It was a NIGHTMARE getting here... have we mentioned how horrendous the buses and roads are in Indonesia?!?! Well, we just endured another 6 hours, and a ferry, but I have to say it was worth it - it's gorge here!

Lake Toba is a huge volcanic lake - the biggest in the world, and the lake itself is the deepest in the world! It's 450 metres deep and just the island in the middle of it (where we're staying) is the size of Singapore! We found a gorgeous traditional Batak house for the 4 of us to stay in too - they're wooden houses with gorgeous ornate carvings - for the bargain price of 65,000 INR (about a fiver!). There was a huge rain storm the night we arrived so we stayed at the guest house on the open-sided verander (complete with hammocks!), ordered food and beer and just watched the storm. We met a couple of other guys who were staying there too and the locals joined us so it ended up being quite a late one!

The following day we went to one of the lakeside 'resorts' to take advntage of the gorgeous views... and free wifi! We spent the whole day trying to sort out flights over to Bali only to realise that the Indonesian airlines only accept Indonesian credit cards, so no flights booked, which meant Kiki had to leave early the following day to try to get back to Singapore to catch her flight back to Dawin, so that night it was more food and drinks at our place! It was so sad to wave her off after having speant such a long time with her (since Langkawi on and off!), but we'll be meeting up with her when we get to Darwin in a couple of months. After she left we all hired mopeds to see a bit of the island, a guy we'd met at our place called Stefan (from the Netherlands) joined us too, so off the 4 of us went on our little adventure! The island is beautiful, very green and hilly with lots of traditional Batak houses scattered sparsly around the hills and lake. There as lots of local life to see, and chickens and puppies, eeeh! After a couple of hours we stopped in the middle of nowhere for some lunch - they only had nasi goreng (fried rice) or mee goreng (fried noodles) so no big meal choices to be made! It was made fresh though (as they always are from these little joints!) so really tasty, mmm! After lunch Amy decided to head back... it was her first time on a moped (having vowed NEVER to go on one!) so she was feeling drained after all the anxiety, bless her, haha! So we parted ways and me, Rich and Stefan continued for another couple of hours until we reached the natural hot springs which were high up with amazing vista's over the lake. We had a good old soak before having to jet off for the long ride back before dark... we were froze by the time we got back cuz we were still wet from the springs whilst riding! We left early the following morning to catch the first boat back to the mainland, followed by another horrific bus journey back to Medan, where we had to try to get a very last minute flight over to Bali! TBC!