Day 10. Lake Toba.
I had lots of lovely birthday messages today via internet including one from Nic J: “Happy birthday International Woman of Mystery.”
The lake view from our bed is beautiful. We can see the Loch Ness Monster – a long line on the water and a solid black ‘thing’. Technically I guess it’s the Loch Toba monster…
Had room service for my birthday breakfast. The muesli was peanuts, sugar, coconut shavings and raisins. With real milk! - something you just don’t get to see in Indonesia. Also lovely pawpaw, pineapple and banana and the strongest black coffee ever. It was delivered to our room by Raffi.
Dan jumped the balcony between our rooms and together with Dave they sang me the Happy Birthday song. Then I was given awesome b’day prezzies:
From Dan, an Engrish t-shirt: Satisfaction Quaranty (sic)
And from Dave:
A stone from ‘Jungle Beach’ where we camped on our jungle trek, with a hole in it which is now hanging around my neck.
A Tangkahan elephant t-shirt.
A voucher for a book and shirt/pants from Toba.
Dragonfly sarong/wall hanging from the orphanage.
Two ‘B’ necklaces from the orphanage.
We did an 8km walk and found a funky place called Bamboo Bar & Restaurant. We sat on cushions on a platform, with a gorgeous vista of the lake and palm trees & drank the yummiest, creamy white coconut drink and ate avocado guacamole piled onto yummy bread.
We walked passed a lot of very well dressed Batak people walking home from church, several with bibles in hand. Lake Toba is predominantly a Christian area.
Dave had ordered me a birthday cake through the hotel. It arrived after 7pm: fancy chocolate with cream and a glace cherry! We ate it by the lake, under the full Super Moon and shared it with two staff members Anna and Raffi who work seven days a week. A super moon is when the full moon is the closest it comes to earth on its orbit, so that the moon we see is extremely large. The silvery light along the water was absolutely beautiful. A lovely way to end the day, under the light of the moon on a still, quiet night with a few toads hopping about, chatting with our new Indo friends.
