Caldera Stories Trails

    When I received the assignment from Ravelino Tours Travel to take care of six Belgian guests during their journey in North Sumatra, I knew this would not be an ordinary tour. They were three married couples who had been close friends for many years. They decided to travel together in Indonesia, and I was assigned to be their Sumatra Tour Guide during their six-day journey through North Sumatra. From the beginning, I tried not to make our journey only about visiting places and taking pictures. I wanted to create conversations with them. I wanted them to feel that travelling with a local guide was also an opportunity to understand how people live in Sumatra. The six of them had different professional backgrounds. Among the husbands, one worked as a banker , another was an entrepreneur , and another was a police officer . The banker was interested in many things, especially when we talked about the economy and the palm oil industry in Sumatra. The entrepreneur was even more...

  Just a few minutes from Parapat and Lake Toba, there is a village where you can slow down, walk through rice terraces, meet local farmers, discover traditional Batak houses and experience a way of life closely connected to nature. Looking for a Different Side of Lake Toba? Most travellers come to Lake Toba for its spectacular scenery. But what if you could go beyond the famous viewpoints and experience how people actually live in the landscape ? Welcome to Kampung Girsang . Located in Simalungun, close to Parapat, Kampung Girsang is only around 2 kilometres from Parapat and about seven minutes from Pantai Bebas . Yet once you enter the village, the atmosphere feels completely different from the busy tourist areas. Here, forests, farms, traditional houses, streams, rice terraces and village life exist side by side. This is not a place you visit simply to take a photograph. It is a place to experience. A Living Landscape Around Lake Toba Kampung Girsang sits within the Toba Caldera...