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.