Sulawesi, Poso to Makassar

We have had a crazy last few days after leaving our peaceful little island. We went to the town of Poso and on the second day met a local girl, Hani. She called us over and invited us into her home to practice her english. After a while she invited us to stay with her in her house and to join them for dinner. At first we were a little aprehensive but after a while decided to stay the next night with them. She lent us her motorbike and took us to the beach and then around town. That night we had dinner with her whole family, parents, husband, son and friends. The next day she came to our hotel to make sure we were going stay at there house. We later all went to the beach together and they had brought food for us, like a picnic. Then we went back to the house, they gave us a whole house to ourselves, where we had our room a big sitting area which opened out onto the sea and a bathroom with a bucket shower. We changed and they took us to a friends "baptism", they are muslim so it isn't called that. Where we ate and then everyone at the party took turns taking pictures with us. We were the excitement of the party. Then they wanted us to sing Karaoke, but I didn't give them the priviledge of hearing my wonderful voice. Later that evening there was a concert, given by a local highschool band, where we went to have a tamarind tea. The singer dedicated a song to us and then asked us to join him on stage and sing with him. Again I declined. The next day they had bought us all these typical foods which they eat for breakfast. Then the whole family took us in the van, her dad is a local taxi driver, to the bus station and we said our goodbyes. I tried to offer to pay them something and they refused. They said they were just being hospitable and that we should tell other travelers that Poso is safe and the people are friendly. It was really an incredible experience.

After leaving we prepared ourselves mentally for the 22 hour bus ride in the front row. At first everything went well but when the drivers changed and the second driver took over, I thought I would lose it. He basically sat sideways and drove in the middle of the road. I really thought we were going to die. I covered my face for the next 12 hours and wished I was somewhere else. Remarkably we made it safely to Makassar at 6am.

There we rested for a few hours in a motel. We went to then internet cafe where I left my sun glasses in the downstairs bathroom. I realized almost 2 hours later and when I went back to ask if someone had turned them in, sure enough there they were. WOW these people never cease to amaze me, so honest.

That night we left at 3 am on a 4 hour flight to Jayapura. On the flight we met George, an Indonesian studying Rocket science in Miami, Florida. He is somewhat of a celebrity here since he was one of the first to receive a full scholorship to a US university. He has also filmed 2 commercials and has come back to talk to the kids and tell them the importance of studying english. He offered to take us to the city and help us do our visa stuff and in the end he offered for us to stay at his uncles house. Which was great since all the hotels were booked solid. His uncle is a very kind man, Pa Sa, with 3 little girls and his wife. They are both teachers and he speaks english really well. We sleep in a tiny room with a single bed and no AC or fan. But we are very grateful for their hospitality. So we have been here for 3 days now waiting for our PNG visa, the embassy was closed yesterday due to a PNG holiday. We will hopefully get it today or tomorrow and take public transport to the border and then walk across and try and arrange public transport on the other side.

Togean Islands, Sulawesi

We have just returned from 10 days in the Togean Islands, actually island. We didn't island hop as we had planned but stayed on one island for the whole time. I couldn't imagine any of the other islands being any better and it was already hard enough for me to leave after 10 days. The 3 day trip to get to the island was a nightmare but that's what deter's other tourist from going and in the end if you stay for a while it is well worth it. The boat ride was exciting, or maybe others would say dangerous, as they pile way too many people onto a rickty boat. There are two levels, both just high enough to stand up (and the average person is shorter than me) and no seats to sit down. So everyone just lays down and the smart ones bring little plastic stools to sit. We chose to sit outside at the front of the boat, I figured if it sank I would have a better chance of swimming to shore from there. We practised our poor Indonesian, thank god for the phrase book, and the indonesians practised there enlish. They are very curious and so happy to talk to you. We are immediately surround be kids and adults saying "hello mister" and it always makes for an enjoyable trip. After 4 hours we arrived in the first islands port and had to wait til they unloaded and loaded the boat again, again with way to much weight. I of course asked if there were any life jackets on board and if I could dine at the captains table, phrases form the book, which they thought quite funny. The life jacket questions wasn't meant to be funny. After 2 hours of unloading and loading we headed another hour to the next island, where Leslie, an american from california who we had been traveling with for the last 3 days, got off. We could see the island across the way and the pier where people were sitting, I thought "wow that looks great, we will come back in a few days". As we waited to load and unload a German guy and his wife got on who were leaving the island. I asked him how his stay was and he said "incredible, I came for 4 days and stayed 4 weeks". I asked if he had ever visisted Melenge (where we were headed) and he said yes. I then asked which he thought was better and he said " this island". I immediately jumped up and yelled to Antonio "get the backpacks". I jumped off the boat and ran over to where Leslie and the guys from the Fadidirah cottages (name of hotel on the island) were getting ready to leave, and yelled "wait for us". Best decision we could have made.

