Sulawesi part 2 of 3: Central Sulawesi

We only spent a few very short days in Central Sulawesi, and the majority of them involved driving. We left from Rantepao and were told we had a 9 hour journey ahead, however it turned out to be around 11 hours in the car.

Near Lake Poso we stopped and took a short walk to see the Orchids, however we were informed that they were not blooming. I was quite dissapointed since the following day our itinerary said we were going on a 2 hour hike to look at orchid. Why would someone put this in the itinerary if they knew it wasn't orchid season. A bit mistake on the tour companies part. We did get to see some pineapples growing in the wild though.

Once we reached the lake and checked in, we ordered dinner. I was literally nauseous at the thought of eating rice, so I opted to just eat some veggies and drink water. We passed the evening wading in the water, and then settled down on my parents porch to watch the sun set. I turned on the light so we could read, and big mistake, soon enough the room was full of bugs. There was a black cloud on the floor and laying on the bed. My mom thought at first it was because she opened the window to let in some air, but my room had them too. We informed the owner and he said we shouldn't have turned on the lights and that they would move us to a different room. After dinner, we went to our new rooms and literally went straight to bed, afraid even to open our bags or use the bathroom for fear that we would attract the bugs. I woke up early the next morning, still doused in bug spray and showered and packed and set out on our next joyous long car ride.

 We were told the drive would be 5 hours, but it was closer to 7. We stopped after about 30 minutes to take a quick walk to a waterfall, which actually ended up being one the highlights of the trip. The roads were mountainous, curvy, and we followed a very slow police bus and were unable to pass for an hour or two. We stopped for lunch along the coastal road and all they had was fish, rice, and fried noodles. Knowing that we were heading to an island the following day I opted for the noodles which were delicious and filling. Once again my parents marveled at the price of lunch. A whopping 13 dollars for 2 fried noodles, a fish, soup, rice, plate of veggies, and 3 cokes.

We made it to Ampana around 3 in the afternoon. After settling the plans for our ferry in the morning we headed to local market, crowded with people buying food in preparation for breakfasting later in the day. We shopped around a little, but I felt incredible overwhelmed watching out for both myself and my parents, constantly turning around to make sure they were still with me, and not being harassed. My mom did mentioned she was groped several times by one man. At this point I was so sick of Indonesian food I was hoping to god to find some western restaurant, but after an hour of walking there was none. We ended up grabbing some ice cream, which we immediately began to savor. After about 2 bites a man pulled up on a motorbike to remind us not to eat in the streets. Frustrated we hid behind a banner and shoved our ice cream in our mouths, which then instantly made me and my father have upset tummies. We watched the sun set awhile near the dock and then headed back to our hotels for another dinner of chicken and rice. I attempted to skype with Matt, but the internet kept coming in and out and I grew quickly frustrated.

Ampana Sunset

We woke up and were driven to the ferry. I quickly ran and bought some rambutan to add to our snacks. We were told it would be a 5 hour ferry ride and I figured there would be at least hard seats for us to sit on, if not air con. All of the ferries I have ridden for more than 2 hours have these amenities. But we were on the floor. For a glorious 3.5 hours, 2 hours of unloading and another 1.5 hours. I was so glad we had snacks and that there was a mattress being taken to one of the other islands. We arrived at The Togian Islands and were taken by another small boat to our hotel on a private island. We put on our suits, went swimming and were then served a delicious meal of....you guessed it! Fish and Rice. I'm not going to lie the fish was some of the better I've had in Indonesia, but no fish will ever compare to the fish from the Mediterranean. After dealing with a few issues of scheduling our trip (frustrating!) we watched the stars come out, and the moon rise before heading to bed.

 The next morning was spent enjoying the beach, and lounging in our hammocks reading before heading out at 1 to catch our overnight ferry to North Sulawesi.

On this ferry we were in the Captains quarters, which was such a luxury. At first my parents weren't so sure, until I took them down to show them them the other class areas, which consisted of mats on a floor, or rustic chairs, in smoking air conditioned and non air conditioned areas. Then they felt like a king and queen.

captains quarters

On the deck we were able to watch the sun set and see the stars while I drank a Bintang. I was able to find the southern cross and chat at my parents about how the stars are different in the south than in the north. The milky way was semi visible. We opted for early bed and were in for a rough night. The ferry was not the smoothest and we were woken several times for call to prayers, and at 4:30 to be welcomed to North Sulawesi by our new guide Stefaan, who we loved.

