Journal Entry 5

June 22nd, 2002

"Hopscotch Across Indonesia"

 

Stationed in city of Makassar, island of Sulawesi, country Indonesia. Traveling with some Dutch folk. Never really planned to come here, but here I am, and it's wonderful!
This week, headed north a ways to the Tana Toraja, a hilly region of Sulawesi famous for its spectacular natural scenery and summer funeral ceremonies.

I left off on the island of Gili Air...I stayed on the island for just under a week. Tried my hand at spearfishing as we did some snorkeling on the coral reefs. I'm not too good. The guides caught a lot though, and we fried up the fish for supper one night. After Gili Air, I returned to mainland Lombok. After a bus ride through jungly hills with monkeys all over the place (literally saw hundreds in a span of an hour or two), we crossed to the east side of the island. There we boarded our home for the next 3 days...a 20-meter boat.

The boat was really a steaming pile...filthy, really loud engine that vibrated the whole works, cockroaches, slept on deck on a dirty mattress and pillow, toilet was a hole in the floor at the rear of the boat, the crew consisted of 2 guys in their 30s and 3 young boys. It was quite a fun trip! I had the theme song to Gilligan's Island in my head the whole time.

We journeyed eastward, bypassing Sumbawa, doing some snorkeling, and landing on the islands of Komodo and Rinca, where we saw a LOT of Komodo Dragons (only place in world where they are found). Whole island is a reserve without fences, so you just walk around with a guide until you see them in the wild. The place is a dry wasteland--talk about bad luck if you were Robinson Crusoe'd there--scorching hot, big lizards that eat almost their weight in food in one feeding...At one time, we met a dragon on the path and he passed 1 meter away from us. I was a bit disappointed that real dragons don't actually fly or breath fire, but I guess you take what you can get... Back to Tolkien for that.

Fun time ended when me and a Danish guy got sick from something, and I couldn't eat for about 2 days after that. Anyway, we landed on the island of Flores. After a day in the pretty port city of Labuanbajo, we headed east across the island. Bus trip is worth a mention...

Boarded bus with James (see last entry) and Joe (another Brit) at 3:30pm. Bus packed. James and Joe on wooden stools in aisles, I'm hanging out the door. After 2 hrs, some Indonesians pulled me up to the roof Indiana Jones-style as we were driving up a hill (with my consent of course). I sat up there for 2 hrs as the sun set over Flores (basically, an unspoiled lush green volcanic island), as the Indonesians sang songs and we waved to all the people on the streets. I learned to count to ten in Indonesian and sang some Johnny Cash. Fantastic!

Bus took 6-1/2 hrs to get about 50 km (30 miles) as the crow flies. Road was unreal...don't know what to compare it to. At times, more like a mountain bike trail. One flat tire. At this point, we were only a third of the way to our destination. Ended up sleeping in the bus driver's house. Up early the next morning and drove 11 more hours to get to Moni, a small village about a mile high. Hung out there for a day and a half, walked to some tiny villages in the hills, saw some colorful volcanic lakes, picked fresh oranges out of trees and juiced them by hand, napped in my hammock as the goats bleated and roosters crowed and the afternoon faded away...

Celebrated James' b-day with a buffet supper over candlelight (electricity in town periodically goes out), cake, and a large bottle of 'arak', the local moonshine. We had to bring our own bottle to a place down the street, which they filled for us. Tasted like freshly-mown grass. Didn't get much of a buzz from it, though we all talked about really strange dreams the next morning.

A couple days ago, continued crossing Flores island and ended up in Maumere. From there, met up with John and Josie (Dutch couple). We took a 20-hr ferry across to my current destination, Sulawesi. Officially, ferry capacity is 960. Unofficially, there were probably close to twice that number. If there was a horizontal space, it was likely occupied. Boarding the ferry was an experience. 1000+ people all boarding the ferry--at once! Worse than a mosh pit. We opted for 2nd class, which entitled us to a room. Nice. Not that I'm
against the full experience of the rigors of 'ekonomi' travel, but safety of my belongings was also an issue and I was in need of a good night's sleep after a long time on the road!

Best things I brought from home so far: Petzl Tikka headlamp (if you ever camp, hike, climb, or read in the dark, it's lighter, smaller, brighter, and lasts longer than any headlamp I've ever seen--Petzl: please contact me for details where to send products in return for free advert), pocket voice recorder (perfect for situations where you want to record sound, when camera not a good idea), SLR camera w/tripod (great for shots where you don't have to be discreet), point-and-shoot camera (great for shots where you have to be discreet), daypack for journal and camera stuff.

Worst things I brought from home so far: excess film (relatively easy to get good quality film in big cities from time-to-time), toiletries and medication (way more fun and cheaper to get stuff here). Talked to a pharmacist just the other day. Got motion sickness tablets and some mystery pills that later turned out to be for dissolving kidney stones (which I don't have, and now for sure I don't).

Stuff stolen yet? Only a sarong, still being worn by the guy who taught me to count in Indonesian on top of that bus. Other than that, I lost about $10 worth of Indonesian rupiahs and my sunglasses while surfing.

Yes, I'm keeping on top of the political situation here and in the other places I'd like to go to, checking with consulate, etc!

"'When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,' said Piglet at last, 'What's the first thing you say to yourself?'

'What's for breakfast?' said Pooh. 'What do you say, Piglet?'

'I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?' said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.

'It's the same thing,' he said." (-Milne)

 

 

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