Exploring Tao Cave in STM Hulu District, Deli Serdang Regency - A Natural Cave with a Mystical Feel

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Last Thursday, I invited my wife to go for recreation and vacation outside the city of Medan City. Why do I travel on Thursday? I'm a small business person, and I haven't had a day off for almost two weeks to run my business. When I see there is one day when I don't have orders and work. I think it's time to go sightseeing, no need to go far away but can get out of the hustle and bustle of the city.

I live in Medan City, one of the big cities on Sumatra Island, Indonesia. There are many choices of tourist destinations where I live, but I try to go to new places. I am lucky, living in Indonesia, because there are many choices of natural destinations that I can visit. Like this time, I visited the Taoist Cave at STM Hulu District, Deli Serdang Regency, which is being talked about by many people.

I departed from Medan City around 9 am. I checked from google maps, the distance between my house and the Tao Cave is about 50 km, or about two hours and thirty minutes by car. We left with only minimal supplies, anyway we didn't have plans to stay overnight, we just watched, sat back and planned to take a few pictures.

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The journey to the Tao Cave can only be done by private vehicle. To my knowledge, there is no public transportation access that passes through this road. The trip was quite enjoyable, because I passed many villages, plantation areas and also unspoiled forests. The condition of the highway also seems new on the asphalt, there are only about 2 km, the road conditions are muddy because the road is in the process of repairing. When driving a car on this road, we also have to be extra careful, because when going up and down, there are many double bends.

After driving for almost two and a half hours, I found the location. I entered the gate with road conditions using bricks. This gate looks unkempt, unpainted and faded in color, when it should look luxurious. I arrived and parked the vehicle, not forgetting to pay my car parking fee.

Tao Cave, located in the Linting Lake area, one of the natural lakes in North Sumatra. Linting Lake is a lake that is still mysterious, because of the information I got from local residents. This lake has a depth of more than 600 meters, and the depth is unknown. I was able to dig up information from the parking guard, who is also a local resident. He said, Linting Lake had long been discovered by the community but no one dared to come to this place, because it was considered to have a very strong mystical aura.

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From my observations around this area, in the Linting Lake area there are many old trees with large trunk diameters. In the local cultures and beliefs of many ethnic groups in Indonesia, old trees are often associated with the occult, mystery and horror. I asked for information about the Tao Cave from the parking attendant, he called two children to guide me to the Tao Cave.

The location of Tao Cave is about 200 meters from Linting Lake. The village has made a path to get to the Tao Cave area. The interesting fact is that Tao Cave is located in the plantation area of a local resident, and it turns out that Tao Cave was only discovered in the late 80s by the land owner of this garden.

In this Tao Cave area, there are two cave entrances. Local people call these two cave doors by different names, namely Silver Cave and Gold Cave. What's the difference? keep watching my journey.

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Silver Cave
Anyway, do you believe in the occult or mystical? To be honest, I'm a bit skeptical about it. I believe in supernatural things like God, Satan or angels. I do not believe in ghost sightings, especially the testimony of someone who saw a ghost sighting, because of that I am a braver person than my friends. However, as a normal human living in Indonesia, I have to get used to it.

We decided to see the Silver Caves first. Before entering, our little guide gave some advice and restrictions when entering the cave. First, it is forbidden to use swear words, smoking is prohibited, and third, when entering the cave, it is forbidden to touch the walls of the cave. Before entering, we have to put something at the door of the cave, it can be money, food or cigarettes.

When I went inside, I found a lot of bats in this Silver Cave. The myth that I heard from local residents, this Silver Cave has a strong mystical atmosphere, with strong mystical attack disturbances on its visitors. Many people who enter the Silver Cave, eventually come out in a state of shortness of breath and an extraordinary headache. When entering this Silver Cave, we will also see many offerings or hermitages.

In this Silver Cave, we can see the shape of a natural cave. This cave is not very big, but there are three chambers that we can see. This silver cave is called "silver", because on the walls of the cave we can see silver reflections.

There is also a part that caught my attention, namely a natural stone carving shaped like a dragon's head. I don't know whether these are stalactites or natural stones, but visually we can see the head of a snake or dragon with its scales.

The air from this cave is very hot, I feel headache and shortness of breath while in this cave. I tried to think logically, it seems that the air from this cave became unpleasant due to the ammonia from the bat droppings. After a bit of breathing and drinking, I continued my exploration of the Golden Caves.

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Golden Cave

After a little breath, I continued my adventure to the Golden Cave. The distance between the golden cave door and the silver cave door is not too far. Just like when entering the silver cave, before entering there are some taboos and restrictions when entering the cave. In addition, don't forget to put offerings in front of the cave.

I entered the golden cave slowly. This golden cave has a smaller cave entrance but a larger cave room. This cave is called the golden cave, because when we go inside and try to shine a light on the cave walls, we will see golden dots in the form of lines. There is no research or information about "gold" in this cave, I think if this is real gold it will be an interesting fact.

In the Golden Cave, we can also see some interesting things. Like a natural rock that has the shape of a snake's head that is coiled and meets its tail.

Apart from that, there is one stone in this Golden Cave which has a unique sound when it is hit. The sound that came out was like the sound of a gong, I tried hitting it and it turned out to be true like this.

This Golden Cave has a different air compared to the Silver Cave. In the Golden Cave, the air is cooler and more comfortable, I also have no problem lingering in this cave. It was different when I was in Silver Cave. From my observation, the Tao Cave is a cave area that still cannot be defined. I am sure that the Golden Cave and Silver Cave are connected by a road that has not yet been discovered. I am also sure that there must be other cave doors.

After I explored this cave, my head hurt so much and I couldn't breathe comfortably for two days. If I complained about this pain to the local residents around the cave, I would definitely be said to have experienced a mystical attack.

Talking about local people's beliefs about mystical or supernatural things, there are positives and negatives. On a positive note, local people don't dare to damage this cave for fear of being exposed to mystical things, so that the natural cave is maintained. In Indonesia, especially in villages, many people are afraid to cut down trees for fear of being haunted by ghosts rather than the environmental impact. That's all my story this time, see you next time.

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