In 1996, when I was visiting my good friends Jackie and Andrew in Tanzania, I met the country’s very well-travelled British High Commissioner. I asked him what was his favourite place in the whole world and he told me it was a lake in Indonesia called Lake Toba.
Two years later, by chance, I came to live in Indonesia. I looked up Lake Toba on the map and discovered it was in North Sumatra. It was another 14 years before I finally went there…
WOW! Laid back, quiet, beautiful and unspoilt. A huge 100km-long, 30-km-wide lake (the world’s largest volcanic caldera), with Samosir Island (which is almost as big as Singapore) in the middle.
So… Samosir is an island in a lake on an island.
The lake has been a fixture on the banana pancake trail for decades but not so many travellers go there these days, which is all the more reason to visit. Quaint little brightly-coloured ferry boats chug between the bays and the smiling Batak people are charming, hospitable and friendly.
The kids ride to school on the roof of the bus, and even the local buffaloes are friendly.
Now I understand why Lake Toba was the favourite place of such a well-travelled man.
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