I've posted pics of my adventures around Indonesia...the island of Borneo, Java, Bali, and now this one is Sumatra.
 
One of my favorite trips around Indonesia was to the island of Sumatra where my friend and I went to visit her family near Medan (The capital of Sumatra).
(This is where the 2004 earthquake originated which caused the Asian tsunami that killed hundreds and thousands of people.  Medan the city was not affected, Bandar Aceh is the one that got destroyed and that's further north.)
Her family lived in Siantar which is a few hours drive from Lake Toba so we decided to include it in our itinerary while we were there.
Lake Toba is the largest volcanic lake in the world, and has a fascinating history. Google it if you are interested, I have heaps of pics to post here so I didnt worry about copying the googled stuff to here.
The lake itself has an island in the middle of it called Samosir, and this is where Etha and I stayed for one night. It was amazing and very interesting because there were villages throughout the island depicting the lifestyle and culture of the people there.

This is moi on the grounds of our hotel right on the edge of the lake.  It looks more like a resort somewhere in the alps, not at all like a place in tropical Asia. Pine trees and cool misty mornings, glassy lake and beautiful alpine type vegetation everywhere.
 

This is my friend Etha and her brother from Siantar who ended up being our chauffeur on this trip. He drove us to so many places around Lake Toba and Medan.  This pic is on the balcony outside our hotel rooms.
 

There are ferry boats on the lake every morning, ferrying tourists to and from Samosir.
 

These are the steps up to the main building of our hotel, leading to the reception area and the restaurant which has a wonderful view.

This is us having a late breakfast...after everyone else had finished...we got up very late that morning because we had a late one the night before.
 

This is the path that leads down to the waters edge where we can hire a speed boat to take us out to the island Samosir.

We decided to hire a speed boat to take us to Samosir. Here's Etha almost falling out of the boat when she was hopping on. It was so funny, she got so scared...lol.

Etha's brother never drove a speed boat before, so we asked for a driver.
 

The view from the lake on the way to the island was breath-taking.
 
 

First stop on the island is to this Batak (an indigenous tribe of people) village where they have these crazy shaped houses.
 
Etha and I outside one of the houses in the village.
 

The more socially prominent you are, the more elaborate your roof. I think that's how it works there....lol.
 

This is the jetty of one of the hotels on the island, we stopped off for lunch.
 

this is the grounds of the hotel where we had lunch.
To be continued......next post will be a trip to Salib Kasih and Siantar.