9 days in Sumatra: jungle adventures, volcanoes & Lake Toba

We left Medan with our driver and guide and headed north towards Bukit Lawang. Having someone else deal with the roads while we watched the scenery change was a very good start to the day.

Once we arrived, we went out on a becak tour through the surrounding countryside. It was lovely, green and wonderfully rural. That is, until the heavens opened and we found ourselves in the middle of a proper tropical thunderstorm.

We spent the night at Ecolodge Bukit Lawang, which felt considerably more like the Sumatra we’d come for than our previous night’s hotel. Tomorrow we’d be heading into the jungle properly, with a four-hour trek and a rather entertaining way back down.

Today was the big one. We headed into the jungle for a four-hour trek through the rainforest around Bukit Lawang, with our guide leading us through the forest in search of wildlife.

We were lucky enough to see orangutans, and the whole experience was exactly what I’d hoped for when we planned this part of Sumatra. Hot, humid, muddy and occasionally requiring sitting down and sliding downhill in a rather undignified manner. It was absolutely brilliant.

Then came the journey back down. Rather than retracing our steps, we climbed into tubes and floated back along the Bohorok River. It was ridiculous amounts of fun.

We spent the afternoon swimming and messing about in the river before having a massage and returning to Ecolodge Bukit Lawang for our second night. Tomorrow we’d be leaving the jungle behind and heading into the volcanic highlands.

After two days of jungle, we headed towards Berastagi, a town in the volcanic highlands of North Sumatra. Our driver and guide came with us again, which made the journey much more interesting than simply getting from A to B.

Along the way we stopped at a local school where we were treated like celebrities, a traditional market and a Dutch church, before visiting the fruit market in Berastagi. It was a good introduction to a very different side of Sumatra: less jungle adventure and more everyday life.

We checked into Sinabung Hills Hotel, and somewhere around this point I went from “I am absolutely fine” to “I have been hit by a truck” in a matter of minutes.

I slept through the evening, shivering under two blankets. Marc didn’t even get to eat. It was becoming increasingly clear that tomorrow’s plans might need a little adjustment.

This was supposed to be the morning I climbed Mount Sibayak. Instead, I was still firmly attached to the hotel bed with a raging sore throat and a fever. Marc, however, was made of sterner stuff and went off to climb the volcano without me.

Later we set off towards Lake Toba, stopping at the spectacular Sipiso Piso waterfall along the way. By this point I was feeling sufficiently dreadful that we also stopped at a local clinic, where I was diagnosed with strep throat and discovered that my blood pressure was rather alarmingly low. No wonder I kept falling over.

Nevertheless, onwards we went. Eventually the road brought us to Lake Toba and across to Samosir Island, where we checked into Toledo Inn.

After a day that had involved a volcano I didn’t climb, a waterfall, a medical consultation and a considerable amount of feeling sorry for myself, arriving at Lake Toba felt like a pretty good place to stop.

Today we explored Samosir on a guided cycling tour. And because apparently cycling wasn’t quite enough of an activity on its own, the day began with a boat trip on Lake Toba.

On the island, we cycled through the landscape and stopped to learn more about Batak culture and the communities that live around Lake Toba. Having a guide made a huge difference here: we weren’t simply cycling past things, we were actually learning what we were looking at.

I was still running a fever, but I was feeling well enough to enjoy the day. And after all the activity, we had the swimming pool at Toledo Inn waiting for us rather than having to brave the lake itself.

Another night at Toledo Inn, and tomorrow we’d be heading out with our driver and guide for a road trip around Lake Toba.

Today was our big road trip around Lake Toba, with our driver and guide taking us to some of the sights and villages around the lake. After yesterday’s cycling tour, it was a much easier way to cover more ground.

We stopped at a waterfall and at a very organised viewing point overlooking the lake. Both were beautiful, although the viewing point had rather more infrastructure than I had been expecting from our adventures so far.

Lunch was memorable for slightly different reasons. I had a dead fish staring at me from the plate, which made it rather difficult to maintain the illusion that lunch was a relaxing cultural experience.

We also visited a traditional Ulos-weaving workshop and learned about the importance of these textiles in Batak culture. And then I got dressed in one myself, which was considerably more fun than simply looking at them.

We returned to Toledo Inn for our final night on Samosir, with time for another swim in the pool. Tomorrow we’d be making our way back to Medan.

We left Samosir Island and began the long journey back towards Medan, with several stops planned along the way. After three days around Lake Toba, it was a useful reminder of just how much ground we’d covered in Sumatra.

We stopped at an orchid nursery, then visited a traditional coffee shop where we tried kopi luwak. Lunch was supposed to be dim sum, although “supposed to be” is doing a fair amount of work in that sentence.

By the time we reached Medan, we were ready for a proper hotel. And the Aryaduta was a very welcome change of pace after our rather more adventurous accommodation earlier in the trip.

We had one final night in Sumatra before heading to the airport the next morning and flying onwards to Java.

We left Medan for the airport, expecting a straightforward journey onwards to Java. Instead, we discovered that getting there involved not one but two domestic flights. With completely blocked sinuses. Excellent.

Our time in Sumatra was over. We transferred to Medan airport and flew onwards towards Java, although the journey turned out to involve two domestic flights rather than the simple transfer we had expected.

By now my sinuses were completely blocked, so the pressure changes were excruciating. Not exactly the glamorous end to nine days of jungle, volcanoes and Lake Toba, but we made it to Java.