6m away, Lake Toba

 

Our very nice room

 

We don't normally put photos of bathrooms on, but we think this one is a particularly good example!

 

The band plays at 'Roys Bar' to just us! Its a very quiet time in Danau Toba and although more people arrived to listen at 10:00pm it was still almost empty.

 

Jackie (and I) take a dip in the biggest volcanic lake in the world. Nice temperature as well!

And while we were in this was going on overhead

 

Afternoon tea and cakes, a daily occurrence for us!

 

Playful puppies!

 

Didn't mind being picked up

 

This little cat walked across the corrugated perspex roof section in our bathroom and had no idea where our calls were coming from. She was looking forwards, each side and up before she realised we were below her. Here she's just realised where we are

 

This is a typical Batak house in this part of the world. The front of the roof is always higher than the rear part, the front representing the children of the family, the rear the parents and symbolising the parents wish that their aim is that their children will do better in life than they have