The wedding in Togean

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Boarding the boat in Ampana was of cause made extra interesting by the locals taking extra supplies to Wakai for the sunday market tomorrow including four scooters conveniently placed next to us. I don't think there are any real limit in the amount of people you can have on the boat so it turned out to be rather over crowded but it was 5 or so easy hours to Wakai and I managed to find a seat in the shade and relaxed.
Once we arrived in Wakai we were met by a small wooden long boat to take us to the lodge on Kadidiri, one of the islands where there are three lodges. This part of the trip took around an hour and we arrived around four ish. After booking my accommodation with Anton in Tentena and him conforming it by phone in Poso I was surprised when they didn't have a room available for me. But worry not they put me in a room sharing with a staff member until one became available tomorrow.
Things on the island were a lot more basic them I imagined, there is no water supply, electricity on generater between 6 and 11, no shops anything for that matter but it is tropical paradise if you accept the basic beauty of it. There is some great snorkelling just by the hostel so after going for a look around we sat and watched the sunset from the hut over the water with some of the guys we had met in Tentena. You just keep bumping into the same people all the time! Dinner was surprisingly good with fish, rice with vegies and loads of chilli, got a feeling there is going to be lots of fish eaten this week.
Taking an early morning boat back to Wakai we spent an hour quickly getting supplies for the remainder of the week the boys obviously getting their full supply of beer, and snacks all round. Buying a ball they tried to charge us seven times more then we should be paying! We were told to meet back at the boat at ten to go back to Kadidiri, heading back to the boat we found they had actually moved it further up stream so quickly walking up to find it we then spent an hour or so waiting for it to depart. But it was a hot morning and we were able to sit in the shade and relax with the family before taking the one hour trip back.
Back at lodge we had lunch then did some snorkelling around they beach although it wasn't as good as yesterday due to the rain during the night. Then it was time to sit, relax and read before heading out to the local island wedding in the evening.
We were invited to a wedding on Togean island around an hour from Kadidiri by boat, by one of the guys who works at the hostel, it was Tommie's families wedding and he along with Pudin took five of us to the house of the family for dinner, then on to the evening celebration. The evening celebration was under a marquee with a stage and seating. After the 'band' playing music for around an hour the bride and groom arrived behind men with tambourines dressed in traditional clothes. Later they would change into a white wedding dress and suit then later still into smart more casual style clothes before retiring around midnight as the singing and dancing started. Soon after the bride and groom arrived there were speeches followed by the groom singing. Throughout it all they looked terrified and nervous, the bride barely smiled! And the groom used a traditional style fan to attempt to keep them cool in the heat. Gifts were then offered and we all stood to shake their hands along with their parents then placed the envelopes containing money in a white material covered box at the end of them.
A large bunch of balloons were then hung from the stage and two bunches of flowers were passed around to guests, when you had the flowers you would both go up on stage, the man would then burn one of the balloons off with his cigarette which they never seemed not to have then pass the cigarette to the to then pop the balloon. This game was played until all of the balloons were gone.
From twelve until one there was singing, the Indonesians love there music! Everyone was happy to get up and sing but most of the time the music was so much louder than the singing you couldn't hear the singing. It was good fun though and the Danish girls got up and sang two songs to a very happy audience : )
By one in the morning all chairs were cleared for some traditional dancing. It started with only four people holding hands in a circle and dancing around moving their joint arms back and forth and their feet to the right but the circle quickly grew. For an hour people joined the circle and left for a short while before joining again. I was surprised by how much everyone loved to dance as a group and they loved to show it us too! Two of the Danish girls joined the dancing early on but we were all told we had to dance one song before we were allowed to leave! But it was good fun even though i can't dance! Around two we took the boat back to Kadidiri arriving back around three all of us asleep on the wooden floor of the boat.

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