Place names didn't seam to fit, and neither did features of the area such as volcanoes. So we started to look at cultural aspects.

That's when it realy became quite simple.

Language is one of the cental aspects of a peoples culture, and the indigenous people of Lake Toba, the Bataks, have thier own language, which is quite different from Indonesian.

Now the first and perhaps the only word of Batak that foreigners learn is . . youve guessed it - HORAS!
This is the word that Bataks use to greet each other. It's their hello, howdy, ciao, bonjour, gruss gott, or whatever.

The Toledo Inn Swimming Area (Samosir)  

Although "Horas " actually means "Lord protect you", I like to think of it as "welcome", because that makes Horas Hash the Welcome Hash, which is exactly what we want it to be.

Mind you , we all know you should always take protection when it's offered . . . . >>> the logo . . .