tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67534113306344622292024-03-16T11:52:59.238-07:00The Sulawesi Projectstephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-37377548066221361582014-11-02T22:11:00.000-08:002014-11-02T22:59:34.922-08:00Pantai Losari and the pete-petes<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, here we are, 3 days out from packing our bags and heading back to Melbourne. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After nearly 9 months the Sulawesi project is drawing to a close. So just time for one last post. Packing our bags will actually be some feat, because we've accumulated a lot of stuff in our time here, including a computer monitor and keyboard we brought over last time! See if we can get that into the hand luggage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apart from our trip to Kalimantan to see the orangutans and back to Australia to see our closer relations, we've been happily ensconced here in room 1119 at the Fave Hotel, subjected to nightly sunsets over the Makassar Strait through our massive picture windows. Hard life, but someone’s got to keep the hotel industry afloat. Photos don’t do it justice, but here’s one anyway.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tough gig, I know.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In fact, we've been lucky (or profligate) enough to have two connected rooms, so as well as the bedroom with the panorama we also have a kitchen/living area with a sink and microwave, which we've used to keep up a steady supply of 2-minute noodles with veggies and tofu – a semblance of normal life. It also means we can have separate desks that are more than a metre apart: Sue to carry on her arcane statistical jiggery pokery with the data we collected during our first 4 months, and me to ... what is it exactly I've been doing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I have started jogging again, along with the rest of Makassar, at Karebosi sportsground. You have to go before 7 a.m. or it's too hot.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Jogging" here means walking in sportswear. You'll be pleased to know I have been doing it properly.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've also been doing some volunteer English teaching at a nearby private English language school, ELC Education, usually one 1.5 hour class a day. It’s about 500 metres from the hotel but I do like cycling, so ... I take a </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">becak</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDRNpTKtG7IDBMtjSfuCwVqJ2OWuUbe-3NwI14sLRzVpoiMFnY0GpVAKqBbwdH1FVmoOuF7TwdmELLOmMi0DQKTgL64XQWCRk3HmxBghCIaeD0YHEyRqFqms9aNM_-33T34cc4S-pRFeM/s1600/becak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDRNpTKtG7IDBMtjSfuCwVqJ2OWuUbe-3NwI14sLRzVpoiMFnY0GpVAKqBbwdH1FVmoOuF7TwdmELLOmMi0DQKTgL64XQWCRk3HmxBghCIaeD0YHEyRqFqms9aNM_-33T34cc4S-pRFeM/s1600/becak.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another tough gig ... for the other guy.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Somehow in the 6 weeks or so that I've taken classes there, I haven't taught the same class twice. I estimate I've seen around 300 different students. The final class was a group of about 20 Papuan students who have scholarships to go to university in the USA starting next year. They are here in Makassar to hone their English skills before they sit a final IELTs test that will determine if they can go. They are a wonderfully positive bunch of youngsters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My finishing up at the school coincided with their arrival in Makassar, so a combined welcome/farewell party was held last Friday at which I was presented with a trophy and a huge tiramisu cake, and the Papuan students performed a couple of songs with great gusto.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Steve's abridged history of Australia, including diagram showing early seafaring contact between Buginese sailors and Top End Aborigines, plus boomerang-throwing technique.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Papuan students</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I look back at my first blog post from February, I was joking about putting the mysterious town of Polewali 'on the map'. As it turns out, I don’t expect Polewali will experience a huge upswing in tourism due to my blog posts, which were more a 'warts and all' kind of expose. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I have turned my attention to is putting Makassar on the map; or more correctly, putting the map on Makassar.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Living in Melbourne you get the sense that whatever you want to know about the place – which restaurants are hot, what’s on at the rooftop cinema, how to get from Footscray to Doncaster by bus – it’s all just a Google search away. You can be confident the information's out there somewhere, probably in an interactive user-friendly format. It’s been interesting to be somewhere where that isn't the case. Makassar doesn't exist in cyberspace, except in random bits and pieces.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the first ways I bumped up against this was when I started using the tiny micro-buses called <i>pete-pete </i>that are Makassar’s only form of public transport. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The vehicles themselves are Suzuki "Carry" vans fitted out with rudimentary bench seats for up to 10 passengers, plus the seat next to the driver. Many of them are seriously beaten up but any discomfort is usually offset by a sound system with sub-woofers playing <i>dangdut</i>.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The humble <i>pete-pete</i> (route E: Makassar Mall to Panakkukang)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The not-so-humble sound system</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see them darting around everywhere, and they have route numbers and destinations printed on their windscreens, but being a Western rationalist kind of person, I wanted a map so I could see all the routes. Not an unreasonable expectation you might think. But after asking at town hall, and being sent on a bit of a wild goose chase, it became evident that there weren't any maps. Who would need maps? The locals all know where they go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That turned out to be the thrown-down gauntlet I needed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I spent the next couple of weeks travelling the <i>pete-petes, </i>tracking the routes on my phone, comparing them with some lists I had managed to find on a blog site, then combining it all into some new Google’s maps. I got to about 10 and figured I’d probably covered most of the main routes that other tourists would want to travel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's one I prepared earlier. You click the little white box to see the routes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Getting a bit carried away with the whole mapping thing, I created another one showing all the places we've eaten, shopped, visited, etc. The kind of information we've found out by being here and being shown around by locals and expats, and that other travellers might find useful too.</span><br />
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Great, so I now had a bunch of maps. But to be of any use to anyone, they needed to be findable, and to be findable they really needed to be part of a website, and to be part of a website, I would need to ... make a website. Which was how I ended up on Weebly, a kind of "Make Your Own Instant Website for Dummies". About 3 weeks later, it's just about done. (Heck, I needed a project to keep me busy.) It still has a few gaps to be filled, and I'm sure you'll spot typos on the first page, but here in all its glory is [<i>drum roll, please</i>] ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.survivorsguidemakassar.com/" target="_blank">Survivor's Guide: Makassar</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(aka The Other Sulawesi Project)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So tell all your friends, click on it a lot and help me push it up the Google charts to fame and fortune.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OK, so that's done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This week we're also saying goodbye to the small group of people we know here in Makassar. One of them is a young man called Azimi, who we met maybe 2 months ago on one of our nightly walks at Pantai Losari. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Azimi</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> is a young Hazara man from Afghanistan who has worked, indirectly, for the international forces there. Those two things make him a target for retribution by the Taliban, which is why he left Afghanistan and made his way here. He has been in Indonesia for a year now and is still waiting for his case to be assessed by the UN to determine whether he is a genuine refugee. He's quietly confident that will occur, and also that his chances of being accepted into Australia are fairly good. But he may have to be here for another 12 months or more, waiting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't help but be struck by the difference between his treatment here and the treatment of asylum seekers who made their way to Australia. Here </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Azimi </span>is living in a basic hotel along with a group of other Afghani men, supported by the International Office for Migration. He's not able to work but he is able to move around freely in the community. He's not vilified by the locals, in fact he has made some Indonesian friends and is learning the language, as well as running English lessons for his compatriots. He is not locked up like a criminal. And this is in a country that is still struggling to lift 28 million of its own people out of poverty. Meanwhile asylum seekers in Australia are suffering extreme hardship with no prospects of resettlement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the past couple of months, </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Azimi</span> and I have had lots of walks around Makassar and adventures trying to find our way by <i>pete-pete</i>. I really hope I can take a Melbourne tram ride with him sometime soon.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Me and </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Azimi</span>, out on a <i>pete-pete </i>adventure. We didn't plan the matching shirts, honest.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that's just about a wrap. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's been a crazy 9 months, a jump into the unknown. We've seen a lot of South Sulawesi and a lot of cocoa trees and just when that started to wear thin we stayed put in Makassar long enough for me to rediscover my inner editor and try to bring order to chaos. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, if your partner comes home one night and says they've taken on a project in some place you've never heard of ... I say go for it. If they don't, suggest a trip to Polewali anyway. Maybe you can put it on the map!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Am I sad to be leaving? Yes, I am. Despite the heat and the noise and the lack of footpaths and our slightly surreal hotel-based daily life, I must have put a few roots down into Makassan soil and I will feel the wrench as our plane takes off on Thursday evening. I'll miss the people we've shared our time here with, and the smiling "</span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Selamat pagi</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"s as I step out of the lift each morning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bye Makassar, South Sulawesi. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Sampai jumpa lagi!</i></span><br />
<br />stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com3Makassar, Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia-5.1308551 119.41652840000006-5.3838995999999995 119.09380490000007 -4.8778106 119.73925190000006tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-12906052731339639232014-09-14T01:29:00.000-07:002014-09-14T01:44:09.452-07:00A riverboat on the Sekonyer River, Central Kalimantan<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By way of a diversion from Sue's studies and my life of leisure in Makassar, we decided to make the most of our location and take a trip to Borneo to see our near cousins, the orangutans*. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tanjung Puting National Park in </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Central Kalimantan (the Indonesian part of Borneo) </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is one of the best places to see this endangered species, which is only found there and in Sumatra. To see wild orangutans is actually quite difficult for the average traveller. Even taking a trek into the rainforest is no guarantee. Tanjung Puting National Park, however, is the home of a major conservation effort involving the rehabilitation and release of orangutans that have been injured or orphaned as a result of human contact. As a result, it's a very good bet that you will see the great apes at several places in the park.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another thing about the national park is that there are no roads into it. This means that you need to access it by riverboat, which was certainly part of the attraction for me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As usual, we booked with minimal planning by contacting some tour organisers online. I'd like to say we deliberated carefully over the available options, but, being the tail end of the peak tourist season, we pretty much had to go with the first operator that had a vacancy, Mr </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ali Mashuri of <a href="http://orangutanstour.com/">orangutanstour.com</a>. Happily, as it turned out, we were in good hands. We erred on the generous side and booked a 4 day/3 night tour.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next challenge was to get there. The airport </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">nearest </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the national park is in Pangkalanbun, which unfortunately is not easily accessible from Makassar. In the end, the simplest way was to overnight in Surabaya, Java, then take the early morning Trigana Air flight to Pangkers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were met on arrival by Mr Ali, who drove us the 20 km or so to his office in the riverside town of Kumai, the leaping off point for all the boat tours of Tanjung Puting. We were early and our boat wasn't in yet, so we spent some time looking around Kumai's market and buying a few provisions. Towards midday we walked down to the docks to board our boat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The style of boat used on the river trips is called a <i>klotok</i>. They come in a range of sizes, but essentially are narrow and have two levels: the lower one for the captain, crew and engine, and the upper one for guests. The upper deck has a roof but is open at the sides. The wash room is right at the rear of the boat. Sorry, the 'stern'. (See, I resisted making jokes about the 'poop deck'. How adult.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our <i>klotok </i>was one of the older style, as we later found out, and lacked the refinements of the newer breed of boats, but we were comfortable.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Sue boards our <i>klotok </i>in Kumai</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On board, to make our trip possible, were our captain, Suma, his deckhand, Are, our cook, Uwah, and our guide, a young Dayak man named Sepon.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Getting underway</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Kumai River is wide and brown, a bit like the Yarra at Fishermans Bend. Kumai itself is a working river port, so not exactly picturesque. It also has a lot of buildings that look like 4-storey </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">concrete</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">walk-up flats with only tiny windows, but which are in fact bird's nest farms. The overwhelming sound you hear as you chug down this part of the river are recorded bird calls being played over loudspeakers, designed to lure the swallows to come inside and build their nests, which are then sold to the Chinese for ... you guessed it, Bird's Nest Soup.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Within about half an hour we had turned up a smaller tributary, the Sekonyer River. The water was still muddy, apparently the result of small-scale gold mining upstream, but now on one side we had the lowland peat forest of the national park. On the other side, beyond the riverside buffer zone, were plantations of </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">palm oil</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, one of the main crops in the area, and the reason behind land clearing that has reduced the orangutans' habitat in Borneo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our first stop, about two hours upstream, was Tanjung Harapan, one of three orangutan rehabilitation sites in the park managed by </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.fnpf.org/what-we-do/tanjung-puting-national-park/wildlife" target="_blank">Friends of the National Parks Foundation</a>. A short walk into the bush got us to the feeding station where, at 3.00 pm every day, national park rangers bring loads of bananas to feed orangutans that have been released into the park. