This picture will give you an idea of where we were on Lake Toba. We crossed over on the ferry to the north east part of Samosir island to a place called Tuk Tuk.
Our adventure with the magic mushrooms finally ended by dinner time. Our group was served dinner at a pavilion. Dinner included delicious home made pumpkin soup, fish, vegetables, chicken with …… arhhhh….. MUSHROOMS! It was a simple but delicious meal in a gorgeous setting. Although I love mushrooms, I just could not make myself take one that night – it was just too soon after our earlier escapade!
It was wonderful just sitting there, chatting and relaxing; taking in the beauty of the place.
The next morning, we decided to stay longer at the hotel and cancelled the trip to the waterfall.
Although the lake was beautiful, it definitely looked less brilliant compared to the moments when we saw the lake through the eyes of the “magic mushrooms” trip, hahaha!
Did I mention that there is free wifi at the Tabo Cottages?
Breakfast was a fusion of western and eastern food. I particularly enjoyed the homemade buns.
My mom had a bathroom that made her take her bath in a hurry!
We finally left the hotel at around 11am. About 10 minutes after leaving, a call came from the hotel – we had left our laptop bag WITH the laptop at the hotel. We so blessed to have stayed at a place with honest people.
It is not unusual to see graves strewn all over the place. Each family buried their dead on their own land, next to their homes, some on their padi fields. We were told by our guide that this was the wisdom of the elders. Apparently the Bataks like to gamble. Having a grave on the land was a safeguard against anyone trying to sell his land to settle gambling debts.
As you can see, some of the graves looked better maintained than their own homes!
The white patch on the mountain is the hot spring.
We finally crossed back to the mainland and headed to the Tele mountains. It is a very scenic drive. The only set back is the badly maintained roads
The bridge crossing over to the mainland
You really should not miss going to the Tele Mountains. I would suggest that after visiting the place, you BACKTRACK to Samosir island and go back to Medan via Parapat instead of going on to Brastagi. The roads after Tele mountain is terrible. This stretch here on the way to the mountain is bad enough but it gets WORSE after that! There are stretches when we were traveling at 10kmh. At one point, I saw a signboard saying “51km to Medan” but my joy was short lived as it took us more than 2 hours to travel that last bit!
A view to savor, but DO head to the mountains early. The place gets really misty after 2pm. Our guide told us that nobody wants to drive on these treacherous roads after 6pm.
We had a nice cuppa at the little shop behind us
One of the joys of homeschooling is that Andrea gets to go for holidays anytime we want.
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