Budi helped them plan the trip... a ferry to the mainland, a car arranged to show them the Tsunami Museum in Banda Aceh, a nice lunch, and then to the airport at Banda Aceh. From Banda Aceh they flew to Medan in central Sumatra. There, they were picked up by Putra, a tour guide, who would take them on an Orangutan adventure in the jungle.
Dave's Account of the Trip...
Since we had arrived in Sabang almost a week early, Linda and I decided to go see the nearby Sumatran highlands, which included orangutans in the wild and Lake Toba, the lake I had seen on a chart 50 years previously.
The Tsunami Museum: On Budi's advice, we allocated enough time in Banda Aceh to spend an hour at the Tsunami Museum. At 8 AM on 22 December 2004, a major seafloor earthquake with a magnitude of 9.3 struck with an epicenter only 100 nm south of Banda Aceh, off the west coast of northern Sumatra. In less than 20 minutes, a massive tsunami with waves up to 30 m high started to devastate communities along the nearby coasts and eventually across the whole Indian Ocean. It turned into one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history, killing at least 228,000 people in 14 countries.
The Museum had hundreds of pictures of the devastation to the large city of Banda Aceh from the tsunami.
Gunung Leuser National Park: After a short flight from Banda Aceh to Medan, Putra, the owner of the very basic but entirely adequate Fun Family Guest House in Bukit Lawang, picked us up at the airport. He was our exceptional guide for two amazing days in the jungle seeing many animals, including several types of monkeys and, of course, orangutans close up at a waterfall, and twice at our riverside campsite. Even the food was outstanding, produced by our own camp chef. From there, instead of hiking back to Bukit, we took Putra’s hour-long ‘local transport’ river trip. I can’t imagine there being a better, more enthusiastic guide. Contact Putra on WhatsApp at +62 813-7087-6718
Lake Toba: After three days in Bukit, Putra’s cousin drove us to Lake Toba, stopping along the way at viewpoints and to drop off a fellow traveler to do a volcano hike. Lake Toba is the 100km by 30km by 500m deep caldera of one of the world’s largest super volcanoes.
Lake Toba was formed by a massive volcanic eruption about 73,000 years ago, the largest explosive volcanic eruption the Earth has experienced in the past 25 million years. It triggered global climate change and had a major impact on early human populations worldwide, killing most humanoids alive at the time. Fortunately it didn’t erupt again while we were there!
A short ferry ride took us to Samosir island in the middle of the lake, where we stayed at an upscale guest house and ate at their restaurant on the water, both of which Putra had recommended. Nearby, a ten-story hotel was being built, evidence that Lake Toba has been ‘discovered’ and is no longer the remote destination it was 50 years ago.
We took a private day tour around Samosir island to see the usual tourist cultural sites – a market and an old local village and homestead – then over to the western shore to a waterfall and hot springs. The waterfall was impressive, the hot springs and restaurant were not. On the way back to our accommodations we drove over the sparsely populated center of the island where there were spectacular views, small lakes, forests, few locals and no tourists. We had refreshments at a small café high up on the cliff rim overlooking the lake.
Other highlights for younger explorers with more time might include a boat trip on Lake Toba, a climb to the rim of the volcano for sunrise and a multi-day trek into the jungle.
The drive back to Medan in a local van the next morning took us via a rural road over the far less populated center of Sumatra and into the countryside. From Medan a reversal of our outward journey got us back to the boat in one long day. After the festival, fueling, provisioning and a few dives at nearby Pulau Rubiah, we were ready to head south.
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