Hitchhiking in Indonesia: Lake Toba
26th of January, 2025.
Next morning, Winda’s husband very kindly offer to drop me off at Sipiso Piso, and I meet Utosh in his coffee shop. After a cup of coffee, I visit the waterfall again, quickly, as Utosh want to go to church. He invites me over but I kindly refuse.
Back at Winda’s house, I wash my clothes, as they are dirty and wet. She makes me another warm cup of milk coffee and I have with another one of my breads. I leave soon after that, giving up on the idea of climbing a mountain nearby for a good view. The weather is not great anyway, so it would be, most likely, a waste of time.
Soon enough a lovely family going all the way to Tigaras, a port at Lake Toba from where I will take a ferry to Samosir Island. They are Tchinta and Douti, traveling with their son on holiday.
They way to Tigaras is full of beautiful views of the lake. Unfortunately, we don’t stop at any of them.
At the ferry ticket office, something very strange happens. I have checked online that the ticket for foot passengers it should be 3.000 Indonesia Ruppes. All I have is 1 Malaysia Ringgit, which is exactly 3.000 IR. As I talk with the ladies at the cashier, first they tell me that the ticket it costs 10.000 IR. As I tell them that this is all I have, they suddenly tell me that I can go for free. What? As I walk into the ferry, nobody asks me anything, neither any of the other passenger entering the boat. Were those ladies simply trying to work me? Seriously?
I hang my clothes to dry in a very outside are of the ferry, but soon enough one of the staff tells me I cannot. It’s funny, when I have done that before in way bigger ferries.
The ferry is to Samosir Island, and it takes about 30 minutes. As I walk, I can see clearly the lake, with many of the houses only a few metres from it. I have the feeling that this island would be a nice place to live, and also to spend some time as a tourist. But that feeling goes away soon enough.
When I start to hitchhike, I only encounter grumpy faces from the locals. Not puzzled or surprised faces, but really angry ones. After waiting for a very long time, I start walking again. Suddenly, a woman and her young sister in a motorbike, offer to take me to Pangururan, a city in the other corner of the island, where many tourists go.
My sign it reads Singkam, a town on the way to a view point, which I was hoping to see it today. I had no idea about this Pangururan place, and how popular it is. So I wonder if the reason why nobody stopped for me before it is because of my not so accurate sign.
The two sisters drive me for a few km until it starts to rain. Until we finally find a place to get cover, my backpacks get quite wet, and also my clothes which were almost entirely dry. Great!
We wait for a long time until the rain stops. During that time, they give me some delicious banana chips from the shop in which we are waiting.
I start walking again soon after the rain stops, as I tell the sisters that they should go back home.
My luck finally changes when Dewi and her family decide to help me.
They are also on holiday, Dewi, her husband and their three children. They live near Medan, and are going on a loop around this area. We go together to Pangururan, as they want to see the popular “water dancing” show. Somebody showed me a photo of that previously, but only now I made the connection.
They offer to pay for my ticket. You can try and see the show from some free areas, but as the crowd is huge, it can be quite tricky. We don’t stay for the whole show though, as it is raining a little bit. But by the time we are leaving, around 19.30 hours, it’s dark already, so I can say goodbye to my view point today.
We try to get dinner at a nice restaurant, just before the bridge which connects the island to main land, but they are not only full, but with many orders on waiting. So Dewi tells me that they can take me to the view point. At this point, I still don’t know they are planning to sleep in their car, so when I ask Dewi if they are coming back to Pangururan and she says “no”, I think it makes sense for them to take me to the view point and keep on travelling after that. I also don’t really know where exactly they are going after here.
The way to the view point doesn’t have any decent restaurant. And at the view point, a lot of men are hanging around. If I had arrived here earlier in the day, I could’ve come up with a plan of where to camp, but now, at this hour, and with all these suspicious individuals sitting and smoking around, I don’t think so. Neither does Dewi and her husband, so we drive back to Pangururan.
This time, we sit and eat at the restaurant, but not before Dewi’s husband check with them if we can stay around here tonight: they in their car, and I camping. Surprisingly, they say yes. The food is really good! We all have Nasi Goreng, and it’s not only a good portion but it comes with the fried egg, salad and these popular chips here in Indonesia.
We chat using translate, and I can see in their faces who surprise they are about my journey, but in a very good way. They are so lovely and kind, and I like to be around them. We wait until 23.00 hours, when the restaurant is closed, so I can make my camping. Suddenly, right after the restaurant closes, they start playing really loud music, for absolutely no reason, as they is nobody around. Luckily, it lasts only for some 20 minutes.
10 Years Around the World 