Blogs from Sulawesi, Indonesia, Asia - page 27

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 driver, luckily yhey did. My dad opened it for me. OOooolala, it's here. And I'm so happy. I quickly checked if it was working, then I played around with it. This really made my day. As we arrived in Lembeh, we quickly put our suitcases in our room, then we had lunch. After that we went diving, ... read more

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 drifts me away from the boat and I didn't have enough time to get my camera. So my dad carried it down for me, although he had many things on him already. As soon as we descend, I felt a problem with my regulator mouth piece, water kept coming in. I checked it and found that there ... read more

Tana Toraja, most definitely an area of outstanding natural beauty. We enjoyed Tentana, an area 10hrs north by car. However due to sectarian troubles between Christians and Muslims travel in this area is not recommended by the Home office. We were unaware of this, thankfully, so spent a few days enjoying the scenery of rolling hills covered in forests and cocoa plantations, the friendly people, and the absence of tourists. By this time we had ‘chummed up’ with team Dutch, a lovely Hollander couple we met on the Togean islands and found a shared sense of humour. We drove south to Toraja through yet more beautiful scenery, more rainforest than we saw in borneo and arrived in a very comfortable hotel. The area is famous for it’s elaborate animist funeral ceremonies, we got ourselves a guide ... read more

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-shmancy wedding. 2,000 people, all swanky and dressed to the nines, attended the function held in multiple ballrooms of a "five star" hotel. The guests, all people of high class and clout (even the governor of Sulawesi was in attendance) were dressed so fancily and here I was in my backpacker's finest. Ha! Tell me I didn't stand out! Eight buffets ... read more

From Malaysia, I crossed into Indonesia (Tawau Nunukan Tarakan) and caught a plane to Balikpapan Manado, a city in northern Sulawesi, Indonesia. I was going to meet someone I'd been talking with through couchsurfing (for those of you who do not know, it is worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit...and also something I had done several times in Canada and had a good experience with). David, who is my age and also has a marine science background, had already told me that he would be going to Siau to start work with the government there, and I agreed to join him. Siau is one of the sitaro islands, located about 130 km north of Manado. This island has no infrastructure for tourism whatsoever, but has all ... read more