http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Indonesia , Sulawesi en-us Mon, 07 Dec 09 14:42:34 +0000 Mon, 07 Dec 09 14:42:34 +0000 In the first week of June 2009 I arrived after a 37 hour journey to Makassar in southern Sulawesi by a massive overloaded Pelni ship. Thousands of people piled off pushing and shoving their way each one needing to be the first one down the narrow stairway onto the concrete pier below. I couchsurfed with a wonderful and kind guy in town and the night I chose to do so I was invited to a fancy http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Tana-Toraja/blog-456401.html The last five days or so have been an exercise in going with the flow which was my goal from the beginning of this trip. I flew onto the island of Sulawesi at night landing near the metropolis of Makassar. My initial plan was to go into the city and try to find a cheap motorbike to buy on which to tour the island. But as I was getting my luggage I met a Canadian girl named Rachel who was gettin http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Tana-Toraja/blog-445440.html We travelled up to the Togeans with Tamil Marusha via Poso Ampana on the way. This was the second time we were to travel though an area that has seen sectarian violence in recent years so we were a little concerned but there was nothing to worry about and we were greeted with the usual hello's and waves as we walked around the towns. What we hadn't anticipated was how long it would take to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-442570.html Three hours east of Singapore the shape of Sulawesi started to appear. A snaking green peninsula of peaks that wound its way towards the west. Three hours in an airbus A319 was a quite a distance but our journey was not over yet. Another thirty minutes of flying saw us descend slowly over the South China Sea. The aircraft banked sharply over some small islands and cruised in between some disuse http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Menado/blog-441669.html Manado of North Sulawesi province of Indonesia...mountainous quiet Godfearing... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-439837.html In keeping with tradition our journey from Flores to Sulawesi was.. err.. interesting to put it mildly. Like we said in our last blog we'd decided to make use of the Pelni Ferries that travel all across Indonesia to get between the 2 destinations. We had no ideas on what it would be like but when the ship pulled up we got quite excited. We'd joked about it being like a cruise liner and it reall http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Tana-Toraja/blog-436139.html It has been a wile ago since I last updated this travel blog. Traveling the remote islands of Maluku Indonesia makes it very difficult to stay in touch. A dead slow internet connection and mobile phone service are only available in capital of Kota Ambon a place were we didn't stay very long and we only used as a hub to get to the different Islands of the region. A full update on this great expe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Tana-Toraja/blog-435635.html Hallo zusammenFinde mal wieder die Zeit von unseren Abenteuern in Asien zu berichten. Nachdem erfolgreichen Abschluss des Open Water Diving Courses darf ich nun tauchen gehen juhui Einen Tag nach dem Abschluss bin ich von den GIli Islands nach Lombok geschifft. Dort habe ich in Sengigi ein kleines Hotel gefunden und mir ein gemuetliches Zimmer am Strand genommen. Wollte eigentlich nicht die gan http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Makassar/blog-434793.html One day after our usual morning snorkel the clouds began to gather so we decided to go and explore the village after lunch. It was about a 30 minute walk from Lorenzo's. We'd set off another day but turned back as the temperature soared and there was little shade on the roadway. Today however with the lack of sunshine it made for a pleasant stroll. We spent a lovely afternoon speaking to the fri http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Bunaken-National-Park/blog-433576.html We have just spent the last 8 days on the island of Bunaken off the coast of Sulawesi Indonesia.Our flight to Manado was delayed by two and a half hours meaning instead of arriving at 7.50 it was 9.30pm. By the time wersquod bought our visa and cleared customs it was approaching 10.30pm.Wersquod arranged to be picked up by Vasko from Lorenzorsquos and taken to the port for the boat wersq http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Bunaken-National-Park/blog-433350.html En voila onze korte trip naar Sulawesi zit er ook al weer op Sulawesi was echt leuk een verademing na het drukkere Java. We hebben slechts een heel klein stukje van Sulawesi gedaan nl. Tana Toraja. Tana Toraja is de naam van een bevolkingsgroep en tegelijkertijd ook van het gebied waar ze wonen. Het gebied ligt in het binnenland van Sulawesi in de bergen en het vroeg een lange busrit van 10 u http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Makassar/blog-432338.html We decided to leave Bunaken and see what else Sulawesi had to offer. We spent Monday in Manado on the mainland which was a nightmare dirty noisy traffic everywhere and road signs that were impossible to follow We managed to do the essentials like Internet and buying eardrops which we were both in need of badly. None of the hotels within our budget had a shower instead they had a 'mandi' wh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Bunaken-National-Park/blog-424031.html Weird happening on the flight from Palu to Makassar the airport Customs confiscated my two DEET insect repellant canisters because they were aerosols and therefore ldquodangerousrdquo. They didnrsquot confiscate them from my handluggage note but from my checkin bag This was the seventh plane Irsquove been on this trip alone and Irsquove been on countless others on other trips and t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Makassar/blog-422984.html The late Douglas Adams when journeying to Komodo wrote something along the lines of Everything we were told in Indonesia turned out to be not true sometimes almost immediately. He didn't mean it literally of course but its pretty damn close.After returning to Gorontalo from Nantu I had time to grab a shower because I smelled like a babirusa then it was off to catch the night bus to Palu in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-422206.html One of the more unusual animals in Sulawesi is the babirusa which is a type of big hairless pig with four big tusks in the males. The lower pair of tusks grow out from the sides of the mouth like a regular pig but the upper pair grow straight upwards through the snout curving back towards the eyes like horns hence the name babirusa which is Indonesian for pig deer. Because babirusa are quite http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-422205.html Goedhellip en dat was dan alweer bijna een maand geleden sinds de laatste updatehellip excuus voor de vertraging maar we hebben dan ook een goed excuus Er is namelijk erg veel gebeurd... vooral de vakantie dan natturlijk Die was echt super nadat we helaas een paar vervelende dagen hebben overleefd voordat we weg konden... ik werd namelijk de week voro de vakantie erg ziek. Was donderdag h http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Menado/blog-419698.html My second destination after Tangkoko was Bogani Nani Wartabone formerly known by the moreeasily remembered name of DumogaBone. Nani Wartabone was a local hero who was an antiDutch guerilla. I'd read on the almighty internet that instead of staying at Kotamabagu as birders usually did one could now stay at a guesthouse in Toraut about an hour further on from Kotamabagu itself about three hou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/blog-418790.html We arrived in Lembeh on the 17th of December but something important happened earlier that morning. My camera finally arrived. I hurried my way out of the boat and then a lady gave me my camera. I called my uncle to tell him that I've received the camera and I thank him so much for it. It's in a wooden box nailed. So I couldn't open it.... hmmmmph I asked one of the guys if they had a screw dr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Lembeh/blog-418329.html We arrived in Bunaken at lunch just in time to have one dive before the sun sets. So we got our cameras ready this time my dad bought another strobe for himself it was much lighter than mine but it's not as powerful. Before we got on the boat we double checked our equipments and made sure the cameras are fine. Then we went in the boat and head straight to Lekuan 3 When we went in the wave dr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Menado/blog-418314.html My plane into Manado in the north of Sulawesi went via Makassar in the south. I was told I would just stay on board because there was no changeover but in Makassar everyone had to get off go to the transfer desk get a new ticket and then reboard exactly the same plane with the same airhostesses. It was very strange Irsquove never come across that particular way of doing it before. In Manado http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Menado/blog-417334.html