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bananas being uploaded at Tanjung Harapan</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The bananas were distributed, the rangers made a series of loud hooting noises and within a minute or two we heard crashings in the tree canopy and got our first glimpses of orange as the apes assembled. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Orangutans emerging from the forest</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the feeding platform. When the alpha male is present (right), other orangutans need to negotiate their presence very carefully, or just hang out up in the trees until he's eaten his fill.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the larger males had eaten and left, this mother and baby got to pick through </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the remaining bananas. This seems to be a popular stance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having only ever seen orangutan in zoos before, being able to get this close to them in the wild and just stand and watch their behaviour was thrilling, and we stayed for an hour or so until they'd dispersed into the forest again. Back on the <i>klotok </i>we continued upstream to the second camp, and our overnight stop, Pondok Tanggui. Along the way, as evening approached, monkeys from the forest make their way to the trees at the river's edge, and we were lucky to spot lots of macaques and the odd proboscis monkey from our lounge chairs on the deck. We had to pinch ourselves (or at least I had to pinch Sue) as a reality check.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The morning feed at Pondok Tanggui attracted only three orangutans: a large male (notable for the cheek pouches or 'flanges' they develop) and a female with a baby. But you can banish any thought of a cozy family group. The adult males live solitary lives, only socialising to make babies. Sue made a <a href="http://youtu.be/pgFmZ1kwXZM" target="_blank">video</a> of the event, which has some wonderful behaviour and body language between the two adults. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Camp Leakey, t</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">he third and largest rehabilitation area, was our next stop for the afternoon feeding session. This camp was carved out of the jungle in 1971 by Dr Biruté Mary Galdikas and has been the site of her lifelong research into orangutans, as well as a rehabilitation centre for previously captured animals, now under the banner of <a href="http://orangutan.org/" target="_blank">Orangutan Foundation International</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Together with the better-known Dian Fossey (gorillas) and Jane Goodall (chimpanzees), Galdikas is the third of the 'big three' scientists inspired by anthropologist Dr Louis Leakey who have devoted their lives to studying apes.</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Camp Leakey was by far the most popular of the orangutan visitor sites. Here we encountered '<i>klotok</i> jams' as dozens of boats tried to tie up at the jetty or offload their passengers by boat-hopping. It was all negotiated with typical Indonesian patience and good humour, and some wise-cracking from the older boat captains on the sidelines. Apart from one day-tripper boat carrying around 20 Indonesians, the majority of the other visitors were Spanish. According to our guide, Sepon, this has been the case for years now. Someone must have written an article in <i>El Mundo</i>. Whatever the reason, we felt slightly grungy in contrast with their brand new adventure-wear, smart haircuts and designer jewellery. (We were slightly consoled by Sepon's comment that they were dressed "like they were going shopping".)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The orangutans at Camp Leakey are the most habituated to human contact, but we were still surprised to be accompanied by a mother and child walking along the path to the afternoon feeding session, stopping regularly for photo opportunities.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mother and child orangutan being very cooperative with some Spanish visitors</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The big crowd and the 'tamer' orangutans led to a couple of very lively feeding sessions. Orangutans crashing through the trees on their approach to the platform, people straining to photograph them up close, while a ground-walking ape tries to squeeze through the crowd from behind. There was no crowd control of the humans, and the "Keep 5 metres away" rule was happily ignored by both species, but no harm was done as far as I can tell.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY3UZYX8NYLEpjQkvx7p8w2NFOtal3TzyafFjMje4GC1W5cQ4eH6XkvzNcrgc0fdtf1Fa5VFTj-mI-R_ciWYUHI4-XmUhNh83VkWF_gRatHSVFbNDuuS1hvq2NqsYXqWW8sjmju5VGr9E/s1600/IMAGE_25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY3UZYX8NYLEpjQkvx7p8w2NFOtal3TzyafFjMje4GC1W5cQ4eH6XkvzNcrgc0fdtf1Fa5VFTj-mI-R_ciWYUHI4-XmUhNh83VkWF_gRatHSVFbNDuuS1hvq2NqsYXqWW8sjmju5VGr9E/s1600/IMAGE_25.jpg" height="400" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of the crowd at Camp Leakey</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heck, everyone else was doing it. Sue elbows in <br />with the </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Europeans for a close-up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sepon, our guide, had previously worked at Camp Leakey for 10 years, so was the perfect person to take us on a trek along some of the lesser-travelled trails there one morning. We caught glimpses of a <i>kijang</i>, a native deer, and a some kind of squirrel, but alas no up-close encounter with a cloud leopard or sun bear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For our last night we decided to head for a quiet stretch of river, downstream of Camp Leakey. Captain Suma was keen to find us a crocodile along the way, just to prove that they were there. Apparently their numbers are down due to the amount of traffic on the river, but they did manage to spot a small one doing its best log impersonation. Cross swimming off the list.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXu4fK7EVgiRJYPbaAB4H9z_O9rTy-uzqMpp27i2BXzj6chDwlNFuhOb-LeOZf0Sgt1-BIexvne5NAnw0eOxHS0nMRmKgZUf90slKse1XmJPo3ZeyUpbF2Re8yFPaX3d1Ph7oOwJCCwX0/s1600/IMGP2816.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXu4fK7EVgiRJYPbaAB4H9z_O9rTy-uzqMpp27i2BXzj6chDwlNFuhOb-LeOZf0Sgt1-BIexvne5NAnw0eOxHS0nMRmKgZUf90slKse1XmJPo3ZeyUpbF2Re8yFPaX3d1Ph7oOwJCCwX0/s1600/IMGP2816.JPG" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spot the croc (or more properly the false gharial). This one was about 1.5 metres long. I'm sure I could have taken him.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once again, we tucked into a very tasty dinner cooked by Uwah in fairly tricky conditions: the boat's 'kitchen' was only about 1.5 metres high, so she had to do all her cooking on a small gas stove sitting down! Try that on <i>Master Chef</i>.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaKMP51gAxQs-aFBNtoozXu5q8quCu6VkoQ7Wo37li806-77_Tgk21JZN6xZ6hSeSlVOq2PMkWg2UcI3sK8LtYSLdLhURIKCTdSgzUTwtnmUUjJwaN-Bz0PxzQ_XAqasL_h23J4RBTpZs/s1600/IMGP2825.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaKMP51gAxQs-aFBNtoozXu5q8quCu6VkoQ7Wo37li806-77_Tgk21JZN6xZ6hSeSlVOq2PMkWg2UcI3sK8LtYSLdLhURIKCTdSgzUTwtnmUUjJwaN-Bz0PxzQ_XAqasL_h23J4RBTpZs/s1600/IMGP2825.JPG" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After dinner there's not much to do except go to sleep </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">inside our mosquito net on the deck, listening to the hoots of gibbons and owls.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the morning, </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sepon and Captain Suma indulged in a little fishing, first catching the small bait fish, then threading a few of them (live) onto the hook and casting it out for 'the big one'. Meanwhile, Sue had her binoculars on a beautiful stork-billed kingfisher that had flown onto a nearby branch, a day-glo version of the kookaburra.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidJh6kr8uPRYrnCKCYcU03cML5iHFuepynJ1aH_nnVYVYQnHs4VCD7-vI9DniUD3bQ2a3jsRi_8xjWa7w1aCFNa6PtL-rbUVHrhXHDePVdBgct4B7ELNEKibzYwOkWglkgvbuoHhHLi_A/s1600/IMGP2844.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidJh6kr8uPRYrnCKCYcU03cML5iHFuepynJ1aH_nnVYVYQnHs4VCD7-vI9DniUD3bQ2a3jsRi_8xjWa7w1aCFNa6PtL-rbUVHrhXHDePVdBgct4B7ELNEKibzYwOkWglkgvbuoHhHLi_A/s1600/IMGP2844.JPG" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All was calm and serene, the day was fresh and still cool, God was in his heaven. Until the captain cast his line and the kingfisher spied the bait fish sailing through the air. It swooped and rose up again with the </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">fishing line trailing from its beak. Before anyone could do anything except gasp the bird had dropped the line again, unhooked. A birdwatcher's worst nightmare narrowly avoided.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite this little drama, we were well and truly happy and relaxed as we hauled anchor and headed back downstream towards Kumai, feeling that we'd had four days in another world </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">– </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tanjung Puting National Park –</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and glad that riverboat was the only way to see it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For me, the icing on the cake was taking the helm for an hour or so as we re-entered the wider, muddier section of river taking us back to civilisation, feeling like Humphrey Bogart in <i>The African Queen,</i> but remade in glorious technicolor.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio0EPGNN7dbdVdlHklYGTyEiTukIZVWoWMfaUdIUVnHEh70OwjxUqQz_B0hMco4fOe1TgQkzVHVlfEoR7SL86HS0ccre4UHOdggv7X2qeOFn3YiaQQbUwzhi0vJA_4LNSTacBETK2lg10/s1600/IMGP2888.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio0EPGNN7dbdVdlHklYGTyEiTukIZVWoWMfaUdIUVnHEh70OwjxUqQz_B0hMco4fOe1TgQkzVHVlfEoR7SL86HS0ccre4UHOdggv7X2qeOFn3YiaQQbUwzhi0vJA_4LNSTacBETK2lg10/s1600/IMGP2888.JPG" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">*<i>Orangutan</i>' comes from the Indonesian/Malay words <i>orang </i>(person/man) and <i>hutan </i>(jungle/forest).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Links</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are quite a few tour companies that do <i>klotok </i>tours of Tanjung Puting National Park. Trip Advisor is useful. We went with Ali Mashuri of </span><a href="http://orangutanstour.com/" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">orangutanstour.com</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our orangutan video: </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://youtu.be/pgFmZ1kwXZM">http://youtu.be/pgFmZ1kwXZM</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Orangutan Foundation International: <a href="http://orangutan.org/">http://orangutan.org</a></span>stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com1Tanjung Puting, Taman Nasional Tanjung Puting, Indonesia-3.5041667 111.76805560000003-34.3046297 70.459461600000026 27.2962963 153.07664960000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-52344127028271703532014-08-10T21:20:00.002-07:002014-08-20T01:41:52.251-07:00Tana Toraja Part 3: A short walk from Lempo to Batutumonga<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Lest you think that all my time in Tana Toraja was taken up with funerals and graves, here are some photos of a lovely walk we did (twice, with different guests) from Lempo to Batutumonga. Although it starts only a few miles out of Rantepao and is by no means ‘off the beaten track’, the walk takes you through some really stunning mountain scenery and through some real villages that are not (yet) official <i>obyek wisata</i>. This was definitely the most enjoyable part of both trips for me.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Passing by an average Torajan village</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv_9eOi9qELbi21P95ILV00ss25QAYZ6AqxcKgEdk0QCF0rBRAmQjzFl5NTJ3SUrD3LoDqA0sja9XNTwuGz9ITzetk_En1hPrhUGF26KHX6GmBgXGuuKzhsVN_f1nELfISRLSe85dWsuU/s1600/IMGP2274.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv_9eOi9qELbi21P95ILV00ss25QAYZ6AqxcKgEdk0QCF0rBRAmQjzFl5NTJ3SUrD3LoDqA0sja9XNTwuGz9ITzetk_En1hPrhUGF26KHX6GmBgXGuuKzhsVN_f1nELfISRLSe85dWsuU/s1600/IMGP2274.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">View from a rice barn</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy as a buffalo in mud</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY_ajIT4CKukePHE9JW9JuDbCOi7-L2d7J0tyTyll2rNnv51lPQKRE60zf_HIio52z0t-R9WjXw2hxAn8gU_jmpkdmod6gP_44Q7byqEhZoK6mpGu8v7uUUwGaOMNKBlxPGHaR2JriX-g/s1600/IMG_4154W.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY_ajIT4CKukePHE9JW9JuDbCOi7-L2d7J0tyTyll2rNnv51lPQKRE60zf_HIio52z0t-R9WjXw2hxAn8gU_jmpkdmod6gP_44Q7byqEhZoK6mpGu8v7uUUwGaOMNKBlxPGHaR2JriX-g/s1600/IMG_4154W.JPG" height="172" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">View across the valley towards Batutumonga, with church on the left</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtEnsux9Lj0VMYOm8_47MZ6HrYQBKV1JH4noWgtKlSr8eBAZkK3fRB1dsetkKLYM92czVdtp3TY19CCozayh5kvq-4UrUdWhzi75jDPcJfBNV9XQMjW65kBQbWQVdJHh8aCU7Ay-LdaSQ/s1600/IMG_0995W.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtEnsux9Lj0VMYOm8_47MZ6HrYQBKV1JH4noWgtKlSr8eBAZkK3fRB1dsetkKLYM92czVdtp3TY19CCozayh5kvq-4UrUdWhzi75jDPcJfBNV9XQMjW65kBQbWQVdJHh8aCU7Ay-LdaSQ/s1600/IMG_0995W.JPG" height="425" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On our second visit, the green rice fields had turned to yellow and it was harvest time. As we watched the locals threshing the rice, one lady joked (in Indonesian) that we had come to help. So we did, to great amusement. (photo by Wayne)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglhi5y1W-pwHlbJ-gzB7LhXSSWHICtGxq65ceyMpupbIPPFm2XnRazLZW90BmR2d6bs4J8TNNHO_nc2f-_h6-bKtzyz8sG2ZqWi8w_GoUJKUL7RHoREcsvvFsjkJfRcuxDgj4RM2g_KXs/s1600/IMG_1084W.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglhi5y1W-pwHlbJ-gzB7LhXSSWHICtGxq65ceyMpupbIPPFm2XnRazLZW90BmR2d6bs4J8TNNHO_nc2f-_h6-bKtzyz8sG2ZqWi8w_GoUJKUL7RHoREcsvvFsjkJfRcuxDgj4RM2g_KXs/s1600/IMG_1084W.JPG" height="425" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">View back across the rice fields. Two girls having lunch on a rock. (photo by Wayne)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our destination: Cafe Mentirotiku at Batutumonga.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0_GYrail4OxgbMIsrfjagjwENsB5xWIhFmj9vnXdYgIuxvOnhlvxAuYGDhuru-9OSBUA9MKyYF2ze0DgS9iSXZlYD9cfcjdKyun7Kai0GSkLvaGZsQV8NDxXBJrHvtJbNIR4KRm8JNYs/s1600/IMG_1105W.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0_GYrail4OxgbMIsrfjagjwENsB5xWIhFmj9vnXdYgIuxvOnhlvxAuYGDhuru-9OSBUA9MKyYF2ze0DgS9iSXZlYD9cfcjdKyun7Kai0GSkLvaGZsQV8NDxXBJrHvtJbNIR4KRm8JNYs/s1600/IMG_1105W.JPG" height="425" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Enjoying the view, but feeling the chill at 1300 metres, with Chris, our guide, Martin, and </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wayne (photo)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The extended version of the walk took us further up the road to the impressive rock graves at Lokomata ...</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX-kdyE3et_VeRY016oxnKVWXHS26L6PCl8GvU_iL7c2ZABJMl9IQ2zjYBGZ2ycLxWcOetrZpcLAguTC8J3lDRyCpeVZW2lIlSeuw2_CPrzDwFv3MutFnZZwJdS8VyYH24PFggNbVTEvQ/s1600/IMGP2324.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX-kdyE3et_VeRY016oxnKVWXHS26L6PCl8GvU_iL7c2ZABJMl9IQ2zjYBGZ2ycLxWcOetrZpcLAguTC8J3lDRyCpeVZW2lIlSeuw2_CPrzDwFv3MutFnZZwJdS8VyYH24PFggNbVTEvQ/s1600/IMGP2324.JPG" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">... for a photo opp with this lovely local lady. In the background are the used <i>saringan</i> (funeral biers), used to bring the coffins to this burial site.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would I go back to Tana Toraja again? Yes, definitely, but next time it would be to do some longer treks. Funerals and graves? Been there, done that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© 2014 Steve Dobney</span>stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com0Sulawesi, Indonesia-1.8479079 120.52790959999993-9.945894899999999 110.20076109999994 6.2500791 130.85505809999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-26577079183601543162014-08-09T01:30:00.000-07:002014-12-17T00:53:48.049-08:00Tana Toraja Part 2: Two funerals, no weddings<h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Preface</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First, two caveats:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cultural tourism is, to say the least, tricky, both in its production (what’s presented to tourists as being valuable) and in its consumption (viewing the lives and traditions of one group of people through the lens of another). I fess up here and now to being a Western rationalist materialist. (God, how dull that sounds!)