Blogs from Sulawesi, Indonesia, Asia - page 26

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 uur over hobbelige wegen om er te geraken. Natuurlijk moest de bus weer een lekke band krijgen, hoe kan het ook anders? Dagelijkse kost in Indonesië. Maar, geen nood we hadden gekozen voor de “super de luxe executive VIP aircon Mercedes bus” (ik verzin niks, zo noemde ze echt:- ): meer beenruimte dan in businessklasse op een vliegtuig, inclusief bijgeleverd dekentje en kussentje, en ... read more

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' which is basically a tank in the corner of the bathroom that's filled from a cold tap then the idea is that the water can be used, by means of a scoop, to either flush the toilet or pour over your body in an attempt to wash yourself, there's no outlet for the water so it sits in the bottom going stagnant, nice! Oh well, ... read more

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 central Sulawesi. It takes about 14 hours to get from Gorontalo to Palu and while there is a day bus its basically a waste of a day. The night bus would save me that time, and also the money for the hotel that I'd be paying otherwise, and I'd be able to get to Lore Lindu National Park a day earlier. Lore Lindu is ... read more

The next couple of days we spent snorkelling, relaxing and eating. The coral reef was reached by wading through the muddy mangrove water then swimming about 100 feet. From there the coral dropped down a huge steep slope like a rock garden, so many colours and varieties, probably the best we’ve come across ever. The fish were amazing too, large ones, tiny ones and every colour you can imagine, all around you everywhere we looked. The one downside were the two trigger fish that were especially aggressive, both Sue and Stan copped a bite and I only just avoided one as I noticed it heading towards me with a nasty look in it’s eye, I kicked out furiously with my coral shoes and it backed off! We will always be wary of that area on future ... read more

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 large creatures and tasty to eat they are now very rare over the entire island. In fact the only place where they can still be seen with any regularity is at a place called Nantu Reserve near Gorontalo, which is where I headed after Bogani Nani Wartabone national park. The only reason the babirusa are still found in any numbers there is ... read more