Day 2

After breakfast, we headed out to our next destination, Parapat / Lake Toba, a 4-5 hour bus ride from Medan – the city of Battle field. As we were heading off, we learned that Medan is the Capital City of North Sumatra and it has 36 Provinces Which includes Parapat/Lake Toba.

After an hour or two, we made a pit stop in Paten – a snack shop – before our lunch. There were so many different snacks and delicacies that we could try to and buy. Paten also means “Good” or “Good Quality” which is true as the snacks were delicious.

After buying the snacks, we made our way to the restaurant for Lunch. They were serving fried quail which some of us hadn’t tried it before. In my opinion, it was a new experience as it is not something we eat everyday back in Singapore.

We continued our journey towards Lake Toba, last stop. It took another hour until we reached Lake Toba the home of the Supervolcano which last erupted 75,000 years ago. The eruption had caused an Ice age due to the Volcanic ash which covered the sky and blocked the UV light from entering the equator. It caused a huge decrease in temperature over months thus the beginning of an ice age.

After checking in to Niagara Lake Toba and Resort Parapat, our accommodation for the next week, we met up with the Indonesian students to explore Lake Toba.

Hegi and Indah, being a local from Medan, brought us around the area and shared the different tales and history that makes Lake Toba what it is today.

Lake Toba was once a volcano which erupted around 77,000 years ago, and the water that was collected by the rain and waterfalls nearby filled up the crate, hence creating a lake.

The ambience of the area was beautiful and serene, a complete opposite to the busy, hustling life in Singapore. All of us spent our time there taking pictures with the lake as a background. One of the more prominent place we visited in the area was the historical house in Parapat City, the house of Indonesia’s first president, President Soekarno. This house now becomes a place used by government bodies for official events.

We even made friends with two beautiful souls, and managed to strike up conversations with them. Hegi helped us with the conversation as he spoke the Batak language, being a Batak himself.

We ended the trip with a few rounds of photoshoots with the beautiful scenery accompanying us in the background, which sadly got cut short due to the rain.

We are definitely looking forward to exploring Lake Toba over this week. Here are some shots we got today! Stay tune for our next blog !