</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There’s no way I can give an overview of Torajan history and culture, just my own impressions, and information given to us by our Torajan guides. For a bit of background, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toraja" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a> entry is not a bad place to start.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OK, now that we have that out of the way ...</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Two funerals</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The majority of Torajans identify as Christian (mainly Protestant) but they have certainly put their own unique spin on Christianity, in that Torajan culture seems to be fixated on death. The main <i>obyek wisata</i> (tourist sites) in the region are death-related, including cave tombs, rock tombs, hanging cliff tombs, and fields of megalithic standing stones commemorating the dead.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Megaliths at Bori, Tana Toraja. Traditionally, only high-class Torajans can have a megalith, and their size represents the importance of the person (and often the number of buffalo sacrificed at their funeral). The stones used to have a spiritual significance, but under Christianity have been redefined as simple memorials.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stone graves at Lemo (above), and (below) close-up of the <i>tau tau </i>(effigies of the dead). Only high class Torajans can have <i>tau tau</i>. While they were once believed to hold the spirit of the deceased, under Christianity they are considered to be simply statues. (Photos by Wayne)</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8CR3Wo3T8WJ2ITAtf0Qp45mL12GnuOXBHUkEMXNIi5dMAlQ_MrjVh98v0PYrNxJMLhyphenhyphenoCA4aVyc73h1GhxilKY4Nv0iqXtJ9GbyYe0woe8jkdeEbUS6AlxYFLjX2rr-x2jDFaSzcxRfA/s1600/IMG_0654W.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8CR3Wo3T8WJ2ITAtf0Qp45mL12GnuOXBHUkEMXNIi5dMAlQ_MrjVh98v0PYrNxJMLhyphenhyphenoCA4aVyc73h1GhxilKY4Nv0iqXtJ9GbyYe0woe8jkdeEbUS6AlxYFLjX2rr-x2jDFaSzcxRfA/s1600/IMG_0654W.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Torajan culture wasn't always this heavily focused on death. Apparently, Pre-Christian Torajan culture had many rituals revolving around life, but these were outlawed by the Dutch missionaries, so only the death-related ones remain today.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Torajan funerals are big. The biggest ones, for the most important people, can run for 3 days or more, with hundreds of guests attending each day, including not a small number of tourists, who are openly welcome. The most important thing to do at a funeral is sacrifice some buffalo – the more the better – and extra marks if they are rare, such as albino, or blue-eyed. Poor folk may only be able to afford to sacrifice two or three buffalo, but it’s not unheard of for 50 or more buffalo throats to be slit at wealthy funerals.</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Funeral 1</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve been to two Torajan funerals, each for only a few hours. The first time it was </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">day 2 of the funeral. As we approached the funeral site, we joined a procession of other guests arriving in the backs of trucks. Others arrived on motorbikes with live pigs on bamboo pallets strapped to the back. At the entry, a couple of local bureaucrats collected a tax for each buffalo and pig that was donated, and someone else was keeping a list of them for the family, with the pigs having ID numbers spray-painted on their sides.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Guests arriving at the funeral, with gift</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Funeral banners at the entry to the site</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The funeral site itself had a kind of village fair atmosphere, with people standing around chatting or sitting in the temporary pavilions built especially for the event, arranged around a central square. In the middle of the square, a few buffalo were ominously tied to posts. There were hundreds of guests and probably about 50 tourists. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At some point, without much fanfare, a man standing next to one of the buffalo slit its throat with a knife. I’d made the decision to stand up the back, to deliberately obscure my view, so there are no videos here of gushing </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">blood</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Quite quickly the buffalo was on the ground in a pool of blood, and my main thought was that it had all happened in a very casual way – no drum rolls, no shrieks from the crowd, just on with the show.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The overall scene: temporary guest pavilions forming a square, with animals to be sacrificed (and one already gone) </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in the middle</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. The coffin has already been carried up above the main table where the </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">protokol </i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(MC) sits.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A guest catches all the action on the iPad while I hide up the back!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were some formal processions as the close family filed into the main pavilion, followed by the first group of important guests. In the other pavilions, people sat around chatting, drinking coffee and smoking while an MC (called the </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">protokol</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">) narrated proceedings in a very upbeat tone. According to our guide, he was urging the audience to remember the fine qualities of the deceased.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Food and drinks are served to the immediate family and guests in the VIP pavilion, courtesy of the PKK (Family Welfare Guidance association)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hanging out in the VIP pavilion</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We left soon after that, having seen enough for the day. In Western terms, the closest thing I could liken it to is having a party at an abattoir, but it was certainly an important social event.</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Funeral 2</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second funeral we attended on day 1. The ceremony began with a Christian service, including hymns and prayers. After that, a crowd of about 20 young men gathered around the coffin, which sat on an elaborate bier (<i>saringan</i>) in the shape of a <i>tongkonan</i>. After some preliminary warm-up noises, they hoisted the construction onto their shoulders and started the procession. Attached to the back was a long piece of red material, which close relatives held over their heads, forming a train of about 20 metres.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj44woe6qGxv2KbUt-EILdlTf75aheKxuDocwMm4ELZ5I0WIKyqB2OPjL9epXp-7jcjGBkaYQukrQ8bF7K6usbCZCgpeZDdr_SMELr2ahXIuKFah_6rbmK4HWyBOAGGeWSoMLdZgGK6W3o/s1600/20140728_124303.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj44woe6qGxv2KbUt-EILdlTf75aheKxuDocwMm4ELZ5I0WIKyqB2OPjL9epXp-7jcjGBkaYQukrQ8bF7K6usbCZCgpeZDdr_SMELr2ahXIuKFah_6rbmK4HWyBOAGGeWSoMLdZgGK6W3o/s1600/20140728_124303.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yours truly in front of the coffin, which sits on a bier in the shape of a traditional house (<i>tongkonan</i>)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The procession headed off through the funeral site in a jaunty fashion, a bit like a conga line, with the bier-carriers hoisting it high then dropping it down low, with lots of chanting, shouting and laughing. They then headed off down the road with the coffin, basically going around the block, with lots of rest stops and chanting. It seemed like a lot of fun and a great release of energy for everyone involved. Having followed the procession to the road, we took the chance to leave, happy not to have witnessed any more animal sacrifices. According to our guide, that was still to come.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple;"><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The peak tourist season of July–September coincides with the Torajan ‘funeral season’. Funerals are scheduled for this time of the year because (a) it’s the dry season, and (b) it’s the holiday season, when Torajans living in other parts of Indonesia are most likely to be able to get time off to help organise and attend a major event. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which raises the question, what happens to the dear departed while they are awaiting the funeral? Well, they are embalmed and stay in the tongkonan, ‘unwell’, sometimes for several years, until an appropriately elaborate funeral can be funded and organised.</span></i></span></blockquote>
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The buffalo bubble</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Buffalo hold a very special place in Torajan culture. A family’s buffalo never work in the fields and are looked after lovingly. On our travels we often saw a man or a boy taking great care while washing their buffalo in a stream. Some </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">buffalo</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">are free to roam and wallow in muddy rice paddies, but often we saw them tied up on short ropes, so they had to stand with their heads raised. Our guides told us this was to build up the muscles at the back of the neck, to make them look stronger. So the buffalo get the VIP treatment right up until funeral day. Then, it is their role, by being sacrificed, to help the deceased get to heaven. So the more buffalo sacrificed, the easier the road to heaven.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYLz1LiIb9G5azL1QCbtF75LpONqDTrJhd9Cx6hUoOYl2MrUO82jfckU7LAbth9c8AosiY4p5L3fX6-3LyzjwmsihPvPphEkrzXXtrgpDHRE7CxMIOPGtdAilRLRdvyTx7suCEiN2Kp9M/s1600/20140729_140645.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYLz1LiIb9G5azL1QCbtF75LpONqDTrJhd9Cx6hUoOYl2MrUO82jfckU7LAbth9c8AosiY4p5L3fX6-3LyzjwmsihPvPphEkrzXXtrgpDHRE7CxMIOPGtdAilRLRdvyTx7suCEiN2Kp9M/s1600/20140729_140645.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At least, that was the idea before the Christian missionaries revised things. Now, as all good Christians know, ‘it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God’ (Matthew 19:24). So these days the killing of buffalo at a funeral is seen as a way of following a tradition and being able to share a resource (buffalo meat) with your extended family and local community.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Except that there is something of a buffalo bubble in Tana Toraja: the animals are worth a lot more than their ‘meat value’. (See, I told you I was a rationalist materialist.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As best we could ascertain, your basic black or brown beast is worth around €3000–5000, and the price goes up from there, with albinos or black-and-white spotted ones worth anywhere from €10,000 to €30,000. At the Rantepao buffalo market we saw a boy minding a spotted buffalo and were told that his family had turned down an offer of $50,000, the price of a new BMW X1. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There aren't enough buffaloes in Tana Toraja to satisfy demand, so canny entrepreneurs are bringing them in from other parts of Indonesia and abroad.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Top of the range model: a spotted buffalo</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A BMX X1</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So you can see that a Torajan funeral can end up being a very expensive event indeed. Our guide estimated that one of the funerals we attended had cost the family around €300,000 ($430,000).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As you can imagine, this topic occupied a lot of our dinner table conversations, and a lot of questions to our Torajan guides. How can people living in a farming community that grows mainly rice and coffee, and makes some money out of tourism, afford this level of expense on a funeral?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The answer seems to be that Tana Toraja exports its sons and daughters. There are simply not enough jobs in the region. We were told that more than half of all Torajans live outside Tana Toraja. Hopefully, they are working in decent jobs that allow them to save some money, because when there is a death in the family, they are going to be called upon to make a substantial contribution! This is the main reason for the lag between someone dying and holding the funeral: amassing the necessary cash. To put it in purely economic terms, Torajan funerals are sucking cash from other regions in Sulawesi to pay for buffalo that are massively over-valued and have no productive use, only prestige value. But heck, I guess you could say the same about a BMW X1.</span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Apparently the Pentecostal church in Toraja is the only denomination that is against buffalo sacrifice at funerals, but even then there are exceptions. One of our guides, a well-educated man and Pentacostalist, has told his kids in no uncertain terms that they’d better get good jobs so they can put money away for his last rites, buffalo and all.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">See Part 3: A short walk from Lempo to Batutumonga</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© 2014 Steve Dobney</span><br />
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<br />stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com0Sulawesi, Indonesia-1.8479079 120.52790959999993-9.945894899999999 110.20076109999994 6.2500791 130.85505809999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-54267657811548071742014-08-05T20:35:00.001-07:002014-08-23T03:49:41.140-07:00Tana Toraja Part 1: The living and the dead<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Tana Toraja (land of the Toraja people) occupies the mountainous region in the northern part of South Sulawesi. It is Sulawesi's premier tourist attraction, at one stage hoped by Indonesian tourism officials to come second after Bali as a tourist destination. Many visitors to Sulawesi arrive at the airport and head straight up the highway to the north on the 300 km drive to Rantepao, which takes around 8 hours at the average Sulawesi highway speed of 40 km/h (no matter what Google says), not bothering to stop in at </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Makassar,</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;"> 20 km to the south.</span></div>
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="450" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m29!1m12!1m3!1d2037620.3226704197!2d119.29253478339284!3d-4.075890402146429!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!4m14!1i0!3e6!4m5!1s0x2dbee329d96c4671%3A0x3030bfbcaf770b0!2sMakassar%2C+South+Sulawesi%2C+Indonesia!3m2!1d-5.1308551!2d119.41652839999999!4m5!1s0x2d93c203ad2fa5df%3A0x7c33cb77c000b37b!2sRantepao%2C+North+Toraja%2C+South+Sulawesi%2C+Indonesia!3m2!1d-2.9703732!2d119.8757349!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sau!4v1407235829022" style="border: 0;" width="600"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And there are a number of good reasons to visit Tana Toraja (or Tator, as it is abbreviated, of course):</span><br />
<ol><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it’s cooler up in them there hills</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">you can get a beer there (or any other alcoholic drink that takes your fancy), as it’s a mainly Christian community in otherwise mainly Muslim South Sulawesi</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the mountain landscape is pretty damn spectacular</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Torajan culture is … interesting.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">if you are researching cocoa in far-flung locations, it's the quickest way to get from Wotu, in the northeast of the province, to Pinrang, on the west coast</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the first 4 months we were in Sulawesi, our trips to Tana Toraja were limited to reason 5 above. Several times we drove up the long and winding road from Palopo to Rantepao, only to head straight down the longer but equally winding road to Enrekang, simply to get from A to B. Our windscreen surveys allowed us only tantalizing glimpses of outlandish looking curved-roof houses with elaborately carved walls, water buffalo grazing on the side of the road, and terraced rice fields stepping down the valleys enclosed by bloody big mountains.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the fieldwork came to an end and some visitors dropped in from Oz, we had the opportunity to head back to Tator with a bit more time on our hands, for reasons 1–4. There’s lots to see (and think about) in Tana Toraja, so I’ve had to do this in three instalments!</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Once again, both our trips were organised by <a href="http://dodopenman.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Dodo the Penman</a> and we were ably accompanied by our driver, Bayu, and two great Torajan guides Enos and Martin. All are highly recommended.</i></span></blockquote>
