Indonesia

Road to Sipiso-Piso Waterfall Near Lake Toba

December 4, 2017
Sipiso-Piso Waterfall North Sumatra Lake Toba

This is the part two of my Lake Toba trip. I’m continuing my journey after spending two days in Parapat and Samosir Island. If you haven’t see the blogpost about the first part, you should because I talked about how to get to Lake Toba from Medan. You can click here to see the part one. I must say this road trip is the highlight of my Lake Toba trip and so glad I did it. If you interested to know more about Sipiso-piso Waterfall, keep reading.

We hire a guide/driver to take us from Parapat to Medan via Sipiso-piso waterfall and Berastagi. During the roadtrip, we were driving along the lake toba until we reached the northern part of Lake Toba, where the waterfall located. You can call or message this number (Bapak Jul of Happy Tour, +6281361301344) if you are in Parapat and going back to Medan or need a guide around Lake Toba.

Along the Lake Toba

Along the trip to Medan and Sipiso-piso Waterfall is nothing but beautiful views. I mean, endless views. This is the part where I realized that Indonesia is damn wealthy in term of nature and tourism destination. Although I was kinda sleepy, I found myself admiring the views from the car’s window. I made several stops along the Lake Toba because I can’t simply move on without taking picture. I also saw a small island that is so adorable and wished I can use drone so I can take decent picture of it.

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Bukit Indah Simarjarunjung

Bukit Indah Simarjarunjung or BIS for short, is one of the stops I made for the sake of pictures. In here, it is famous for the swings, nests and other cool and innovative “selfie spots”. If you don’t want to take selfies, there are people who can take pictures for you but you have to pay them. It’s ranging from Rp. 10’000 – Rp. 20’000 ish, depending on the kind of picture you want and your negotiation skills. You can give them your SD card (or your phone) and they will use their camera to take your picture. This is my first time using the swing and I was scared to fall so I used the safety belt. You might able to not use the safety belt. The spot that I like the most is the bird nest look alike.

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Sipiso-piso Waterfall

The highlight, the pinnacle of this blog post is of course, the Sipiso-piso Waterfall. Once you arrive the location of Sipiso-piso Waterfall, you will find a lot of vendors’ stalls. You can see the Sipiso-piso Waterfall but from a distance. You need to go down lots and lots of steps to actually get near to the Sipiso-piso Waterfall. The some of the stairs are quite damaged with no maintenance. It took about 1 hour to go down and maybe 1.5 hour to go up. I stop in the middle because I was wearing sandals and had limited time. Sipiso-piso Waterfall reminds me of paradise falls in the movie “Up”. I stop in one of the warungs (stall/small shop) and just admire the beauty of the waterfall from there. I’d say this tourist spot is not as famous as Bali and mainly the tourists are local people. If you want to avoid getting rigged (the usual occasion in the unfamous spot for international tourist), try bringing a guide or a friend who speaks Indonesian.

Sipiso-Piso Waterfall Lake Toba North SumatraSipiso-Piso Waterfall Lake Toba North SumatraSipiso-Piso Waterfall Lake Toba North SumatraLake Toba Sipiso-Piso Waterfall Sumatra

Berastagi

After Sipiso-piso Waterfall, we went for a stop in Berastagi to refuel our energy before going straight to Medan. We went to one of the restaurant in Berastagi. I recommend you to try Bataknese cuisine, which is roasted pork (babi panggang). It usually comes with a soup and blood. Yes, blood. It is a cooked blood and it is supposed to be eaten together with the pork. And of course, you have to eat it with rice. There are other food but this one is mainly the most popular one. To drink, I recommend you to try Indonesian soda drink called Badak (means rhinoceros).

Berastagi is also a popular place for people who lives in Medan as their one-day or weekend trip. There are other attractions such as hiking Mount Sibayak or chilling in the hills. If you’re going to Berastagi from Medan, it is around 2 hours by car and there’s no train or official public transportation. However, you can look at transportation company in Medan and for sure they will have Berastagi as one of their destination.

Lake Toba Berastagi North Sumatra

Thank you guys for reading this blog post. If you haven’t see the first part, you can see it here and here. Don’t forget to subscribe, like, comment, follow my Instagram and Twitter and others so we can keep in touch :)😂

Lake Toba North Sumatra Indonesia Travel

 

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12 Comments

  • Reply Asma ★ December 5, 2017 at 12:02 am

    WOW. Beautiful article, especially with that killer waterfall ;_;
    Amazing, short and brief article 💚

    • Reply michellefranciscalee December 9, 2017 at 4:03 pm

      Why u so nice!!!! Thank you thank you thank you for always reading ❤️❤️❤️

      • Reply Asma December 10, 2017 at 7:53 pm

        You write these articles with so much passion, it’s important to recognize that passion and compliment you 🙂 <3

  • Reply Asma December 5, 2017 at 5:52 pm

    WOW. Wonderful article 💚

    • Reply michellefranciscalee December 9, 2017 at 4:03 pm

      As always, thank you Asma 😭

      • Reply Asma December 10, 2017 at 7:54 pm

        I read your article again actually, and loved it so much that I just HAD to put another comment xD <3

  • Reply Mingata August 5, 2018 at 9:52 pm

    Do u mind sharing how much was the local guide to the waterfall?

    • Reply michellefranciscalee August 11, 2018 at 5:21 pm

      Hi Mingata, I’m sorry I just reply now. For the local guide to the Sipiso-piso Waterfall, I didn’t hire one. In fact, there’s only one direction, which is downwards and the rest is just following the crowds. I also ask a lot of people, where’s the way to the waterfall and they all happily tell the direction.
      If you’re planning a trip to Sipiso-piso Waterfall, hope you have a great time there!
      Cheers,
      Michelle

  • Reply Vicki Baker September 21, 2018 at 9:19 am

    Hi, How long did this trip take you from Parapat to Medan? We will be in Parapat but need to get to Kualanamu Int’l Airport by about 4pm, so we are unsure if we can fit all of it in.
    THanks for your help

    • Reply michellefranciscalee January 21, 2019 at 12:18 pm

      Hi sorry if I miss your comment. From Parapat to Medan is around 4-5 hours. Depending on the type of transportation you use. It will probably faster if you use private car. I’m assuming that you’ll be flying international from Kualanamu, so I think it will be better to go to the airport from early morning from Parapat. The roads in North Sumatra is still rather small and not like Jakarta or other big cities. Happy traveling!

  • Reply Elmoochoodingdong January 21, 2019 at 8:10 am

    Cool i will be their in 10 days cant wait✌

    • Reply michellefranciscalee January 21, 2019 at 12:15 pm

      I hope you’ll have the best time there and hopefully this little blog post can give u an insight of Lake Toba 🙂 Happy traveling!

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