Sumatra from Medan via Berastagi to Tuk Tuk - Toba Lake

Off to Sumatra

I left my beautiful hostel in Kuala Lumpur - China Town, went to the "Sentral" station and took the "KLIA Express" to the airport. It's really organized and therefore very relaxing. The check-in process is very pleasant here without any rush.

The little plane from "Malaysia Airways" rolled towards the runway and took off shortly afterwards with the destination "Medan" over in Sumatra.

We landed there after a short and relaxed flight. A quite modern train brought me quickly to the heart of Medan. Then a short ride on a motorcycle from the "Grab" service and now I stood in my hotel for the night.

One thing in advance, the pictures and reviews made a pretty good impression. The staff was really courteous, but couldn't speak English. So, I checked in using sign language, which worked quite well. The room, I can already say, was one of the most uncomfortable ones of the whole trip.

Two things caused this disaster. Firstly, the unbearable heat. Ok, maybe it was my fault, they also offered rooms with air conditioning, but a backpacker wants to save money, right? The problem was that opening the window wasn't possible because the bed was in front of it. Problem number two, and with all due respect to all religions, but why do they have to build 5 mosques within a radius of one kilometer which don't sing for call to prayer like it usually is. NO! They were screaming at each other with a perceived devilish malice. Wild screaming 5 times a day and not just for 5 minutes, no, these ones had real stamina, they were able to do it for about 40 minutes each time! Even at night, at 4:30 a.m.!!! And since sleeping wasn't possible at all due to the heat, forget about it.

7 a.m., I woke up from a light sleep, jumped up, collected my things and checked out immediately. 1 km away, I found an oasis of peace, a very nice and fairly new hostel with extreme cleanliness and peaceful silence.

Now it was time to get to know Medan a little bit. If you didn't use the main streets, you were mostly walking alone, which of course was very pleasant, and I could count the number of tourists here on my fingers. So, I quickly became the exotic one again and quite a few students approached me to interview me to improve their English. Little did they know that mine didn't shine with perfection.

Ok, Medan has some interesting old colonial buildings besides huge shopping malls. Like the old post office, the old bank or the old sultan's palace. And at some point, you pass by the big mosque again, and as long as it doesn't scream, it stands mightily and impressively.

In my opinion, one day in Medan is enough, and so I continued my journey the next day.

- Berastagi -

... I reached it after a 3-hour bus ride. The place feels like it's located 3 km along a busy main street and is framed by 2 volcanoes.

One is "Sinnabung" and the other is "Sibayak". The first one erupted last year, so it is considered active. The other one has been quiet since 1881, that was its last eruption. And so it was possible to climb it with a start at 4 a.m. and a subsequent hike. We reached the summit at 2200 m punctually. Unfortunately, we couldn't see the sunrise at 6:30 a.m., only 15 minutes later the clouds cleared a bit, creating a mystical atmosphere. The sun and the "Sinnabung" in the distance showed themselves enchantingly. Afterwards, after the descent, we drove to one of the 14 "Hot Springs" located here, where we could regenerate our tired bones in the hot, sometimes very hot waters.

In the village itself, you will find a large local market and a small museum in a former church. In the evening, a large food market (food street) takes place.

I left Berastagi the next day with the goal of...

- Tuk Tuk - Pulau Samosir - Lake Toba -

The first stage took about 20 minutes in a local shared taxi, then I switched to a local bus which took me to "Siantar" in 3.5 hours with thunderously loud local (folk) music. Finally, the bus dropped me off and I thought I would take a large "Damri" coach for the last 1-hour stretch.

But the next person had already grabbed my backpack, so I followed obediently, and it turned out that we would continue with the shared taxi. He knew nothing about a bus. The ride was supposed to cost 20000 INR (same price as the supposed bus), and so a short time later I was already sitting in the back of the taxi, while at the same time, 2 of the aforementioned large buses passed by!!!

We finally arrived at "Parapat" where the ferry port to Tuk Tuk is located, the small and charming tourist town on the island "Samosir" in the middle of "Lake Toba". The journey here is already very pleasant because the ferry stops directly at each resort.

My beautiful guesthouse was beautifully situated by the lake with a great view from my terrace. And the water was pleasantly warm for swimming.

The next day, I grabbed a rickety bike to explore Tuk Tuk and the nearby village "Ambarita" where a local small market took place again.

A day later, I went around the island on a motor scooter. I mostly had the road to myself for the 120 km. There was a bit of hustle and bustle on the other side in the main town "Pangururan" where I also stopped for a delicious lunch. But for the rest of the tour, I was mostly alone again.

Except in the early afternoon when school was out, then I met several hordes of students, and they all had to greet me and wave at me. The brand new road then continued over the mountains through fantastic landscapes and magnificent views over Lake Toba. In the afternoon, the route led via "Tomok" back to Tuk Tuk, which I reached with a nice light sunburn on my arms and legs. Yes, Lake Toba is really worth a trip.