Tana Toraja

Although this is late in coming I hope you all will forgive me as the internet would have permitted me enough time to grow a beard as I waited to have blogspot load. In any event, from Georgetown Malaysia I am afforded a little more leeway to use the internet with ease. This will be something of a short recap of my time in the Toraja region of Sulawesi, Indonesia:

Trevor and I flew into Makassar (Ujung Pandang for you traditionalists) and were definitely struck with how much more this seemed to be Indonesia than Bali or Lombok seemed. This. of course, is not a big surprise considering the latter two regions are the Indonesian tourism capitals. However, when you are first struck with it full on it defintely produces a strange feeling. You really recognize your foreigness. Lots of stares, lots of "hellos", police trying to extract bribes out of you because you don't know any better. Anyway, to make a long story short, after booking tickets to KL for the following friday we were accosted by people wanting to send us on a nice tour of Toraja. Trevor and I had planned to check out Makassar for a day or two before heading up to the highlands. (Here I would like to note that living in Asia has probably made me unduly wary of people trying to sell me things. But for the second time I was proved wrong. The other being Chuseok last year in Incheon Chinatown, but that is for another time). The spiel seemed typical. Makassar sucks. You don't want to go there. Toraja is what you really want to see. We can have you on a bus in a few hours. $213/pax. Well that is an absurd price. After realizing they thought we were big spenders and us dissuading the tour guides of that notion (a/c, hot water, something called a hotel not necessary) we were able to knock down the price to roughly $150 for the two of us.

We did go do Makassar. It was a dump. Disaster averted.

Got on an overnight bus. It sucked. Long. Windy roads. Slow.

However, once in Toraja I think both Trevor and I were immediately struck with how relaxed and pastoral a place it was. Rolling fields, rice terraces, mountains disappearing into the early morning clouds, buffalo grazing lazily. We established ourselves at the Wisma Irama and slept off our shitty bus ride. After a nice breakfast we ventured out to check out what Rantepao had to offer (not much) and then ventured into the countryside. We spent the day on a nice ramble about the paddies and winding hills. Pictures were taken. Little kids surrounded us. Old men laughed at us.

(Here it is worth noting that I have met few people more friendly and welcoming than the Torajans. They are simply an amazingly wonderful group of people.)

The next day was spend with our tour guide Anton (a who book could be devoted to him. He is as I referred to him a "salty dog". One eye milked over. Trekked in plastic sandals etc.) who showed us the major cultural tourist spots of Toraja. Torajans have an amazing blend of animism and christianity. Their funeral rites are famous throughout the anthropology world and indeed in the 70s, anthropologists decended onto the highlands for Ph.D. dissertations. We saw hanging graves, baby graves, skulls and lots of buffalos. I will refer you to your own studies if you want to learn more about the culture.

The next day we agreed to go on a 2-day trek with Anton in the north-west of Toraja. That is where I will end my writing for now. Stay tuned for Toraja part deux as well as my overall recap of Indonesia and my scathing review of Kuala Lumpur (ugh).