After spending 2 nights in Lake Toba, we took the public bus from Parapat back to Medan (the journey took 4 hours without any toilet breaks) and in Medan, we took another public bus to Bukit Lawang, the “entry point” to the Gunung Leuser National Park. And guess what? The second bus journey was 3 hours long! LOL. So we left Lake Toba at 8am and arrived at Bukit Lawang at 6pm!

Gunung Leuser National Park is a national park covering 7,927 km² in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, straddling the border of the North Sumatra and Aceh provinces. The national park is named after Mount Leuser (with a height of 3,381 m). An orangutan sanctuary is also located inside the park. Gunung Leuser National Park is one of the two remaining habitats for the Sumatran Orangutans (Pongo abelii).

- Source: Gunung Leuser National Park @ Wikipedia

We couldn’t do much upon arrival because it was getting late, so we had dinner and just chilled out after a tiring day traveling. We also met up with Pak Temu, our trekking guide, and chit-chatted for a while. The next morning, Pak Temu met us at the resort and right after breakfast, we started our 3-hour jungle-trek. But before that, together with other visitors, we went to the watch the feeding of the orangutans.

When we arrived at the feeding platform, Sandra the orangutan was already there. The guides, who brought some fruits and milk, waited for her at the platform so that we could get a clearer view of her. But the naughty Sandra not only did not go to the feeding platform, she even urinated on us! I was sitting beneath some trees waiting for Sandra to “show up” and it suddenly rained. The other visitors were signaling for us to run because it wasn’t rain, it was Sandra’s urine! It was hilarious! :)

We waited for a couple more minutes and then decided to leave the feeding platform to start our jungle trek. Pak Temu said that the 3-hour trek that we had earlier booked wasn’t long enough to really go into the woods to spot other wildlife. But we met Thomas, the leaf monkey :)

It was so tame that it wasn’t shy to take pieces of bananas from our hands! So cute :)

But apart from that, the jungle-trekking part was pretty uneventful. We got back to our room, took a quick shower, then lunch, and then took the public bus back to Medan.

You may view the rest of the pictures (and video clips) here: Sumatera, Indonesia 2009.

So, before going to Lake Toba (or Danau Toba as the Indonesians call it), I didn’t have a chance to do some research about it. I only knew that it was a lake and super-volcano, and that many many years ago, the super-volcano erupted and it was a massive climate-changing event. Only after I have returned, I learned that the lake is 100 km long and 30 km wide (bigger than Singapore)!

Samosir Island is a large volcanic island in Lake Toba and it is actually linked to the mainland of Sumatra on its western part by a narrow land. Samosir Island is a popular tourist destination and the tourist guesthouses are concentrated in the Tuktuk area (the area that protrudes from the island, click on the picture to view some notes).

We arrived at the town of Parapat, and then we hopped into a ferry (the locals called it a “kapal”) and we had no idea it was going to take an hour to reach the island! It was very windy that particular day, and the ferry was rocking so badly one other tourist threw up in the ferry :(

The island is the centre of the Batak culture and many of this people’s artifacts remain on the island. Batak are known traditionally for their weaving, wood carving and especially ornate stone tombs. We went to almost all the stores within walking and bicycling distance, and found that they sold almost the same things — carvings, keyrings, t-shirts, bags.

We stayed in a traditional Batak house for 2 nights at Merlyn Guesthouse. Traditional Batak houses are noted for their distinctive roofs (which curve upwards at each end, as a boat’s hull does) and their colorful decor. At first I felt a little silly that I had to lower my head to get into and out of the house, but after going in and out a couple of times, I got used to it, and found it fun :)

We hired 2 motorbikes instead of chartering an Innova and we went to Simanindo, some 20 km from our guesthouse in Tuktuk, to watch a traditional Batak dance. The dance is performed twice daily to tourists. We were given a sheet that explained what each part of the dance meant, but we only realized that toward the end of the dance. Nobody told us that we had to refer to the sheet to understand what was going on! LOL. The following video clip shows about 20 seconds of the 45-minute dance.

From Simanindo, we went to Ambarita where the stone chairs were. We were too cheap to hire an English-speaking guide, so we eavesdropped when a guide was giving an explanation to other tourists, LOL. But we could gather that in the early days, prisoners were chained and locked up under these houses, and the stone chairs were where they were executed (click on the first picture to view some notes).

Oh, and it never got too hot in Lake Toba because it has a surface elevation of about 900 m. It was cool and breezy all the time, and we didn’t even need a fan in our house! :) I enjoyed the 2-day stay very much, though I wished there were more things to do, see and buy, LOL.

You may view the rest of the pictures (and video clips) here: Sumatera, Indonesia 2009.

OK, so I went to Medan, Sumatera on July 30th for a work-related mission, and that mission is obviously not bloggable stuff. We spent a few days working, traveling from a place to another place a few hours away, and before we knew it, work was done! And we had an extra 4 days before our scheduled flight back to Malaysia. So we quickly planned a cheap getaway to Lake Toba and the Gunung Leuser National Park so that we had something to do in those 4 days. Plus, there wasn’t really a lot to do in Medan.

Food in Medan is pretty much like food in Malaysia. They had the ayam goreng, ayam gulai, ikan gulai, etc. But unlike in Malaysia, the dishes were served in saucers and placed on the table. At the end of the meal, we only paid for whatever we had eaten. In Malaysia, you pick whatever you want to eat, and you either place the food in saucers or on your plate of rice. And in Medan, you don’t get a lot of vegetables. I’m not very much a vege fan myself, but I found myself not eating any vege at all because all they served was cucumber. And eggplant. ARGHHH…

Lontong in Medan was pretty much like lontong in Malaysia.

And nasi lemak in Medan was also very much like nasi lemak in Malaysia, except that the rice wasn’t as fragrant :)

We also had the opportunity to try their ayam penyet, which, unfortunately, wasn’t penyet (flattened), LOL. Ayam penyet was actually fried chicken, and if you ordered ayam penyet komplit (complete flattened chicken, LOL), the fried chicken would come with 2 pieces of taufu (beancurd) and terung (eggplant).

In Samosir Island on Lake Toba, we had a homemade pizza with slices of pineapples and chicken as topping, and it was gooood. And considering it was from a small Batak local community, the pizza was fantastic.

I also had this banana pancake for breakfast one morning in Lake Toba. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but it tasted great nonetheless :)

At the Gunung Leuser National Park, we spent a night at the EcoLodge Cottages, and our complimentary breakfast consisted of an American breakfast, with our choice of coffee or tea. Even the breakfast looked great :)

You may view the rest of the pictures (and some video clips) here: Sumatera, Indonesia 2009.