The ‘Hot Springs’ of Samosir Island

We’d known for a few weeks that we’d be visiting the island of Sumatra. Enough time to read in and find the nicest places. According to several blogs on the internet Samosir, the island of Sumatra, has enough to offer, including the hot springs. This looked promising so we decided to go by car.

Island tour

On Sunday morning we took the boat to the island, this costs 15,000 rupees less than €1. Actually, we didn’t know how to get a car because the tourist season hasn’t started yet. We decided to just get on the boat and see where we who end up. Within five minutes a man came to us on the boat and offered us an island tour. For 1.2 million Indonesian rupees (€75) he would take care of us for a day.

Bargaining

This is what we were looking for. A driver who could drive us around the island. We didn’t want to pay more than €50 so the haggling could start. This was Jeroen’s job, I just stood on the boat to take pictures. After a while, the two of them were done negotiating and we got a car with a driver all day for 550.000 rupees (€34).

Aek Ranggat

Once arrived on the island there was another girl, from Pakistan who lives in Singapore, who had been convinced to rent a scooter and tour on the island with it. After we had talked for a while, the three of us decided to rent the car with the driver. That was great fun and all three of us were looking forward to the last stop, Aek Ranggat, the hot springs.

White-grey rock

The hot springs are officially not on the island of Samosir. On the internet, you will also find different stories of people who say how long it takes to get there. This varied from half an hour to three hours. From the village of Tuk Tuk, where you are dropped off by boat, it takes at least an hour to get there. In the car, we could already see the huge white-grey rock with baths.

Giggling

We got out of the car and the driver told us there was also a swimming pool. We took a look there, but it turned out to be only for men. The wrong idea to have a look, all the boys started giggling and we walked away. Well, there is a lot of giggling in this country anyway. We got the idea that we were stared at and laughed at all day. The day before, a woman pointed at my legs, yelled SEXY at the market and started laughing. It’s 30 degrees Celsius in this country, a tight pair of jeans will never get me out, will it?!

Pipes

The water from the hot springs comes from the volcano and can, therefore, be hot and glowing. We had read that there are several baths and the temperature also varies. We followed the signs to the hot springs when we saw some men looking down on a bridge. We thought this is the place where we need to be! When we stood on the bridge and looked down we only saw a large square hole with dozens of pipes.

Rotten eggs

I asked, “Where are the hot springs?” “Yes here! Judge for yourself, here is a webpage with the hot springs a year ago and here is a picture of how we saw it. What a difference! We started laughing a bit uncomfortably (we’ll take over the habits here soon), but this was really where we had to be. So there is nothing left of the beautiful Aek Rangat and the smell that was hanging there was disgusting. Last year Quinty and I stayed in an apartment in Rhodes for a week to work there. The water was not used for half a year so we showered for a week in water that smelled like rotten eggs. That memory and especially that smell came back when we looked forward to the so-called hot springs.

Highlight

A huge disappointment from what we thought was the highlight of the tour. The driver pretended to know nothing and said he hadn’t seen the hot springs in a while. We understand why. After we showed him the pictures from the past to the present, his answer was ‘Oh, nice yes’. Ah yes, we have a fun memory of it!

The ‘Hot Springs’ of Samosir Island

We’d known for a few weeks that we’d be visiting the island of Sumatra. Enough time to read in and find the nicest places. According to several blogs on the internet Samosir, the island of Sumatra, has enough to offer, including the hot springs. This looked promising so we decided to go by car.

Island tour

On Sunday morning we took the boat to the island, this costs 15,000 rupees less than €1. Actually, we didn’t know how to get a car because the tourist season hasn’t started yet. We decided to just get on the boat and see where we who end up. Within five minutes a man came to us on the boat and offered us an island tour. For 1.2 million Indonesian rupees (€75) he would take care of us for a day.

Bargaining

This is what we were looking for. A driver who could drive us around the island. We didn’t want to pay more than €50 so the haggling could start. This was Jeroen’s job, I just stood on the boat to take pictures. After a while, the two of them were done negotiating and we got a car with a driver all day for 550.000 rupees (€34).

Aek Ranggat

Once arrived on the island there was another girl, from Pakistan who lives in Singapore, who had been convinced to rent a scooter and tour on the island with it. After we had talked for a while, the three of us decided to rent the car with the driver. That was great fun and all three of us were looking forward to the last stop, Aek Ranggat, the hot springs.

White-grey rock

The hot springs are officially not on the island of Samosir. On the internet, you will also find different stories of people who say how long it takes to get there. This varied from half an hour to three hours. From the village of Tuk Tuk, where you are dropped off by boat, it takes at least an hour to get there. In the car, we could already see the huge white-grey rock with baths.

Giggling

We got out of the car and the driver told us there was also a swimming pool. We took a look there, but it turned out to be only for men. The wrong idea to have a look, all the boys started giggling and we walked away. Well, there is a lot of giggling in this country anyway. We got the idea that we were stared at and laughed at all day. The day before, a woman pointed at my legs, yelled SEXY at the market and started laughing. It’s 30 degrees Celsius in this country, a tight pair of jeans will never get me out, will it?!

Pipes

The water from the hot springs comes from the volcano and can, therefore, be hot and glowing. We had read that there are several baths and the temperature also varies. We followed the signs to the hot springs when we saw some men looking down on a bridge. We thought this is the place where we need to be! When we stood on the bridge and looked down we only saw a large square hole with dozens of pipes.

Rotten eggs

I asked, “Where are the hot springs?” “Yes here! Judge for yourself, here is a webpage with the hot springs a year ago and here is a picture of how we saw it. What a difference! We started laughing a bit uncomfortably (we’ll take over the habits here soon), but this was really where we had to be. So there is nothing left of the beautiful Aek Rangat and the smell that was hanging there was disgusting. Last year Quinty and I stayed in an apartment in Rhodes for a week to work there. The water was not used for half a year so we showered for a week in water that smelled like rotten eggs. That memory and especially that smell came back when we looked forward to the so-called hot springs.

Highlight

A huge disappointment from what we thought was the highlight of the tour. The driver pretended to know nothing and said he hadn’t seen the hot springs in a while. We understand why. After we showed him the pictures from the past to the present, his answer was ‘Oh, nice yes’. Ah yes, we have a fun memory of it!

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