Next project I have in mind..
Lake Toba (Indonesia)
In November 2008, I plan to go to Indonesia to make
documentation. This document is about Lake Toba.
Lake Toba is the largest volcanic lake in the world. At
100 km long and 30 km wide and measuring 505 m at its deepest
point, it is situated in the middle of the northern part of
the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Surrounded by high
mountains, it cradles the large island of Samosir in the
middle. It is almost as big as Singapore and was created by an
eruption between 30,000 and 75,000 years ago. Lake Toba
is the most famous holiday destination in the island of Sumatera.
A lot has changed in Toba since its hey-day, when
backpackers found, that their common interests of having a
good time, lead to a nice little cottage industry. The spring
break-style partyers now howl at the moon in Thailand
instead of Toba. On weekends people from Medan and Aceh
comes to call and other travellers still pop in, in great
expectation. But the numbers aren’t enough to hide the
obvious: tourism in Toba is almost dead.
To get to Lake Toba you need go to Jakarta first, it’s
about eight hour by aeroplane. After that you need go to
Medan, the capital city of North Sumatera). It is two and half hours by aeroplane or a 3 day cruise. From Medan it is about an 8 hour drive to Lake Toba.
The reason I’m doing this documentation to encourage tourists to return to Lake Toba and to remind them that Indonesia not only has Bali as a tourist destination, but also has other tourist destinations such as like Lake Toba. Another reason to choose Lake Toba for my first document is that my family came from North Sumatera and most of them still live there.
In order to make all of this happen, I have some other good people
helping me; firstly one my cousin Ardhy Makhruzar, who works as a photographer in Jakarta and secondly my friend Wahyu, who like me,studies film at a university.