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The mountains</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the way to Tana Toraja from Makassar the road starts to wind upwards through the Enrekang region. A popular place to stop for coffee is at one of the roadside cafes overlooking Gunung Bambapuang, also known as </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lady Mountain or Erotik Mountain, because it is meant to look like a lady’s genital region. Whether or not your imagination leans in that direction, the view is pretty speccy.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lady Mountain, Enrekang (photo by Yuto Fukui/<a href="http://www.panoramio.com/photo/87851922" target="_blank">Panoramio</a>)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Man and lady, Enrekang (photo by Wayne)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From here on, the mountains provide backdrops to almost every vista. I can’t help feeling that there is an untapped potential for hang gliding in this part of Sulawesi. (Stay tuned for Steve’s Sulawesi Hang Gliding Tours!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The houses</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the first signs that you are entering Tana Toraja is the appearance of the remarkable traditional Torajan houses, with their wildly upswept roofs and carved and painted wall panels. These start appearing along the side of the road, accompanied by smaller versions, which our driver explained were rice barns. At first we thought these houses were some kind of tourist accommodation – how could they just be someone’s normal home? But no, we were reassured, they’re ordinary Torajan houses and people do just live in them.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our first sighting of Torajan houses (<i>tongkonans</i>), these ones with corrugated iron roofs</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Houses (left) and rice barns (right) with traditional thatched roofs + greenery; modern homes down the back</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we found out later, it’s actually a little more complicated than that. The traditional houses, called </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">tongkonan</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, are culturally important family properties that are passed down through the generations. So every family has one, and some belong to extended family groups, like a beach house at Dromana. The upswept roofs possibly represent the Torajans’ previous lives as seafaring people, before they took to the mountains, but on the other hand, maybe not. Apparently, though, the curve of the roofs has become more exaggerated over time, as a particularly Torajan fashion statement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The carved panels on the outside represent important motifs in Torajan culture, including the rooster, the buffalo and the sun. As in any culture, the bigger the </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">tongkonan </i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and the more elaborate the carvings, the more prestige the family has.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Painted carving on the side of a <i>tongkonan</i>, Tana Toraja</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The rice barn – the Mini Me of the <i>tongkonan </i>– is the culturally correct place for the storage of rice but also has a prestige value, so that the number of rice barns a family has may be many times more than the rice storage required.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the inside, though, <i>tongkonans </i>are pretty basic and have only a few small ‘portholes’ for light and ventilation. As a result, many people are building more conventional-style homes to live in, a bit like Queenslanders, keeping the <i>tongkonan </i>for family ceremonies.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXmS-vcEVfaX4Rl1YfbRhWILHC2jZGYtbK1_5ZpzeHnDg6i4AXrbwj1Jqajyrx0B58BEz84DhkOqZHywguzqIC9SaowCpKLWRj-wFApQRhngDLyOTbu0bq9TKPM5n4kacP3ExvQgaxKx8/s1600/IMGP2194.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXmS-vcEVfaX4Rl1YfbRhWILHC2jZGYtbK1_5ZpzeHnDg6i4AXrbwj1Jqajyrx0B58BEz84DhkOqZHywguzqIC9SaowCpKLWRj-wFApQRhngDLyOTbu0bq9TKPM5n4kacP3ExvQgaxKx8/s1600/IMGP2194.JPG" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Inside a traditional <i>tongkonan</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were also a few hybrids – conventional houses (rumah) with </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">tongkonan </i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">roofs stuck on the side. I christened this style the </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">rukonan</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">©, which caused much mirth as I repeated it every time we saw one!</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>In Rantepao we stayed at the charming old-world Toraja Heritage Hotel, located on a ridge above the town. The more expensive rooms and suites are housed in pseudo-tongkonans, traditional on the outside, but modified on the inside for modern living. Being cheapos, we stayed in the equally comfortable rooms located in the conventional wing.</i></span></blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Inside a pretend <i>tongkonan</i>; a suite at the Toraja Heritage Hotel</span></td></tr>
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Awas, kepala jatuh!*</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Probably the most visited <i>obyek wisata</i> (tourist object) in Tana Toraja is the village of Kété Kesú</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, a few kilometres out of Rantepao. Here you can walk through a ‘traditional’ village, go inside a </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">tongkonan</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, and also visit one of the oldest hanging grave sites in the region. While people do still live here, most live in newer houses out the back, leaving the original village feeling a bit like a Torajan theme park. Locals rely heavily on income from tourists rather than farming.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The awesome part is beyond the village, where a path leads you up the side of a cliff that has been used for hundreds of years as a burial site. Hanging graves were constructed by recessing beams into the cliff and placing coffins on them, cantilevered out from the rock face. Over time, of course, beams and coffins have rotted away and fallen, so that now there are crazy jumbles of bones, skulls and coffins here and there. At the top, coffins are also crammed into a cave.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Visiting </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kété Kesú</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> for the first time did make me wonder how, in a place where what happens to the dead is so important, human remains could be left lying around for tourists like us to pose with. The only answers that made any sense where that (a) the bones are so old that no one knows whose ancestors they are, and (b) if they tidied them up, it might make the place less appealing to the ghoulish fascination of tourists.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The hanging graves at Kété Kesú</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who's who at </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kété Kesú</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">? (photo by Wayne)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">* In Indonesian, the words for coconut (</span><span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">kelapa</span><span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">) and head (</span><span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">kepala</span><span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">) are very similar. Confusion between the two words is a well-worn source of jokes in Indonesian classes. Falling coconuts can be a danger in many parts of Indonesia, with appropriate warnings:</span><span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ‘</span><span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Awas, kelapa jatuh!</span><span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">’</span><span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;"> (‘Watch out, falling coconuts!’), but here in </span><span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Kété Kesú</span><span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;"> they need a different warning sign:</span><span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ‘</span><span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Awas, <b>kepala </b>jatuh!</span><span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">’.</span></blockquote>
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Postscript: </b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As you might expect, not everyone has been happy about the touristification of Tana Toraja, particularly the process of selecting the official </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">obyek wisata</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. For the keen scholar, you can find out more here:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cultural Commoditization in Tana Toraja, Indonesia, </span><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/indonesia/cultural-commoditization-tana-toraja-indonesia" target="_blank">Cultural Survival website</a></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/indonesia/cultural-commoditization-tana-toraja-indonesia" target="_blank"></a></span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Art As Politics: Re-crafting Identities, Tourism, And Power in Tana Toraja</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, by Kathleen M. Adams (see especially the section ‘Zoning and the Touristic Homogenization of Elite Sites’). You can read a fair bit of this for free on </span><a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=9EUn6qoAcnIC&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=Zoning+and+the+Touristic+Homogenization+of+Elite+Sites&source=bl&ots=aupwTht3Og&sig=OGSfPSr2OKelBuGHw4VCtlr393E&hl=en&sa=X&ei=U6rgU9D3Hs7o8AW5-IHwAg&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAA" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">books.google.com</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">See Part 2: Two funerals, no weddings</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© 2014 Steve Dobney</span><br />
<br />stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com0Sulawesi, Indonesia-1.8479079 120.52790959999993-9.945894899999999 110.20076109999994 6.2500791 130.85505809999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-87498765963280283872014-07-31T07:41:00.000-07:002014-08-25T21:51:23.359-07:00Maros and Sengkang<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Well, it looks as though I have committed the cardinal sin of bloggers, which is failing to blog for over a month, and for that I beg your forbearance. Or, more poetically, “<i>Mohon maaf lahir dan batin</i>” (“Please forgive me physically and spiritually”), which is the standard greeting on the special day of Idul Fitri that marks the end of Ramadan, and which took place a few days ago, on 28 July.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my defence, we have been bloody busy, both with work and with some trips with visitors, and have also squeezed in another trip back to Oz for a 21st </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and a 60th </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">birthday. On the way back on the plane, Sue did some back-of-the-envelope calculations of the number of times we have moved since arriving in Sulawesi in mid-February. Not counting trips home, we have moved 49 times, with an average stay of 2.5 days. No wonder we are looking forward to staying in one place for a few months!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the last month, we have been lucky enough to make two similar trips with different groups of guests, through the central part of South Sulawesi and up to Tana Toraja, land of the Torajan ethnic group. Having driven through Tana Toraja several times as a short-cut between fieldwork sites, we were keen to go back there with a bit more time on our hands and explore the Torajan landscape and culture first-hand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By way of a well-deserved advertisement, we organised both tours, including driver, local guides and accommodation, through a man known as ‘<a href="http://dodopenman.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Dodo the Penman</a>’, who has become a well-known character in the world of Sulawesi tourism, and he handled everything brilliantly—highly recommended if you should be looking for a tour guide/organiser in Sulawesi. Our driver for both trips, Bayu, speaks very good English and was able to explain a lot about the places we visited. </span></span> </i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maros is the district (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>kebupaten</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) immediately to the north of Makassar, and is set amongst a dramatic scenery of karst (limestone) formations that rise almost vertically out of the flat coastal plains. It is home to Bantimurung, which includes the well-known waterfall playground and once kingdom of the butterflies (see my previous post), but also a large area of national park and some beautiful, secluded farming villages. </span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On our most recent trip we took a short boat ride up a narrow river that wound through mangroves and palms, arriving after about 20 minutes in the small village (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>kampung</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) of Berua.</span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Setting out: our guide, Dodo (second left), and guests Wayne and Chris</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yours truly looking alarmingly blissed out as we journey upriver. Note fashionable UV-protective arm-wear!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">A short walk across the rice fields took us to a local Buginese farmhouse where we were revived with tea, coffee and </span></span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">pisang goreng </i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">(fried banana). For us westerners, the view from the </span><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px; white-space: pre-wrap;">veranda</span><span style="line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;"> looked idyllic, with about a dozen other houses scattered across the flat plain of rice fields, surrounded by steep limestone outcrops and the river. For the locals, the view of the rice paddies probably just looks like hard work!</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">View across the valley of Kampung Berua (photo by Wayne)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back on the road, we passed through the national park on our way north. A track off to the right led to a clearing where, a few weeks before, we had stood and watched as a local forestry worker had called a group of black macaques out of the forest and proceeded to feed them with corn. The monkeys had barely paid us any attention as they fossicked in the dirt for kernels of corn, then sat around grooming each other and playing. They are wild, but obviously habituated to human contact, and while it was a very special experience for us, I did find myself wondering about the negative effects on the monkeys should this become a more popular tourist activity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our first overnight stop was the town of Sengkang, on the edge of Lake Tempe. The lake is a vast, shallow inland waterway that has traditionally been a major producer of fish. Villages built on stilts circle the edges of the lake, and floating villages move from place to place, following the best fishing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These days, the lake is facing problems from sedimentation, with an estimated 50,000 tons of silt flowing into the lake each year. Experts blame this on upstream deforestation, however it could also be caused by a worrying trend that we have witnessed throughout South Sulawesi: ‘mining’ of river rocks. As you cross many of the wide rivers here it’s a common sight to see trucks parked on the river’s edge loading up with river rocks, which are used in all sorts of construction including, ironically, building channels to carry the run-off on steep mountain roads, to prevent erosion! The removal of the rocks from the riverbed could be causing just that same problem.