Karo Highlands

On Tuesday morning, we left Berastagi by a private hired minibus, an uncharacteristic luxury. We hired our own transport so that we could visit the interesting sights along the way to Parapat, rather than just careen to the ferry point for our next destination.

Our first stop was to a small village called Dokan. Many of the people in this village still live in traditional Batak longhouses, which have arched pointy roofs and intricate carvings on the outside and a large multi-family open space on the inside. Seeing the inhabited houses was interesting, but I felt uncomfortable as a supertourist in a poor village. I still took pictures, though, because that is what supertourists from America are supposed to do.

Next, we visited the Sipiso-piso waterfall, which plunges 120 meters into Lake Toba. We didn't climb down the stairs to the base because our legs were still really tired from the previous two days' volcano treks.

We then stopped at what was called the King's Palace, which were some very well preserved but deserted Batak longhouses and other buildings.

We arrived in Parapat around 1:30 and caught the 2:30 ferry to Samosir Island.