Indonesia 2023. Day 3. Lake Toba (continued) and Samosir Island

 

Yesterday afternoon our gracious hosts dropped us off at a local hotel, with the promise that they would come fetch us at 7:30 pm, which they did. A few minutes later we drove into a gated compound and were proudly introduced to "the office".  It was a beautiful compound of two small buildings decorated as some sort of tropical paradise. Clearly this was Kris' pride and joy, and she enjoyed retelling the story of the unattractive warehouse where the office was located, and how she had looked at it in despair 10 years ago when she first came to take charge. With patience and a lot of good taste she found local carpenters and masons and renovated/beautified the space, added the gorgeous conference room, and had the garden planted and manicured to create a sense of tranquility and joy.

Dinner had been prepared by the staff, and it was a delicious buffet with traditional Indonesian dishes (we don't eat Indonesian cuisine in the US, do we?). Fried fish and chicken, steamed vegetables, tempura-like veggies and tofu (I studiously avoided the latter), rice, soup, and some rice-coconut dumplings for dessert. Yummy.

The conference room has a reasonably large TV monitor, connected to the internet, and after dinner it came to life. We were going to have a Karaoke party! Turns out that this is a fun way the office workers have to relax together, and they are pretty good at it. They know all sorts of songs from the Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Frank Sinatra, the Bee Gees, and on and on. Unfortunately I have had a raspy throat for most of the day, and trying to sing along turned it into a full-blown laryngitis. But I could still mumble and follow along, and went all for it when they switched to Indonesian love songs. Turns out that Indonesian has a very similar phonetics to Spanish, and is pronounced as it is written; there are of course precious few cognates with any language I am familiar with, but if you see it written it is easy to sing along slow songs (fast songs are hopeless). So we sang and sang, and at the end we faked a concert of the older generation, while the younger generation laughed and took many photos. It was a blast!

Early morning we started on a trek that was going to take us to Samosir Island. We first made a stop at a local museum, set up by a prominent politician who just happened to be born by the shore of the lake. The cultural displays were pretty interesting, and we learnt the legend of the poor fisherman who pulled a beautiful colorful fish out of the water. It was so beautiful that he could not bring himself to kill it, and in response to this kindness the fish transformed itself into a beautiful princess with whom the fisherman fell madly in love. The princess did not want to get married, for they belonged to different worlds, but he finally convinced her by swearing he would never make reference to her origin. So they got married, and she brought from the depths of the lake a rich dowry and they became very prosperous. They finally had a son, but as he grew up he became lazy and a general goof up. Finally, after the umpteen screwup his father lost patience and call him "You, son of a fish!" Immediately the princess abandoned her human form and returned to the lake, taking with her the son and the dowry she had brought to the marriage, and leaving the fisherman as poor as ever, which is why the fishermen of Lake Toba have to work so hard to make a living. 

"You, son of a fish!" What a great way to give a tongue lashing to someone.

By 11 am we were in the ferry, and I can only say "Flying to Indonesia, $2,000 ... Sailing Lake Toba, priceless!" This is one of the most scenic lakes in the world, and as the boat slowly crosses the southern end to reach the resurgent dome you can admire in awe the enormous cliffs that mark the edge of the caldera, as if you were entering Nature's greatest cathedral.

Once on the island we stopped at an outcrop of hydrothermally altered rhyolite, to answer some nagging questions my gracious hosts have had about this particular outcrop. This is probably one of the moat rhyolite domes. I have not yet had a chance to look in detail at an outcrop of the Toba Ignimbrite, although I have had many fleeting glimpses as Mikhel drives pass them at demonic speed (OK, maybe it is not that fast, but the roads are narrow and the incoming traffic seems to believe they own the road, so it feels like he is defying death at every curve; he is a good driver, however, and I am very grateful he has taken upon that job). 

As we climbed the west side of the island we reached a small mountain lake, which Sauidi believes to be some sort of a releasing bend between two segments of a strike slip fault. Irvan noticed some interesting fracture patterns in the lacustrine sediments that could corroborate this idea. The rest of us, less scientifically minded, took this chance to skip rocks, and art in which I excelled amongst my younger traveling companions.

Eventually we made it to the east side of the island, which is where the tourist developments are growing. We stopped at a group of traditional houses, which resemble A-frames with very tall peaks at each end of the roof, not unlike what you see all across Polynesia (think Moana). Here the neighbors have come together to treat the tourists to a cultural show that includes wearing traditional scarves and hats, and dancing to traditional music. All the kids joined in, as well as Kris and myself, and we had a blast. In reflection, I very much admire Kris’ managerial style: She is very clear in her expectations, and her young associates are happy to shine at their assignments for her, but she can also laugh and have fun with them (e.g., karaoke or dancing), which I think is the hallmark of an excellent leader. I am very happy I had the chance to meet them all and travel with them.