First Trip....2011

8.12.2011-11-.12.2011

Lake Toba is consider the first destination organize by myself and i choose Lake Toba as my first destination due to its magnificent view and is near to the my home country Malaysia. Lake Toba is located in Medan, Indonesia and is a crater lake which forms in a volcanic crater. This time my partner and i decided to take Air Asia to Medan.

The flight from Malaysia to Medan was around 50 minutes and there is only one airport in Medan city which is called the Polonia airport. This Polonia airport is quite small and old. Once we reached the airport, there was a taxi guy quickly grabbed our luggages and quickly headed to his taxicab.My partner and i had no choice but to follow him and let him drive us to our hotel. The taxi driver charge us 70000 rp and this is consider quite expensive. our hotel was located near to the china street and you can find a lof of chinese food stalls around the hotel. Medan is considered as the food heaven in Indonesia. Especially Bakso (beef noodle) is a must try food when you go to indonesia.

The next morning, we went to Raja Taxi and join with another 5 persons in a car to parapat which is the dock for the ferry in Lake Toba. We had to take the ferry to samosir island as we already booked a hotel there.The journey to parapat is a 5 hours journey and the road to there is not in tip-top condition. The road is narrow and there are a lot of cars and lorry on the road so our taxi driver had to drive very dangerous and fierce to get to our destination. When we reach parapat, we were shocked with magnificent view of lake toba. The water is very clean and you can feel the air is very fresh as this place is not yet polluted. The ferry to samosir island took us about an hour to reach our hotel and the ferry usually will drop other passengers to different hotel around the island.

In samosir island, we stay in a hotel called Samosir cottage which is a nice play to stay and the staff served us very well.We rent a motorcycle from the samosir cottage and go around the island. Using a motorcycle is more convenient to go around the island. The road on the island is not complicated and we just need to follow the map given by the hotel to go to our destination. Along the way we took many photos of beautiful scenery on the island. For those who like hot spring, you can go to try the hot spring on samosir island. Lake Toba is indeed a
very relaxing place.

Lake Toba is suitable for those who want to find a place for relaxing and like to get close to the nature.

For those who want to travel to indonesia, here is a tip for you all, the airport tax (75000 Rupiah) for indonesia airport must be paid at the counter in the airport before you board the plane.