</span></span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2002/07/16/s-sulawesi039s-lake-tempe-may-disappear-20-years.html" target="_blank">Read more</a>.</i></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the morning, we headed out onto the lake in motorised long boats, first passing the permanent </span><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px; white-space: pre-wrap;">settlements</span><span style="line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on stilts, then heading out onto the lake proper, which is dotted with little fishing shacks and huge areas of water hyacinth. One method of fish farming involves making a fence of bamboo around a large clump of water hyacinth, where the fish then breed. Over time the circular fence is gradually tightened and eventually the water hyacinth is removed to leave a captive pool of fish. Elsewhere, the fishermen use huge nets suspended on arms like upside-down umbrellas, which they lower into the water, leave for a while, and then raise again. </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most of the fisherman work for a boss/investor who has bought the fishing rights to a part of the lake.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We stopped for refreshments (more coffee and </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>pisang goreng</i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) on a floating house, built on a raft of bamboo poles and extremely stable. Chickens roamed around on the deck, seemingly unperturbed at being water-borne.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wayne with the day's catch</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<i>Gengsi dong</i>" translates roughly as "Prestigious, yeah?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">The area around Sengkang is also a centre for silk weaving, and on our first trip to the area we had stopped by a weaving workshop to see how it was done and, of course, buy some samples. See the video <a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-C2pRejJOKBTER3akhsRm10bk0&usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a>. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">I cannot imagine doing this for 10 minutes, let alone all day, 5 days a week.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">From there, it was back in the car for the 5-hour trip to Tana Toraja … stay tuned</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">© 2014 Steve Dobney</span></span></div>
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</span>stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com4Sulawesi, Indonesia-1.8479079 120.52790959999993-1.8479079 120.52790959999993 -1.8479079 120.52790959999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-11178123505379373402014-05-18T07:45:00.003-07:002014-08-25T20:42:30.880-07:00Take 2 (or is it 3?)<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans; font-size: 16px; text-overflow: clip; text-shadow: none; word-break: normal; word-wrap: break-word;">
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We are currently back in Makassar resting up at the Fave Hotel after another quick road trip taking in the usual destinations, where once again we stooped and stumbled our way through cocoa orchards, Sue diagnosing the leaves for disease (which she can now do in a matter of seconds) and me tapping the stats into our trusty iPad, which has made the whole process much more doable. (The thought of doing it all with pen and paper and transcribing it at the end of the day onto the laptop makes me shudder.)<br />
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Along the way we have covered many kilometres on the Trans-Sulawesii Highway and its offshoots, and made it as far north as the bottom end of Lake Poso in Central Sulawesi.</div>
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This time around we did not have the luxury of a 'company car', so did the first leg of the trip, from Makassar to the Mars research station in Tarengge, by overnight bus, choosing the optimistically named Kharisma bus lines. I was all set with my technology to help get me through the night, but found that the rental movie that had taken me days to download onto the iPad due to dodgy internet connections had already expired. The backup was the trusty old iPod mini with a load of songs on board — streaming's not something you can really count on here in Sulawesi.</div>
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All in all the 12 hour bus ride wasn't too bad, once we actually got going, but the bus was apt to stop at random points to pick up people, even within a few kilometres of the depot. Try doing that in Australia.<br />
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Most towns of any size here in South Sulawesi have at least one statue of note. As you enter the town of Masamba, an hour before Tarengge, you are met with what looks like a tribute to the NRL but is actually acknowledgement of the region's main cash crop: cocoa ... the Big Pod as it would be called in Oz.<br />
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Tarengge's own statue has more of a general welcoming message for folks who are arriving ...</div>
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... but less so for those leaving town.</div>
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A huge advantage of the Tarengge site for us are the facilities and generous people of the Mars Cocoa Development Centre. This impressive research station has plantings of 45,000 cocoa trees all for research rather than commercial purposes. Here they monitor which are the best varieties in terms of yield and disease resistance, as well as a host of other factors such as plant management regimens and even planting distances.<br />
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They also have an air-conditioned office and a canteen where we have been fed and watered numerous times 'on the house'. They even delivered some morning tea and umbrellas to us in the field one morning as we copped a unusual shower of rain. Legends.</div>
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As well as studying some of the trees in the Mars plantation, we have also been monitoring another small planting about 2 km down the road in a little village called Cendana Hijau. We've now spent 4 or 5 afternoons in this plantation, and the nicest part is the walk back to Mars as the late afternoon cools off. The locals are mostly outside sitting around, the young ones circling on bikes, and the sight of a couple of <i>bule </i>(Westerners) walking (actually on foot!) seems to make their day.</div>
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Our travels have included most available modes of transport, except the horse and cart, which is still in use by the Mandar folks around Polewali. Sometimes the easiest and cheapest option is the <i>pete-pete</i> (petay-petay), tiny minibuses that travel mostly fixed routes but stop on demand, taking as many as they can cram in, the standard fee usually being around 0.30 cents.<br />
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There are many unnerving moments travelling on Sulawesi's chaotic roads, not the least of which are when streams of scooters and cars sail gaily through a red light. I asked Anwar, our driver, about this once, and in essence his reply was that: "conditions apply, read the small print", i.e. the little signs below the traffic lights. In this case, "Left turn must obey the light" ...</div>
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In this case, "Straight ahead can continue".</div>
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The red arrow would be a big breakthrough here, I'm thinking. Just one more reason why I'm happy to leave the driving to others.</div>
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Back in Makassar we are staying at the modern, comfortable and value-for-money Fave Hotel, well located in the <i>Kawasan Kuliner</i> (culinary district). It's only downside is that "fave" is not a natural homophone in Indonesian, so many taxi drivers will not understand it pronounced this way. Instead, you need to experiment with variations like "Farfay", "Parpay", "Parfay" etc. until you achieve recognition.<br />
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Over the road is one of the most popular eating spots for locals, Lae Lae. The decor is no-frills but their house specialities of barbecued fish and other seafood are excellent.<br />
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We are also just 5 minutes walk from Pantai Losari (Losari Beach), Makassar's town square and civic heart. The kilometre-long waterfront promenade is populated at most times of the day and night. Sunset photographs against the giant place names are especially popular.<br />
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Yesterday a group called <i>Forum Mahasiswa Pinggiran</i> (Forum for Marginalised Students) held a Clean Up Losari Beach rally, venturing out in rubber duckies to scoop up some of the countless plastic bags, bottles and other rubbish that are the main downside of the waterfront. Rubbish is a problem all over Makassar, but it was great see a local group of students trying to do something about it.</div>
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Today, Sunday, was market day at Losari Beach and, from 7 a.m., time for the biggest community aerobics session you've ever seen. And yes, Sue and I did shake our booty for 10 minutes or so, until it all just got too sweaty. And that's without the jilbab. Enjoy!<br />
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Did you know?</h3>
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The northern coast of Australia was once part of the Gowan empire. They don't teach you that at school.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map in the Balla' Lompoa Museum (former residence of Sultan Hasanuddin), just outside Makassar, showing the reach of the Gowa Empire in the 17th Century.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rough translation: MAP: The Gowa Kingdom and regions that recognised his authority up to the year 1660-1659. The Sultan of Gowa was recognised as the protector of Muslims in Maluku.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, sans; font-size: x-small;">© 2014 Steve Dobney</span></div>
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stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com1Sulawesi, Indonesia-1.8479079 120.52790959999993-1.8479079 120.52790959999993 -1.8479079 120.52790959999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-10446194989010512862014-04-23T23:27:00.000-07:002014-08-25T20:45:43.424-07:00Public service announcement<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 120%;">This is not a real post, just a public service announcement.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 120%;">If you want to subscribe to my blog, or Sue's, or any blog on blogspot.com, you need to create a blogger account and sign in (Yes, another account and password! Unless you already have a Google+ account, in which case you just use that.) Once you have an account, you will automatically go to a home screen called a dashboard. Here you can add blogs to your reading list. Whether this will give you an email alert when there is a new post, I'm not able to say. Let me know!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 120%;">UPDATE</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">You can now use the "Follow by email" on the right to get email updates. Yay!</span></span>stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-69955493407430605762014-04-17T22:34:00.000-07:002014-08-25T21:45:38.455-07:00Postcard from Majene<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">After Polewali, Majene is a pleasant </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">surprise</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This part of the country is home to the ethnic Mandar people and, without wanting to start a race riot, they are getting my vote so far for the friendliest Sulawesians we've yet met, which is saying something.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">We arrived by chartered car on a Wednesday afternoon and went straight to the hotel that had been recommended to us: Villa Bogor Leppe. The hotel stands on a promontory at one end of a long crescent-shaped bay and has fantastic views across the town and waterfront. At least, there are fantastic views from the car park and open air terrace where breakfast is served. For some reason that initially made me incredulous, the rooms in this hotel are a bit cell-like and have only small windows facing the sea — across the carpark. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A "sea view" room</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">After a few days I rationalised this as being a way of reducing heat load, which made me feel a bit less grumpy about forking out more than usual — $50 a night. Still, we spent quite a bit of time in the mornings and evenings on the terrace enjoying the view of the fishing boats and the life of the waterfront community below us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The real sea view, from the terrace</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">And what a cheerfully rowdy community it seemed to be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our first afternoon we headed into town and were surprised to see a little restaurant offering pizzas. Having had many meals of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>ikan bakar </i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(barbecued fish) and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>mie goreng</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, we decided to give it a shot, in retrospect possibly not a good idea for people who come from Brunswick, Australia's pizza capital. What we had at Radja Pizza was some tinned vegetables in a spicy sauce drizzled with mayonnaise on top of a big flat fluffy scone. But it was certainly a change from </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>ikan bakar</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. We also chatted to a few locals including a young woman wearing a jilbab, called Citra*, who offered to show us around, and we made a date to catch up a few days later.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pizza, Majene style</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We then headed for the beach, as all good Aussies would do, getting to the waterfront in the late afternoon as the day was cooling down, and walked along the road, with fishermen's houses on one side and their boats moored behind a breakwater on the other. The boats themselves are handsome — narrow wooden craft with outriggers on either side, all painted white, some with small sails, others with motors. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji9igrjwYgO4KgZRNeYifCuwYrp7w16cCLoBG0jIum1sU5bkVCM7InKAhBkM69urnC2_okOPQ6lZinhyphenhyphenkY6LCGC8ZhT6tyb1Nr860XSBpBjbvWvW2JohkUkD_gyITGYqxoPfMxoz_M5cc/s1600/boats.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; white-space: normal;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji9igrjwYgO4KgZRNeYifCuwYrp7w16cCLoBG0jIum1sU5bkVCM7InKAhBkM69urnC2_okOPQ6lZinhyphenhyphenkY6LCGC8ZhT6tyb1Nr860XSBpBjbvWvW2JohkUkD_gyITGYqxoPfMxoz_M5cc/s1600/boats.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Majene waterfront</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was the time of day when most of the community were outdoors, the kids playing soccer, volleyball, battling tops, or just cruising around on bikes, and the older generation sitting out in small groups chatting and, in the case of the men, having a cigarette. There was a lovely sense of both the children's freedom to roam and play along the front road and the smaller streets leading off it, and of them being casually supervised by the groups of adults sitting around — a perfect example of the village raising the children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As in many places we were a novelty, and as we walked continually attracted clumps of children for a bit of English practice, a joke or to pose for a photo. We were struck by the fact that there were plenty of young girls out playing too, which hadn't been the case </span><span style="line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">in other places</span><span style="line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I tell them "<i>Saya bukan bintang film</i>" ("I'm not a film star"), but it doesn't put them off.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Other pleasant interruptions included a conversation with an older woman and her friends who told us that a group of local sailors were planning to sail one of the traditional boats to France later in the year. At least I'm pretty sure that's what she said! It would be an extraordinary feat.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we neared the end of the road, we asked one young woman how to get back to the hotel, up on the hill. She assigned a young boy as a guide and we quickly attracted a party of about 25 kids, ranging from 4 or 5 to 8 or 9, leading us through the narrow back streets and up a steeply sloping path, delighted at their role. As we climbed, the younger ones turned back until we reached the top with the posse of half a dozen of the older boys.