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Published: January 29th 2011
Okay, so after 4 months in China and Southeast Asia, I think I've become a little complacent. Travelling has been just a little TOO easy. Fortunately, I've landed in Indonesia, and now everything I thought I knew seems to have been turned on its head. That may sound a bit odd, but it's definitely how I've felt the first two weeks here. And it's both big and little things - 1) soda cans have changed size (now 250mL), 2) people are driving on the left (same as Thailand but none of the other countries), 3) there are Dunkin' Donuts everywhere (at least at all the airports I've been to), 4) I've found a fruit that is shaped like and egg and looks and feels like it's coated in snake leather, 5) almost no one is drinking beer (they are all hitting the home brewed palm wine), 6) every person I meet is Barak Obama's #1 Fan, etc.
A SCENE OUT OF MAD MAX
So my first experience with Indonesian buses was a rather harrowing one. My first bus ride was a 20-hour affair (overnight) across a good chunk of Southern Borneo. The bus took off at 4pm and headed off
into what started out to be a fairly nice sunset. The weather didn't hold up, though, and the sky slowly turned a weird mix of grey, green, and yellow, and the rain started coming down. Now, this wouldn't normally even catch my attention, but Indonesian roads have the interesting characteristic that they are 98-99% fantastic (almost new asphalt) coupled with 1% of the worst potholes I've ever seen / experienced. So, with these roads, what happens is that everyone goes really fast and then brakes SUPER hard or swerves when a pothole comes up. Oh, and they tailgate too! So when the car in front swerves at the last minute, all hell breaks out in the cars behind as they dodge and weave to miss the unexpected obstacle. There were more than a number of times when we'd go from four cars in a row to four cars nearly abreast in a matter of a couple of seconds. And then it became a game where oncoming traffic had to dodge a front of oncoming cars, and there were several times where motorbikes swerved around and passed us on both shoulders while oncoming traffic passed by in between. Now add to
this a little lightning - making it look like the coming apocalypse - and ponchos that billowed out like black capes behind all of the motorcycle drivers, and you have a rather terrifying experience. It really is pretty terrifying to look out of your window when lightning flashes, your bus swerves to avoid a pothole, and suddenly there are three or four amorphous shapes with black capes whizzing past your window!
ANYONE WANT TO WATCH A SEXY VIDEO?
As a lot of you will know, Islam is the main religion of Indonesia. And, if you don't know this before coming, it's easy to tell by the number of women wearing headscarves (depending on where you are). On the above mentioned bus ride, every woman on the bus was wearing a headscarf, so I figured I was in a more heavily Islamic part of the country. And then the music videos started playing (blaringly loud)! A lot of the buses I've been on have had some form of music videos, but these were just ridiculous. All of the videos featured three women in skimpy lingerie dancing and thrusting in more than suggestive ways, and all of the songs had "SEX"
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Bangkok taxis really do look like tropical candy on wheels!in the title including one just called "SEXY." Well, I was feeling a little uncomfortable because I thought all of the women around me were uncomfortable, so I started getting a bit tense. I think lady next to me saw me squirming a bit, so she asked if I liked the music. I kind of blurted out "no" because I was so on edge. As soon as I said it and saw the disappointed look on her face, I realized that she had actually been asking about the music (which was okay) and not the video. I thought about trying to explain what I meant but given our very limited ability to communicate (she knew just a few words of English), I figured it was better to just leave my foot firmly planted in my mouth rather than trying to swallow it further.
THE BOY WHO LIVED
For an encore to bus ride number one, I decided to take an overnight bus on the island of Sulawessi from Makassar to Tana Toraja. Now, those who know me well know that I can sleep anywhere and that I am especially prone to falling asleep on planes and buses. Normally this
is a blessing, but in the case of the aforementioned Indonesian road system, it's almost a life threatening scenario. Well, true to form, I fell asleep within 30 minutes of getting on the bus, and in the course of the first hour I banged my head three different times for three different potholes. I didn't think much of it at first, but when my head still hurt 10 minutes after the third hit, I reached up to check for a bump. Now, there was no bump, but when I pulled my hand back it was absolutely COVERED in blood! At 11pm at night on a bus that is 7 hours from its destination, this is a bit disconcerting. I didn't really know how to check how bad things were, so I just proceeded to clean myself up with some hand sanitizer and toilet paper (I always carry some with me). After I got myself cleaned up, I realized I could use my camera to survey the damage, so I took a couple of photos and discovered about an inch and a half gash in my forehead (see photos below). It's been a couple of days since the accident now, and
the cut looks to be healing nicely. I'm hoping it doesn't leave a scar, but if it does, I'm hoping for a lightning bolt!!!
