An evening of mindless telly found us watching 'Race Across the World' where the contestants had ended up in Sumatra. It looked like a fascinating place to visit and yet we had lived close by in Singapore for four years and never given it a thought. We had already planned a diving trip to Indonesia in May 2025 and decided that since it was such a long way to go we should add on some trekking and exploring to the end of the trip. After some research we settled on a local firm - Sumatra Adventure Holidays - to arrange the visit.

Sumatra is a huge island, 1800 km long, so we decide to explore just the Northern Province starting from its capital, Medan. We arrive at the very modern Kualanamu airport and spend the night there before meeting our driver, Mr Gali, the next morning. First challenge is to get across Medan which takes us over two hours. Traffic is hectic with trucks, cars and motorbikes everywhere - like many Asian cities many motorbikes have big side trailers attached laden with goods or more people. Medan's outskirts are a mixture of fancy modern showrooms and factories intermingled with rundown small businesses - tyre shops, motorcycle repairs and convenience stores. Not long after we finally get out of town we are into the palm oil plantations. Over the past 20 years there has been a huge increase in the clearance of rain forest for palm oil which now covers over 10.8 million hectares. We drive through the estates which go as far as we can see. Men with scythes with very long handles cut the fruit from the palms and trucks stacked high with the fruit clusters pass us heading for the palm oil mills.

Bukit Lawang homestays, Bohorok river

Happy Ria homestay including some of the 200 steps!

Our destination is Bukit Lawang, close to the Gunung Leuser national park. Loads of homestays, small hotels, restaurants and gift shops have sprung up along the Bohorok river to cater for tourists here to look for orangutans. A paved path runs parallel with the river and we walk to our tour operator's base, Jack's Bar, while motorbikes zip up and down past us. Bukit Lawang seems very quiet and we wonder how all the homestays and restaurants can make any money. Apparently it is much more crowded in the busy season from June to August. As we still see quite a few other tourist groups in the national park in May it must get very crowded in a couple of months time.

We get a surprise when we learn that our homestay, 'Happy Ria', is up 200 steps. This big old wooden house is surrounded by luscious forest but is quite a schlep to get to! It is owned by our tour operator and is now a bit shabby. Monkeys have broken the (cold) water supply (later fixed) and it is pretty hot although cools down at night. We were very happy with our guides and tour but some of the other guesthouses in the village looked a lot more comfortable and accessible!

The restaurants serve basic Indonesian fare - chicken rendang, gado gado, satay and other curries. Bintang beer is readily available, although relatively expensive. Cocktails are harder to find and we don't see any wine. Restaurants also offer western menus which we don't try.

Mother with very new baby

Habituated orangutan, 'Wati', and her baby

Blowing kisses, Pig-tailed macaque

Next day we head down to Jack's Bar at 9am to meet our guides, Bob and Diego. They lead us over the river and past more homestays then into the forest. We are still outside the national park and at first we are in a rather overgrown rubber plantation. A Thomas Langur watches us from a tree while a man is tapping the trees and checking the latex in the bowls. Near the park entrance we hear a lot of tourists off the path and here we find six orangutans. There are three mothers, one with a tiny baby, and two youngsters playing, eating and swinging in the tree tops. They don't seem to bothered by us tourists!

Footpaths in the 'jungle' are steep and we have to scramble over rocks and tree roots. The yellow clay is also very slippery after recent rain. Vicky finds it very tough going. Huge trees tower over the canopy. Butterflies flit by and noisy cicadas are all around us. We hear whooping gibbons - a fantastic sound, although they are too far to visit. Rob spots a female orangutan in the canopy. This time there are no other tourists around. We follow her down a slope and watch for ten minutes as she grunts and blows kisses at us!

Our guides point out trees, fruits and herbs. We spot monkeys, snakes, geckos and birds. At our lunch stop Diego and Rob pull out nasi goreng (fried rice) wrapped in banana leaves and lots of fruit. The jungle is not for the faint hearted - it is hot and sweaty, the paths are tough and there is the added challenge of leeches, one of which feasts on Vicky's ankle! After another long climb we come across an orangutan showing off by the path. This is 'Wati', who was habituated by the conservation scheme. She gives Vicky a great shock when she jumps on her backpack which she thinks has food in it. Fortunately no harm is done although we are alarmed to see a guide 'rewarding' Wati with a banana. After this there is a long, tricky descent to a stream and then a bit more up and down to reach the camp where we will be spending the night.