Hello Northern Sulawesi!

Sulawesi Part 1 of 3: Toroja in the South

This trip was different than any trip I have been on before. Mostly because I had to look out for two other individuals. They did surprisingly well considering the vacation I chose for them. I like challenging myself and the people around me. :)

We arrived at the airport at about 5 am only to find out our flight had been changed to 11. They said they had emailed me (typical Indonesia...) but had not. We passed the time looking in the entire 6 shops, and eating/drinking various goodies. The plane finally left and I was exhausted from only getting 4 hours of sleep so I took a little snooze. Once we arrived and met our guide I was super relieved. Everything from here on out was out of my control. We cruised over the mountains, and mom and dad kept getting freaked at the crazy driving and the drop off edges without railings. I was taken back to our coastal road cruises in Albania, where I would get extremely motion sick. The guide (Jonathan) and I discussed Ramadan with them a bit, trying to explain the customs. When we finally arrived at dinner we were all over hungry and exhausted from our journey. My tummy had been having issues the last week and it was absolutely acting up. Basically I passed out upon arriving, woke up to use the toilet once and sleep clear through to my alarm. I tried not to let the boring and pointless first day get me down, since technically they had intended for us to arrive in the area 5 hours earlier than planned.

I got dressed and ready and then it started to pour. Breakfast consisted of rice and by this point I was sick of eating rice and bread because it had been all I could keep down for the previous 5 days due to my stomach. I ate a little and we headed out on our longboat with ponchos in the pouring rain. I could hardly see anything squinting in the rain, but halfway in the rain gave out and stopped. The sun began to come up over the lake to show the beauty and life on the lake. Beautiful lily like purple plants sprouted to the top and birds swooshed across the sky. 

We got to stand on one of the floating houses, and were surprised to find out that they have to move the houses based on the season. After the boat ride was done we went to see some silk weaving and realized that the silk wasn't very soft, which I found strange.

Our journey continued into the mountains and after a few hours we stopped for lunch overlooking the mountain called Guning Nona. There is a legend behind this mountain about a brother and sister who wanted to marry. However the spirit of the earth told them they could not and formed a river through the mountain. Apparently one side of it is shaped like a penis and the other like a vagina. I chose to ignore this legend and enjoy the beauty instead. The mountain fresh air and views made me feel like I was back in Albania once again. We purchased a few spices and souvenirs and were on our way for more switchbacks and screams of terror. We arrived at our hotel in Rantepao around 4 and had time for a swim, a brief walk, and dinner at the hotel, which had some delicious asparagus and squash soup. I was exhausted and slept straight through the night for about 9 hours. 

Guning Nona

The following morning we awoke for and emotional day of visiting Torojan houses and grave sites. Torojan people have very different beliefs about death. Mainly they believe that a person is not dead, they are simply sick. Therefore, they keep the body of the dead in their houses for a few months to a few years until they know their soul has gone on to the puja(paradise) and they are able to save up enough money to sacrifice water buffalo and pigs in their honour. If they do not sacrifice enough according to their caste, their sons and daughters will not be able to have a good marriage or run for office if they choose.

Tongkanan (traditional Torojan House)

We attended a sacrificing ceremony where 2 water buffalo were cut open and bled to death. We were required to buy a carton of cigarettes for the family as a presents. Others in the community may offer the same or a pig if they are of a higher caste. The pigs are carried in on bamboo, kicking and screaming the whole way. Those who bring the presents walk in a ceremony according to their house number. We saw other tourist walking in the processional and were frightened that we might have to do so. Our guide informed us that last week there was a ceremony where 20 water buffalo were sacrificed. It smelled awful, and sounded awful, so we asked to leave early because we were feeling a bit ill.

Knife out, ready to kill....

We visited several villages to see the family graves, including one that contained a baby grave. Babies are buried in the tree so that their spirit may grow along side it. 

Baby Grave

The best part was when at one village we were greeted by little children who all ran around our feet and held our hands down to the grave site. Once there, they played around and goofed like it was their playground in the caves. We gave them all high fives and paid 70 cents for a bag of candy for them to share.

