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Published: March 17th 2011
So I guess we have not really done any entries in Indonesia. Here is a recap:
Bali-
We arrived after 7 weeks in Australia and well felt a bit like we had landed in Australia. Don't think I ever need to return to Bali. Extremely touristic, beaches literally covered in trash and lots of Australian tourists in Beer Bintang tank tops. Not that there is anything wrong with any of that, just not my cup of tea. On one day we did manage to find a waterfall with no other Westerners and that was nice, but that was about it.
Java-
From Bali we took a mini-bus, then a ferry, then a bemo, then a bus, then a minibus to our first destination - Mt. Bromo or Gurung Bromo. Now that was amazing. We arrived as the volcano was still erupting and the night we arrived we could see spurts of bright red and orange lava against the black sky. Truly a once in a lifetime experience; unless of course you live in Cemora Lawang or one of the other villages in which case this is a pretty normal occurrence. It was difficult to sleep with the frequent floor shaking
booms, but it was worth it. Just to test the volcano we took the trail into the crater below Bromo and had a look around the temple and the desolate landscape. Wow. Next we stopped over in Surabaya to catch a ferry to Makassar, on the island of Sulawesi. Ferry was 22 hours and we slept on the hard floor of the outside deck. (Our assigned bunks were 5 decks down crawling with cockroaches, bed bugs and lots of cigarette smoke.)
Sulawesi-
Once we arrived in Makassar we stayed 2 nights to get rested, hit an atm and get a bus ticket out. First stop Rantepao, gateway to Tana Toraja. Now this is a place I have wanted to go for a long time. While studying at SFAI I took a class that focused a lot on the culture and customs of the Toraja people. I was not disappointed. The second day there we attended a traditional Toraja funeral, the event for which they are most well know, and it was amazing. We sat with a family and ate snacks and drank tea while some men were working on readying the ground for where the animal sacrifices would take
place. The children and grandchildren in the family of the deceased were dressed in elaborate costumes with lots of makeup and perfectly set hair, slightly resembling the look of Chinese opera. The first pig was killed to announce that all of the necessary family were in attendance and shortly after the sacrifice of the first buffalo, followed by the skinning and well you get the idea ... We were then invited to eat with some of the family members, a little turned off as we were served pork, but we managed to eat a bit anyhow. After some more merriment with the family we left to go and explore some other historical sights. *I would love to share more details with anyone who would like them - also if interested look up Toraja Funeral Customs on the internet - very interesting culture. We did some trekking in the area staying in a traditional house owned by a Toraja family. Beautiful scenery on the trek and we had a lot of great encounters with local people. After about 4 days we decided to head off to our next destination.
Ahhh the Togean Islands. Took 2 days and countless hours in
a variety of vehicles, but so worth it. Amazing white sand beaches, crystal clear turqoise water, palm trees, bungalows with hammocks, great coral reef and the list goes on. We stayed 7 nights and basically did what anyone would do - swam, sunned and snorkeled. There are not restaurants or towns on the islands so you are served meals three times a day, usually banana pancake for breakfast and rice with fish and a vegetable of some sort for lunch and dinner. Not really sure what else to write - if you can picture paradise this was it.
After 7 nights we realized we had to move on. The last 2 1/2 days have involved 10 different modes of transportation to arrive at our current location. Let's just say one of those legs - from Ampana to Palu in Sulawesi by mini-bus was a little scary. I believe our driver was extremely tired as it was a 12 hour overnight trip and his driving showed it. Andrew and I both sat awake and watched to yell "hati-hati" (caution) when we nearly hit some people and in case of any other close calls. I think I am getting too old
for night buses...
back to Java-
Flew back to Surabaya on the island of Java and stayed one night. Just arrived today in Yogyjakarta. Andrew has been sick with food poisoning (we are now even as I was sick for a day in Sulawesi), so today we are relaxing, doing internet stuff done, getting our extremely smelly clothes laundered ...
Think that's about it.
Happy birthday to Brandon, Audrey, Hailey, JJ, TB, DC, TS, and KJJ
alyssa
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Dad
non-member comment
Thanks for the great pictures and stories of your adventures. I'm glad you weren't affected by the earthquake and tsunami. And Alyssa, nice haircut!! Thanks for the wonderful pictures and stories..