Time to start fresh, I think.

So on my second day in Lake Toba, I relaxed for most of the morning.

Forgot to mention that the entire island of Samosir had transformed overnight into a bustling place. With the end of Ramadan, and Hari Raya, all the rich young Medanians had taken advantage of their holiday and come to Lake Toba overnight. The majority of the newcomers were oddly of Chinese descent; perhaps that indicates something of the social structure in Indonesia - Sumatra anyways.

When Andrew got up we wandered over to shops lining the small lane running behind the resorts through Tuk Tuk, and we ran into Doug. We had a nice lunch, enjoying the local dishes. I tried the avocado juice, which was very delicious, surprisingly. Might become my favourite Indonesian drink, given enough time... The fruit shakes here are sub-standard compared to the thai versions, which I did drink everyday, sometimes twice.

In the evening Drew and I had dinner at our resort and Doug met up with us later. Played pool and ping pong, listened to my Thai Karaoke VCD that I accidentally bought in Hualumphon train station in Bangkok. It was just us white guys for a long time, but then after awhile a group of Indonesian guys came over and put their name on the list for pool. We played the west versus Indonesia, but discovered that we had no idea what game they were playing. We slowly caught on, finding it very strange that they would divide the balls into evens and odds, as there are more odd balls than even balls, but those were Medanian rules, I guess. They didn't really speak any english, aside from a tiny bit; numbers and such. We had a great time. After we tired of pool, the group of Indonesians invited the three of us to come eat and drink Black Label with them at their resort next door to ours; we happily obliged, always eager to hang out with the locals. For the next few hours we partied with a group of about 20 Indonesians, having a fantastic time, despite not being able to communicate very well. One girl could not speak english, but oddly could translate what we were saying to the group, maybe not very well, though. We survived by singing (yikes!) and doing silly things to make each other laugh. They taught us an Indonesian freedom song (anthem, perhaps?), which, whenever there was a quiet lull, I broke out singing and everyone would join in.

Sometime later someone, I don't know who, had an idea to go swimming. I think it may have started by one of the Eddys (there were a few, unless I misunderstood) inviting us to come swimming with them in the morning, but someone else said "now!"). (don't worry, we weren't drunk). We all went down to the small beach area and looked at one another. Everyone had peeled off their shirts, but noone looked that eager to jump into the mountain lake. Andrew and Doug had been swimming the day before, but I was reluctant due to the frigid (compared to the tropical ocean) temperatures. somehow everyone began chanting my name, probably because it was the one everyone remembered best, and it was decided by the group that I go in first. I did not want to, but peer pressure being what it is... I counterchanted "Eddy, Eddy", which effectively implicated several people, but particularily one that spoke better english and I had been "talking" with for most of the night. Everyone was now chanting both our names, and after a brief argument between us as to who would go first, I grabbed his hand and we both ran and jumped off the concrete embankment into the water below. The crowd roared! Eddy and I were both surprised with the warmth of the water, and the excitement caused us both to yell and hoot and holler very loudly. After that Doug and Andrew jumped in. Then I again, then Eddy, then Andrew and Doug. I waited for everyone else to join in, but it turns out that none of the rest of them could swim, despite them taking off their shirts and shoes and seeming so eager to join in. We did this for some time, taking turns jumping off the diving board into the dark water below.

Having grown tired, Andrew, Doug and I bid farewell, and after exchanging telephone numbers (if anyone did call the other we wouldn't have been able to communicate anyways) we agreed to meet at 9am the next morning for a similar swim, then went home to bed.

Slept pretty well that night.

I was up at 7am, with only 5 or 6 hours of sleep, and had an early breakfast; delicious fried noodles this time. Oddly it had a piece of the barbequed pork from two nights earlier mixed in it. Now that I recall, my "american " breakfast had a bbq'ed pork steak topping it the morning before as well. finished it up and thought about what I should do. I regretted not exploring Samosir Island at all, and looked into hiring a motorbike for a few hours, before we had to catch the 12:30 ferry back to Parapat in time to catch our 2:00 bus to Medan. After a lengthy bartering process I got a new bike for a few hours for 30,000rp; too expensive, but only about 4$ (to rent for the full day was 40-50,000rp). I was a bit nervous, as an International Drivers License is needed in Indonesia, and I have heard that the Polisi in Bali pull over every tourist driving any form of motor vehicle to check for license, and look for any reason to fine you (broken mirror, malfunctioning turn signal, dented bumper, messy hair...). Corruption is a problem here. Despite my concern I set off, bringing only a few rupiah to offer as a bribe, just in case I was pulled over.

Lake Toba is situated in the basin of a steep walled 'crater', and it was my intention to scale the outer edge and get a nice view of the lake. The road was nice leading from Tuk Tuk to the next village, and it was nice as it weaved up through the local fields, rice paddies, past a small brick factory, past local Batak houses (with roofs shaped like an inverted, inside out boat hull - can you picture that?), and up into the hills. The road became a good dirt road after a ways, and I drove past a number of road crews working on the diversion ditches lining the road. About half way up the slope, and maybe 45minutes drive from Tuk Tuk, the roads became complete shit, resembling a dried up river bed - still I climbed, though. On and on. I reached a small waterfall, after which the road began descending and I could see it went on for maybe another kilometer before reaching the top of the hill. I decided I had gone far enough, had a nice enough view, and had run out of time, so I turned back. I took some very nice photos from this point.
It was neat to see the locals working in the fields below, and I felt as if I might have a good idea about what life was like in central Sumatra.
On the way down I drove past some interesting things. At one point I saw a small child, perhaps 7 or 8, carrying rocks larger than his head, on his head; moving them from one pile to another. His father and brothers were doing the same. Further down two young boys tended to a herd of water buffalo, moving them down the steep road with sticks. Later, near a quarry, four young boys ran out onto the road, waving their hands to stop me. Wrongly thinking they wanted money I waved them off, but I discovered that they wanted me to take thier picture. I moved them over to the hole they were playing/working in and took a picture, later showing them on my digital camera - they loved it!

I learned that child labour was an integral part of life here; not necessarily a bad thing, is it? (Children were also seen in small dugout canoes fishing with nets). Just shows that life is different here...

On my way through the village near Tuk Tuk I passed a uniformed official...

A bit concerned I continued on my way, making a point not to go too slowly, or act strangely. Luckily he didn't choose to pursue me, or maybe the polisi are different here. Lake Toba doesn't recive many tourists, after all.

I made it back to my resort around 11:15 and found Andrew still/back in bed. He got up and we packed our things to check out.

Said goodbye to the friends we had made with the management (all young english-speaking locals) and caught our 12:30 ferry. It took about an hour and a half to go to Parapat, stopping everywhere and stalling while people got on and off. Thinking we were late for our bus, we hurried into Parapat where a man was there to greet us. The bus departure time had changed to 2:30, so we were ok.

This time the bus was a big one, so we were able to stretch out a bit, and this time it was virtually empty. We took seats at the, with the most leg room.