Samosir Island or also known as Pulau Samosir to the Indonesians, is an island located in the middle of Lake Toba . Lake Toba or Danau Toba itself is large natural lake in North Sumatra, Indonesia, occupying the caldera of a supervolcano.
The trip to Danau Toba was inspired by two things. First, in 2022, I watched a famous Indonesian movie "Ngeri-ngeri Sedap", which was shot in this area. The sceneries in the movie were amazing. And second, in February 2023, the F1 Powerboat (F1H2O) championship was held in Danau Toba. Hence, a few weeks later we decided to spend some time in Samosir Island on our holiday in Indonesia. And here is our story.
The Arrival
The journey started with a direct flight from Soekarno Hatta airport (CGK) to Silangit Airport (DTB). Normally, the flight duration is only 2 hours long, but because of the bad weather, the plane had to fly around for 30 minutes more before we could finally land. On a good side, we got to see the beautiful scenery around Danau Toba from above. Having stayed in Jakarta for more than a week before flying to Silangit, I was so happy to feel the cool breeze when I finally got off the plane.
The views along the ride from the airport to Parapat Harbour were amazing. I didn't realize that I kind of missed these sceneries, the green rice fields and bright blue sky. As a person who was born and had spent most of her life living in the city, I envy those who have a place to go home to as in "pulang kampung".
On our way to the harbour, Pak Victor made 2 stops for us. The first one was a view point, where we could see Danau Toba from above.
As we arrived at the harbour, we were asked to write down our names and countries where we came from in the manifest book before we got in into the ferry.
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| Zoes Paradise Hotel |
Our hotel, Zoes Paradise, was located by the lake with an amazing view. When we checked in, the staff apologized to us for the pick up problem, therefore, they upgraded our room to the best one for free. Not so bad, right?
There were not so many things we did in the evening of our arrival. We only made a walk around the neighborhood to find a place for dinner and then had some rest.
Getting Around Samosir Island
On our first day in Pulau Samosir, we decided to explore the area on foot. The weather was perfect, it was sunny but not too hot, pretty good for a walk exploring the area. The village where we stayed is called Tuk Tuk, it is famous with the beautiful view and the traditional wooden crafting.
We didn't have exact destination for our walk, we just walked and walked until we reached Huta Siallagan Batu Persidangan . The entrance fee is IDR 10.000/person and you can see the traditional houses of Batak ethnic group and the sets of stones carved into chairs.
For the next two days, we rented a motorbike to explore a little bit further of the island. We headed toward Tomok and went up hill. We didn‘t have fix itinerary for our drive. We just followed the main road. If we were lucky, we could depend on the google maps to see where the road takes us to, but sometimes, there was no connection at all.
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| Traditional coffee shop in Samosir Island |
The views from up hill were incredibly stunning. We always passed some small coffee shops or "warung kopi" and we made stops there, each day different place, but the same breathtaking sceneries.
On our drive we also spotted small waterfalls along the way.
We also went to small lakes, which make them lake on the lake.
When you go with motorbike, it´s better to take a raincoat with you, because if you go up to the mountain, you can never tell how the weather will be. One time it´s sunny and hot and then heavy rain is coming next. On our first motorbike ride, we drove into the forest and then suddenly the heavy rain came pouring down to us. Lucky there was a place to stop to shelter us from the rain.
On the main road we also saw the traditional houses among the modern ones.
Local Dishes
A trip to Samosir Island wouldn‘t be complete without enjoying the local dishes. Although I didn‘t get to try all the food on my list, I got to try some of them and they were really good.
Babi Panggang
Babi panggang means grilled pork. This dish is accompanied with clear pork bone soup, processed pork blood as dipping sauce, daun ubi tumbuk (mashed sweet potato leaves) and is served with plain steamed rice and sambal Andaliman, made from fresh andaliman pepper.
Ikan Bakar Tinombur
Ikan bakar means grilled fish. The fish is grilled over hot charcoal , marinated with lime juice, salt and then drenched in sauce. This dish is also served with plain stemed rice and sambal Andaliman.
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| Ikan Bakar Tinombur & Babi Panggang |
Saksang
Saksang is a spicy savory dish made from diced pork meat. The meat is stewed in its blood, mixed with coconut milk and spices like lemongrass, kaffir lime, bay leaves, chilli pepper, ginger, turmeric and galangal. Once the meat is tender, Andaliman pepper and lime juice are added.
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| Saksang |
Mie Gomak
Mie Gomak is considered as North Sumatra‘s version of Italian Spaghetti. The noodle is served with broth enriched with ground spices, ginger and coconut milk and garnished with sauted veggies, such as chayote, carrot, green beans. I had a good memory with this dish, not only because this was the last meal I had before we flew back home, but also because of the location where I had it.
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| Mie Gomak |
We were on route to Sillangit Airport and were looking for a place to have coffee and snack. So we found this traditional „warung kopi“ which also served Mie Gomak. The place was very modest, a wooden rustic coffee shop, filled with the locals which were probably wondering „why are these tourists coming here?“ Aside from these, the taste was really good, even our driver said that this was the best one he had so far. It was really cheap too, one portion costed only 5.000 IDR.
Coffee
North Sumatra is famous not only for the food but also for the coffee. When we were in Samosir Island, we always went to the local coffee shop, where they used the simple method, which only required ground coffee and hot water in a mug without any filter. Every coffee shop we went in never disappointed us.
Getting back to the mainland
Getting back to the mainland was easy. We asked our hotel to contact the ferry company so they could arrange the pick up at the harbour in our hotel. We also could ask them to arrange the transport from Parapat harbour to Silangit Airport, but we decided to ask Pak Victor directly to arrange this. Just a reminder, if you are planning to fly somewhere else from Silangit airport, make sure that your flight schedule is not in the early morning, because the earliest ferry going from Tuk Tuk to Parapat is at 07:00. The hotel has the daily schedule of the ferry. Also consider that it takes around 2 hours from Parapat to Silangit airport. The road is very smooth but sometimes it can be slow because there road is not big and sometimes many trucks are also traveling at the same time.