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The whole walk, from beginning to end, was just a wonderful experience in being being human. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjvzU13EiK2NHLrpXfZKkA65XPwn4Cw6EbqbAoaLFHJJP56Y3f1XKvsnaqywxxlZZlIJYoqCGLCJtm6N9_s6qkn-txTEOrjX0ZeMq33FK3hwO7IgMv22KOKPJWb__PVq6k2_yJ3xgwmVs/s1600/steve_kids2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; white-space: normal;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjvzU13EiK2NHLrpXfZKkA65XPwn4Cw6EbqbAoaLFHJJP56Y3f1XKvsnaqywxxlZZlIJYoqCGLCJtm6N9_s6qkn-txTEOrjX0ZeMq33FK3hwO7IgMv22KOKPJWb__PVq6k2_yJ3xgwmVs/s1600/steve_kids2.jpeg" height="640" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The climber and the guides</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDrt8tQ2_vP2_ai7r2YiwQzM_8GiMb_kZGX_nVaYRRe4C-DcgUOsZQvzUaGRHL5YkrmlsUBjN89eFkkwO_LJE98glp7BUgVj6elE6EvZvuNO6fOsFj9wTd8jLEHvtH73Cx5ivY-Fhe5UU/s1600/boys1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; white-space: normal;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDrt8tQ2_vP2_ai7r2YiwQzM_8GiMb_kZGX_nVaYRRe4C-DcgUOsZQvzUaGRHL5YkrmlsUBjN89eFkkwO_LJE98glp7BUgVj6elE6EvZvuNO6fOsFj9wTd8jLEHvtH73Cx5ivY-Fhe5UU/s1600/boys1.jpeg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Going up</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0TpKK8jh02Py31BfLPTwKVIRjUfWAEV6iezIGDO_UtZStiRA0HpfpaJMdsze_YGQY0frjV7ld7JE3hB8rlh_QNguHMKkFuy4yxPReVVcpfEWoVuAxapQZtgQDhSyxfOY7fP4rNACG9Ew/s1600/view.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; white-space: normal;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0TpKK8jh02Py31BfLPTwKVIRjUfWAEV6iezIGDO_UtZStiRA0HpfpaJMdsze_YGQY0frjV7ld7JE3hB8rlh_QNguHMKkFuy4yxPReVVcpfEWoVuAxapQZtgQDhSyxfOY7fP4rNACG9Ew/s1600/view.jpeg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looking back</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next day we met Rini, the daughter of the hotel owner, who offered to take us to Dato Beach, the beach I'd seen on the internet with white sand and clear water. After more than 8 weeks in Sulawesi I was keen to have my first swim in the ocean, like any good Aussie. But we had also promised to meet up with Citra, so headed over to her place in town. The young woman who met us looked totally different to the one we'd met in the pizza place. Her hair was out and she was wearing casual western style clothes (pyjamas?) and, inside her home, bare feet.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Over a late (for her) and second (for us) breakfast, we got chatting and learned that Citra was from Jakarta and was in Majene for a holiday to visit her boyfriend, Agus, who was currently out of town for a few days. We were really surprised when she also said "Oh, I know Rini. Isn't she that short girl from the hotel?", but didn't go on to elaborate. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After a walk around the city park we said goodbye to Citra and headed back to the hotel. In the late afternoon Rini took us out in her car to Dato Beach. We mentioned Citra.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Oh, yeah, Citra. I know her."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Here we are both thinking 'Wow, what a coincidence — the two people we meet in Majene know each other].</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Does she have a boyfriend called Agus?"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Yes, she does!"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"He used to be my boyfriend."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Aha, pieces of the jigsaw fit into place!]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Was she wearing the jilbab?" Rini asked casually. Rini herself dressed in a casual western style.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By now we were at the beach and headed down the track for our first ocean swim in Sulawesi. It's hard to impress Australians when it comes to beaches, but the sand was indeed white and the water was clear and I came away feeling truly refreshed.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaqfBPKXbS6sb4WJeJuEuTkiWa6CtDQMYB5k4hCjN3CU_LqnJ3aVHlx6IEqKn1B7M-sSJHvj03Cy3DeV61kIRecHLKAg8ePQZcvWjVnsSi7hSOi4ejt7Rgk-37gg34I2g8snhByzgaqNk/s1600/dato.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; white-space: normal;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaqfBPKXbS6sb4WJeJuEuTkiWa6CtDQMYB5k4hCjN3CU_LqnJ3aVHlx6IEqKn1B7M-sSJHvj03Cy3DeV61kIRecHLKAg8ePQZcvWjVnsSi7hSOi4ejt7Rgk-37gg34I2g8snhByzgaqNk/s1600/dato.jpeg" height="640" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Aussies at Dato Beach</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">That night we headed into town again. After dinner we walked through the night market and ended up near the waterfront again, this time in the city park, or <i>alun alun</i>. Food and drink carts lined the roadway and the vendors had laid out blankets and small tarps on the grass for their customers. Clumps of families, young men and women were scattered around the park, enjoying each other's company and the (non-alcoholic) fruit smoothies, and it all looked so nice we joined them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the way back to the hotel, we passed Citra's place and bumped into her sitting outside her house, covered head to foot, including a head scarf, and we said our goodbyes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next day were heading for the provincial capital Mamuju so we could save ourselves the long drive back to Makassar by getting a 1-hour flight. We were leaving with a warm inner glow about Majene, its simple pleasures (maybe not the pizza) and </span><span style="line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">the people we'd met, </span><span style="line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">but with a few lingering questions too.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Had Citra always worn a jilbab? Was wearing the jilbab Agus's idea? Was that why Rini and Agus had split up? Are these even appropriate questions to ask?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">We'll have to go back to Majene to find out, I guess, and hang out in Radja Pizza.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">[*Names have been changed, but not the facts!]</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">© 2014 Steve Dobney</span></span></div>
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stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com1Sulawesi, Indonesia-1.8479079 120.52790959999993-1.8479079 120.52790959999993 -1.8479079 120.52790959999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-55505814267929300862014-04-14T03:14:00.000-07:002014-08-25T22:17:55.921-07:00On the road again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">The last 3 weeks have seen the intrepid Sulawesi team embark on another whirlwind tour of the cocoa sites to complete round 1 of the data collection for the cocoa project. This visit has been sandwiched between two important family events requiring trips back to Melbourne: Miles turning 21 and Rosie moving out of home for her first proper job, in Sydney.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s a map of where our travels have taken us since touching down again in Makassar at the end of March. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wotu, in the northeast, is the closest place Google Maps will recognise to the village of Tarengge, where the Mars research plantation is located. On the northwest coast “Jalan Ahmad Yani” is actually the proper location of Majene, which Google places about 100 km further north. This problem stems from the fact that cities and towns often have the same names as the districts (kecamatan) they lie within. For Victorians, it's like having a town called Gippsland located in Gippsland. It’s something that has caused us a fair bit of confusion when we've asked our drivers "How far to X?", and they reply "Oh, we're already in X".</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Returning to familiar places, reconnecting with familiar people, feeling my Indonesian coming more easily — all these things have helped to make this trip more relaxed, despite the business-like pace we have set. Sulawesi is feeling a lot more doable!</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thanks to the cocoa project, we had the services of their driver Anwar for the first part of the trip, so took the opportunity to do a little bit of sightseeing along the way. From Makassar we headed north via Bantimurung National Park, which is famous for a formidable waterfall, limestone caves and butterflies. British naturalist Alfred Wallace spent time in the area, apparently referring to it as “Kingdom of the butterflies”. Unfortunately, most of the beautifully coloured butterflies that you now see in the park are dead under glass, for sale to tourists. Apparently there is a breeding program to try to reintroduce some of the lost species.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Downstream</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Sue and young dudes testing their bravado at Bantimurung.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Here, as elsewhere, we are instant celebrities and pose for numerous photos. "<i>Satu lagi!</i>" ("One more!") is the usual request, as personnel and line-ups change. It's hard to believe that these young people could get any Facebook "likes" for posting photos with a couple of grey-haired Aussies, but who knows ...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">We stopped overnight in Palopo, where we opted for the $17 a night Hotel Risma over the $45 a night Platinum. An interesting feature of the Risma is that the rooms have no windows to the outside; they all open off a central lounge, so the view is of other guests smoking. Also, like a couple of other ‘budget’ places we have stayed, the beds come with a fitted sheet and a blanket. Having been caught out before, we now carry our own top sheet which is usually all that’s needed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Tarengge we caught up with some of the Mars people we met on our February trip. </span><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sue and I spend three days gathering data on the Mars trial plantation and a nearby farm, rain clouds helping to keep it cooler one day but the other days </span></span><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">still ridiculously hot and humid by 11 am. Often we seem to be the only ones out in the sun (mad dogs and Australians …).</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">There was a slightly sickening moment when we discovered that some of the special botanists’ tagging tape we had used to tag affected branches on the cocoa trees had been eaten by insects and was almost falling off, so we had to improvise backup tags to try to ensure there will still be something there when we come back in June!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Pod examination at Mars, Tarengge</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Leaving Tarengge we detoured off the main road to try to find the coastline. A few kilometres down the road we come to a small fishing village where a group of women are untangling seaweed from the nets used to harvest it, to be used to make agar agar they told us. We are at the top of the Bay of Bone, somewhere as far off my mental world map as I can imagine. The sand is black and the water is the temperature of a bath.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Standing on the top of the bay ... of Bone</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our next destination was Pinrang and Anwar told us the quickest route was via Rantepao in Tana Toraja, so once again we got a tantalising taste of Sulawesi’s most famous region in passing. This time we stopped for more than coffee, though. Anwar took us to the village of Ke’te Kesu’, which has become a tourist park, so I’m unsure whether people still live there or not. Regardless, there are a series of large impressive family tombs ... and more.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The village of Ke’te Kesu’</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we climbed the steps set into the face of the limestone cliff we passed cave tombs and disintegrating coffins spilling out crazy jumbles of bleached bones and skulls. Above our heads were other coffins held by beams set into the cliff face, in various states of dilapidation. Occasionally, skulls and bones must literally fall out of the sky.</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For people who put such a high cultural emphasis on farewelling the dead in elaborate and expensive funeral ceremonies, Torajans seem to have a strange indifference for their remains beyond the grave. Obviously, there’s a lot more to be learnt about this, and I’m looking forward to spending some time doing that and trekking in these mountains later in the year.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Pinrang we once again stayed at the crazily Bollywood-style Permata Hotel. Anwar left us there to head back to Makassar, but by now we were starting to get the hang of arranging transport in Sulawesi: basically, stand around by the side of the road and you'll be offered a ride. In this case, the hotel owner made a phone call that provided us with two guys who became our <i>ojeks</i> (motorbike taxis) for the next few days. They in turn knew another guy with a car who provided the transport for the next leg — back to Polewali.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The over-the-top Permata Hotel in Pinrang. BYO sheet and sunglasses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Having written before about the joys and sorrows of Polewali (see Postcards from Polewali #1 and 2), I won’t go into too much detail this time, except to say:</span></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, we stayed at the Ratih Hotel again. The idea of staying out in the village of Beluak is still attractive, but we were working to a tight schedule and the lure of air-con, a pool and wi-fi was too strong. [Does that sound weak and pathetic?]</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Village life did seem as charming as ever. </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We spent a very pleasant couple of days traipsing around Pak Syukur’s cocoa farm — essentially his backyard — drinking coffee with him and his wife, and being dinked to and from town by his sons Aswal and Iqbal</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">With one more cocoa location to visit, about 30 km further up the highway at Sumarrang, we decided to shift our base from Polewali (not surprised?) and push on to Majene, which would be new territory for us, with only a 25 km trip back to Sumarang. We had heard good things about Majene, including the tantalising fact that there is a beach with white sand. It turned out to be a great decision (stay tuned for "Postcard from Majene").</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Words of the week</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Indonesians love a good acronym. Here are a few local ones:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tator: Tana Toraja</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sulsel: Sulawesi Selatan (South Sulawesi)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sulbar: Sulawesi Barat (West Sulawesi)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sulselbar: I'm sure you can guess that one</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Calpres: Calon presiden (presidential candidate)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bantimurung National Park<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://notesofnomads.com/bantimurung-national-park-indonesia/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://notesofnomads.com/bantimurung-national-park-indonesia/</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #393939; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ke’te Kesu’</span>, Tana Toraja</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.indonesia.travel/en/destination/749/the-ancient-village-of-ke-te-kesu-in-the-heart-of-the-toraja-highlands"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.indonesia.travel/en/destination/749/the-ancient-village-of-ke-te-kesu-in-the-heart-of-the-toraja-highlands</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></a></div>
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Sue's blog</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://3-degrees-south.blogspot.com/">http://3-degrees-south.blogspot.com</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© 2014 Steve Dobney</span><br />
<br />stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-40424506017615290092014-04-13T01:29:00.000-07:002014-08-26T00:46:31.569-07:00Finding Sugar Man in Anreapi<div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During our 3 days in Polewali we visited the <i>desa </i>(village) of Beluak in the Anreapi district a couple of times. It's about 10 k out of town towards the surrounding hills.