We were given a bungalow on the beach with a nice porch with a hammock, tables and chairs. The inside had a big bed with a mosquito net, a headboard (very rare), a dresser and a shelf. The bathroom was outside, open air and was a bucket shower, where we were brouht fresh water 2 or 3 times daily. We had electricity after 6pm until we went to bed, usually not more than 3 hours. The price was 9 euros or 11 dollars daily per person with 3 meals a day included. When we arrived there was a swiss guy, francois, and a retired australian Tony staying there. So all together we were 5 tourists on the island. The people who worked there were very friendly and really did there best to interact and talk with you. Tony was a dive instructor and offered his services for free, a refresher diving course, all we had to do was pay 10 dollars for each tank. So the first day Francois, Leslie and Antonio and I went to a Bajo village, gypsy fisherman, who live on the water. The villages was about 2 hours away and we passed thru mangroves to get there, where I think I saw crocodile. The gypsy's homes are built on stilts and they have one walk way connecting all the houses. Once we got to the village we were immidately engulfed by children all walking next to us, touching us and trying to talk to us. We walked thru the village talking to the locals, visiting the market, stopping for a coffee in someones house and buying fresh caught tunas for our lunch. Then the children showed us there school and sang us songs. The chanted " Bule masuk Kampung", the white people have come to the village, learned from a show on Tv. We had given some money to Saiful, our guide and boatman, to buy some notebooks and pencils and after our visit on the jetty he passed them out. It was crazy. The kids were all screaming and then after receiving there books each one came over and thanked us personally. It was really an amazing experience. On the way back it started to rain really hard so we stopped at a near by island where we were given shelter in someones home and tea and coffee. That afternoon we snorkled around the island, which had some really nice coral and a good amount of fish. The next morning Tony did our refresher course and we were in the water by noon. After about an hour of swimming around I decided, which I already knew, that scuba diving was not for me and got out of the water. I wanted to try again but I really perfer to snorkel. So the next day Antonio, Leslie, Tony and I went out on the boat to a nearby reef and they went diving and I went snorkeling. The reefs here are amazing, Tony said they were world class, and although they said there weren't too many fish I was impressed. In fact we saw dolphins swimming at a distance. I had never seen coral that colorful and diverse and I was really impressed. So for the next few days we dived and snorkeled in the morning and read and studied Indonesian in the afternoon. My only complaint was that the food wasn't very varied and we were given egg at almost every meal. Not my favorite food. It rained about half the time but that wasn't too big of a deal since it was warm. The only bad thing was the mosquitos who seemed immune to the mosquit repelent, spray and coils.

We decided to come back yesterday to Poso, 6 hours by boat plus 5 by car, an arrange transport back to makassar from here. Luckily we came early enough as all the busses are full til Sunday and our plane leaves Tuesday at 3 am and it is a 24 hour bus ride. Today when we went to buy the ticket the only 2 seats left were the last 2 on a non AC bus, UUGGGHH. We thought about it and checked our options and finally went back an hour later. As we sat preparing to buy our tickets someone called and cancelled the front 2 seats for Sunday. I thought Antonio was going to kiss the woman. So we will spend an extra day here, which isn't so bad. The people are really nice and I think we are the only tourists here. About 5 years ago there was major conflict in the area and some foreigners were killed and 4 little girls beheaded. So as you can imagine tourists are weary about coming here. But now it is safe and they are super excited and happy to see tourists in there town.