THE ENGLISH TEACHER
On a bit of a lighter (and shorter) note - I found myself a position as a volunteer English teacher in Borneo. I landed in Pangkalan Bun (my first stop in Indonesia) after a little more than 24 hours of travelling from Krabi, Thailand (4 hours on a bus, 5 hours on planes, and 15 hours in various airports including sleeping overnight on a bench in the Jakarta airport), so I was pretty out of it. I planned to just walk around for a few hours before crashing early to get back on a normal schedule, but life (and my inability to say "no") had other plans. After about an hour of walking through some of the backstreets, one of the locals asked if I would come help his students with their English. So I spent the afternoon interviewing and being interviewed by a handful of 10-12 year-old Indonesian kids. The experience was really great, and the best part was when the youngest boy - a total joker who told me to
call him "handsome" - sang me his favorite Michael Jackson song! Now, whatever he sang was definitely NOT Michael! It sounded a whole lot more like Barry Mannilow, but he sang it with gusto!
I'M NOT SURE IF HE'S CRAZY OR JUST REALLY GOOD
As you'll see from the pictures, I took a trip to see some orangutans (both wild and semi wild) in Borneo at Tanjung Puting National Park. To visit the park I had to find a guide who could organize the trip and take me (not necessary but definitely recommended). Well, I found Andres (a former ranger of 8 years at the park) at the airport and decided that he'd be a good guide. And he totally was! He knew all of the semi-wild (re-introduced) orangutans by face and behavior. Now, for the most part, this was really helpful, but on the second day it also meant that I had a very close encounter with the dominant male orangutan - Tom. Tom was sitting on the trail blocking the way out of the park and there were three guides and 6 other tourists just waiting there for him to move. For Andres, he knew Tom "well
enough" to talk to him and ease by him with me in tow. It was pretty amazing to get within just a few feet of a 130kg orangutan, and I have a few pictures below looking back at him with the other guides on the other side still looking a wee bit worried!
SECURITY? WHAT SECURITY?!?
To get to Pangkalan Bun, I had to wait until I landed in Banjarmasin, Borneo before I could buy the plane ticket to fly there - a weird rule about Indonesian flights needing to be bough with cash or Indonesian credit cards. So I landed in Banjarmasin at around 8am and walked out to the airline counter for KalStar Airlines and bought a plane ticket (had written - see photo below) WITH CASH just 30 minutes after landing - WITH NO ID CHECK. I then walked through security - WITH NO ID CHECK. I then boarded the plane - WITH NO ID CHECK! Crazy!!!
CRAZY ABOUT DEATH!
Okay, I don't want to sound too much like the Lonely Planet, but Tana Toraja (a region in Southern Sulawesi) is really one of the most beautiful and brutal/bizarre places you could ever imagine. The
landscape of steep limestone mountains and emerald green rice terraces is as pretty as can be, and the people are absolutely obsessed with death. Death is such a big thing here that funerals are the main reason people visit. Funerals can take anywhere from 4-7 days and takes months to years to save for and plan. On my second day here I went with a guide to the second day of one of these funerals. The woman who was to be buried died 3 years ago, and the body had been kept in the house (in a special room) for that whole time. Guests and family members are to treat the person/body as though it is still alive (talking to it and setting out food) until the official funeral and necessary slaughtering of animals can send the soul on it's way to the next life. In the case of the funeral I went to, the woman to be buried was quite senior in her village, so more than 30 buffalo and 50 pigs had been gathered to be sacrificed. Fortunately the sacrificing was to be the next day, so I only had to stomach one pig being slaughtered. And just
so you know how strong these traditions run, I learned that the woman was Catholic (I don't think the Pope would think too highly of the ceremony).
