Is it worth visiting Samosir Island in Indonesia? Well I could be flippant and simply say no, but then this would be a very short article. And in fact the real answer is a bot more nuanced.
I personally found myself here as a part of a private trip – that I had not prepared for, as well as for research for my future plans in Sumatra, Banda Aceh being chief among them.
What the Samosir Island
Located in North Sumatra and in the middle of Lake Toba this is the biggest island within and island in the world. And were that not enough it is also the 4th biggest lake island in the world.
I had not only not reached this, but even when I arrived I did not realize just how big it was. In fact it is the size of Singapore! This also means that it takes bloody hours to see the island, again something I did not factor.
Getting here is this done by either ferry, or private boat with me personally loving the passenger ferries. This was particularly cool on the way out when the disco music started and people genuinely started to party.
What is there to see and do on Samosir Island?
The main reason to come here in general is related to the Batak people and their rich and unique culture, as well as historical sites. Another pull, although one that is massively overused is their traditional houses, which have some similarity to those in Palau. We went to quite literally 3 villages which were exactly the same. The houses which to some extent are still used are similar in style to other Austronesian peoples and wear thin after a while. Much like in West Papua much of the culture of these Christian people is merely preserved for tourists and controlled by Jakarta.
Other than that there are wetter sports, two waterfalls that we were forced to see and a huge Jesus, in fact the biggest in the world. The 61 meter statue which looks down on Lake Toba is not only biggest in the world, but also hosts a mini-Jesus that was touched, I mean blessed by the Pope! This looks pretty cool, but I am not sure it was worth 2 hours of my day. I sure prefer the one in Dili.
Eating, drinking and sleeping on Samosir
Most of the tourist infrastructure its located in a town called Tuktuk, which amused me a lot. Our personal hotel was the Tabo Cottages which was more than decent staying wise. The food here though was pretty ropey with my fish and chips eating inevitable. Now keep in mind this was a restaurant on the higher end of things.
They did though at least serve booze, which despite this being a Christian area is hard to get because of the Muslim overlords. I tried a bottle of Mango Brandy, which was not that great, but at least gave me a bit of buzz.
Street Food Samosir
Restaurants outside of our hotel were very blog standard Muslim style Indonesian restaurants. In fact many had the world “Muslim” written so you would know. They served classic freon rice and fried noodle dishes that taste like bad Chinese food, all accompanied random by some prawn crackers. This is a thing in the boonies of Indonesia and was almost cardboard copy of what I have had in Jayapura and Kupang.
The markets here though are decent as they are in other Indonesian towns, with the fresh fruit being a prime mover. Overall though there was alack of BBQ as well as variety that really reminded me that Indonesian cuisine is not that great. To this day the best Indonesian food I have had has not been in Indonesia/. That though is a conversation for another time.
So, is it worth visiting Samosir Island in 2024?
If you were to come here to do the itinerary that we did then it is not wire visiting Samosir. This though does not mean there are not positives to the place. The scenery here is absolutely amazing and the hotels were full of tourists. Partly this makes me feel that there is stuff to do here, but we didn’t find, but also that this is just not my crowd.
Essentially Samosir remain did me of Laos in that it is a destination for retirees to seek adventure. Therefore not all that bad, but a bit too vanilla for The Street Food Guy.
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