After this we returned to the hotel, just before the rain. The following morning we visited the buffalo market, which smelled similar to homeland Wisconsin and we walked through the smaller market where they sell household items, clothing and food.We stopped to look at some stone statues, all symbols for people who were dead, though differing from gravestones because the people were not buried in the ground. Eventually we landed at a home stay up in the mountains overlooking beautiful rice fields. We ate lunch and our guide took us downhill to walk around them. These were some seriously beautiful views for a simple 2 hour journey. We had a delicious dinner of satay and then headed to bed in our Tongkanan (Traditional torojan house), consisting of 3 mattresses on the floor and 3 extremely hard pillows. I had to wake up once in the night to pee which was a task, because you had to climb down the stairs and walk to the bathrooms in dim lighting. Halfway through the night some Indonesian men came in the room next to ours and were speaking quite loudly on a speaker phone. I found it hard to sleep because I kept trying to translate.

We woke up in time for the sunrise and began our day long hike into the villages after breakfast. 

Good Morning!

This was not an enjoyable experience. Not sure if it would have been more interesting with a different guide, or if we had gone a different way, but we saw nothing of interest. It was mostly just more rice fields, which we had to cross over and my dad got bit by poisonous ants and fell. We stopped at a village closer than expected because it was going to rain. After we showered (buckets over our head) and waited about 2 hours past hunger we were served delicious chicken cooked with banana stem in bamboo cookware. And of course rice. My parents cramped onto the twin mattress and I slept on and off on a brand new mat on the floor, purchased from a traveling salesman earlier that day. I was freezing for most of the night, a feeling I had forgot about.

We awoke to a breakfast of leftovers and began our short 2 hour journey to the village we were picked up in. Once dripped at the hotel we booked massages. It was clear we deserved some pampering post journey. We had several issues finding lunch as it was Sunday and ended up eating double ice cream and snacks, while enjoying drinks by the pool, to suffice until our early dinner.

Well deserved. 

We left after breakfast the next morning, for central Sulawesi.

I have to say South Sulawesi was a cultural experience, but one we just could not seem to see eye to eye with. The people live their whole lives to make sure their parents have a nice funeral, and this is what their work and lifestyle was based off of. We accepted the experience and looked forward to the journey ahead.

Surprising things

I have noticed so many things that no longer bother or surprise me that seem to raise questions in  my parents' brains. It is amazing how much you can adapt in a year to change your views of the world. I decided to make a list to remind me of how much my brain has expanded in the last 2 years.
1. Kids on motorbikes. Families of 4 or 5 easily cram onto one bike as if it is a family vehicle and kids who are maybe 10 can drive in the villages. My parents we so intrigued.
2. Cold showers. A daily thing for me now, I had to turn on the heater for my father. When we took bucket showers in the villages he screamed in terror.
3. Sitting criss cross. On boats, in cars, at dinner. This is a way of life. My father could not flex this way.
4. How low the ceilings are. I have grown used to bending down all the time.
5. The smell of cigarettes. Serious complaint of my parents and I would say it wasn't even half as bad as Albania. I didn't even take them to any bars.
6. The geckos. They sat intrigued staring at them.
7. The boats. I'm not sure if they thought we were going on cruises and I'll be honest I thought we would be on nicer ferries, but the shock on their faces at our private boat ride in a fishing boat was hilarious.
8. No air con. Yep. You sweat at night. It's fine. Everyone does.
9. The inexpensiveness. I have been handling the money and keeping a tab. Every time we finish a meal they ask how much it was and when I tell them they nearly faint. Today I bought 2 bunches of pisang susu (milk bananas) for 1.50 and they were in shock.
10. The road. My dad cannot get over how long it takes to get places, and how much time we had to spend in a car. Likewise driving on the opposite side of the road keeps freaking them out, and the random wash away roads we managed to weave our way around was quite the experience. 

11. Lack of paper products and squat toilets. They would rather stay dehydrated than pee in something so gross. I can pee anywhere now, but much prefer the outdoors to any other option. 

