Blogs from Tana Toraja, Sulawesi, Indonesia, Asia - page 2

But before you do look at the pretty pictures of Moramo Waterfall, because it was a hell of a trek to get there. Located in Southeast Sulawesi, not far from Kendari it is not easy to reach without your own transport. Like everything else in this part of Sulawesi information is thin on the ground. Eventually, after asking around, I ended up on a shared Kijang which dropped me off at a village with the simple instruction of getting an ojek (motorcycle taxi) the rest of the way. So I stood for a while in the shade of a big tree waiting for this mystical ojek to pop-up. And so it did. A kindly old man asked me where I wanted to go and half an hour later I had arrived at my waterfall. The waterfall ... read more

It's done! The leg of the journey that I had some apprehension over - Rantepao to Tentena. It turned out to be a rather long 12h plus as expected, but mercifully the bus was actually pretty comfortable, and save for a few segments, the roads were in decent condition. And none of the passengers smoked on board! (Ok one guy did bring his lit cigarette in after a bathroom break, but he stubbed it out soon after). Hopefully the worst of my intra-Sulawesi bus journeys are now over, though there will still be a few more several-hour rides to come... And so from the Torajan highlands, bypassing vast swathes of picturesque vegetation, I'd arrived in Central Sulawesi, in the small town of Tentena which sits on the edge of Indonesia's third largest lake Danau Poso. Coming ... read more

Im südwestlichen Teil von Sulawesi wohnen hauptsächlich die Bugis, traditionell ein Stamm von Seefahrern. Die sollen in der fernen Vergangenheit westliche Seefahrer, zum Beispiel der britischen East India Company, so unbarmherzig terrorisiert haben, dass diese ihre Angst vor den "bugi men" mit nach Hause brachten. ("Bogeyman" heißt auf Deutsch soviel wie der 'schwarze Mann', was man ja aber heute gar nicht mehr sagen darf, aber "Butzemann" klingt viel zu nett.) Laut Wikipedia sind Etymologen aber anderer Meinung, da es den Begriff "bogeyman" wohl schon Jahrhunderte vor der europäischen Kolonialisierung Südostasiens gegeben haben soll, als der Westen sicher noch nichts von den Bugis gehört hatte. Unser Führer ist auch ein Bugi, aber sehr nett. Vor allem kennt er sich auch in unserem Zielgebiet, Tana Toraja, dem Land der Toraja, sehr gut aus, da seine Familie hierher kommt. ... read more

Over a Vesak long weekend holiday, I had a window of opportunity to visit the long waited destination of Tana Toraja. As usual, all the arrangements were made at the last minute: my tour (with Indonesia Adventure), accommodation at Makassar and also Garuda plane ticket from Jakarta. The thought of going to Tana Toraja was quite remote, and the destination was not in my 'near future to go to' list. Many of friends kept mentioning about visiting Toraja but were daunted by the idea of going to an unknown and remote place, so they must have been glad that I decided to check out the place! After all the arrangement was done, I decided to go without knowing if there were any funeral ceremony (most sought after event in Tana Toraja) or not. On Friday afternoon, ... read more

Majority of people who have traveled for extended period of time know that it is hard sometimes to find the excitement anymore. It can happen especially when you spend too much time in the same region of the world. I guess we got to that point in Borneo where we were so fed up with things and people that we seriously had to try hard to stay motivated to go on. We were very relieved though when we landed in Sulawesi as we knew for fact that we would love this place. From the airport we had no trouble getting to the center of Makassar by public bus (15,000/1,5$ each) and again we did some walking around to find suitable accommodation. Then and there Makassar surprised us. We walked in to probably 5 or 6 hotels ... read more