Medan Journal (Day 3): Parapat

Pasar Gundaling

Man, last night was really freezing. I had to wake up a few times to fix my blanket.

Anyway, Ridu, our tour guide, came to greet us around 8.45AM. While he was fixing our stuff on top of the vehicle (luckily it didn't fell during the travel to Parapat!), we cleaned up our places and checked out of Wisma Sibayak.

Ridu tying up our stuff. It's pretty secure, actually.

We took a 45 minutes break and Ridu took us shopping at Pasat Kalingga, which was like super close from our hotel (~0.5km I think). We needed a stock of fresh fruits and vegetables. It's about time! Haha. We also shopped for some souvenirs.

The front of Pasar Gundaling

Lots of fresh fruits & veggies, yum!

After that, we continued our journey to Danau Toba. I gotta say, the road was really bad up here. It's very…Bumpy. 

Now we are moving rather slowly. Great: bumpy (ride) and (moving) slowly. Haha. Alhamdulillahi 'ala kulli hal. You can't really do much except to wait patiently when it came to traffic jam. At that point in time, the Indonesian are on holiday starting today until Sunday - 'Cuti Awal Muharram'. 

But the traffic cleared up soon after that. 

Sipiso-Piso Revisited

It's almost noon now. I could see Sipiso-Piso Mountain to my left. Goodbye, beautiful mountain. Hopefully we'll see each other again in the near future.

We drove past Merek. This is where we parted, Sipiso-piso. The road is now a new one. Danau Toba, here we come. My eyes were getting heavier. I guess I'll take a nap for a while.

Parapat

The crystal clear water of Lake Toba

I opened my eyes at 1:21 PM. 

“Selamat Datang ke Parapat.”

Alhamdulillah, after travelling about 3 hours, we are finally in Parapat, where I can see the majestic Lake Toba.

Parapat through a(n) (iPhone) lens.

Who would've thought, such a beautiful lake was a remnant of a very powerful, destructive mountain of lava.

We had to wait 2 hours in order to get to Samosir Island (an island located the centre of the lake). So I took this opportunity to explore the place a bit.

Special passenger ferry to take you across the Lake

A very peaceful place indeed. Can you see Samosir Island?

Parapat Town, Sitting at the Edge of Lake Toba. 

Sometimes it's hard to believe this is not a sea.

Well, there isn't much of a place to explore actually. But this town does remind me of a typical volcanic village and society. Or maybe that is because my mind is biased by the fact that this place was built on top of a volcanic mountain that erupted 70,000 years ago.

The Modest Town of Parapat.

SubhanAllah!