12. The food quality. Cold chicken and rice for lunch? Perfectly acceptable to me.

13. The amount of tea and coffee offered to us. 5 cups a day is just enough to get through right? if my dad drinks tea after noon he is up ALL night. 

14. The call to prayer. I hear a comment almost every time it goes off and they both claim to be woken up in the middle of the night by it. I remember this once being an issue for me....

15. The number of backpackers and older couples traveling for months on end living out of a pack, and buying everything cheap. They just don't get how they can a)afford this or b) why on earth they would want to. 

Additionally I'm realizing that the listed items are going to be serious reverse culture shock for me when I get home. What on earth is a seatbelt? Why would a child need a car seat? and who would pay 50 cents for a single banana? Will I be able to sleep int he silence? Friends won't consist of people I'm just spending time with for a year or even for a weekend? I can get from one major city to another without taking a flight or spending 9 hours in car....that is magnificent. I'm truly realizing how much life is about how you look at it. I hope you all open up your eyes to both see and experience our differences, because they are what make the world such an extraordinary and beautiful place. 

Pangadaran: Green Valley, Green Canyon, National Park

This blog post is going to be a bit different because as a traveller I rely on blogs to help me figure out what to expect and how to get places. Pangadaran was different. The only real information I could find was in Indonesian or through wikitravel. Therefore this blog is intended to help fellow travelers.

Matt and I left Jakarta from Halim airport (the smaller one) at 8:00, which was an hour past schedule, flying with Susi Air. You can also get to Pangadaran via bus, but since we were limited for time we opted to take a plane. The plane was tiny, fitting only 12 passengers and we were only able to book the tickets about 3 weeks before we left. Not going to the lie the flight was a little scary as I heard the main pilot turn to the pilot behind him and say "I'm so confused" and the other pilot say "When you land, just hit the brake as hard as you can. You'll be fine."

We arrived and had no clue how to get to the city and were offered a ride through susi air for 100 thousand rupiah each. I had no clue if this was a good deal, but we also had no clue how else to get to the city, so we took it. The road there was rough, and extremely bumpy, making me glad I had some gum for my empty stomach.

We checked into our hostel "Panorama a la Plage." This place was the cheapest we found and we had a private room with 3 beds, and air con, western toilet, and a shower all to ourselves for 20 dollars a night. It also included a delicious breakfast of eggs, toast, fruit, and coffee/tea, or a banana pancake.

excellent hostel

Now lets do a quick food review. We ended up at Malibu to start, simply because they looked open. Let me just say the food is yummy! Stick with the chicken steaks, indonesian food, or salads. The only things we ate that we found disappointing was the fish and chips (chips were good, but the fish was way chewy) and the sandwiches. I can also highly recommend a pitcher of the "suck my dick" cocktail, which was made with real fruit and vodka. We drank one each night.

view from malibu bar

Next door is Bamboo. We were not pleased with our food here at all. The fries were especially awful, and the whole time we were offered massages from a nice lady. Super kind, but not how I wanted to enjoy a meal post 7 hours of hiking. If you walk off the beach you will discover "Relax," and let me tell you I wish we had found this gem sooner. The lady who runs the place is german, but they offer a wide variety of food. I was able to get an espresso for 7000 rupiah, and we got a to go cheese sandwich on WHOLE WHEAT BREAD! and a fruit parfait with the best yogurt (homemade) I have ever tasted. The lady talked to us for awhile and you could tell she really loved pleasing her costumers and put a lot of effort into making everything homemade.

Green Valley/Green Canyon: As wiki says, worth doing both. We had a tour with 7 people and we crammed into 1 van and 1 scooter. We payed 350 thousand for our tour but check through the hostel and I think it'd only be 300 thousand. First we drove to Green Valley, stopping to look at some wooden puppets and take pictures over the rice fields (after living here for a year I'm over it....)

The best part was for sure Green Valley. We walked a short distance down a trail and then carefully used a rope and eased our way onto some rocks and into a cave to swim. The water felt magnificently cool and refreshing, in comparison to the usually warm salty ocean water. Then we played around in the area jumping from small waterfalls and using a swimming rope to launch into the river. After we had our fill of the area we swam down the river to where we had started. This involved several waterfall jumps, none being higher than 3 meters. Another Indonesian man carried our supplies back to the car and met us there. We ate a simple lunch of nasi goreng and mie goreng because it was ramadan and most of the places were closed due to fasting.

