It was already past noon when we arrived in Parapat, a small town at the Eastern edge of Lake Toba. We parked our vehicle at a parking area lakeside and waited for fifteen minutes for a ferryboat to cross all the way to Samosir Island in the middle of the lake.
Lake Toba is largest volcanic lake in the world and the large size of the body of water made me feel like I was at the sea. It’s windy, I could feel waves hitting our boat.
One hour later we stepped on the land again at the pier in a town called Tuk Tuk. Tuk Tuk is the gateway of Samosir and if you plan to stay the night, this is where most hotels and guesthouses can be found. Samosir island itself is the center of the Batak culture with some of the cultural remains can be found at Tomok village, which lies 2 km to the south of Tuk Tuk.
The walk to Tomok was a breeze. It must be because this island is at +- 1000 m above the sea level, which makes the air pretty cool.
There are actually many other things to see and explore in Samosir island. Megaliths, ancient tombs, waterfalls, hot springs. We skipped all of those because we had to go back to Medan that same day.
