Danau Toba is a lovely place to be. Every direction you look sees the lake up against green hills and mountains. It’s also quiet here, running at a small fraction of its capacity. The people here are really friendly, not in the pushy way that has come across in most other parts of Asia. It’s sad to see them running with so few visitors and those of us who were there looked to spread our cash around the neighbouring establishments. Frequently you got the impression you might be the one customer of the day.
When I could I hiked around the area to get the views. Some days it was raining (its the start of the rainy season this far north in Indonesia) and I chilled out with books or films. Also available was BBC World and it was disquieting to see the news that the Americans, and possibly the British, have been torturing Iraqi prisoners. Unreal, as it appears that some of the US interrogators are civilian contractors and are exempt from court marshal. One of them has apparently been sacked for raping a teenager so that’s OK…..!!!???!!!
One of the other people at the Samosir Cottages was a Canadian raft guide, Jen. She was doing a quick your round Asia after living in Taiwan for a while and was showing one of the staff her photos she had on CD. Some of them were from the Full Moon party in April and 2 of them by chance contained yours truly bang centre. She didn’t realise but the Indonesian guy recognised me…. what are the chances???
After 6 days of trying I couldn’t get any definite news on what boats sailed from Sibolga, never mind buying a ticket. Rather than spending a day travelling there to be disappointed I’ve come back to Medan to try and get a boat down the east coast.