Medan, Indonesia

The largest Volcanic Lake in the World

📌 By Jakub Mikula | May 07, 2018

Lake Toba is the largest volcanic lake in the world. It is located only about 4-6 hours by car (taxi) from Medan, situated on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is believed that the eruption which took place some 70-thousand years ago killed most of the human population at the time and the deposits of the ash have been found as far as the coasts of East Africa. Over the time the crater has transformed into a beautiful lake with an island in the middle.

Itinerary:

Our trip started at the Kualanamu International Airport (Medan). We arrived in the evening, around 6pm, and decided to go directly to Parapat which is a city next to Lake Toba. We would spend the first night in Parapat and travel to Samosir Island in the early morning the next day. We managed to get a taxi (van) for 350.000 IDR for two people. The road from the airport was amazing. It was a highway, and there were no traffic jams. I didn’t even believe I was in Indonesia. After a while we took a smaller road, lined with houses and full of traffic. From that point the travel time increased drastically, but the total time spent from Medan to Parapat was only about four hours (still faster than what we had expected). We spent a night in Star Hotel (Parapat) and in the early morning walked to the jetty from where we took a ferry to Samosir Island.

Places of Interest:

1. Medan

As the main interest was to visit Lake Toba, I did not spend much time in Medan, maybe next time ;)

2. Parapat (Lake Toba)

The jetty in Parapat is a lively place waking up early in the morning surrounded by a market where one can find all kinds of fruits and vegetables. There are some tour agencies which offer taxi/ van services back to Medan. We bought the ferry ticket directly on the ferry.

3. Tuk-Tuk (Samosir Island, Lake Toba)

We were crossing crystal clear fresh waters heading to the centre of the crater - Samosir Island. We then walked to our hostel we booked one night before and rented a scooter. This way we could travel all around the island and explore all it offers - fantastic views, hills, forest, pasture lands, animals. One can also swim in the lake.

We spend here one night and the next day we decided to go back to Parapat and continue to the village of Berastagi on the way back to Medan. On the way there (we rented a taxi from Parapat) we stopped by Sipiso-Piso waterfalls.

4. Sipiso-Piso Waterfall

5. Berastagi

Berastagi is a small village surrounded by two stratovolcanoes: Mount Sibayak and Mount Sinabung. We stayed at one of the hostels facing the east. Because the city of Berastagi is at about 1300m above sea level, the weather is cool and fresh.

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