On tuesday we fly to Jayapura and hopefully in the same week will get our visas for Paupa New Guinea and if we are lucky may make it over the border for July 25, my birthday. How exciting.

Tana Toraja, Sulawesi

In the last week we have experienced the fascinating culture of the Tana Toraja people from central Sulawesi. They are most known for their funeral ceremonies, and now I know why. The Torajan's celebrate most of their funerals in July and August. That doesn't mean that everyone dies in those two months but means that's when they have the ceremony and burial of the deceased. When the person dies the family gets together and decides when they want to bury their loved one. So until they decide the date they mummify the body and put it in a special room in thier house with them. Some keep the body for months and others for years. They believe that until the body is buried it is still alive and the spirit is still there. They give it water and food and other offerings. The funeral ceremonies are held in July and August because it is vacation time and it is when they harvest the rice, and since they serve allot of this at the funeral they wouldn't have to buy it in the market. The ceremonies are various days long, depending on the importance of the person and how many guests will be invited. The first day is a procession day where they carry the body all thru the village and the surrounding areas. The second day the receiving day, when they receive their guests. And the third day the burial day. But if there are many guests sometimes they need more than one receiving day and they also plan other activities such as buffalo fights. The guests usually give live pigs as gifts and if they are very close they give a buffalo. This is a very expensive gift and if the buffalo is light skinned, blue eyes and with big horns it could cost as much as a car. They have open bamboo platformed houses made so that the guests can sit and watch all the activities. They are served coffee, tea and snacks by the family. Each group of guests is announced and filed in by the immediate family, who is dressed in their traditional dress, and sat in a special receiving house during which time all their gifts, mostly pigs and some buffaloes, are brought out into the open middle area and the master of ceremony announces who gave what so that the family knows exactly which pig is from which village or family. The pigs are tied on bamboo posts and the morning of the ceremony we saw pigs in the back of pickups, on the back of motorbikes, on the side of the road, in the back of cars etc. The ceremony we attended they must have been given over 100 pigs as gifts. During the ceremony, out back, they slaughter the pig by driving a knife into it's heart. It lasts all of about 1 min and there isn't much blood. Then they remove the stomach and insides and throw it whole on the fire. On a different day they slaughter the buffaloes. These they slaughter in the main area with everyone watching. There is one man and he cuts the buffaloes throat, the buffalo spins around and pretty much bleeds to death. Then they skin it and cut it into pieces. They can slaughter over 20 in one day. The meat is served to the guests during the funeral days and the rest is sold to restaurants.
Later we went and visited some of the grave areas. They bury their dead in family graves in caves, or rocks and children are buried in trees since they believe the trees and childs life is tied together and the child will grow with the tree. One of the cave graves we saw had many coffins lying around the front, the richer people hang the coffins from the top of the cave but the ropes or rock has given way and most of the coffins were broken and on the ground. You can see many skulls and bones lying around. The upper class or important people are buried high up in the cave and at the base have a wood statue that is made to look just like them.
The torajan's have houses with roofs that look like an upside down boat or to me the horns of a buffalo. The roofs are red and the house is made of wood and is built on stilts. They have replica ones that are smaller for the grain. The area is full of rice fields, coffee plantations, cacao plantations. The green rice fields are speckled with big black boulders from the nearby volcano. It is quite a site to see. We took a hired car from town to take us up to the countryside to hike thru the villages. The mini van that we hired looked like at one time it had been in a fire, then rolled down into the river to be put out and sat there until our driver fished it out and fixed the engine. It was full of mosquitoes and I wasn't quite sure how it was held together. Antonio asked if there was AC and our guide laughed and said that that car was considered in good condition and was a good car. The people here are very nice and have a great sense of humor. As we walked thru the small villages the children called to us asking for candy and the older ones saying "hello mister". They haven't learned to say misses yet.
Tomorrow we leave for a 14 hour bus ride, not to excited about that. And then another 5 the next day to a town called Ampana where we will catch a boat to the Togian Islands. There is supposed to be great snorkeling there with some interesting marine life, reef sharks, turtles etc. We will spend the next 2 weeks island hopping and looking for the perfect beach. I don't think I will access to internet until the 3rd week of July.