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The village itself is very pretty, with traditional South Sulawesi houses (raised up on poles) lining both sides of the street. At the home of the head farmer, Pak Arifin, the kids were busy painting a length of low bamboo fencing in blue and white paint. Looking around, most of the other houses nearby were sporting freshly painted front fences, all blue and white, about half a metre high, and people were generally busy making their street frontages look pretty. We asked about the reason for all the activity, and it turns out there was the local equivalent of a Tidy Town competition coming up, and the residents of Beluak were keen to take out the trophy. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7IJMhwtscmMnfv9hoyejdcJE2kRbUrDdnRv6qlk9MkY_dY_jK8yUWs1XHUUzvE5u-quIW3ElLApj2Bu80yYkyawbyJnXSzbg-vZA7703rde_ZQVzJRI8pPjP3C6IzhwXHqAdd8ZoCD2g/s1600/anreapi+lr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7IJMhwtscmMnfv9hoyejdcJE2kRbUrDdnRv6qlk9MkY_dY_jK8yUWs1XHUUzvE5u-quIW3ElLApj2Bu80yYkyawbyJnXSzbg-vZA7703rde_ZQVzJRI8pPjP3C6IzhwXHqAdd8ZoCD2g/s1600/anreapi+lr.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beluak main street</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In front of Pak Sakur's house was a traditional raised platform (<i>balai balai</i>) with a roof, which is a great place to hang out and watch the passing action (perhaps a stray goat) and catch a cooling breeze. On our first visit, after examining the the trees in a nearby trial planting, I was hanging out on the platform, cooling down and chatting with the young Indonesian drivers. I tried to explain where we were from and what the hell we were doing there. I mentioned our kids and the question of my age came up. <i>Berapa umur Pak? </i>When I replied that I was 54, the two drivers shot each other the kind of look that suggested one of them had just lost a bet. I asked them how old they thought I was. <i>Saya pikir tujuh puluh tujuh</i>, replied the driver. Seventy-seven. God knows I haven't aged well, but that was a blow. I laughed it off as best I could, decided not to tip the driver, and made a mental note to investigate laser dermabrasion options back in Melbourne.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On our return a few days later we visited the cocoa plantation of Pak Arafin, which starts just behind the houses and stretches on up a hillside. Not far along this track we came across the guys harvesting rambutan (see the photo in last week's blog) and got to sample the fruit. [Having since tried durian a couple of times, rambutan is definitely my favourite. Rambutan tastes like banana and garlic custard, but is widely popular, particulary with the blokes. Perhaps it's a sign of <i>gengsi </i>(prestige).]</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg7xs8NpNL3S16N69xpdy9Za6oFZGcPecQeBm1ZXsgM4EMh0bcYnBDHOwmERkPJyhXIjN_wHSn7LFtp4_5UIsjTAWoCpStxMWkQHhs1VHH7pzHg5EI7rIcyQJIIHTPxVJH-uqqYK101Hg/s1600/rambutan+lr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg7xs8NpNL3S16N69xpdy9Za6oFZGcPecQeBm1ZXsgM4EMh0bcYnBDHOwmERkPJyhXIjN_wHSn7LFtp4_5UIsjTAWoCpStxMWkQHhs1VHH7pzHg5EI7rIcyQJIIHTPxVJH-uqqYK101Hg/s1600/rambutan+lr.jpg" height="640" width="384" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rambutan stop</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After checking the cocoa growing at the lower levels, our expedition leader Pak Philip asked Pak Arafin to take us further up the track, to see where the cocoa ended and the rainforest began. We climbed for more than an hour through a beautiful landscape of cocoa interwoven with taller trees – coconuts and wild mango (alas, no ripe fruit) – and sweated a bucketload in the process, but the forest edge was still a long way off. We stopped for a breather and to admire the view: in one direction, rice fields stretching towards the coast at Polewali; in the other, cocoa and coconut trees spreading across the hillsides as far as we could see. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEittQl2lpoUE92_FuhE9vpuBpGuag-zoSi0a3l-2L887PoPUEGULtWiJfE4cCfE_j5ydN5QSEAm4O1uyTR-VfMDyTChVBxlLA4cZFTVc3akuCUrtfAyRlPslc1M1gPOWFgetRTRU8Xnowo/s1600/anreapi_climb+lr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEittQl2lpoUE92_FuhE9vpuBpGuag-zoSi0a3l-2L887PoPUEGULtWiJfE4cCfE_j5ydN5QSEAm4O1uyTR-VfMDyTChVBxlLA4cZFTVc3akuCUrtfAyRlPslc1M1gPOWFgetRTRU8Xnowo/s1600/anreapi_climb+lr.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From there on the track became a narrow path traversing the slope. Pak Arifin was leaping ahead effortlessly but I for one was staring to get a tad grumpy and was just asking him as politely as I could “<i>Berapa jauh lagi, Pak?</i>” (“How much further, man?”) when we stumbled round a bend to find a little shack with smoke coming from the roof. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo0p22IN3rwmNoihUG-1BARUbu58iATtqB4F18WAme2gGAVE9xjj2bmnpxyJzHPuCL_cbgTFq_C76EjY4cjiKLYjh_1D3CahFQTk6RtfURQXlrfEVCU1n9oW75Gzb21q8_WmgVtQjMAv8/s1600/anreapi_sugar_shack1+lr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo0p22IN3rwmNoihUG-1BARUbu58iATtqB4F18WAme2gGAVE9xjj2bmnpxyJzHPuCL_cbgTFq_C76EjY4cjiKLYjh_1D3CahFQTk6RtfURQXlrfEVCU1n9oW75Gzb21q8_WmgVtQjMAv8/s1600/anreapi_sugar_shack1+lr.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Inside the gloom was a bare-chested middle-aged man in a sarong, two tiny kittens, and a large wok of yellow liquid gently plopping over a fire. It was surreal, like stumbling across a hermit in his cave. The stuff in the wok turned out to be palm sugar, being reduced to solid form, and sugar man promptly offered us a cup of the work in progress, which was, well ... very sweet. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZyWx_3MqGe9t1m4j1vUWkvjqT-boLdAjOYEv5DlsbtXQWhD84mLgUIvoOt0rUFeuzpXSHSaOansFEcboqCrQe3pe1ooUkZrvKmqR5ylbQ6CSHGJKA2GPy7kOVOM6TpZg667qFyT_Tuao/s1600/anreapi_sugar_shack2+lr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZyWx_3MqGe9t1m4j1vUWkvjqT-boLdAjOYEv5DlsbtXQWhD84mLgUIvoOt0rUFeuzpXSHSaOansFEcboqCrQe3pe1ooUkZrvKmqR5ylbQ6CSHGJKA2GPy7kOVOM6TpZg667qFyT_Tuao/s1600/anreapi_sugar_shack2+lr.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pak Arifin, Peter and the sugar</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6ccrbu5Fb5PjHtFclDJiqcH1QipRmu12b9Sv-Q6__S9XEyS31R9q5qykciBLEWSgE41Apr-zt3TWDggQ7cnkTy-qZ_ZSBLqtuet7cN-tcuQbQJ1Iupsm9tV5D7ayl9P1732OTRqSKaj4/s1600/anreapi_sugar_shack_sd+lr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6ccrbu5Fb5PjHtFclDJiqcH1QipRmu12b9Sv-Q6__S9XEyS31R9q5qykciBLEWSgE41Apr-zt3TWDggQ7cnkTy-qZ_ZSBLqtuet7cN-tcuQbQJ1Iupsm9tV5D7ayl9P1732OTRqSKaj4/s1600/anreapi_sugar_shack_sd+lr.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sweeeeeeeet!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a bit of idle chat, we made moves to go, but as we clambered out of the hut one of the corner posts gave way. Sugar man toppled to the ground, was knocked on the head by the falling piece of wood and did a backwards roll down the hill. Needless to say we were all very concerned, but after taking a minute to get his bearings, sugar man assured us he was fine, so we left him with his kittens and started the trip back down. Nearing home, Pak Arifin stripped off his shirt and climbed straight up a 30-foot coconut tree with his machete, which he expertly employed to cut down 4 coconuts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">About 10 minutes later we were sitting around out the front of his house, recovering with a coconut juice. “So does the sugar man live up there all the time?” we asked Pak Arifin. “No,” he replied, “he lives in that house across the road. He just goes up there every so often for a few days to make some sugar. In fact, he’s over there, at the house next door right now.” Sure enough, there was sugar man, clean shirt and neatly combed hair, chatting with the neighbours like a regular guy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fact of the day</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sulawesi was the source of a hair oil that was used by gentlemen in the old days in Europe. To avoid having their good furniture greased up, ladies would place strips of fabric over the backs of their chairs and couches. These pieces of fabric were known as antimacassars.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© 2014 Steve Dobney</span></div>
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stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-30875475892157921142014-03-12T06:28:00.001-07:002014-08-26T00:43:51.115-07:00Postcard from Polewali 2<div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The title of my earlier post, "Postcard from Polewali" turns out to be ironic. I spent some time today walking the streets trying various shops and the post office, but it turns out that the town of Polewali does not consider itself worthy of producing such a thing as a simple postcard. People were familiar with the concept – <i>kartu pos </i>– but couldn't recall actually seeing them for sale anywhere. The guy in the post office was willing to estimate the postage, should I be able to find one, and sell me the necessary stamps, but I have a feeling those stamps will remain unused. It shouldn't come as a surprise, I guess. As you can see from my snaps below, Polewali is not a pretty town and it doesn't attract the kind of people who might want to send postcards, i.e. tourists. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The mean streets of Polewali</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Hotel Ratih and its less salubrious neighbour</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In our week staying here, we haven't seen any other Westerners, and we invariably create a minor commotion walking down the street, just by being different (even when I'm wearing my batik shirt).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Usually it's just the standard "Hello mister, hello missus", but variants include horn honking, dangerous turning of heads while riding of motor scooters, occasional pointing (as if to say "Hey white people, look at the funny white people"), and clustering of amazed, hysterically laughing schoolkids. It is always good-natured, often involves a photograph, and sometimes develops into an actual conversation if either party has the time and language.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other thing that makes us oddities is possibly that we are walking. You certainly don't catch many locals doing it, and we are constantly being offered more acceptable options, such as <i>becaks </i>and <i>pete-pete </i>(micro vans with bench seats, standard fare 0.30 cents). It's not hard to see why. There are no footpaths, just a choice between the general roadside rubble and the drainage ditch, which is sometimes covered but mostly open. Cars park wherever they want on the road edge, which means you often have to dodge out into the traffic lane where <i>becaks </i>and scooters weave between trucks and the occasional car, all with plenty of horn honking but precious few actual collisions [touches wooden object, makes sign of cross].</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The streetscape along the main street consists mainly of dark, dingy, broken facades hosting every kind of business from restaurants and <i>warkops </i>(<i>warung kopi </i>= coffeeshops) to motorbike repair shops and a surprising number of photocopy services. Interspersed are precincts for schools and the library, which are a little grander, and the stark contrast of a spotless and brightly lit Alfamart store.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oddly, the town is spread over a few kilometres, with a stretch of rice paddies in the middle, maybe on lower lying land, which provides some visual relief but adds to the travelling. We are staying the newly completed and certainly grand (but unfortunately named) Hotel Ratih, but the block next door looks like a bomb zone in Baghdad. In short, Polewali is a hard town. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having said that, we have eaten well here. The regional specialty is <i>ikan bakar </i>(barbecued fish), cooked on an open grill out the front of the shop. Before you enter you choose your fish from the selection on ice in a polystyrene esky, It's basted in some kind of delicious garlicky spicy paste and goes down well with some <i>cap cai </i>(mixed vegetables, but the local variant must include some prawns), <i>nasi putih </i>and an <i>es jeruk </i>or <i>jus melon </i>(iced orange juice or melon juice). The heat conjures up dreams of ice cold beer, but that is only available in the swankier hotels (like the Ratih) and even then you need to give the staff notice to put it in the fridge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ikan bakar</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The ubiquitous <i>kecap manis</i>: "NEW: Blacker, more deliciously salty and oily, thicker". </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Polewali improves, though, as soon as you get a block or two from the main street, where the newer houses and <i>ruko </i>are going up amid the rice fields, and within a kilometre or two you are in another world of the <i>desa </i>(village) and <i>dusun </i>(whatever is smaller than a village!). This is where Sue and I have been spending most of our mornings up until 1 or 2 pm, primarily examining the cocoa trees belonging to a couple of local farmers, but also getting a little glimpse of village life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sue relaxing on the <i>balai balai </i>with tools of the trade</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each morning at 8 we are called for by a couple of guys on motor scooters who dink us (a mode of transport called <i>ojek</i>) the 5 or 6 kilometres through the rice paddies to the village of Beluak. It's an absolute mood-changer, a great way to start the day, despite the occasional white man's worries about accidents, travel insurance and whether the rate of $2 one way that we are paying them will distort the local economy, since the recommended rate was only $1.