The kingdom of the magic mushroom

1 April 2010

Danau Toba is a large lake in northern Sumatra. It is also the site of a supervolcano that exploded 70-odd thousand years ago, almost wiping out mankind. The lake fills the collapsed caldera and the island in the centre is the bulge that results from the magma chamber refilling. Of course we took the kids there. It's safe. Probably...

Toba is also a lovely upland kingdom populated by the once-fiery Batak people who speared the first missionaries on sight, but are now a party-loving Christian people that give tourists a genuine welcome. They so love a party, in fact, that the region's magic mushrooms once fuelled a proto-rave scene that was the precursor to (and was eventually killed off by) the Thai full moon parties in places like Koh Phangan. I guess it was just too hard a place to get to.













Seriously, it took us two horribly long journeys to get there: (Banda Aceh to Medan - 12 hours overnight with extreme aircon; Medan to Toba - 7 hours with torrential rain and a breakdown) on buses driven by maniacs that habitually drove up the wrong side of the road and forced other vehicles onto the verge. For the last leg, we took a ferry across the lake to the wrong port where we had to catch a taxi to the correct town. Finally we arrived, tired to the brink of insanity.

But, ahhhh, the quiet, the beautiful surroundings, the friendly folk, the cool clean air, the lapping water... It was one of those times when you remember why you love travelling, despite the occasional nightmare journey.













We settled into a hotel that had traditional houses instead of bungalows just a few metres from the lake where local boys fished and the local ladies washed their families' clothes.

Surprisingly, these lovely houses had soaring rooflines that climbed at the ends and sported carvings and painting that were all very similar to the architecture created by the folk of Tana Toraja in Sulawesi - a long way away down the Indonesian archipelago. I assume there must be a link between the two cultures, but I have no idea what this is. Maybe all Indonesia once had this sort of building and the skills mostly disappeared. Or maybe the first builders of these houses came by boat and split to the two islands. I'm guessing, of course.













Like Torajans, the Batak are expert carvers and the lake has several sites where stone statues mark royal sites. One such place is a ceremonial enclosure where the king would once have held court on stone seats (see above), hearing pleas from the condemned before they (like me, below) were lightly sliced, smeared with lemon, salt and chili, and finally beaten to death with a magic carved stick (the original of which was stolen as a symbol of power by the occupying Dutch. The Batak would like it back, please).



















Elsewhere, a group of carved stone graves and statues marked the grave of a king who had arranged for the woman he loved but couldn't marry to be buried nearby. He looks sad even when carved in rock; she looks very beautiful (in the background of the image below).