Danau Toba, or Lake Toba which is located in Medan, North Sumatera, Indonesia is the largest volcanic lake in Southeast Asia (may be in the world!). Thousands of domestic and international tourist come to this place every year. There are several places of interest that I think you may not forget to visit while you are there.
1. Samosir Island
Samosir Island is a popular tourist destination due to the vistas it offers. The tourist resorts are concentrated in the Tuktuk area and Ambarita. The island is the center of the Batak culture and many of this people’s artifacts remain on the island. Almost all of the tourist accommodation are concentrated on the small town of Tuktuk, which is one hour ferry ride across the lake from the town of Parapat.
2. Jangga Village
Jangga is a village of native Bataks, located in the hills, on the main road to other Batak communities living separately there, like Lumban Nabolon, Tonga-Tonga Sirait Uruk, Janji Matogu, Sihubakhubak, Siregar, Sigaol, Silalahi Toruan Muara and Tomok Sihotang. There are King Tambun and King Manurung monuments, traditional houses, cultural and other historical remains left by Batak kings centuries ago. This village has complete Batak ornamentation, and is much visited by both domestic and international visitors. Visitors can watch young girls or old women weaving the beautiful ulos cloth inside the booths their principle livelihood beside agriculture.
3. Tuktuk
Samosir Island is accessible by ferry from Ajibata or Parapat. One of the main inhabited areas on the island, Tuktuk has been described as Samosir’s answer to Bali’s Kuta Beach. Tuk Tuk is the main tourist center on Samosir Island. It is a pleasant place for walking around, shopping and admiring the views over Lake Toba. This popular destination offers scenic views at very low prices. People come here to relax, enjoy the sceneries, eat well and cool down fronm tougher travelling in other areas. Culture is available on certain days and in other nearby villages anyway. Western tunes have replaced the harmonic popular songs of the well-singing Bataks.
The whole little peninsula is full of restaurants, hotels and souvenir shops.
4. Tomok
A traditional village with beautiful houses and ancient tombs. Tomok is gateway to Samosir and one of the main landing-points on the island. Rows of stalls sell an array of handicraft, traditional ulos cloth and Batak musical instruments. The 200-year-old stone sarcophagus of King Sidabutar built in the shape of a ship is its most famous sight. He was the Batak King that introduced Christianity to the Batak people. It is located a short walk away from the lake. Tomok is also known for the Sigale-gale dance.
5. Ambarita
Ambarita, just north of Tuktuk is one of the musts when visiting Samosir. The traditional village with King Siallagan’s stone chairs is of interest, There are many souvenir stands between this historical object and the boat landing. There are however not so many boats anymore, but now and then there are direct connections with Parapat, normally early morning. Ambarita is also a good starting point for treks across the island. There are many nice and quiet places to stay between Tuktuk and Ambarita and along the coast north of Ambarita.
Ambarita is famous for the “stone chairs”. The stone chairs are around 300 years old where a kind of court was held to decide the fate of criminals. Serious crimes were dealt with harshly. The criminals were beaten and their bodies rubbed with lemon and chilli to make their wounds more painful and finally they were beheaded and their bodies thrown into Lake Toba.
Blood and some meat of the criminal was eaten by the king and the villagers. One of the guides is a direct descendant of the former king of the village.
6. Simanindo
Simanindo is a picturesque village and has some of the best-kept traditional houses, incl the house of Raja Sidauruk, now a museum. This nice museum also has daily cultural performances. The market and the boat landing are 150 metres before the Museum, down to the right coming from Tuktuk. There are some nice local coffee shops here. Opposite Simanindo is the island Pulau Maulau, or more commonly known Pulau Tao. There is a restaurant on the island. The island is 800 metres from the boat landing below the museum but you need a boat to get there. Several boats go there from the hotels on Tuktuk. The clan Maulau owns the island according to adat (traditions), but the clan Sidauruk is living there and they built the restaurant and the hotel and changed the name to Pulau Tao. The Maulau clan protested and after negotiations an agreement was reached in June 2001. The islands belong to the Maulau clan, but is managed by Sidauruk. The proper name is Pulau Maulau.
7. Pangururan
Pangururan is the only proper town on Samosir and also the administrative center of the island. There are a few hotels here. The town has a strategic location next to the bridge between Samosir and the mainland. Most foreigners just pass through on their drive around the island or on their visit to the hot springs an the mainland. The town itself is nicely located along the shore of Lake Toba. There are a few nice old colonial buildings to admire. Besides the hot springs a visit to the summit of Pusuk Buhit can also be nice.
Terms that bring you here:
- places of interest in lake toba
- Lake toba places of interest
- how much travel our own at lake toba tour
- is there tour packages from medan airport to lake toba
- toba lake tourism
Related posts:
![China performs an exciting breakthrough in late 2012. This developed countries will build the world’s highest airport located in the City of Nagqu, Tibet, starting early next year. The airport’s high will be approximately 100 meters from the world’s highest airport earlier that also exist in Tibet, which is approximately 4436 meters above sea level. This figure is slightlyhigher than the existing airports in the city of Qamdo, which has a height of 4334 meters abovesea beginning. Unfortunately, not mentioned when Nagqu Airport, as the world’s highest airport will start operating. The Chinese government also did not mention how much the cost allocated to the construction of the airport. In fact, Tibet already has five airports. However, two of the five airports are only opened a fewmonths of the year due to weather extremes. As a result, it is very difficult to do the flight orlanding at the airport. Similarly, as quoted by Reuters on Wednesday (12/28/2011). Tweet(function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })(); Related posts:Explore 5 Attractive Cities in China Marina Bay Sands, Singapore – The Highest Swimming Pool in The World Xidan – Shopping Paradise in China Marina Square – Shopaholic Paradise in Singapore Intorucing Darjeeling, India](http://www.travelinhand.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/China-will-Build-the-Worlds-Highest-Airpot-36x36.jpg "China will Build the World’s Highest Airpot"){kind=small}
Batak culture has millions of cultural treasures. Arts, culture and tourism are found in soil hobo made unique escorted elsewhere. Friendly community that welcomes foreign visitors. We loved Batak culture.