http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Indonesia , Sulawesi en-us Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:40:26 BST Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:40:26 BST I'm in Rantepao pronounced RANCHehpoh on the island of Sulawesi. It's a small town in an area called Tana Toraja the local people known as Torajans. I'm here to see a funeral accompanied by my guide Arun. He's 25 smiling and cheerful and he feeds me a tremendous amount of information. Can't remember it all but here are the basics.Someone has died and his spirit wanders the earth. Torajans http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Makassar/blog-320500.html Note After a severe and prolonged case of writers block I have decided that it will do no good to try and force myself to write a new entry. What follows is a collection of postcards that I wrote to an imaginary friend of mine while traveling through Sulawesi. I hope that you can follow along and make sense of the babble. Ill get my act together one of these days.Hey Suess long time no co http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-318486.html Some more photos i found from Bunaken before the camera died.Bunaken dive sites vistedLekuan 3Alung BanuaShipwreck Molas Japanese cargo vessel wrecked off ManadoLekuan 1 the demise of the camera featured notably on this diveBarracuda Point funnily enough we didn't see any barracudaBango PointSachiko's PointMuka KampungAlung Banua night dive and the best dive ever http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Bunaken-National-Park/blog-286029.html Thumbing through the latest issue of asia sport diver i happen to glance around at my fellow travellers and notice i am one of 3 others reading the same magazine coincidence or is there something more at playWaiting for my flight to Manado from Singapore i try to catch up on the latest in diving so i can feel in with the diving crowd once we touch down in Indonesia. From my observations it is http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Bunaken-National-Park/blog-285429.html Over the period of a week we quite a few dives here in Bunaken. Here are some of the photos from the week underwater. We stayed a Bastianos resort which we would definitely go back to and stay. It was great the staff were so friendly and everything was really easy more about that in another blog though this one is dedicated to diving and the memory of my late canon ixus 500.We had been diving f http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Bunaken-National-Park/blog-283061.html Ching Ching and I went to dive with Nomad Adventure Divers on the Island of Lembeh. Found some great stuff and Ching Ching got to photograph a nice crisp picture of a pygmy seahorse. http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Lembeh/blog-238892.html No soon were we back from our travels we were planning a short dive holiday to recuperate from the big holiday. As soon as we set foot in Singapore our transit location with Silkair from Kathmandu Eric suggested a Christmas in the water at Lembeh Straits the undisputed muck diving capital of the world. Having not been in the water since Thailand back in August we were itching to get wet and too http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Lembeh/blog-234237.html Long weekend de reve avec Eric et Julie a Manado un paradis pour les plongeurs...On en revait depuis longtemps et on a pas ete decus...Superbe environnement bungalows charmants surplombant la mangrove sur la petite ile de Bunaken et plongees magnifiques wall diving descente a 15 ou 20m puis on reste debout et on se laisse porter par le courant le long de tombants impressionnants parfois 1 http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Menado/blog-216492.html Tana Toraja SulawesiPohreb je v Tana Toraja velice dulezity a oblibeny obrad. Sezona pohrbu je prave tet v cervenci kdy maji v Indonesii prazniny.Kdyz zde nekdo umre kona se prvne jen maly ceremonial. Potom se telo uzavre do rakve kde se z neho casem stava mumie. Rakev je v dome v pokoji. Kazdy den mu rodina nosi ryzi a caj. To trva dokud neni sezona. Treba i rok. Potom se kona obvikle petideni http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-209754.html Two hours drive from Manado Sulawesi is Lembeh. It's a port city the Lembeh straits and island just 2kms of dark murky sea water away. Oil sheens the surface trash floats and sinks around old boats. Tough looking Indonesian port works and seamen carry massive loads up precariously leaning plank gangways loading the boats. Muscles and veins bulging blurry tattoos clearly self made they stare http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Lembeh/blog-195834.html Oceans the final frontier. These are the voyages of the scubadiver Ali. His fiveyear mission To explore strange new reefs. To seek out new fish and new nudibranches. To boldly dive where no one has dived before.Hobby or ObsessionOf all the marine environments coral reefs contain the highest diversity of species of all the reefs in the world those in South East Asia have the highest diversit http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Bunaken-National-Park/blog-194358.html In Makassar I realised that my original plan of getting to the far side of Nusa Tengarra South East Indonesia by taking a ferry to Java then using small ferries and buses would take me 87 hours of travel time not including waiting for transport. So I decided to wait for a ferry going straight to Kalabahi which was going in 5 days. It was a good decision and the fact that I made it just after http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Makassar/blog-182928.html Shortly after writing my last blog I hopped on a bus to Tana Toraja an area filled with beautiful mountains and a strange culture. On the bus I met an Oil executive from Jakarta who was returning to his village to attend his friends fathers 50 buffalo funeral and he invited me to come. Funerals in Tana Toraja are the most interesting part of a very interesting culture. While most Torajans have http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-181468.html The trip so farI have been in Indonesia for 3 days now and the first real tragedy has struck the CD containing the only copies of all my photos so far has been cracked in 2. Does anyone know if you can just glue them back together or do something a bit more advanced to get the photos back.Anyway the diffence between Malaysia and Indonesia is huge. Whereas in Malaysia lots of people spoke english http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-175020.html Well It's seems I've neglected my loyal readers for a long time now. But the truth is I wasn't really in a writting mood. But Since the weeks are piling up since the last entry I figured I better get off my ass and write something before I start to forget all the details of my life since the the last blog. I actually uploaded the pictures for this blog about a month ago now but just didn't know w http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Bunaken-National-Park/blog-168613.html