Monday October22

Monday October 22: Our first day in Sumatra started with a city tour of Medan. First stop was Maimoon Palace, which was built by the Sultan of Deli in 1888 and now serves as a museum. Next up was the Grand Mosque, we were both wearing shorts so they loaned us sarongs to cover our legs, I had to wear a headscarf too - I looked like an old Polish woman! There was a group of first grade kids in one of the rooms, we disrupted their class as they were all waving at us and saying hello. They had three young women teachers and they invited us in, they asked if they could take a photo of us with the kids, of course we said yes! We then left town and headed south to Lake Toba, with a few stops along the way - to look at rubber trees which were being tapped, a palm oil tree plantation and a rice paddy. Once we got to the shores of the lake we took a boat over to Samosir island where we will be staying for two nights. Samosir Island is the largest island within an island (630 sq km), and the fifth largest lake island in the world. We will explore it tomorrow. It was dark and almost 8 pm when we arrived so couldn't see much, we had a quick buffet dinner and went in search of our rooms. The porters showed us the way, and carried our suitcases (on their shoulders) through the gardens and up the stairs, I was walking behind them and Ian, it was only after they arrived at our room and turned on the lights I realized they were both women!