Berastagi
A Cool Karo Highland Town Between Two Volcanoes One Climbable With Hot Springs At The Top, The Other Erupting On And Off Since 2010 With Villages Abandoned Inside Its Exclusion Zone · Berastagi, North Sumatra
Berastagi sits at thirteen hundred metres in the KARO HIGHLANDS, cool enough to grow passion fruit and strawberries, and it sits BETWEEN TWO ACTIVE VOLCANOES WITH VERY DIFFERENT STORIES. SIBAYAK you can climb in a morning, ending at a steaming crater with hot springs to soak in on the way down. SINABUNG SLEPT FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS, WOKE IN 2010, AND HAS BEEN ERUPTING ON AND OFF EVER SINCE - it has killed people, and VILLAGES INSIDE ITS EXCLUSION ZONE STAND ABANDONED, their roofs collapsed under ash, with thousands of people permanently displaced. You can see it smoking from the town. THE KARO BATAK ARE THE OTHER REASON TO COME: their traditional houses at LINGGA and their distinctive tombs are unlike the Toba Batak or the Toraja. Most people use Berastagi as a stop between Medan and Lake Toba, which undersells it - two nights buys you Sibayak, the Karo villages and Sipiso-piso on the Toba caldera rim.
Berastagi, Karo Regency, North Sumatra, Berastagi, North Sumatra, Indonesia
BERASTAGI IS A TOWN AND IS ALWAYS OPEN. It is ABOUT TWO HOURS FROM MEDAN on a winding road that is frequently congested, and roughly four from Lake Toba. THE FRUIT MARKET runs daily and is busiest in the morning. SIBAYAK IS CLIMBED FROM TOWN in a morning - guides are arranged through guesthouses and are recommended, since people have become lost in cloud on the descent. THE HOT SPRINGS at the foot of Sibayak keep daylight hours and charge small fees. SINABUNG'S EXCLUSION ZONE IS ENFORCED and its extent changes with the alert level - DO NOT ENTER IT, and be aware that some operators have offered trips toward the abandoned villages. Ash fall affects the area during eruptions. Lingga and the Karo villages charge small local contributions.