During those days when my traveling mission was just to hunt for beaches, waterfalls or for just another gorgeous camp sites, I had a minimalist dream vacation. It was to have a simple holiday (me and my OJ aka orange juice 😉 ) in a secluded island (maybe around Mauritius, Maldives or Sipadan Island), in a hut located in the middle of an ocean where I can jump straight down to the sea from my hut’s  window and snorkel around the sea bed anytime that I want 24×7.  A total freedom …

I traveled to other places too but I noticed that I can see MORE when I traveled with fellow photographer buddies.  Photography taught me to spot,  stop and appreciate moment better than before. Like when I decided to join them for a weekend photography gateway to Lake Toba, I never thought that I could see more of Indonesia comparing to what I have already seen.

A brief fact about Lake Toba, Indonesia. It is the largest volcanic lake in the world. Located in the middle of Sumatera Island, Indonesia

We did our usual street photography around Lake Toba covering a few villages and markets. But, what struck me the most during this trip was the opportunity to witness and capture a lot of golden hour moments around the lake. It was a ‘priceless moment’ to witness. Sitting on top of the hill surrounded by endless space enjoying magic hours watching the light changes from daylight to night and from night to daylight again … just Subhanallah.

I managed to capture some good moments during that hour. Some I posted here and the rest of it you can view from my Zenfolio Toba Lake gallery (in high resolutions minus those big ugly watermark across my photos). To safe myself from any future headache, pictures posted here in my blog were all in low resolutions and stamped with ugly big watermark across it.

We drove further up from Tongging Village, stopped at the end of the road to nowhere and start trekking up and down a few hills to reach at this beautiful mesmerizing spot.  I don’t enjoy trekking that much especially if I need to carry along my camera equipment … but this spot worth all the efforts.

It was at the end of a raining season when we were there, so we had a few drizzling during the days and some thunderstorm at nights … just perfect for a dramatic sunsets and sunrises.

I was not good at landscape photography then and I am still not mastering it well now. I am not aiming for being a perfectly “mastered” sifu in photography anyway but if through out my journey and experience I become good at it … then why not, it will be a blessed 🙂 alhamdullilah.  I will be joining a different group of photographer tomorrow for a 7 days photography trip to Bromo and Bali, Indonesia. Some of them are hardcore landscape photographers, maybe I can learn a thing or two from them on how to capture the perfect sunset, sunrise and milky way. Non stop learning … my kinda journey and loving it

And, my sunrise at Lake Toba for that day looked like these … 🙂

 

What did I buy for myself during this trip? I bought a few simple bracelets (as souvenirs) from a market nearby Tomok jetty in Samosir Island. Sadly I didn’t get any ‘keeper” jewelry for my Treasure Chest during this trip maybe because I was not looking hard enough. I will be visiting Bali Island next week, hope that I can spot some unique jewelry there that I can share it here. Hope for the best …

 

Cheers,

MM

 

p/s What do dreamers do? … they dreams 🙂