Palu (16-18 Apr 15)

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After leaving the Togeans, I took the 4h return ferry back to Ampana, then after a 2.5h or so wait, managed to get on a connecting minivan for the 5h ride to Poso, where I stayed overnight, and had internet access again for the first time in four days (woohoo!). Then the next day, it was another long 6h ride to Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi and my final stop on this trip, from where I would take the connecting flight to Jakarta before returning home.

There's not much to say about Palu. Notwithstanding its dark, relatively recent history of violence, it seems to be a rather soul-less and dusty, dusty town, and it figures cos LP says it's apparently one of the driest places in all of Indonesia, due to it's location within some sort of rain shelter (?) I can vouch that during my short stay here there was indeed nary a hint of a drizzle, in sharp contrast to Rantepao in Tana Toraja where it rained pretty much every afternoon on cue, and also my more distant memories of Bogor during my Java trip three years ago, which lived up to its moniker of Kota Hujan, or City of Rain.

And so with that I prepare to bid farewell to Sulawesi, the crazy-looking enormous island that I still distinctly remember first seeing on the map years ago as a curious primary school student. Even though I'd already made trips to Java and Sumatra, and thus had an idea of what to expect backpacking in Indonesia, I still recall the slight apprehension before my arrival in Makassar just two weeks ago. The lower population density is certainly very apparent compared to Java, and even though I'd thought from LP's warnings the infrastructure might be worse than Sumatra, and the bus rides even hairier, apart from a few sections of broken/ muddied roads, transportation around the massive island turned out to be less of an ordeal that I'd feared. Perhaps the only inconvenience was the obviously lower frequency of inter-provincial transport, with hours of waiting in between scheduled trips, compared to my just flag-it-down-and-hop-on-in-five-minutes experience in Java.

Goodbye Sulawesi, perhaps we'll meet again someday...

Stayed at Losmen Alugoro and Hotel Sentral.

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Photos

Checkmate!
Second time I've seen people playing chess in a smallish Indonesian town (I still distinctly remember the first time in Berastagi in Sumatra). The guy on the left was clearly better and a little obnoxious about it though. It's a little small, but see if you can spot a mis-positioning of the starting positions of the pieces. I'll give you a hint, it's the black pieces...

Poso-Palu
Several times during my inter-provincial bus rides here in Sulawesi we've stopped at a rumah makan, and customers have had the chance to select their fish dinner from a styrofoam ice box, after which it's charcoal-grilled nicely. Somehow I feel I'm going to miss this.

Palu
When I saw these goats I couldn't help but think about Adam Sandler's You Don't Mess with the Zohan movie.

One Dollar Es Potong Singapore
It never ceases to surprise me the random references to Singapore that I've unexpectedly come across in the most unlikely places during my travels the last three years...

Palu Provincial Museum
Pretty nice from the outside.

Palu Provincial Museum
But it was completely decrepit and un-maintained on the inside. This mural wall and buffalo head were pretty much the only things left.

Cheap Gym!
Only Rp20k for single use. My kind of gym!