Our next stop was Green Canyon. This has absolutely become a tourist site. 25 or more boats lined the water waiting for passengers to load. We took a 10 minute boat ride where we saw monitor lizards and monkeys along the side. Once we got into the canyon they stopped the boat, we got out and inched our way up the river against the heavy current. In some places there were ropes to use. At one point we were fighting so hard against the current and the only thing to hold onto were rocks covered in gross transparent crabs, about the size of a nail head. They stung if you touched them in the wrong place. There were a few places to jump from, but these were hard to get to, slippery, and we had no life jackets, so we decided not to.

The rock you can jump from

We stopped at a turtle sanctuary and a cool beach on the way home, and this ended our day.

Pananjung Pangadaran Nature Reserve:
The main pointer I have for this is to take plenty of water. We took 2 liters thinking it'd be lots and it was not. As far as we could find it cost the same amount of money 207 thousand rupiah to get into the park, and to get into the park with a guide, so we opted to get the guide. He took us around the tiny park of the reserve showing us ancient hindu temples, japanese imprisonment caves, different types of trees and various animals. This part was alright and took about 2 hours. Even though we went in early morning I was sweating like crazy.

When we asked about hiking in the other parts of the park they "strongly advised against it" but offered to take us for an additional 300 thousand. We declined, they dropped us at the "white sand beaches" (more on this later) and we opted to go anyway. We had worn our boots and hiking clothes, brought food and what we though would be adequate water. There are no trail maps of the park and the trails are mark very obscurely, luckily my boyfriend used the GPS on his smartphone to help guide us. I took lots of pictures and hopefully this will help.

Start out by walking away from the park entrance and exit. You will see a cement bridge, cross it and continue going strait. Additionally feel free to ask any Indonesian you come upon.

You will come to a little intersection. take a right, and continue strait, until you see a path on the left. Take this path. You will come out by a green sign, all written in Indonesian.

Walk parallel to and past the sign, looking for a tree that does not have a top. We thought this was odd and as it turns out it is the marker for where you should go. The grass looks worn where the path is. Follow the red markings from here on out. You will cross over this obscure log.

We noted that there were some wasps near the trail so we went a bit higher than the trail to cross it for safety. Continue on path until you come to a fork, take the right fork.

The next part is where we almost got lost: The path continues on, or there is a small creek the rocks make up a sort of bridge over the creek, and you need to go over the top of it.

you'll see the bridge to the right

there it is!

You will go over another bridge made of sticks. It's a bit wobbly, but we mostly just jumped.

You'll hike for a bit and then reach the creek again. Continue down the creek, crossing over at various points. Once the creek is gone you will have some steep uphill and downhill trails until you reach the falls. You will start to hear ocean waves at this point. Hope this wasn't too confusing and actually ended up helping

the water wasn't flowing very heavy, but still a spectacular view

We stopped at the white sand beaches on our way back and I can say they were not worth the effort. I think coral beach with large plateau into the ocean would be a more correct statement. We didn't want to go as far out as you need to to swim, so we just opted to sit and rest in the water on the shore. They monkeys are seriously scary. They got in a gang fight, chasing away an injured monkey into the water. I remembered that we were warned the monkeys grab things, so i got up and ran to grab our bags to safety and ended up cutting my toe on something.

Batu Kiras: So we went to the airport and there were no flights out that day, and we were pretty stuck. We ended up getting an ambulance to give us a ride to this village for 50 thousand. Absolutely a place to check out, but only if you have the time, or are wanting to learn to surf. The waves come in around the corner, so you can walk out on one end and catch a wave to the opposite end of the beach, which makes it way less exhausting and less work.

We stayed at wooden guesthouse for 200 thousand rupiah, and we ate from the local restaurants for super cheap because we were running out of cash and there was no atm. It cost us 200 thousand to get back to the airport the following morning, and our flight with susi air was delayed again (we got a text the previous evening) from 6:00am to 9:55 am and actually left at about 11:15, and had a stop in Bandung. From Bandung it was literally just us and 6 pilots.

Hope this post was helpful and informative. If you have a questions feel free to comment and I will try to get back to you.