CHESTER COPPERPOT! HEY GUYS, IT'S CHESTER COPPERPOT
Continuing with the theme of death, the Torojans (people of Tana Toraja) also build some graves in cliffs and caves to protect the bodies and the valuables sent along with them in death. To watch over the caves, they build mannequins / effigies in the likeness of the deceased, and they change their clothes every now and again so they don't look too old.
Now, in one of my less sane moments, I decided to visit one of these caves, and it was just about the creepiest thing I've ever done! Just imagine a cave with a few skulls outside and then a whole bunch of coffins - some rotted open - crammed into the first chamber (see pics below). In the cave I visited, the coffins stopped after the first two chambers, but the cave was much deeper. I walked in for maybe 10-15 minutes on my own with just a little headlamp. Every now and again as I walked, I would hear
or feel a bat flap past my head (feeling the air pressure from a bats wings is SUPER spooky). And, when I got to the back of the cave, I noticed two bright green dots glowing in the beam of my flashlight. When I went in for a closer look, it turned out that it was a spider bigger than my open hand (maybe 8-9 inches in diameter). Now that I'd seen that first one, I was on the look out for more, and on the way out I must have passed 30 or more. They'd been right next to me on the way in, but I never caught the reflection of their eyes so I missed them the first time through. Needless to say, i was an experience to make Steven Spielberg and the Goonies proud, and I breathed more than a small sigh of relief when I made it out unscathed.
CASEY AT THE BAT
I was walking down the street by my hostel yesterday and saw four boys (8-10 years old) trying to play baseball / cricket - I'm not really sure which. All I know is that they were trying to hit a tennis ball
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This guy actually got in a good jab and cut me when I turned over his rock. with a wooden stick. It was pretty hilarious, though, because they smallest one was trying to pitch, and he was trying to throw it as hard as he could. Unfortunately, throwing it as hard as he could meant that the ball arced up in the air about 20 feet and usually ended up 15 feet from the batter - including a couple of pitches that ended up over a hedge behind the batter. Realizing that I should put my little league skills to good use, I offered to pitch for them, and they got really excited. For about 10 minutes I was in a groove throwing strikes (not too hard from 15 feet away but I was trying to hit the strike zone of kids who were under 4 feet tall), and the kids were having a blast. And then "mighty Casey" (the biggest of the boys) stepped to the plate. He swung and missed at the first pitch, fouled off the second, and then hit a line drive over my head. It was a pretty amazing shot given he was using a stick, but I kind of wish "mighty Casey" had struck out because the ball took an unfortunate
bounce and ended up in a polluted ditch next to a dead dog. At that point, I decided it was time to call in a relief pitcher 'cause I wasn't going near that ball again!
NOT SO BAD TO THE BONE
Okay, I have to admit, I love renting motorbikes / mopeds. There's something really awesome about being able to zip around wherever you like, and I'm pretty crazy when it comes to exploring with them. Over the last two days, I took a moto all over the mountains of the Tana Toraja region in Sulawesi, Indonesia, and I felt like a total bad ass for being able to ride up and over some of the crazy dirt tracks that are called mountain roads. Now, there was just one thing that took the wind out of my sails - the legal driving age in Indonesia is 17 which means that kids in town actually start driving when they are about 14. And kids up in the mountains start driving when they are around10. I can't tell you how many times I passed by a 10-year-old driving a manual motorbike (I only know how to drive an automatic) going like
a bat out of hell. I even got passed by what must have been an 7- or 8-year-old (he had to stand up to see over the handle bars) who stole the family motorbike and was taking it for a joy ride. I'm guessing it was his first time because he was weaving like he was three sheets to the wind and he was giggling the whole way while his mom and brothers ran after him down the hill!!!
And now for a few quick notes:
1) The green ice cream is the picture is avocado flavored! And it was actually pretty good.
2) There's a picture of a bunch of taxis in Bangkok. I love them because they are so brightly colored. From overhead in a plane it must look like someone spilled a bag of tropical Skittles across the city.
3) For those who like fried wontons, you should try something called a "super martabak" from one of the street vendors in Rantepao (Sulawesi, Indonesia). They taste just like wontons but are about the size of a nerf football!
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littlewing
Cindy
Love your blog - skull caves fascinate me - you've just given me another place to get to one day :-)