Palembang City, Beautiful City in Sumatra

The city was once the capital of the ancient, Buddhist kingdom of Srivijaya that controlled a large part of what is now Malaysia and Indonesia. Following a 1025 raid by the Chola Empire (In the period of Emperor Rajendra Chola I) of southern India
it began to gradually decline in importance. Srivijaya's capital eventually moved northward to Jambi. Palembang is also the origin of Parameswara, founder of the Malacca Sultanate.



Palembangnese is a member of the Malay family, the people speak Malay as their language but with their own dialect and they called it Bahasa Palembang. Other people that are not native to Palembang but still came from South Sumatra usually blended their language with Bahasa Palembang, such as Bahasa Komering, Lahat, Rawas, etc. There are also people that came from outside South Sumatra. Most of them are Javanese, Chinese, Arab, Indian, Minangkabau, and Sundanese.



The city is served by Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport which has scheduled flights to many cities in Indonesia and also to Singapore by Silk Air and Malaysia by Air Asia. The latter destination being only recently offered by the airport since it has been upgraded to an international airport. This airport also serves other cities around South Sumatra Province.

The Boom Baru Harbor is the main harbor of Palembang, it is located and also connected Palembang with Bangka-Belitung Islands Province.

Samosir Island. The Vulcano Islan at Lake Toba

Samosir, or Pulau Samosir, is a large volcanic island in Lake Toba. Lake Toba is located in the north of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Administratively, it is governed as 6 of 9 districts within Samosir Regency.

The lake and island were formed after the eruption of a super volcano some 75 000 years ago. The island was originally connected to the surrounding caldera wall by a small isthmus, which was cut through to aid navigation.

At 630km², Samosir is also notable as being the largest island within an island, and the fifth largest lake island in the world. It also has 2 named lakes, Lake Sidihoni and Lake Aek Natonang. Across the lake on the east from the island lies Uluan Peninsula.

Samosir is a popular tourist destination due to the fantastic vistas it offers. The tourist resorts are concentrated in the Tuktuk and Tomok area. The island is the centre of the Batak culture and many of this people's artifacts remain on the island.

PEOPLE & THE ETHNIC

Most of the people who live around Lake Toba are ethnically Bataks. Traditional Batak houses, which can still be seen nowadays around Lake Toba, are noted for their distinctive roofs (which curve upwards at each end, as a boat's hull does) and their colorful decor. "Batak" include several groups with distinct, albeit related, languages and customs (adat). While the term is also used to include the Toba, Karo, Pak Pak, Simalungun, Angkola and Mandailing groups.

TO GO THERE

The closest town to the lake Toba is Parapat, about 3 hours driving from Medan, the capital city of North Sumatra; Ferry can be used to cross over the lake and reach a few ferry docks of the Samosir island. But the major one is Tomok, which is the center of tourism area of Samosir island.

Lake Toba. The Biggest Volcano Lake In The World

Lake Toba is a lake and supervolcano, 100 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide, and 505 metres (1,666 ft) at its deepest point. Located in the middle of the northern part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra with a surface elevation of about 900 metres (2,953 ft), It is the largest volcanic lake in the world. In addition, it is the site of a supervolcanic eruption that occurred about 74,000 years ago, a massive climate-changing event. The eruption is believed to have had a VEI intensity of 8. This eruption is believed to have been the largest anywhere on Earth in the last 25 million years. According to the Toba catastrophe theory to which some anthropologists and archeologists subscribe, it had global consequences, killing most humans then alive and creating a population bottleneck in Central Eastern Africa and India that affected the genetic inheritance of all humans today.




The Toba caldera complex in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia consists of four overlapping volcanic craters that adjoin the Sumatran "volcanic front". The youngest and fourth caldera is the world's largest Quaternary caldera (100 by 30 kilometres) and intercepts the three older calderas. An estimate of 2500-3000 cubic kilometres of dense-rock equivalent pyroclastic material, known the Youngest Toba tuff, was blasted from the youngest caldera during one of the largest single eruptions in geologic history. Following the "Youngest Toba tuff eruption", a typical resurgent dome formed within the new caldera, joining two half-domes separated by a longitudinal graben.

There are at least four cones, four stratovolcanoes and three craters visible in the lake. The Tandukbenua cone on the NW edge of the caldera is relatively lacking in vegetation, suggesting a young age of only several hundred years. Also, the Pusubukit volcano on the south edge of the caldera is solfatarically active.



Lake Toba offers a nurturing environment for fish such as tilapia mossambica, aplocheilus panchax, lebistes reticulatus, osphronemus goramy, trichogaster trichopterus, channa striata, channa gachua, clarias batrachus, clarias nieuhofi, clarias. sp., nemachilus fasciatus, cyprinus carpio, puntius javanicus, puntius binotatus, osteochilus nasselti, lissochilus sp., labeobarbus sora, and rasbora sp

Many other types of plants and animals live within the boundaries of Lake Toba. Flora organisms include various types of phytoplankton, emerged macrophytes, floating macrophytes, and submerged macrophytes. Fauna include several variations of zooplankton and benthos.

Kerinci Mountain

Mount Kerinci (also spelled Kerintji, among several other ways, and referred to as Gunung Kerinci, Gadang, Berapi Kurinci, Kerinchi, Korinci, or Peak of Indrapura as well) is the highest volcano in Indonesia, and the highest peak in Sumatra. It is surrounded by the lush forest of Kerinci Seblat National Park, home to the endangered species of sumatran tiger and sumatran rhinoceros.

It is located in Province of Jambi, the west central part of the island, in the Pegunungan/Bukit Barisan, near the west coast, and is about 130 km (81 mi) south of Padang. It is the most prominent feature of the terrain of Kerinci Seblat National Park, with pine-forested slopes rising 2,400-3,300 metres above the surrounding basin, and a cone 13 km (8 mi) wide and 25 km (16 mi) long at the base, elongated in the north-south direction. At the summit there is a deep 600 m (1,969 ft) wide crater, often partially filled with green-yellow water.

Kerinci is more active than most Indonesian volcanoes, with nearly annual phreatic eruptions. Kerinci last erupted in 2004, and continues to spew clouds of sulphurous smoke, with plumes reaching as high as 1,000 m (3,281 ft) above the summit. While there is farmland in the area, and a tea plantation on its southern slope, Kerinci, being located in an Indonesian national park, and perhaps out of respect for its frequent growlings as well, sits in an area that is sparsely populated by Indonesian population-density standards.

Kerinci can be climbed from the village of Kersik Tuo, 6 or 7 hours away from Padang by car or bus. The climb and descent normally takes 3 days and 2 nights, if you choose to go to the summit. You may also choose to go up only till Camp 2 or 2.5, skipping the summit attempt which is a night climb; and take 2 days and 1 night instead.