Lake Toba

Sumatra, land of volcanoes!! Danau (Lake) Toba is also one (or better was, because it is an extincted one). The lake has a size of 1707 sq-km and is 450 meters deep (to compare: Lake of Geneva has 582 sq-km and is 310 meters deep) and is set in the collapsed caldera of an extinct volcano. In the middle of the lake is a big island, Pulau Samosir, which has the size of Singapore!! And this on 900 meters above sea level. We stayed a 3 days on this island in a nice resort.


It takes about one hour by ferry from Parapat (the main point on the mainland) to Tuktuk on Pulau Samosir.


Our "resort" in Tuktuk, a nice place directly on the lake with a big room and hot shower for about 6 euros per night!!


Many houses on the island have a very special architecture.


On 1 day we rented a motorbike to drive up and around the island. In the interior are many mountains, but the view from the top is very nice, even if the weather wasn't perfect.

Berastagi

Well, first of all, sorry for the delay, we had some problems with the internet conections (very slowly here in Indonesia) and it has taken a lot of time to upload the photos.
After Bukit Lawang in Sumatra we continued to Berastagi, a small town in the south of Medan. It is situated on an altitude of about 1300 meters, quite high, and so the temperature was quite cold. We spent there 2 days and unfortunately we had bad luck with the weather, rainy, foggy and cold... and this very close to the equator!! It already should have been dry season, but it was all except this one.
Berastagi is famous for 2 volcanoes which are very close and it is possible to climb up to both of them. Otherwise the town hasn't anything of interest.


We only went up to one volcano, the Gunung Sibayak (2094 meters). It took us 3 hours to get to the top on a good marked trail and we passed fumaroles and finally got to the crater. It was foggy and nearly nothing visible of the surrounding landscape, but the was nothing compared with what happened after. We just got to the top and wanted to go down on another path, as it started raining (heavy rain) and fog came up, so we couldn't see more than 10 meters in the direction we wanted to head to. So, we had to go back the same way, there the sight was better, but it rained so much, that the path was full of water and further down it converted into a river... Walking through water up to the knees and sometimes a quite heavy current was not easy and it continued raining for the whole afternoon. Well, we arrived back in town, but I won't mention here in which state. Just to say, that with the bad weather it took us several days to dry all...

The way up to Gunung Sibayak


The crater, fumaroles and a short break between the fog to enjoy the short view


At the bottom of the volcano are some hot springs, but we just wanted to go back to the hotel as quickly as possible.

On the other day we went to Lake Sinabung, a lake next to Gunung Sinabung (2450), the sister volcano of the other one. It would take about 10 hours to climb up and down, a long time and with bad weather more difficult, so one volcano was enough.

Bukit Lawang

Welcome to Indonesia, we arrived in Sumatra!!! From Kuala Lumpur we took a flight to Medan and then we continued directly to Bukit Lawang, a small village with many hotels, next to the Taman Nasional Gunung Leiser (National Park). The village is situated on the board of a river which was full with local people, playing, tubing, etc. (it was weekend time...). (By the way, this river isn't always so nice and quiet, in 2003 a flood killed here 280 people.)

But that isn't all which this place can offer you. The national park is famous for the last remaining Orang-Utans in Sumatra! And here in Bukit Lawang is the Orang-Utan Viewing Center where rangers look after Orang-Utans and feed them twice daily. These Orang-Utans are semi wild, but further inside the Jungle are many more wild one's. During this morning we could see 3 Orang-Utans, one of them with a baby!

During the waiting time (to find the next Orang-Utan), some other monkeys were around and played a lot, it's always funny to see them (they also tried to steal the food for the Orang-Utans).

Unfortunately we didn't go on a trekking tour to see more monkeys and other animals because the trips they offered were all very expensive and so we stayed here only 1 day.

Melaka

On a day trip from Kuala Lumpur we went to Melaka, a bit in the south east of the capital. This town was once the favoured port of a Hindu prince (in the 14th century) and that was the beginning of a town which was a place of interest for many nations. First the Chinese, then Portugese, Dutch, British and Japanese occupied the town on the Straits of Melaka.
The most impressive relict is the red Stadthuys, the town hall built by the Dutch. From the Portugese period remain the Porta de Santiago (once part of the town wall) and the St Paul's Church on a small hill.

In the town it's possible to visit many museums, there's something for everybody. We visited the Maritime Museum with the re-creation of a Portugese sailing ship, named Flora de la Mar, which sank on the coast. And we went also to the Melaka Sultanate Palace, a wooden reconstruction of the palace which once stood here.


The old center of the town is a UNESCO world heritage and part of it is also Chinatown with some very nice houses, narrow streets, temples and a mosque.

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is the modern capital of Malaysia and very different to the other capitals in the countries we had visited before on our trip. A lot of skyscrapers are in the center and of course the most famous one's are the Petronas-Twin-Towers! Once the highest building (now it's in Dubai and we already saw it), it has now just the title of the highest twin towers. The towers are 492 meters high and are connected by the skybridge on the 41st floor, about 172 meters above ground.


To get to the viewpoint on the skybridge, we first had to wait in a queue for about 1 hour to get a ticket and luckily we got one, we were nearly the last one's... Finally on the bridge it's possible to enjoy the view for about 10 minutes before going down again. Unfortunately the sight wasn't very good, it had just rained before.

Modern shopping centers (this one below the Petronas-Towers) and the monorail makes getting around easy.

The busy heart of Kuala Lumpur is Chinatown with a lot of shops and food stalls.

The historical center is around Merdeka square from where it is possible to have a nice view of Kuala Lumpur's skyline.

A nice mosque in the center is the Masjid Jamek, built about 100 years ago. It's only possible to walk around the mosque, tourists are not allowed to enter it. Apart of Chinatown is also Little India and next to some new buildings are old one's and always a lot of traffic.

Skyline by night.