Annette Horschmann never imagined it would be easy to visit Lake Toba in North Sumatra, nor that she would end up living for decades on Indonesia's largest lake. After graduating in criminal law at the Ruhr University Bochum in Cologne, Germany, in 1993, Annette decided to go for a solo traveling adventure before launching into a career. Many of her friends had done the same.

Initially, Annette did not put Lake Toba on her travel list. "I had nev