#2. Sidikalang - Taman Simalem Resort and The Mystical Lake Toba

 (My Travel Series)
August 2010
North Sumatra Trip
Day 1

After visiting Maimun Palace, my family and I left Medan and continued the trip to the famous Lake Toba. The lake is extremely huge and surrounded by mountains. There are many places to see the lake's beauty from above.

One of the best spot, according to my mom's friend, is some place called Taman Simalem Resort. It was a huge resort, about 200 hectares, located near Berastagi. Besides the view to the lake, this place offers wide ranging facilities, like flower nursery, golf court, Buddhist temple and many more. I am not going to write it all because they have too many facilities. Hehe.

Our first stop was the flower nursery. My mom loves everything related to gardening and plants. After a quick looked - because nobody else interested to see the glass house - we went to the amphitheater to see the lake.

The flower nursery

According to this resort website, Simalem in Batak Karo languange (local language) means pleasant feeling. I believe that is a suitable word for explaining this resort's atmosphere in average day, but not today. When we reached the amphitheater, the sky covered with dark and heavy clouds and the wind blew very strong. I even think I am going to blow away. In this weather, the lake Toba looked  more mystical than beautiful. I was a little bit scared.

The amphitheater. It was so windy, I was scared.

The mystical lake Toba

'Pearl of Lake Toba', one of the best spot to see the lake.

Look at my mom's expression, can you imagine how strong the wind was? Hehe.

Even though the lake looked amazing, we could not bear the wind any longer and decided to search some place warmer. We went to the Toba cafe near the labyrinth and it was closed. My sister and I were tempting to go inside the labyrinth, but because we could not find anyone there and the sky was super gloomy we decided not to go. We thought, nobody would help us in case we lost in the labyrinth.

Finally, we found another cafe. We ordered some hot drinks and warm snacks. What a simalem feeling.. :)

Tips and Conclusion

-  If you go from Medan to Berastagi you should stop by at this place. For more information about Taman Simalem Resort feel free to open their official website here. Btw I am not paid to share this. hehe.

-  You can stay over in this place if you want to.

*Photo by Lala, edited by me


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