After Lake Toba we proceeded to a place called Tarutung to see the giant cross on top of a hill that can be seen for miles around. I read about this place on Lonely Planet and the fact that there have been very few tourists that have actually come to this place (I don’t think there’s no more than a handful of people in the outside world who would even know about it) I wanted to experience it.
The road to Tarutung, beautiful countryside with lots of farms and fields of rice and water buffalo tethered to the side of the road.
Tarutung in the Batak language means durian, the delicious, pungent fruit with the rough skin. The smell is so bad most hotels in Asia prohibit people from buying and bringing them into the hotel. The flesh is very sweet and delicious if you can get past the smell. I love it but it gives me a fierce headache for some reason.
The city of Tarutung in the beautiful valley of Silindung in North Sumatra has an old durian tree symbolically standing on the hill just above one of its main streets, Jl. Sisingamangaraja.
The tree stands in a tiny park with a marker that says the tree was planted in 1877. It still produces fruit that is visible high in its branches.
Christian believers are the biggest population in Tarutung. In 1861, a missionary from The Netherlands named Nommensen came all the way to this remote place to share God’s word and win people’s heart to surrender their lives to be Christian disciples.
Salib Kasih (Love Cross) was built as a monument to the place where Nommensen prayed for God’s help to succeed in his mission to bring God and Christianity to this remote place. Christianity in Indonesia started from this place and spread out across the nation.
The road up the hill to the monument.
The entrance to the monument.
The peace and tranquility of the place enhanced by beautiful trees and gardens felt almost spiritual.
The Love Cross (Salib Kasih)
The height of the monument is around 31 meters. Under the monument, seating is provided for the congregation, it accommodates around 600 people.
The pidgeons were a bit of a problem, they pooped everywhere. This is the seating for the congregation when they hold church services on Sundays and Christmas day.
The pulpit has an awesome backdrop. What a magnificent view.
Surrounding the monument there are 13 prayers rooms each approximately two square meters, for those more devout who want privacy and peace without time restrictions.
Etha is a Christian and here she is putting in an extra bit of time to pray for our safe journey...she said...lol.
After our visit to Salib Kasih we made one more stop before going back to Medan. This one made me ill (literally).
These are sulphur springs where you can indulge in healing mineral baths but the smell of sulphur (exactly like rotten eggs) was overwhelming and made me puke.
Very slippery rocks and I almost took a tumble when I turned around to take this photo of Etha.
That's all for now folks!!