Forest trail and taking a breather (and a smoke break for the guides)

Campsite

I had imagined a proper tent somewhere in the jungle. Instead we find six or seven bamboo framed huts with green plastic roof and sides, located by the river. It turns out that 1, 2 and 3 day treks all end the day by the river from where you can raft back to Bukit Lawang. A cook and helper have hiked up the riverbank with our food and porters ferry tractor tyres to assemble the rafts for our return. We are dripping when we arrive and hike back to a pool and waterfall for a refreshing dip. Then back to camp to relax. At 6:30 the rain arrives and we retreat to our tent where our guides and cook join us for supper. We sit on a mat around two candles and eat chicken rendang, tempeh, vegetables in soup and sambal while a thunderstorm crashes around us. After a trip to the loo where I pick up a leech on my leg we settle down for the night listening to the sound of the river and rustling from the jungle.

We are woken early by the dawn chorus and drink our tea by the river. Hornbills cry and fly overhead. A group of Indonesian tourists appear on the other bank and we watch as their guides tie tyre tubes together to make their raft and they set off into the rapids. Soon our guys are doing the same. They tie up our rucksacks, cameras and phones in big plastic bags, secure them to our raft and then we are off. Diego and Rob sit front and back with poles fending off the rocks as we rush down through the rapids. The waves and currents swirl but our raft is super bouyant and bounces through everything. Steep cliffs covered in trees and ferns tower on both banks. Soon guesthouses appear on the left bank and before we know it we are poling into calmer water beside Jack's Bar. We quickly dry off in the sun and spend the rest of the day relaxing.

Porter carrying tyres, Into the rapids

Volcanic landscape, Sinabung and eruption detritis in the clouds on the right

Driving East the next morning we pass back through the palm oil estates. In the villages and towns we pass mosques and churches. The population here is more Christian than Muslim, and more Protestant than Catholic, reflecting Sumatra's complex mix of imigration and colonialism. After a while we start climbing. The road winds up through forest with fences on either side (anti-poaching?). The landscape changes and we get views of volcanos and rich farming soil. Sinabung erupted in 2013 and again in 2014 this time wiping out local villages. A photo in the Berastagi museum shows the clouds of rocks and ash that poured down the side of the volcano and is still visible today. A consequence is the very fertile soil - the local Batak farmers have fields full of cabbages, potatoes, beans, tomatos, carrots and chillis. Coffee also thrives at this altitude - above 1000m.

The Bataks are a people indigenous to the northern central regions of Sumatra. There are a number of related tribes. In Berastagi, which we reach at lunchtime, the local tribe are the Karo. The Karo museum has a small collection of tools, jewellery, cloth and old photographs of villages and people. It describes some of the many rituals that the Karo observed including teeth cutting, where adolescents had their teeth marked so that they were linked to their families and could be identified in the afterlife.

Close to the museum and a heroic war and independence memorial is a great fruit market. Stacks of avocado, mangos, oranges and dragon fruit demonstrate the amazing local produce. Strings of passion fruit hang from hooks and piles of the locally popular 'snakeskin fruit' fill the stalls. Nearby we buy coffee before checking into our homestay run by chatty owner Andy. The homestay is surrounded by farms and Andy recommends a visit to the nearby farmers market. This is amazing, with huge sacks of every local product which is sold to buyers across Indonesia and for export to Malaysia and Singapore. The Berastagi Mountain View Homestay has a pizzeria but sadly it is not on great form the night we are there. My pizza was undercooked but perhaps because all the others were eating local food and the oven didn't have time to warm up?

Sinabung 2014 eruption, Berastagi fruit market

Berastagi farmers' market

Just before 4am the next morning I get up and meet my local guide, Nico, to climb the nearby Sibayak volcano. We are hoping to watch the sun rise from the summit but after a very cloudy day before I am pessimistic. However we can see the stars so maybe we will be lucky. The roads are deserted as we drive through town and soon we are crawling around the potholes on the road up to the volcano. We park just above a carpark where loads of motorbikes are parked. Indonesians love to come up here and camp on the mountain before climbing to the summit at dawn.

