FH2o: Kuching Kayaking

Those who says that the journey is the reward have obviously not visited Medan which to put it mildly can be described as a big hole in the ground. It’s a big hole as it’s a city of around 2.5 million inhabitants being Indonesia’s third largest city (after Jakarta and Surabaya) and the regional capital of the island of Sumatra. Halim, a German who has lived there for 14 years described it less delicately as the ‘Mother of all shit-holes’!

We (Geoff, Elke, Chan, Lee Ali and yours truly) arrived on a short hour flight from Kuala Lumpur LCT to Medan Polonia International Airport which incidentally has caught fire twice in recent months, the last one being in December 2007! We made it out to the chaotic arrival hall with Mindy, Mel, JB and Halim waiting for us outside. Huey, our expedition leader would be flying in later in the evening and would meet us on the lake in his kayak the next day!

After sorting out the transportation we embark on the 140km bumpy and potholed drive from Medan to Prapat, Lake Toba which took us over 4 hours to get there due to the heavy traffic on account of Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday public holiday. From Prapat we took a ferry ride to Tuk Tuk on Samosir, the largest island in Lake Toba. To give you an idea of the immensity of Lake Toba – Samosir island is bigger than Singapore! Upon arrival at a guest house in Tuk Tuk, we set out to assemble our folding kayaks before the sun sets. Geoff, Mel, Elke, JB and myself managed to get our kayaks assembled before dark leaving Ali, Chan and Mindy groping in the dark to sort theirs out under the full moon and torches.

Anyway here are a series of photo montages with notes which briefly documents Day 1 of our Lake Toba Kayaking Expedition. The journey is the reward …and the adventure begins …

So after an entire day of traveling and waiting just to get there; we were all eagerly looking forward to paddling on Lake Toba at first light the next morning. But little do we know that an adventure as big as the lake itself awaits us …

March 27th, 2008 | Category: Discovery, Kayaking, Travelling |  Email This Post | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL