Indonesien Teil II – Lake Toba und Pulau Bintan
Indonesia Part II - Lake Toba and Pulau Bintan
Every one of us has seen pictures or videos in the media of volcanoes erupting. But how does it feel to live on a volcano lake and how does it feel to stand on a volcano that spits thunderous and rumbling hot water and various gases? To answer this question we spared no effort and drove 7 hours and about 250km into the interior of Sumatra. First stop: Lake Toba. A crater lake. Some may now say: "Great, I've already seen in the Eifel. 🥱" but on the other side of the world everything is a bit different. Bigger ... with 87km length and 27km width and a total area of 1776.5 km2 incl. the 647 km2 peninsula Samosir, it is the largest crater lake in the world and the largest lake in Indonesia.
Apparently, the cauldron of the Toba supervolcano was formed by an eruption about 74,000 years ago. Today, ash from Toba is still found in the Indian Ocean and even in India. By the eruption of Toba it is to have become colder on earth even around approx. 3 - 17 degrees Celsius. Cheers to the Neanderthals who got along with it 🙂
Heute leben tausende Menschen um den Kratersee herum und sogar auf der Halbinsel, auf die nur eine Straße führt. Die Menschen bauen dort Reis, Kakao, Avocados, Mangos und Mais an. Außerdem gibt es diverse Fischfarmen und auch in den Hochebenen der Insel Rinder und ein Schwein, welches uns gesehen und den Schock seines Lebens bekommen hat. Es lief so schnell von uns weg, ihr macht euch kein Bild 🙈
During the week there is work. On Friday and Saturday evening celebrated with live music. Because here the majority of the inhabitants are of Christian faith and from the Batak tribe.
What happens when you leave at 12 o'clock with a scooter for two and spontaneously considers to look at a lake on the peninsula, which is even higher and then also decides to take a different way back, we were also allowed to experience 😉 We arrived ready, without tailbone and well tanned in the dark around 20 o'clock at our guesthouse and were hardly distinguishable from the locals towards the end of the scooter ride. Overtaking means 1x honking to attract attention. Before curves, 2x honking, so that everyone knows that you are coming. To complain, long honks (just like in Germany too) and when the kids yell "hello" and start waving wildly: honk, wave and smile 🙂 You don't often see tourists from Europe here. Tatjana and Artur have now also already been photographed on various pictures by the locals on Sumatra. Both solo and with half the family ☺️
After Lake Toba, we set off for Sibayak Volcano in Berastagi. After the night drive from Ketambe to Singkil, we wanted to try the public transport on this day and quite Royal 😊. There was a choice between Royal Taxi and Executive Taxi. So under Royal goes nothing, we thought. It went on for 5 hours royal to Berastagi. The ride was different but similarly adventurous as the night ride in the shared cab. According to our perception, the driver once dozed off at full speed and darted into the opposite lane. With loud shouts we brought him back to reality. Oh man, ... We arrived safely in Berastagi.
There very close to see is the active volcano Sinabing, which is 2460m high and active. Therefore, this may not be climbed for safety reasons. For us two amateur volcano explorers, the 2180m high Gunung Sibayak, as it is called in Indonesian, is enough. That was already adrenaline enough, in the morning at 4:40 o'clock with head lamp in total darkness at the foot of the volcano with our leader and 2 further amateur researchers loszustapfen to be punctually to the sunrise on top of the crater. It was tough! But the view and sunrise was gorgeous and made up for every drop of sweat and every one of the 5 hours of sleep we missed. Best look for yourself 🙂
About the Simbayak itself. It is a stratovolcano or layered volcano. That means it consists of several different layers of lava and other "soft measures". We could see some of this composition as we climbed. Arrived at the top it became slowly bright and loud. As if a jet takes off. In addition, however, not the smell of kerosene, but of rotten eggs. Smoke clouds of sulfur passed by. Stop and have a look? No way. First to the top. To the rim of the crater to see the sunrise. There will be time for the sulfur and the hot springs later.
