Lake Toba, North Sumatra

Lake Toba is one of the awesome natural wonders of the world. This is a crater lake so enormous it has an island almost the size of Singapore in its centre. At over 1,145 square kilometers, Lake Toba is actually more like an ocean than a lake. This is the largest in Southeast Asia and the deepest lake in the world with a depth of about 450 meters.

Lake Toba is a place to come and sit back, relax and absorb some beautiful pristine scenery. As you sit and take in the view of the picturesque mountains set against the cool clear lake, you will feel the worries of the world melt away. As the lake sits 900 meters above sea level there is a cooler climate here making a refreshing break from the heat, humidity and pollution of the city.

It’s hard to imagine a more scenic place to come and enjoy hiking, swimming and sailing although once you arrive it might be difficult to resist the anesthetizing effects of the lake. The cool clear water coupled with the relaxed atmosphere and friendly people is what draws visitors from all over the world to Toba.   

Venture onto the island of Samosir in the middle of the lake and you will discover mountains steeped in cool mist, clear waterfalls to swim under and locals taking their water buffalo out in the fields.

This is a place to come and enjoy the legendary Batak hospitality.Say cheers and enjoy some traditional palm wine with the locals. Sit and have coffee and chat with islanders keen to practice their English. Where-ever you go, it won’t take long to make a new friend.  

On the main land, there is accommodation available in town of Parapat. Parapat occupies a small, rocky peninsula jutting out into the lake. On the way down to Parapat you will get some spectacular views as the lake first comes into sight as the road winds its way down the mountain closer to the shoreline.  In Parapat live the Batak Toba and Batak Simalungun people who are known as a happy and easygoing people, famous for their lively and sentimental love songs.

Many visitors prefer to take the more scenic option and stay on the massive island of Samosir in the middle of the lake. The original home of the Batak Toba people, the island has many traces of ancient days including stone tombs and traditional villages. This is where you’ll be able to discover unique and ancient Toba culture. The natural beauty of the island means that it’s also an ideal place to come and get away from it all. Samosir is accessible by regular ferries from Parapat.

Despite being a tourist spot for many years, Samosir still remains a natural and undisturbed natural beauty. Venture away from the small villages of Tuk Tuk or Tomok and you will find yourself in the country surrounded by farmland, churches and strange tombs peppering the landscape.

The Longhouse and the Dayak Way of Life, West Kalimantan

When travelling up the Kapuas River, you will pass typical Dayak longhouses, with smoke wafting from atop roofs disappearing behind leafy ferns and rows of coconut trees.  Inside, mothers will have just extracted the coconut juice to prepare a big dinner that smells most inviting. A Dayak longhouse consists of more than 50 rooms with many kitchens, making it one of the largest houses built.  Although many may look delapidated, nonetheless, they are very sturdy, most built decades ago, and are made of strong ironwood. 

The Dayaks are the original inhabitants native to Kalimantan, this large island which was once better known as “Borneo”.  They live in the interior upper regions of this huge island, amidst dense rainforests and along banks of wide rivers.  Once feared for their headhunting raids, the Dayaks today live peacefully from agriculture, forest products, weaving and wood carving. 

The Dayak longhouse is a large communal dwelling, where an entire community of extended families resides. These longhouses, known as betang or lamin, are normally located along river banks and are built on strong posts raised above the seasonal flooding. Such longhouses, therefore, are usually built on 5 meters and sometimes even 8 meter posts, while entry to the house is by a tangka or ladder, notched into a huge log.  As the ladder is pretty precarious, visitors must be careful when climbing.

The river is necessary for the community for the supply of water and food, and of course as a means for travel, and communications with the outside world.  But today such longhouses are fast disappearing or falling into disuse as people prefer to live in smaller homes rather in one large communal dweling.

One longhouse takes a large number of families. The longhouse at Putussibau, in the upper region of the Kapuas river, for example, counts 54 cubicles, called bilik, for as many families.  There is however one long veranda set aside for communal meetings, rituals, ceremonies, cultural performances or other common activities, where daily, women may be seen busy weaving and the men carving their intricate woodwork. The longhouse, therefore, provides shelter and builds a framework for continuous, informal contacts and harmonious social relations.

In the village of Saham, some 158 km. from Pontianak, the longhouse is 186 meter long and 6 meters wide, and is inhabited by no less than 269 persons.

In these houses, each family is assigned the tasks of taking care of communal safety, each must be involved in ceremonies and rituals.  In all, there is a division of labour but also emphasis is on cooperation. Nevertheless, distinction is still made between aristocrats and commoners. The leader is positioned in the center of the house, with the lowest ranking on the outer side near the entrance 

The original longhouses are dispersed in various places, among which are in the district of Sunge Uluk Apalin, at Melapi, Semangkok, Sungai Utik, and at the Bukung district, all in the Kapuas Hulu Region, or the Upper Kapuas.  Such longhouses have become part of Indonesia’s rich national heritage.

But, if you are not prepared to visit these tribal, long, train-like dwellings, a replica longhouse has been built for visitors in downtown Pontianak on Jalan M.T. Haryono. Standing inside and under this house, you can picture in your mind how incredible it must be if you were in the genuine dwelling itself together with some 50-odd families and livestock living below deck. This, together with the river cruise and sincere hospitality of the Dayak, would be an exceptional experience indeed.

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Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan

Imagine you are an explorer heading out to the jungle to see wild orang utans and other exotic tropical animals and you will begin to get a sense of what a visit to the Tanjung Puting National Park is like.

The park, which covers territory the size of Bali, is home to an amazing array of wildlife including it’s world famous orang utans. The park is also home to monkeys, birds and other wildlife, not to mention the pristine vegetation of the jungle itself. This is a world famous natural treasure which attracts a growing number of international visitors each year.

Tanjung Puting is located in Central Kalimantan. The area was originally declared as a game reserve in 1935 and became a national park in 1982. The park sits on a peninsula that juts out into the Java sea. The sheer size of the park means that it has diverse habitat zones. This diversity means the park is home to a great variety of inhabitants, both flora and fauna.

The incredible jungle surrounds make this an amazing place to visit if you’re after a truly outdoor adventure. It is an oasis of pure clean air, a clear night sky as well as a home to the gentle people of the jungle – the orang utans.

The orang utans are undoubtedly the best known inhabitants of the park, made famous through the work of the Orangutan Research and Conservation Program based at the Camp Leakey research station. Camp Leakey is an orangutan preserve and the site of the longest continuous study of any wild animal in the history of science. With around three quarters of the world’s orang utan’s population living on Borneo, this park is the ideal place to see these incredible creatures in the wild.

Because the vegetation of Tanjung Puting supports a large population of animals this park is one of the most important areas in Southeast Asia for the preservation of primates, birds, reptiles and fish.

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