Danau (Lake) Toba

        While I was having my Lunch in Berestagi (at the hostel) , A man sat down beside me and started talking away as If I
had known him for a long time. He told me his name was Nazrun and he was from a place called PASIR PANGARAYAN (part of
the Riau Province.) He told me that he was in Berestagi on holidays with his students for a few days and if it was ok,
Would I like to share a private bus from Berestagi all the way to Danau (Lake) Toba. I was not sure of this as I had
never met this guy before and from reading a few articles  I was told to err on the side of caution so I told him ,I
really was in 2 minds about the traveling with hin.
        Later that evening, I checked my couchsurfing page and noticed that one of the guys (Bayu) from Berestagi said
that he wanted to visit me later that evening in the hostel.Unfortunately, I was reading this from a restaurant (I was
half way through my dinner and it's bad luck to leave a restaurant without finishing your dinner (well, when I say
,it's bad luck I mean that you should ALWAYS finish your dinner when eating in a restaurant!))
     Anyway, by the time I had finished my dinner and arrived back at the hostel Bayu had been and gone.  I tried to
reach him on his mobile [I borrowed a mobile from one of the girls from reception. Initially, she asked where I cam
from , I said Ireland and she replied , 'ah yes, Sligo'. I was a but confused as nobody really knows where ireland is
never mind a small town in Ireland.Then, she started talking about the kings of Sligo 'Westlife' (note to self: If
anybody asks me where I come from, I will mention westlife or Robbie Keane as more people have heard of these 2
'phenomena' than the country itself!)]  but it was engaged so I am afraid I missed out on talking to one of the locals
here :-(.
       I was still having doubts about sharing the minivan with Nazrun so I decided to sleep on it. At 7.30 the next
morning, I got a knock on the door wondering if I was ready for the journey to Lake Toba. I was still not sure so I
told Nazrun that I would make my own way there. At 8.30 I went for a shave (They have an outside shared bathroom at
the hotel) On my way back to the room, Nazrun was waiting with his students for me so I decided (in my decisive non
decisive manner) to grab a lift with them to Danau Toba [It was a good move!]. (If I took the normal minibus , I would have gone to
Kabanjahe - Siamsar - Parapat and got the boat to Tuk Tuk) As this was a private bus, we went straight to Lake Toba (Although I
took many pictures of the scenery along the way.) here are just a few pics of the journey.

Sumatra has very fertile ground!

A Corn field

Picture of a Mosque\Masjid between Berestagi and Tuk Tuk

Cool Pic of some local flowers on route from Berestagi and Tuk Tuk

Can you see the road splitting the mountains?

Better view of the winding road

You can see Danau Toba from here

Nazruns students... please let me get this correct!

Ara, Rene, Rane and DeDe

Just thought that I would thrown in a windscreen wiper for good effect

          When we arrived at Lake Toba (at a place called Tuk Tuk), I decided to have a look around the back of one of the houses and there was Joey looking perplexed.They (Cormac and Jo) had left Berestagi the day before me and stayed in one of the dearer hotels for the first night but they had just rented a house 2 doors up from the one I decided to rent! The lady of the hostel was some traveller! She came fom Germany but had lived in Iceland for 3 years and she has been living with her boyfriend out here in lake Toba for the last 18 months. That's some change!

Traditional gravestone see at Lake Toba

The gravestones are often the same size (if not bigger than) as the family house

Traditional bedroom in Lake Toba

There was a mezzanine floor in this house!

        I decided to have a quick walk around the area of Toba .All the locals seemed to have an avid interest in the Euro championship final.A  couple of shopkeepers asked me if I wanted to come over and watch the game (The game starts at 2am Indonesian time.) I might take them up on their offer if I am still in Lake Toba at that time. I passed a couple of shops around 10pm and thought that they were closed but then at one shop , I noticed that there was a woman and her kid sleeping on the floor of the shop. So , this was the front room of their house. As I walked around the shops, this seemed to be a common enough occurance.So, the shop never really closes, If you want to buy something from the shop, you just have to wake the woman from her sleep and you will be served.
          I woke up the next morning and decided that I should get my clothes washed as when I washed them , they still stank a bit....and at 15,000 rupiah per kilo, it was a good deal. As I left the tradional house that I was staying at  Nazrun came over to me. I found out that they were staying at a house that was 4 doors down from where I was staying. They were off to Parapat and then to the Saturday markets in Tomoc. The Markets (so far) have been really vibrant places so i decided at that point that I would head up to Tomoc at some stage that day.
              In the meantime, I would wander in a type of aimless direction that I do. I heard that there was a waterfall so I decided to have a look for it. I walked around 3km in one direction (trying to avoid all the traffic (there seems to be NO paths here at all!)) On my journey, I took a few photos of the land/wildlife and here they are!

Beautiful view of Lake Toba

Different view of the lake

Those clouds are hanging low!

The fields are all very fertile here

This is a picture of a house right beside a gravestone

He is just grooming him 

(Note to self : Buy a bird)

     A few people saw me taking photographs and asked IF i wanted to take pictures of them. I didn't mind ,so here they are!

Act naturally lads!

I think she is levitating!

