Destinations

Gunung Leuser National Park is a widely biodiverse national park named after Mount Leuser and located in northern Sumatra. It is mostly mountaineous terrain and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Park is probably most famous for being the one of the last two remaining natural habitats of the Sumatran orang-utan but the park is also home to many other rare and endangered animals including the Sumatran elephants, Sumatran tigers and Sumatran rhinoceros. The designated orang-utan reserve of Bukit Lawang, located inside the park, is home to some 5,000 orang-utans and attracts large numbers of visitors.

Medan is the capital of North Sumatra and the island's largest city with a population of around 3 million people. The city has a wide range of ethnic groups all of which contribute to the food culture of the city. They offer locals and visitors alike dozens of food streets and hawker centres to suit any appetite at any time of the day. Indeed, Medan is well known in Asia as a hub for 'food tourism'. The city acts as a welcome starting point to Sumatra and those heading south to visit beautiful Lake Toba or maybe west to seek out the wildlife of Gunung Leuser National Park.

Formed by a gigantic volcanic eruption some 70,000 years ago, Lake Toba is the largest volcanic lake in the world and is some 1,000kms larger than the city of Singapore. Here you can find the 'island within an island' called Pulau Samosir. The island is the cultural centre of the local Batak tribe and you can enjoy traditional Batak dances in a local restaurant some evenings. The island is small enough to walk around in an hour and you can enjoy swimming in the volcanically warmed lake. Lake Toba is simply a beautiful place to do nothing at all.