Now finally the images 🙂
After about 1 hour we went one level deeper. Into the crater. There where it steamed, bubbled and stank. To feel this heat, to see the boiling water and to feel this pressure with which the gases came out of the holes, was impressive and at the same time frightening. Why? Because it showed us once again how "small" we actually are. Already on the sea to the Banjak Islands, the current and the wind showed us who is actually in charge and also on the volcano we were only "powerless" visitors.
Arrived again at the foot of the volcano, we drove along a gravel road to the hot springs. On the way past a steam turbine power plant of Pertamina (https://www.pge.pertamina.com/en) which produce electricity from geothermal energy. And not only on Sumatra 🙂
Since at 9 o'clock in the morning with too little sleep, our the mood was not after bathing in differently warm brine pools, we held once the hand in and were content with a coffee, before it then went back to the guesthouse for breakfast.
The last eruption of Sibayak was in 1881. It is monitored like all other volcanoes worldwide to determine when it might erupt again:
Pulau Bintan
The main island of Sumatra has of course much more to offer, here alone we could easily spend 3 months, but: the onward journey to our friends in Australia is already booked. On 22.06 it goes over. Across the equator. Departing from Singapore 🙂
Therefore, our next stop is Pulau Bintam. An island that also belongs to Sumatra, more precisely to the Riau Islands and is located opposite Singapore. After all the early getting up, the many rumgelaufe, is only once again some relaxation announced. On the way with the speedboat to Tanjunguban we met Jamil. He takes the ferry regularly and is experienced in it. We on the other hand: lost, between 15 different boats and the time pressure that our boat leaves in 10 minutes. Jamil accompanied us to the boat, was very amused when we told him that we have not yet organized transportation at our destination and that we are probably the only Western tourists there. He himself is a criminologist and works for the police on the island. Nanja... long story... after 30 minutes of boat ride he offered to take us to our hotel, which is more or less on his way. It was a very funny ride with him, a colleague of the police who works in the IT department there and us.
On or better in the waters of the Riau Islands lives an ethnic people of sea nomads, the Orang Laut. Off the coast of our accommodation, many small floating islands were visible in the relatively far distance. We puzzled for several days what it might be all about and guessed floating bungalow hotels. One morning we were able to solve the mystery, they are the floating rafts of the Orang Laut. When something needs to be repaired or a storm threatens these rafts are towed towards the shore. So this morning we were lucky enough to see such a raft up close in front of the shore of our accommodation. Really great. The Orang Laut live on the rafts and catch small fish with self-made constructions.
And here are a few more impressions of our last accommodation, which we chose in particular because of its pronounced commitment to sustainability (see picture with green note). The brown water in the sea came from the mangrove river water that was pushed into the sea by a heavy rain shower in the morning. The colour comes from tannins and humic acids from mangrove roots 🙂
That was Indonesia. We met a lot of nice and helpful people who tried to communicate with us with hands and feet, since English is not widely spoken in the areas where we moved. On to a 2 night intermezzo with Singapore before moving on to Australia 🙂
Danke für Euren Bericht, der sich so gut liest und mit den vielen Fotos richtig gute Eindrücke vermittelt. Toll auch eure kleinen Stories von den Abenteuern, mit Stirnlampe in totaler Finsternis los, der eingenickte Fahrer am Steuer, das nachhaltige Hotel mit den netten Worten für ihren Beitrag in der Welt und das Danke an die Gäste.. hat alles mein Herz berührt. Danke!! Ich freue mich auf Euren nächsten Bericht und schicke euch eine herzliche Umarmung von Hamburg direkt ans andere Ende der Welt! 🙂
Sehr interessant nicht nur die Landschaften sondern auch die Leute: das macht die Freude an Reisen! Ich warte gespannt an eure nächsten Bericht.