   I reached a town (Amerito- maybe 2km from the entrance to Tuk Tuk) and noticed an atm machine so I took out some money.(Later that evening I heard that there were some famous chairs built in this town.I guess they were similar to the famous chair that can be found on the hill of Tara in Meath. I never got the chance to see the Indonesian equivalent but if they are anywhere near as good as the Irish equivalent, then I would have to use my imagination to see the chair!!!! )
 As I left the atm machine, a guy from across the road shouted a greeting at me. I went over to him and he told me that he would be happy to drive me back up the road on the back of his motorbike and his friend would drive me to Tomoc if i wanted. I thought, 'why not' so I jumped on the back of the bike. [As an aside, when I get a lift on the back of someones motorbike , I always put my arms oon their shoulders as I can take the turns at the same time as them. Every other passenger on motorbikes seem to hang on to the hips of the driver.I am not sure if that will work for me as I am much taller than ALL the  driverrs so I would be sitting in a crouching position and That is very awkward for me!]
              Anyway, as The guy started driving down the road, he mentioned that his speedometer had broken and he had no money to fix it. I thought 'fair enough' and continued to be oblivious to everything! About 3 minutes later, he pulled over to his house where he introduced me to his mother (who said something like 'horas' to me. I guess horas means welcome.) This house (like many others) doubled as a shop so I sat at the front of the shop while the guy who had just given me the lift offered me some water. I said 'no thanks'.Then, he proceeded tto tell me that his father died when he was 1 and he was left alone with his mother and to think about him when traveling.After that , he asked me if I wanted him to ring his friend about the lift to Tomoc. I thought it might be better to walk to Tomoc so I grabbed my gear and bought a couple of things from his shop and moved on.

Some refreshment jelly!

           It didn't take too long to reach Tomoc ...

Traffic in Tomoc is a microcosm of the traffic around Indonesia ...ie: A van driving on the left hand side (the correct side of the road) driving one way and a motorbike driving on the .... ugh.... right hand side of the road!

and I was in the mood to buy a shirt. I walked into one shop and I asked for the price of one of the shirts. The woman of th shop said 75000Rupiah you go. I retorted in my usual manner *grunt- huh*. 'she replied 75000 ,now, you go, what you want offer?'
All I could think of was that famous Monty Python sketch ''''http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n3LL338aGA ''''
So, the bartering began (in a halfhearted manner as it seemed funny that the shopkeeper was telling me to barter!) 45000 , no: 60000, no:50000. She was happy enough with thaat as was I (baring in mind that the previous shop asked if I wanted to buy a t shirt for 50000 anyway.)
     I walked though the fruit market where loads of people were shouting at me to get my attention so I would buy their fruit

Gratuitous pic of some fruit and veg.

Nice colours here

Anyone for Fish (Not sure if there are any left in Danau Toba now!)

I should stop taking photos and actually buy some fruit

Look, I promise I will buy some runner beans

but I was not really interested in the fruit.At one point, an old woman selling mangos asked if I wanted to buy 1/2 kilo of mangos.I tld her that I had no interest in them, then she asked me if i would buy 1 mango for 3000 RP. I said no tanks but she was very insistent.She put the mango on  the weighing scales and said 2 ounces, yes? 3000 RP? I said , no thanks and just as I was going, she shouted....'free market, open price market' 2000 RP, i was really not interested and started walking- then she said 1000RP anf thought for a second. Then, she gave me a scornful look and ushered me away.  [smart woman]
           On the way back to the house in Tuk Tuk, I decided to buy a book as my kindle had been broken for quite some time and I had not gone to the bother of fixing it. It seems that there is no Indonesian equivalent of the cheap book store! There was a good book about the killing fields but that book was a library book so I chose another one (One about the introduction of football to Brazil.
Look, it's an intellectual read where it describes the construction of railways and how infrastructure of certain parts of Brazil (Sao Paulo) developed alongside their adopted national sport).
I noticed 2 signs on the way back to the house. the first one was a virulent anti drugs message.

Drugs: not good

5 metres away, I noticed a second sign...

I am confused

 At one point, I decided to try out some Indonesian, I went up to a sweet shop and asked 'Berapa an (how much?)'
They replied - "No sir, this is Not Parapat.This is Tuc Tuc." Ah well, Back to the drawing board for my pronounciation!!

               I walked on , safe in the knowledge that I had confused one more member of the Indonesian public!
At this point, I bumped into an English teacher from Berestagi who had brought her students to Tuc-Tuc to hear some natives speak english.She asked me if I would not mind speaking with her kids and I though 'why not?', so It ended up in another photo procession!

I have 2 options....

1.) crouch down such that I can get my face in the picture 

or

2.) chop off my legs such that I can blend in with the locals!

      I never thought that This place would have WiFi but most of the hotels seem to have it. yay!!! I went into one of the hotels and bought a honey pancake (10000) with some tea (2000) and was able to use the wifi from there. Needless to say, there was a badminton court out the back but I decided to stick with the wifi this time!

If I use the hotels wi-fi, I guess I better buy some food .

Waiter, I'll buy the cheapest food please!!

        Here is an example of a the traditional  house that I stayed in during my stay at lake Toba.

This is the outside of the front of the house. Can you spot the front door?

Mind your head when opening the fornt door!!

Door leading down to the W.C. These people must have been dwarfs

Bathroom available at Lake Toba. 

Nice blue colour!

I decided to have a traditional muslim meal with Nazrun and his students around 7.30 that evening...and here's the  pic!

Sharing a meal with Ara, Rene , DeDe, Rane and Nazrun at a traditional muslim restaurant in TukTuk

Everyone gets rice and the rest is divvied up!

Notice , no knives here!

 I retired back to the lounge area around the house I was staying at. I ended up having a long chat with Joey and Cormac while watching one of the 'Lord of the rings' films. I never realised that the films brought so much economy to New Zealand (and still does!)
     Anyway, onwards and upwards! Off to Pasir Pangaraian tomorrow to get an authentic muslim experience!
In the meantime, some random photos!!!

So, that's how they cut they cut the grass in Tuc-Tuc

good idea

Nice contrast of colours here!

Nice lakeside view here