After months of waiting for my contract and visa I finally moved to Papua New Guinea in January 2007. So far it has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I'll hopefully publish an entry on life here soon.... Nonetheless after spending 4 months in Port Moresby I was quite ready for a little break. The opportunity came when I met up with my parents and brother for a scubadiving reunion i http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Bunaken-National-Park/blog-167945.html eating at the funeralBullfights babyllllhmmmm well hello again I know I know its been awhile and I promised to write more.... but well I suck So where are we ahhhh Indonesia I had quite a time there this was defiantly the most unique culture I'd seen and I feel by now that's a real statement. After a prolonged stay in Bali Isl. Matt Yulianna And I set off for the isl. Of Sulawesi this is an http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-155943.html Tana torajathe land of the Torajasis centrally located in the highland of southern Sulawesi. The area is fameous for the strangelooking traditonal noblemanhomes and its strong traditions connected with the death. Saying that death attract the tourists is no overstatement. I start my deathtouring in the tranquil little village of Lemo midway between Rantepao the comercial centre of Tana Toraja a http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-150322.html From Terminal Mallengkeri i took the southbound kijang Bira on the very southern tip of Sulawesi is my destination. South of Makassar the peninsula is dry and unproductive compared to the rest of the island. Agriculture isnrsquot as big here as further north. Instead people find their livehood in fishing boatbuilding and saltproduction. Some places the beaches are littered with smalloutrigged http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-150317.html Ujung Pandang or Makassar as it traditionally is named is huge and confusing. The city has at least three bemoterminals situated way to far away from eachother. The bemos driving trough the city to and from the different terminals will in the holy name of profit pick you up wether it is the right bemo or not. Here you have to be on the alert all the time or you might end up far away from the pl http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Makassar/blog-150316.html I dag ar det jamt fyra manader sedan vi lamnade Finland. Joonas och jag sitter som bast i ett internetcafe och organiserar med vara kameror och fotocdn. Vi har manga kopior for att vara pa den sakra sidan. Man vill ju inte forlora nagra bilder. Det var ocksa en tid sen man kollade nyheterna sa det ar intressant att se vad som har hant i fotbollsvarlden for andra nyheter intresserar inte. Och p http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-150140.html HejAllting braSitter vi en sa opalitlig dator att jag fattar mig kort.Vi ar nu i Gorontalo norra Sulawesi. Vi aker pa onsdagen till Togean Islands. Har finns ingen horbarhet sa jag antar att det inte finns nagon pa Togean heller. Vi ar kanske tre veckor dar sa vi hors nasta gang da. Luca flyger 8.4 till Jakarta och darifran vidare till Bankok 10.4. Joonas och jag blir antagligen pa Togean oc http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Menado/blog-142064.html We had an early start for the second part of our Torajan adventure there was a lot to pack into one day. The traditions surrounding funeral rites are a fascinating and rich part of Torajan culture. The emergence of christianity as a major faith in the area has introduced new values but the more traditional animistic beliefs surrounding death and ritual are still in place today. The result is an http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-135852.html Sulawesi is one of the main inslands in Indonesia. It has a peculiar spiderlike shape and stretches across the equator therefore having a hot wet climate. We had been warned by various sources about ongoing tensions in central Sulawesi between Christians and Muslims. This trouble reached a climax in 2005 when three christian schoolgirls were tragically beheaded. Fortunately we had no intenti http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-131114.html leaving tana toraja with a fello english man we both had our eyes set on a cheap and cheerful travel plan. 8 hours on a cramped bus seat took us to malili in the north of south east sulawesi. we had our sights of traveling south but with every map we could find having a 100km section showing no roads and no way through we decided to chance it. fed up of buses and arguing about prices we tested o http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Makassar/blog-126526.html new years was spent visiting a few churches the gospel type of singing attracted my attention but the noise from roaring motor bike and cars attracted it more. at midnight i wondered into town a short walk from my hostel the streets were dead and no one around. i followed the noise and turned a few corners to where i found the midnight club rantepaos street racers. the streets were now packed http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Makassar/blog-126511.html seeing much of the local area by motor bike and only having day visits to certain areas i began to want something that lasted a bit longer. i came across some good information about where i could hike. after shopping for some emergency supplies to last 5 days i left the shop with 1 bottle of water and a packet of the cheapest biscuits which later turned out to have a split down the under side of http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Makassar/blog-126505.html leaving dili behind and returning to indonesia filled me with excitement but it seemed i wouldn't make it as i planned my dili bus to the border was late leaving and continued to plod along 1 hour later something to do with the accelerator broke and 30 mins on still nothing another bus bus passed and our already over crowded bus pilled into another over crowed bus with no space to breath le http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Makassar/blog-126488.html Stranded in Sulawesi with his visa running out little Philly finds a sponser so he can extend his visa for a month in order not to get arrested. He travels to Tana Toraja 200 km north with some friends in the middle of a storm and has four trees blow into the road. The locals furiously hack away at them with their tiny pick axes they had recently aquired from Christmas crackers to clear a path i http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-118929.html MAKASSAR......ANKUNFT IM HAFEN DER LEGENDREN SEEFAHRER.....HEIMAT DER BUGIS....mit der billigfluglinie lionair gings von bali denpasar in richtung norden. der spektakulre flug ber den vulkan gunung agung mit seinen ber 3000 metern dauerte knapp eineinhalb stunden und brachte uns auf eine insel die sich von bali oder auch lombok wesentlich unterscheidet. SULAWESI....in der vergangenheit ein http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Makassar/blog-64620.html