Fascinating Lake Toba
From Berastagi, we continued onward towards Lake Toba. 74,000 years ago, the Toba eruption was one of the biggest volcanic eruptions in the history of the planet (well, in the last 25 million years, as Dave tells me). It was a VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) of 8, which is the highest on the scale – actually it’s the eruption from which all others are measured. Only one other, Yellowstone, might come close in size.
The eruption is thought to have triggered a “volcanic winter” by kicking up vast amounts of ash and volcanic dust, which blocked sunlight and caused a global temperature drop. Although it didn’t cause a full ice age, it may have sped up existing glaciation trends. It’s also believed to have caused a significant disruption to life on Earth, potentially reducing the human population to just a few thousand individuals (based on genetic analysis), though this theory remains debated today. Still, it was a cataclysmic event with global consequences.
But now, the lake is all that remains – a serene reminder of nature’s raw power. The lake, which is the ancient caldera filled with water, stretches approximately 100 kilometers long and 30 kilometers wide (basically… Massive!). In the center of the lake is Samosir Island, a large island formed after the eruption.
Dave was super excited to see it, and funnily enough, I had recently read a book about Toba and other volcanic eruptions in Indonesia (Tambora and Krakatoa), even before we decided to come away. So we were both excited to visit it and see the crater and lake with our own eyes.
We got a “tourist bus” again from Berastagi which dropped us at Parapat on the lake edge, a large fishing port and gateway to Samosir island.
The roads were slightly better this time, but unfortunately the weather was not, and the view point we stopped at along the way were just shrouded in cloud still.
We did stop at a pretty cool waterfall though called Sipiso Piso.
We arrived at the port and were dropped at a little travel agents to get the “tourist boat” to Samosir island. I believe there is a public boat too, but this only goes to the main pier on the island, where as this tourist boat can seemingly stop anywhere in the town of Tuk-tuk on Samosir, including the private jetties of some of the hotels. The price was good too, just IDR 25k each, and it dropped us at a pier a 2 min walk from our guesthouse. Although we did have to stop at lots of other piers before ours… But being on the lake was pretty cool and very scenic.
We stayed in Leokap Homestay, which was really nice, in a traditional style Batak house – similar to Berastagi, the people of Toba are also Batak, known as Toba Batak and also have a unique style house based on buffalo horns, but this style is like a very angular front, so super high roofs.
After a good night’s sleep, the next day we hired a little tuktuk and driver for the day to explore the island a little and the first stop was a Batak village museum, which was pretty touristy, but still cool. And added to the experience, a big group Indonesians were learning a traditional Batak dance on the stage. We watched a little, then when it was finished a lot of the guys wanted to talk to Dave. I think he gets attention here because he is tall, green eyes and also his tattoos. Apparently the tattoos make him look like a gangster in Indonesia, so all the guys think he’s super cool (little do they know…. Hahaha no, jokes, he is super cool, just not a gangster)!
They asked us where we were from, and after saying the UK, specifically Manchester, the very next question is almost always “do you support Manchester United”, to which we usually reply, “No, we live near Old Trafford, but we support Liverpool” (don’t ask, long story). When Dave said this, many of the guys cheered loudly, haha, clearly a popular choice in Sumatra! I don’t think Dave has ever been cheered for supporting Liverpool before, so that was a first. He then got asked for a photo shoot with a few of them, and we asked if we could take their pic too.
From here, we drove up to a view point higher up on Samosir island and away from the peninsula or Tuk-tuk town.
After being dropped off, we went for lunch at a little vegan cafe on the island, but compared to our little restaurant at Leokap, it was rubbish.
That night we went for a walk to try and catch the sunset, but didn’t manage to find a good spot in time, so just walked back and instead tried to get a good view of the moon.
We only had 2 nights here, one full day, which was just enough to get a sense of the scale of lake Toba. We visited a tiny blip of the lake and it still felt huge, it was hard to comprehend that this is the caldera of the world’s biggest volcano, as it just seemed like any old lake and island.
We only have 30 days in Indonesia and, as with anything travelling, the decisions are always really hard about where to go, as 30 days is definitely not long enough here… After Toba, we had thought about going more south to Bukittinggi, Pandang and then the Mentawai islands. But instead we made the difficult decision to move onward from Sumatra to Java instead, then towards Bali for a flight to Flores and Komodo National Park at the end of the trip. So we headed back to Medan to wait for our flight to Jakarta. But I am sure we will visit Sumatra again. It was such a beautiful island, far far less touristy than Bali and Lombok, but still with rich culture and nature. I’ve heard the Mentawai islands have unspoiled coral reefs, so I am pretty sure we will return at some point to continue our Sumatran adventure!
Watch my YouTube Video on this post here:
