I spent 2 months in Indonesia but it seems like it was such a short time. Part of that of course is all the scuba diving I did. There is so much diving to do in Indonesia it’s actually like visiting two very large countries at once instead of just one. I can’t imagine a better time then buying a boat, some tanks and a compressor and spending a year sailing and diving around Indonesia. But if diving isn’t  your thing there is still plenty of stuff to do and things to see.

When you travel in SE Asia each country seems to call an internet cafe a slightly different thing. If you don’t use the exact phrase in the country even saying words like “internet” “email” “skype” and pantomiming typing won’t help you locate an place to access the web. In Indonesia ask for “warnet” which is short for “warung internet” Asking for anything else will more times than not result in blank stares.

Flying between islands in Indonesia can be pricey and the further east I went the more expensive it got. Additionally, unlike other parts of SE Asia, the price typically doubles if you try and purchase a ticket inside of a week from your flying date. So if you are on a tight budget and don’t want to waste days on ferries you will need to do some advanced planning.

Most domestic airlines in Indonesia either do not have a website or have a very limited website (some still issue handwritten tickets which I thought I would only see in Myanmar) so online booking is generally not possible. But they all have ticket offices at the airport. So when you land in a new city at the least take some time to check the available airlines to your next destination along with their flight schedules, seat availability and pricing. Because finding a booking office in town can be a pain in the ass and you never feel you are being told about all your available options, you might want to just go ahead and book a ticket at the airport when you arrive. 

I can’t stress the airline tip enough. When I went to book a ticket from Sorong to Jayapura all the flights were sold out for 5 days straight and I had to radically alter my travel plans. If I had booked a ticket once I had arrived in Sorong, I would have had a seamless transition from diving Raja Ampat to trekking the Baliem Valley.

There are some Indonesians who have these crazy patterned irises. They are either black or really dark blue (I can’t tell) surrounded by an ice blue ring a couple mm in width. Supposedly on Lombok there are lots of people with these irises, but I only saw it on a couple of older men while I was boarding a plane. I felt awkward asking a man for a picture of his eye so I don’t have picture to show y’all.

Clove cigarettes are an Indonesian invention. As such they are everywhere. You can even go on a Djarum factory tour Kudus. Seeing as they are now illegal in America (although a recent WTO ruling may change that),  if you are a huge fan of clove cigarettes you should probably plan a trip to Indonesia.

When you get into the countryside you will see guns. It was the first country in SE Asia where I saw civilians with guns. So it’s a curious sight especially when a guy flies by you on a motobike with a shotgun strapped to his back (that happened a handful of times). One guy had a shotgun with a bright pink stock….made me wonder if Mattel ever produced a “Shotgun Barbie”.

(A gun related PSA)

Pocari Sweat is a Japanese isotonic drink which is available all over Indonesia. After being in Malaysia where a 100plus really hits the spot on a hot day, I had high hopes for Pocari Sweat despite its odd name.

I don’t know what a pocari is, but its sweat does not taste good.

The official language of Indonesia (“Bahasa Indonesia”) is the second language of basically every Indonesian. Javanese is primary language on Java, Balanese on Bali. On Flores there are 6 different local languages.  But if someone from Java was speaking to someone from Flores they would speak Bahasa. As such, Bahasa is a relatively simple language in terms of grammar and quite easy to pick up. I suck at languages and after two months I could communicate somewhat with people in Bahasa. Additionally Bahasa is like very close to Malaysian (200 words or so different) so there is an added benefit to trying to pick it up.

Indonesia is a fascinating place with plenty to do and see. If you want more Western style vacationing then you can head to Bali. If you want something more remote, there are hundreds of islands to explore. And if you want something to challenge you, Indonesia has that too. For example you could climb the  highest point between the Himalayas and the Andes (interestingly it’s technically the highest peak of the Australian continent).

Visa restrictions make it a bit difficult to see it all in one go, but that’s not a problem because you’ll want to come back anyway.

but for some reason there was a haunted house in Makassar from the middle of December to the middle of January. It was held at the 

It was held at the Monumen Mandala which celebrates the “liberation” of Paupua (funny that it’s a 2 hour flight away from the site of said liberation), which in some ways does look like the setting for some fantasy/horror movie.

Well officially it’s just South Sulawesi, but seeing as the island has two “legs” at the bottom and one is called Southeast Sulawesi it’s easier in my mind to distinguish by calling the other Southwest Sulawesi.

Tana Toraja is easily the most popular tourist destination in this region. The highlight is of course the funeral ceremony. Many of the big ones are planned months in advance so it’s worth it to check to see what is going on in the area a few weeks before you head there and adjust your schedule accordingly.

Missing out on a 200 buffalo funeral by a day or two simply because you didn’t check out the situation in advance would be disappointing.

Likely you will arrive in Makassar via plane or ferry. It’s a large port city with over a million residents. The main tourist area is Fort Rotterdam which was being refurbished when I was there. It’s an interesting fort worth a visit.

There is also a historic port with Bugis ships a few kilometers away but it was dumping rain and I didn’t go. Other than that, Makassar has a lot of food stalls to sample the local fare and a ton of red-light karaoke. So unlike Bitung, it’s port city acts like one.

From Makassar you will head by bus directly to Tana Toraja as it’s the most easily accessible tourist attraction (check out Charisma Transport with onboard wifi). Although there are night busses for the 8 hour trip, there are some amazing patches of scenery on the route to Tana Toraja that you might not want to miss. The best of these is the area between Anggeraja and Kalosi. The bus rides on the edge of a fantastic valley with some dramatic sheer rock faces.

I don’t know whether it’s possible, but if anyone mentions kayaking from Tana Toraja past Anggeraja I would seriously consider doing it (if you live in the area and have happened upon this blog….please run with this idea. I would love to paddle down this stretch of river the next time I am in the area). The valley was so picturesque (and different from Tana Toraja) that I wish I could have spent some time there.

As for Tana Toraja itself…the northern area has better scenery and is where most of the trekking in the area is done (take note of the fish holes? and gold fish in the terraced rice paddies…it’s the only place in SE Asia I recall seeing such a thing).

(the holes below are for the fish to hide in when they are planting or harvesting the paddy)

While some of the views are great, the trekking doesn’t feel that remote. The roads are being improved and much of the area is now accessible to cars (you really can’t find a place that isn’t accessible to motobikes)

(graves carved into the stone)

BTW make sure to see the odd infant tree graves. Holes were carved in these special trees and the deceased infants were placed inside. The hole is covered with bark that is lashed to the tree until the tree grows over the hole. Supposedly this tree had 20 infants buried within it.

Your better bet is to do your trekking in Mamasa. It’s not as frequented by tourists, has less infrastructure and religious beliefs – most important being the funeral ceremony – in Mamasa is the same as Tana Toraja. The main difference between the inhabitants of Mamasa and Tana Toraja is in how the houses are constructed.

My thought would be to spend a day in Tana Toraja doing a motorbike tour of the north seeing a few villages and unless there is a huge funeral about to begin then heading to Mamasa for some trekking. Or perhaps heading to Mamasa would be the trek itself….the guidebook says Mamasa is only accessible via a trek from Tana Toraja but when I discussed the possibility of going there, my guide didn’t mention it’s inaccessibility. Things change fast in a country like Indonesia so guidebooks are out of date from the moment they are published. Make sure to ask questions and not just rely on the guidebook.

Other than that, on the way out of Rantepao in Tana Toraja I passed by the main mosque and wish I had checked it out while I was there…it is unique in the fact that in incorporates Torajan architecture. I know that the vast majority of Torajans are Christian and I presumed the Muslims in the area were just transplants so I wasn’t expecting that.

So I am not sure about how law firms  work in Indonesia, but there is a chain of law offices that seemingly has an office in every town with over 500 people in the country. They must employ thousands of attorneys.

After having to abort my idea of trekking in the Baliem Valley and seeing the Dani (who I briefly studied in school) I headed to Tana Toraja (via Makassar) to attend a funeral. Not a funeral for anyone I knew, but rather to attend a local funeral.

See as odd as it sounds, funerals are the thing to to in Tana Toraja. They are rather large spectacles lasting sometimes up to 6 days with my guide claiming the biggest ones attract millions of visitors (I might agree with tens of thousands) The centerpiece of the funeral is when the buffalo and pigs are sacrificed to aid the deceased (who has in some cases has actually been dead for more than 10 years) in getting to the afterlife. The more wealthy and powerful the person the more animals are sacrificed…..if the number gets big enough a family commemorates the funeral with a large hand carved monolith that is placed at near the village or the village burial area.

And what do I mean by large amount of sacrificed animals….we’re talking 150-300 water buffalo to get a proper monolith. And that doesn’t even include the pigs that are sacrificed….those are brought by the guests and don’t count toward the total.

At the funeral I attended there were 9 buffalo sacrificed (and at least 15 pigs) so a smaller funeral.

(pigs the guests dropped off waiting for their turn to face the executioner)

By the time I got there the buffalo had already been killed (sliced throats) and about 10-15 men were in the process of skinning them. Set up around the sacrificial area was for lack of a better term pavilion with sitting areas for guests and an area where the casket of the deceased was on display (if I recall he had been dead for 4 months).

I should mention that it’s not only the number of buffalo that are sacrificed but also the quality of buffalo. Albino buffalo or buffalo with partial albinism are prized and can cost upwards of 300,000,000 rupee at auction (around $30,000 USD). So I guess if you sacrificed 30 albino buffalo that might be equivalent of say 150 normal ones…I really didn’t clear that point up.

Anywho, everyone sits around drinking coffee and this alcoholic drink made from palm trees which I think is pre-distilled arak (it was on the sour side….so considering my love of Flanders red ale I enjoyed it) chit-chatting and watching the men at work.

It’s not an event for the squeamish. First the animals are skinned then they are butchered. The animals are on bare ground and men go about their business standing – most of them barefooted – in mud created not from water but from buffalo blood. On top of that there seemingly a millions flies which gather on the skinned corpses waiting to be butchered. When the butchers walk by the flies take take to the air and everything goes black for a few seconds. The butchers knives are ridiculously sharp and they go about their business rather quickly. After the skinning is complete, everyone takes lunch. It was a simple lunch…strangely considering the dead buffalo and pigs around we had fish.

After that lunch the men go back to work. Cuts of buffalo were removed quickly and effortlessly. A cutting implement somewhere between an axe and a meat cleaver was brought out to cut through bigger bones. By this time you nose isn’t really registering the smell of blood and earth but when they cut open the stomach and dump out the partially digested grass….well your olfactory sense comes back to life. It suddenly smells like being in a barn full of hay.

After the butchering is done, the village chief gets on the microphone and starts diving up the meat for the guests.

(because maybe a few years from now you might want to pop in a tape and relive the experience)

Apparently pleased with my funeral donation of a carton of clove cigarettes and 100,000 rupee as well as my ability to drink the pre-distilled arak (at the end they were wanting me to one-shot glasses of the stuff), I was given several kilos of meat by a son-in-law of the deceased. Later I had it prepared by the woman at the hotel…it was quite delicious.

I guess the oddest thing for me at the funeral were the numbers of children. It wasn’t really the type of event I would expect children to attend even if it was way out in some backwater part of Arkansas or something. There were tons of children wondering around playing. Some of boys (5 or 6 years old I would guess) milled about watching the men at work and were rewarded with a buffalo hoof! The tied piece of ribbon to it (like you would get with a balloon) and ran around dragging the hooves. A couple little girls took their turn playing with them as well. It was quite morbid to say the least.

(a boy and his hoof)

As for Sorong itself, it’s nothing to write home about. If you have a day to kill there I would recommend visiting the Buddhist temple. The pagoda is pretty close to being the tallest point in the city so you get a good view of everything. Other than that the only real thing that stood out in my mind was some very ugly churches, some deer in an oil storage facility and a couple of Papuan albinos. Dunno seeing two albinos in a single day wondering around a small city seemed statically significant.

I would recommend staying closer to the airport. I stayed at a place called You & Me it was a bit overpriced for what it was, but all the accommodation in town was. What it did have going for it was that it was closer to all the commercial activity in town. So there were lots of food carts/stalls, a grocery store and plenty of warnets (internet cafes) around.

Also try out the bakeries. On my flight out of Sorong almost all the passengers were carrying bags from Hawai Bakery or Billy Bakery. Both bakeries touted their roti ambon guling with various fillings (beef, chicken, tuna, etc.). Apparently it’s on the to do list for Indonesians visiting the city. Unfortunately I didn’t know about either bakery until I was on my way out of town…I did go to Angel Bakery which made a pretty tasty pizza (despite the fact it was warmed up in a microwave)

Hmmm I guess lastly I should mention the odd DVD they played on the ferry ride from Sorong to Raja Ampat. It was titled Epen Cupen 3 and thanks to the magic of the internet I don’t have to attempt to explain too much of what I saw…I can just show you. Basically it’s a sketch comedy show with some standup bits mixed in. I am pretty sure my friends and I could produce a DVD with the same quality. But the people on the boat really loved it. My favorite parts are the standup bits. They are filmed in front of like 8 people (all of whom are cast members). One of the “audience members” is this woman who laughs like a hyena almost the whole time, even when no one else is laughing.

(a lot of the bits seemed to end with people throwing stuff)