I'll start where I left off. On the 29th of December, after the Christmas parties and festivites, we left for Lake Toba, which is 4 hours away from Medan. It was amazing, Papa and Opa set up the entire trip for us, so anything from here out was their plan and idea.
The first part of the plan was to get to Prapat, and then take a ferry out to the island in the middle of Lake Toba, and then stay in a motel-like villa. We got to Prapat and took the ferry over.
Some background on Lake Toba, it's the biggest lake in Indonesia, because it used to be a volcano, the island in the middle is not considered lake toba because it is so big and has mountains on it iself. It's incredible. Lake Toba is up in the mountains, so it's colder there than Jakarta, Bandung, Bogor, Medan, or anywhere else I've been here. I brought the only sweater I had and I did use it! The mountains here are the same, like the lake at Long Point Camp I worked at two summers ago, when you look one way, but when you look another- you see the kinds of mountains we don't have in American, they have little trees, and look like hills of sand, that are all green. It's BEAUTIFUL!
We took the ferry over to the island, ate at a local restaurant owned by a single family and then rode bikes down to the road that tourist's are recommended to go on. It was wicked cool because we were all tourists this time, it wasn't only me. So everyone wanted to see what was there! We rode bikes through the island, over to this road that was actually like 15 minutes away! it was fantastic! We saw kids, other caucasians who were vacationing, even bulls that were just hanging out eating grass! I think that's normal for the island. We discovered great bargains at the tourist street, where there were only tons of stores, and places where you could bargain, where I could even bargain in Bahasa! and it was wonderful :) We even saw a ridiculous show that we thought would be better cause it was so expensive, but we think it was because he was trying to rip us off or something, but it was just of how Bataks dance.
Background on that: the Batubara (means COAL in bahasa indonesia) family is of Ambon and Batak descent. Mama is Ambon (from Sulawesi, an island west of us) and Papa is Batak (which comes from Medan and Lake Toba). We are specifically Lake Toba Batak, so we were learning all about the Batak traditions, dances, houses, over on Samosir Island (that's the name of the island inside of Lake Toba, it's so big, that they named it it's own island!). Both the tribes of Ambon and Batak are big Christian, which is amazing that you can tell that from a tribe, so Medan is one of the biggest places that Christians are, because that was one of the first places in Indonesia for Christianity to take off.
Moving on, we biked, enjoyed, and biked back- but I biked another way, and went around the entire side of the island that we were on, thinking I was lost, i just kept going becuase the road goes around the entire island and I would've gotten to our hotel eventually, I just kept going, and experienced God's fresh beauty of rain by myself- it was glorious :) It seemed like since we got onto the ferry and onto the island, I was very reflective and introverted, just experiencing God by myself, Crazy after my amazing Christmas, but it was a big time where I was discovering how alike my family in America is to the family I'm with right now, and how courteous I should be, or whether or not I should just be like I was in America.
So with all the thinking, we went back after biking, and went to eat dinner and go to bed. We had three rooms, with three people in two rooms, and four people in the last room. Tebita (Stephan's girlfriend), her brother *Tessa*, Stephan, Tante Suzy, Naomi, chiqua, Mama, Opa, Oma, Tutang, and I all went on these adventures. With two cars, fully packed with luggage and people, it was awesome.
The next morning we woke up for breakfast, and then packed all our luggage since we were leaving for Berastagi in the afternoon and the cars had to get on the car ferry sooner than us people had to get on the ferry for people. So we loaded our luggage after going around our side of the island with the cars and discovering the different types of houses and traditions Bataks on the island had, and more shopping- where we bargained clothes and jewelry to $3 USD and 30cents USD. awesome stuff :)
We all hung out, ate, and shopped a bit, then the ferry came for the people and we ALL rushed to it! Wasn't expecting it to come that soon, haha. So we got on, went back to Prapat, waited for the cars in a hotel, and then made our way to Berastagi.
On the way to Berastagi, I was in between Naomi and Chiqua, and I was awake the entire time, with the two of them laying on me, and listening to Christian and Christmas music while overlooking the entire Lake Toba, and the amazing forests up in the mountains around Lake Toba, it was BEAUTIFUL! you could see the reflections of entire clouds over parts of the lake and it was incredible. It was an awesome reflection time with God, to see how I should treat my family- not take advantage of them, even though that's what they do here, cause it's their home, since I don't live here! And I shouldn't even do that at home, because every single person, even my family in America, is so invaluable and can teach me so much. But you don't say that to them :) my older brother would just look at me funny, haha.
We arrived in Berastagi 4hrs. later- it actually was totally dark when we got there, and went into this newly made hotel that Mama's friend owned. So we got settled in and slept, in a cool mountain where there was hot water, and no AC becuase it was already cold enough.
The next day we woke up and went to breakfast- where there was only nasi goreng or mie goreng (fried rice or fried noodles). they were so new that their GRAND opening was still in august of this year! haha. We left a bit unsatisfied to the fruit market, where we shopped and bargained clothing and fruits and plants, ate boiled and grilled corn (SO GOOD!) and went horseback riding. Just an input: my horse was pregnant, and I just let her do her thing, she didn't know me, and I wasn't going to make her do anything that was going to upset her fruit basket since she was pregnant. Just made sense to gander up the mountain hanging out with her the entire time :)
Afterwards, we bargained down clothing, jewlery, and purse prices in the marketplace, and then made our way to check on some fireworks that would be happening at the most popular hotel on the mountain. Afterwards, we headed back to our own hotel to take showers and hang out.
For actual New Years Eve... Naomi and I were set on waking up at 11:15pm, then getting dressed up all fancy, and running outside to see what all was going on since our original plan died. Stephan got sick in between shower and 11:15pm, so would not be able to see any fireworks, or at least go anywhere. So we settled down, watched Transformers- and went to bed before we would have to wake up ourselves, since we thought we weren't going to be doing much of anything, and we were both used to going to our friend's parties.
So! 11:30pm came around and we were woken up by our family, who were about ready to have a devotional to ring in the new year with God. Remember: our grandpa is the head of Christianity, on the board of religion? This was beautifully classic :) So we went into their room, and all sat around doing a bit of a family church service, then, right when it hit midnight, Opa was praying. Fireworks were going off. And it was pretty cool to ignore them and just be with God.
But afterwards, when we went outside to see if there was anything- all the fireworks were basically gone, so Naomi and I let up to just make bracelets and tell our kids about the time that we were stuck in the mountains for New Years Eve with our family. That night was fun, not the best New Years I've had. But fun with Naomi : ) And Indonesians wanting to take pictures with a bule to ring in the new year too! haha.
The next day, we visited the hide-out home of our first president. When the Dutch came back in the beginning years of Indonesia to take over, our president had to go and hide out. So we actually went to a portion of a tunnel that he had to go through to get to it, and then on the other side of the street of our hotel, you could actually just see his house. It was pretty close, and awesome- since the tunnel was right under our hotel! After that, we visited the market again, visited with family, made our way home to Medan- which was the most reliving part of the trip- because Oma and Opa's house is the calmest place I have ever hung out with God in, and then we sat around and went to bed. The next day, we were on a plane by 6pm flying back to Jakarta.
:) My New Years in Indonesia. My Christmas in Indonesia. My God works in Indonesia.
I love you all :)