Woke up early again to enjoy the lastsunrise over this beautiful lake. Got showered and packed and then we ordered breakfast. They had bread today so we decided to have avocado jaffles whilst we waited for our ferry to pick us up. We were to be in Parapet to be picked up for 10am by Abdi from Berastagi. We got on the boat, as it came around the corner hooting, but we thenwent on a tour of all the other jetties and we didnt actually get to Parapet until 10.30. But it was a lovely journey in the sunshine, very different from the trip over in the pouring rain!

Abdi was waiting for us. He seemed very nice, but the car had no seat belts in the back we worried me at first, but he was very careful and actually the roads were a bit quieter forthe most part of the journey or i amjust getting used to it!

Most of the journey was winding our way outof thecrater around lake toba. After about 2 1/2 hours we stopped at Sipiso waterfalls. we walked down about half way to a good view point. They were quite impressive, about 120metres.. Before we set off again we had a drink and a trip to another revolting toilet which we had to pay 2000 IDR to use!

About a 1 1/2 hours later we arrived at Nachelle homestay. The trip was very interesting through all the agriculture fields and Abdi spoke pretty good English and it was great to be able to ask questions about the country and things we were seeing. He was also a bit of a comedian. Nachelle homestay was brand new with lots of tiles. We had a view looking out of window at mt Sibayak. we went up to the roof top and looked at mt sinabung which we had seen having a small eruption on our way but it was cloudy.

We organised our trip to climb up the volcano tomorrow and then decided to go out and get something to eat and get some cash. Firstly we walked around the local wholesale fruit and vegetable market. It was absolute chaos with trucks, people and vegetables everywhere anda bit of fishand meat all covered in flies.

After that we decided to take a bemo into town to go to the Europa restaurant which was recommended. It was supposed to have cost 3000 IDR but he charged us 5000, and there was nothing we could do. we tried 3 banks before our card was excepted. Anxious moments. But we would have to come back the next day to get some more.

Inthe europa we were definitely given a different menu to the locals. What a surprise fried noodles again. Already getting sick of indonesian food. The staff just sat and stared at us whilst we ate. Itwas ok. We decided to walk back. We were stared at alot. All the kids shouting "hey mister" or "bula'(slang for westerners) at us. They don't see many foreigners here. Mostly it was friendly but not always. There was filth and rubbish everywhere and open full stagnant drains. The place really was a shithole. We decided quite quickly we didnt want to spend a 2nd night here and were to happy to sacrifice a nights accommodation. We spoke to Mery who owns the Gh tosee if shecould rearrange our transport to bukit lawang a day early. We hoped to see a good sunset over the volcano but it started raining. So we had a few vodkas and chatted downstairs and then went to bed early knowing we had an early start, but happy we weren't staying in this town another night.