,Where on earth can you hire a car with a driver for $70 for a five hour jolly through the Sumatran countryside. Well the answer is Medan, me dear. So we hauled our suitcases down the yellow brick road, had our last fruity breakfast and poured ourselves into the rather disheveled vehicle. It was to take us to a town on the shores of Lake Toba called something like pretty pretty as the town we were headed for, the surprisingly static Tuk Tuk, is actually on an island in the lake. Now the journey itself was an entertainment in itself. Again only having a rudimentary knowledge of the geography of Sumatra we were at a loss to know where we were going so the route was even more baffling when we took side roads, abandoning an apparently good main road, and even traversing a field of sweetcorn. And all this without a sat nav, road map or even a road sign. I guessed it was all done on sense of smell and the fact he had probably done it many times before. One thing the roads did have in common with the rest of the world is that where there are roadworks there are lots of people standing around doing sweet fanny adams, unless you count the never ending smoko as doing something.
So we arrive eventually at Parapat, not pretty pretty as previously stated, the driver drops us at the port and says catch the green and white one. OK they all look green and white under the layers of grime and rust but as helpful as ever two complete strangers grab the cases chuck them on a boat and if we didn't move quick enough we would have followed. But it was a dignified boarding for Hol and a holding a hand, rather undignified boarding for me. The thing wasn't built for wheelchair access trust me.
Now I have arrived at hotels before mostly by car, but also by bike, back in the day, motorcycle even on foot. Those were the days of Youth Hostelling but never by boat, but this one dropped us off at the hotel and once again the cases were whisked away and deposited
.Thats enough waffle but we did see @#$%ing mornkeys just outside Parapat. Long-tailed Macaques I think, interestingly none seem to live on the island. One last thing Lake Toba is/was a super volcano apparently 10 times bigger than Krakatoa. Big bang theory or what and it is a very big hole filled with a lot of water.
So we arrive eventually at Parapat, not pretty pretty as previously stated, the driver drops us at the port and says catch the green and white one. OK they all look green and white under the layers of grime and rust but as helpful as ever two complete strangers grab the cases chuck them on a boat and if we didn't move quick enough we would have followed. But it was a dignified boarding for Hol and a holding a hand, rather undignified boarding for me. The thing wasn't built for wheelchair access trust me.
Now I have arrived at hotels before mostly by car, but also by bike, back in the day, motorcycle even on foot. Those were the days of Youth Hostelling but never by boat, but this one dropped us off at the hotel and once again the cases were whisked away and deposited
.Thats enough waffle but we did see @#$%ing mornkeys just outside Parapat. Long-tailed Macaques I think, interestingly none seem to live on the island. One last thing Lake Toba is/was a super volcano apparently 10 times bigger than Krakatoa. Big bang theory or what and it is a very big hole filled with a lot of water.
The old, the new and the sort of blue period middle aged housing on Lake Toba. Pretty specky front/back garden though the dust bowl needs attention. All or at least most houses round here seem to have a satelite dish, which may mean the free to air programes are similar to Australian ones or there isn't any free to air.
Almost all of the people around here are Batik and this is where Batik people live. Not your average council house the carving alone would bankrupt your average county council. The dusting must be hell on a stick, just think of the height of the ladder needed to reach the spiders at the top, which I chopped off in the photo.