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Notes on Lake Toba: The paradise lake of North Sumatra

June 13, 2024 By James Clark 7 Comments

Lake Toba is a volcanic lake in North Sumatra, Indonesia. It’s the largest lake in Indonesia and the largest volcanic lake in the world. It should be more famous, yet somehow it gets few visitors. I first visited Lake Toba in 2009, and I ended up going back to spend a month there. The centre […]

Filed Under: Travel Blog Tagged With: indonesia, lake toba, sumatra, tuk-tuk

How to get from Medan to Lake Toba by train and bus

September 5, 2023 By James Clark 11 Comments

Lake Toba is the largest lake in Southeast Asia and one of the highlights visiting Sumatra. The nearest big city is Medan, and it takes about four hours by road to travel from Medan to Parapat (the main city on the lake). There is also a railway network in North Sumatra, with Medan as the […]

Filed Under: Train Travel Tagged With: indonesia, lake toba, medan, parapat, siantar, sumatra, trains

Notes on Lake Toba: Tropical lakeside paradise on $15 a day

May 2, 2009 By James Clark

I set up shop in Tuk-Tuk, which is a little town on the island of Samosir in Lake Toba. Tuk Tuk is the main tourist area of Samosir, reached by ferries from Parapat. Tuk Tuk is on a small peninsula on the island and it’s not over developed. If you have been in the cities […]

Filed Under: Travel Blog Tagged With: indonesia, lake toba, sumatra

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James Clark from Nomadic Notes

Hi, I’m James Clark, and I've been travelling the world since 2003 while running a location independent travel business. Nomadic Notes is a travel blog featuring travel guides and notes from my travels.

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