Danu Toba

The bus ride to Danu Toba took 16 hours overnight through the middle of Sumatra. Thanks to a Dramamine and a sleeping pill it was not as bad as I thought. Then is was a quite opulet ride and ferry across the lake to the large island in the middle. I am staying in Tuk Tuk which used to be a resort area for travellers. Now is is quite depressing as there are no tourists and quite a lot of locals who have not been able to change their mindset/profession away from tourism.

The lake (danu) is the largest in Southeast Asia and is high in the mountains. It was created by two volcanic explossions and is quiet deep and large. There is a large island in the middle about 290 km in circumference, and Tuk Tuk jets out of the eastern end and is about 7-10 km in cercumfrence. The main island is like a plateau with the sides climbing up high like a mountain, and then is is flat all the way accross to the other side. I defineately feel like I am living in the sky as the clouds hand all around, and we are inside mountain creaters.

It rains her quite a bit, so it is turning out to be a good place for drinking. Yesderday I rented a bike with the hope to make it to a market about 40km arourd to the north. About an hour into the ride it began to rain, so the ride turned into a pub crawl on the way home in between showers.

Overall, the locals are very friendly and the food is quite good. I am continuing to learn and practice Indonesian and I am begining to hold conversations of 4-8 sentences. This part of my trip is very relaxing and perfect after a long bus ride. I think it was worth it.