We walk up a steep road and then a good track. We dodge under vegetation and scramble up rocks in the light of our torches. After about 35 minute we reach the crater where we find tents and loads of local tourists. There is a rushing sound from steam vents and a strong smell of sulphur. We reach the top (approx 2100m) at 5:20 after about 45 minutes of climbing. So much for the '2 hours to the top'! Below us we can see the lights of other parties ascending. The sky brightens and we can soon get great views of the crater and Sinabung crowned in steam to the North (see header above). The lights of Berastagi are twinkling and in the next valley we can see the many thermal baths. There is a carpet of clouds below us to the north. Guides, local and international tourists chat away while Nico slowly boils water for tea.

We head down to the crater and explore the sulphurous steam vents. Nico triggers a stream of smoke by holding his cigarette over a vent and another guide is cooking eggs in hot water. The path down is hard to recognise in daylight. We pick up the car and drive down a very rough track to meet up with Vicky at the hot springs.

Sunrise from the top of Sibayak volcano

Climbers getting ready for sunrise, Volcano crater

Steam jets in the crater, Nico makes a blast with his cigarette, sulphur crystals at a vent

On the way out of Berastagi we visit the Buddhist temple, a rather gaudy replica of the Shwezigon Temple in Myanmar which we visited in 2014. More interesting are the old Karo Batak houses in Dokan village on the way to Lake Toba. These are mostly still lived in and we visit one to see the compact living space for four families, each with their own kitchen. Closer to the lake we stop to look at the Spiso-piso waterfall with a free drop of 120m. The viewing point also gives great views of Lake Toba but is super touristy full of clothing and souvenir shops.

We are still driving through rich fields of fruit and veg including loads of strawberries and oranges as we wind down the road to Tigaras harbour. Our boys have been worried about catching a ferry since it is the weekend but when we get there we find no queues. Lake Toba is the site of a 'super-volcano' that erupted about 78,000 years ago. Theories that it changed the population of Asia when it erupted have largely been disproved but it is still thought to have been the biggest eruption in the last 75m years!

When we land on Samosir Island we grab a basic lunch from a local vendor. At $4 for four people it is pretty good value. Then it is a short drive to our very comfortable, basic hotel, 'Tuk-Tuk Timbul', beside the lake. We can relax and listen to the waves lapping on the shore before venturing out for dinner at 'Joe's Restaurant' nearby. Food OK but owner Joe very entertaining.

Dokan village 'four family' Batak house, interior

Spiso-piso waterfall, view of Lake Toba

Next morning we head off to explore the sights of Samosir Island. First stop is the local Batak village - Hute Siallagan. This appears rather artificial but is in fact the home of the Siallagan clan although it has been touristified and the traditional houses tidied up. Notably there are two stone seating areas - one for meetings of elders and trials and the other for executions. Our local guide explains to us gleefully how the Batak were famous for cannibalism in pre-colonial times. He explain in gory detail how prisoners were fattened up and then tortured and executed after which the best bits (brains and eyes) were eaten by the king before the rest of the village had their share!

A visit to Tomok market proves very touristy with the same 'Batak calendars', model Batak houses, and T-shirts sold at every stall. More interesting was local tourists doing Batak dancing and an old tomb of king Sudabutar. Said to be the first person to set foot on Samosir Island his tomb is next to a number of very small tombs for other kings. Apparent they are not people size as they only contain the bones. Behind the tombs are some stunning stone statuettes. They are old and carved by the Batak, apparently representing court scenes although we could find no further explanations for them.

Tuk-Tuk Timbul hotel, Traditional dancing by Tomok market

Tomb of King Sudabitar, Old Batak statues

Our last full day in Sumatra is spent relaxing by the lake and having a fine lunch at Jenny's Restaurant nearby which serves very good steam fish in sambal sauce and beef rendang. The skies have cleared and the locals are drying harvested rice on the pavement and outside their houses. Gerry and Mr Gali are harvesting avocados and mangos from the trees by the lake. We swim in the lake and enjoy the sunshine before our long trip back home. Although we have visited Indonesia six or seven times this has mainly been for work or diving. This trip has shown us more of the richness of scenery, wildlife and culture. Hopefully we will be able to continue exploring this huge and fascinating country soon.

Early morning fishermen on Lake Toba