Hi guys,

We've had a very chilled out few days in Lake Toba, in Northern Sumatra.The trip here wasn't nearly as painful as we imagined seeing as it involved three buses and a boat, although one of the bus drivers did seem rather intent on getting as much rupiah as he could by packing in 31 people into a 16 seater bus for 3 hours.Luckily we were sat at the back so were spared having people and/or their live chickens on our laps!

Lake Toba is the biggest in South-east Asia and was formed from a massive volcanic eruption - the lake is actually in the crater of the old volcano.We are staying on the large island of Pulau Samosir which fills a large proportion of the lake, in a small town called Tuk-Tuk.The weather here is much cooler than other parts of Sumatra as we are so high up so it has made a welcome break from the heat of Medan.We have a lovely hotel on the side of the lake, complete with diving board, all of which is designed in a batak style (the style associated with this region).You'll see in our pictures lots of houses/churches etc with highly pitched roofs and ornate designs - this is the typical batak style of building - the large overhanging roof is supposed to protect the family (or something like that!)

We spent the first two days here just lying around (mainly as I was unable to move due to rather long walk in Brastagi!) We'd hoped to go and see some traditional batak dancing/singing etc with dinner at a nearby hotel but couldn't find the place in the dark so ended up going to a lovely restaurant on the other side of Tuk-Tuk to where we are staying.The lake here is teeming with fish so we had a whole one each on the BBQ with rice, veg, chips and beers all for under a tenner - can't be bad! We're going back tonight, especially as Martin is a rather big fan of the owner.As anyone who's been to Asia will know, any conversation about where you come from goes along the lines of; 'where you come from?', 'England, Manchester', 'ahhh Manchester United!' yes…always Manchester bloody united…until this guy, who to Martin's delight responded with 'ahhh Manchester City!' - I think Martin nearly fell off his chair in surprise!

Quite a few years ago Tuk-Tuk used to be something of a massive tourist attraction, Thailand style, with full blown partying and everything (although we can't quite imagine it!) Unfortunately for the locals this means that there are tons of hotels and restaurants but more stray dogs roaming round the town than there are tourists.It's strange being the only person that eats in a restaurant all night - at first we had the impression that the places that were empty weren't that great, eventually clocking that everywhere was empty!We had a lovely dinner last night in a place round the corner of chicken satay and potato curry and then headed to a bar that had a band playing.While we were their only fans from half 8 til 10 (when we went to bed!) they were still really good and we had a good night watching them play.

Today we hired a motorbike for the grand sum of £4 and went for a ride around Samosir island.Luckily for me, Martin used to have a bike so that was the driver sorted and I could take up the role of chief photographer on the back!Samosir island is really pretty and we had a great time riding round the coast road (despite the potholes and large trucks that seemed to come from nowhere!) We visited a kind of outdoor batak museum on the way round which had open houses showing how the batak people traditionally live.It was also the site of the 'stone chairs' - two sets of chairs facing each other, one set used for a jury and one set used to seat the accused while their fate was deliberated.They aren't in use any more, lucky for the locals as the bataks have a history of cannibalism and apparently had a rather keen taste for convicts - nice!!

It's cup final day tomorrow so we're off back to Medan early morning to hopefully find a bar where Martin can watch his beloved football, before we fly to Surabaya in Java on Sunday.For now I think I'll get back to lying by the lake!

Love Katie and Martin