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pak Syukur's house with the <i>balai balai </i>and table tennis table in the "carport".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The village of Beluak, Anreapi</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pak Arafin and family, and a crop of coconuts</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our first day on our own in the cocoa field looked like being a fizzer when the reality of the trees didn't match Sue's plans, but our host Pak Arafin was more concerned that we should attend the ceremony taking place in the village's open air mosque (no domes, no minarets). We were ushered in, shoeless, and with a bit of shuffling seated on the floor in the loosely segregated groups, me with the men, Sue with the women and children. There was a sermon from a young and friendly looking vicar (imam?) that I didn't understand, but which got a few laughs, and a central arrangement of a banana tree hung with little baskets containing boiled eggs. It all reminded me of Easter. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It turns out that it was Maulid,the celebration of Muhammad's birth, celebrated in some Muslim countries but frowned upon in others; hence my sense of it being about new life was not far off. After the formal part of the service the women whipped out plates food they had prepared and after a lot of deferring to each other we all tucked in. It was all incredibly friendly and relaxed. Yes, there were some <i>jilbab </i>(headscarves), but there were bareheaded women as well and none of that seemed to matter. Despite our obvious status as non-believers, we were given the gifts of the small egg trees to take away at the end of the ceremony. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pak Arafin and family with the egg trees</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another day, after 4 hours work in the increasing heat, we are walking back to Pak Arafin's place and notice a couple of houses with goods for sale in the front window, which is common in the villages. "<i>Ada minuman es?</i>" (Do you have ice drinks?) I ask hopefully. "<i>Ada</i>", is the correct reply. We happily sit on the plastic chairs while the <i>ibu </i>of the house/<i>warung</i> mixes ice from an esky, a bit of water and our choice of flavour sachet in a blender and a minute later we are revelling in a couple of slurpies as feeling the core temperature drop back to normal. To the point where we follow up with a bowl of instant noodles; a simple but incredibly reviving snack. As we pay and leave, <i>ibu </i>is serving her next customer who is buying one of the bottles of petrol she has lined up on a rack, to top up his van. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The ice and petrol lady</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Saturday as we had finished up our work in Pak Syukur's plantation, it seemed the whole village was kicking back. The young boys were playing table tennis under a kind of carport strung with election banners to stop the ball going too far. The older boys were dozing on the raised <i>balai balai </i>(deckhouse) with their music player pumping out "Hotel California" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart" at a not unneighbourly volume, while somewhere across the fields some other 80s rock was answering the call. The girls, however, may well have been doing some housework inside.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Village life seems to occur in a loose kind of privacy; washing, snoozing, coming and going all go on in the public space and there is a lot of what seems like just sitting around. The schoolgirls wear headscarves, but outside of school they seem much less common, here at least. Slowly we have forged some relationships here in Beluak and I'm hoping that when we return in April we will take up Pak Arafin's offer of accommodation at his house. If we can turn our backs on air-con, beer and a swimming pool for a week or two.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hard to resist: Hotel Ratih</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Did I mention that we also went in search of a waterfall advertised on the internet, but deceptively difficult to find. To make things more interesting, we (OK, I) had chartered this most inappropriate vehicle for mountain climbing on rough roads: the urban <i>pete-pete</i>. But our fearless driver Hendra persevered and joined us on the 1 hour climb. More pics to come.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© 2014 Steve Dobney</span></div>
stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-70284463922250491362014-03-03T07:05:00.000-08:002014-08-26T05:52:15.600-07:00Photo diary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To bring things up to date, here are a few highlights from the last 10 days or so, during which time we completed our road trip, had a couple of days in Jakarta (where Sue met the scholarship people and we enjoyed more upmarket accommodation), and spent 4 more days back in Makassar, finally getting a chance to see some more of the city, which has a lot more to offer than it seemed from our first impressions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The wonderful hanging cafes at Palopo. Just don't all jump at once.<br />(10 points if you can see the cat.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sue, supervisor Phil, and Ayu getting down to the fungus's level.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were the support act for the President, SBY, on our way back south to Makassar. He had made a flying visit to Sulawesi and was an hour or so behind us, with thousands of fans lining the streets. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sulawesian hospitality at a farm in Bantaeng. I was feeling a little crook that day so didn't partake of the durian or corn, but it was quite a spread.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The illustrated map of Indonesian ethnic groups in the National Museum in Jakarta and (below) Miss Bali.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back in Makassar. There are dozens of food carts along Pantai Losari (the waterfront), possibly 100, but they all sell the same thing: <i>pisang epe </i>(flattened, grilled banana with various flavoured toppings including chocolate, cheese and durian). It feels terrible to disappoint so many people as I walk past, but you would think that some entrepreneurial soul would branch out into something else!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Saturday night at Pantai Losari: electric cars and scooters are all the go. It's the place that kids learn the skills they'll need to survive on the chaotic roads. I couldn't help myself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The house band belting out "Brown Sugar" at <br />Resto Balezza, now sadly closed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© 2014 Steve Dobney</span></div>
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stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com0Sulawesi, Indonesia-1.8479079 120.52790959999993-1.8479079 120.52790959999993 -1.8479079 120.52790959999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-8096610539301746012014-02-20T03:39:00.004-08:002014-08-26T05:57:37.768-07:00Postcard from Polewali<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is only a week since we left Melbourne, but by jingoes it seems a
lot longer than that. We hit the ground running and haven’t stopped yet,
currently in our third location since leaving Makassar on Thursday
morning, less than 24 hours after we’d arrived. Basically we haven’t had
time to wipe our arses (so quite handy that I had a bout of
constipation. Looks like “Sulawesi stomach” is a different beast to
“Bali belly”. To get daily updates on my digestive status,
see my other blog, Sulawesi_bound.bogspot.com.) </span><br />
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Since leaving Makasssar we have been part of a travelling “cocoa
caravan” that has ranged in size from 1 to 4 vehicles, driving from
hotel to cocoa farm to trial site to farmer’s field day, stopping at the
municipal offices to shake hands with the <i>wakil bupati </i>(deputy
mayor
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have actually seen him), then heading on to the next town. The group has included university academics
from Melbourne, Sydney and Makassar, people involved with various cocoa
research projects in Indonesia, and the head of research at Mars (the
chocolate company, not the planet; a company, by the way, that is still
fully owned by the Mars family!). Everywhere we
receive wonderful hospitality in the form of food (perhaps the cause of
my “Sulawesi stomach”). </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFiqL6hLf7bN3XB0aDjNCe4B1kFLYkh5PZUjJmK_bDlxBKs4K124A6XELRcpW4gVqrK2hO-6-5Y1iDc8CG_A-qbbnlN10mSz62xmqRSkFlGqcMmwqhQjk_anXZGC0XReURpBeWPmLtc_g/s1600/team2_lr.jpg" height="265" width="400" /> </td><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The team assembles on day 1 in Makassar</span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFiqL6hLf7bN3XB0aDjNCe4B1kFLYkh5PZUjJmK_bDlxBKs4K124A6XELRcpW4gVqrK2hO-6-5Y1iDc8CG_A-qbbnlN10mSz62xmqRSkFlGqcMmwqhQjk_anXZGC0XReURpBeWPmLtc_g/s1600/team2_lr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4SZ1uN0lSNosDQGVJObeZxp-JqKWA_5m-1YFwcvgzfSOlYdPN1WHqRVFBIFNmagpP1fODRbM9H5uvra-cGD7NC-X53QCqRuAYQa4q77OhMjgxwBeyG6C9svAreV8A_gO2XecsL1sq2NY/s1600/cars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4SZ1uN0lSNosDQGVJObeZxp-JqKWA_5m-1YFwcvgzfSOlYdPN1WHqRVFBIFNmagpP1fODRbM9H5uvra-cGD7NC-X53QCqRuAYQa4q77OhMjgxwBeyG6C9svAreV8A_gO2XecsL1sq2NY/s1600/cars.jpg" height="384" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The caravan on tour. We kind of parked out the village.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqbQZxXCnaL1_95r673Ou0KwsiqNyCZurx_XEZSnpuZLlQPZY6aGuViUyhAp5gx4rsmxdYhRBH4W5_JmMgYFLDB81EBXIfURKaJ_DyOAzsvD84Gc_gHD1hpuKsD2wIRsvyOhrrsRkQeng/s1600/sula_house.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqbQZxXCnaL1_95r673Ou0KwsiqNyCZurx_XEZSnpuZLlQPZY6aGuViUyhAp5gx4rsmxdYhRBH4W5_JmMgYFLDB81EBXIfURKaJ_DyOAzsvD84Gc_gHD1hpuKsD2wIRsvyOhrrsRkQeng/s1600/sula_house.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A typical South Sulawesi house. They aren't all as nice as this, obviously.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSZxbvp1d-IiyXIWol5upuhlsbZD6Wnlp1KlK6zfseimzyJoBkuQadh6jpwS1H9IZBuOcmuqgtK0ZPZlrlIQKGz0sPWR8lETY0MnRx3lohm5LnsMw_rYpOsBCUk9FIZe6Jnb6th-6oVGI/s1600/selfie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSZxbvp1d-IiyXIWol5upuhlsbZD6Wnlp1KlK6zfseimzyJoBkuQadh6jpwS1H9IZBuOcmuqgtK0ZPZlrlIQKGz0sPWR8lETY0MnRx3lohm5LnsMw_rYpOsBCUk9FIZe6Jnb6th-6oVGI/s1600/selfie.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Selfie with the team, with the head of Agriculture in Polewali on the right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The itinerary is usually breakfast at 7, then out by 8.30 to the first
site, before it gets too hot and humid. Then keep going once it is too
hot and humid, trying to drink more than we sweat! Then back to the
hotel by 6 for a cold shower (hot water doesn’t seem to be widely
available, but it’s only Sulawesi cold) before going out to dinner
somewhere then collapsing into bed. I have never felt more a part of the
water cycle! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
As you can imagine, there hasn’t been too much time for sightseeing, but
that will come once the caravan disbands, people head home, and we are
left to our own devices. In Polewali (the fabled city we stared at for
months as a dot on a map) I managed to sneak away from the cocoa
discussions for a walk along the seafront esplanade. Oddly, it is
totally undeveloped, lined with simple houses on one side, all the
hotels being located a block away on the fairly grimy main road. Sue’s
academic supervisor, who has been coming here for years, admitted to me
that he’d never seen the waterfront, which was only about 300 metres
from our hotel. This is one focused group of people!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLr1L_nouSJfgisR8O2019__mWeGQqkBcS0-U5QcRxfdoJ0WlGpwgzFtitqNa6d7eKNK-_J9braVh2R1BaNxyzpotp7KTpcilGp8O485_Sc6Wta5e7dS1dzWBR0kHjhjFoIARMtnSQjvk/s1600/polewali_sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLr1L_nouSJfgisR8O2019__mWeGQqkBcS0-U5QcRxfdoJ0WlGpwgzFtitqNa6d7eKNK-_J9braVh2R1BaNxyzpotp7KTpcilGp8O485_Sc6Wta5e7dS1dzWBR0kHjhjFoIARMtnSQjvk/s1600/polewali_sign.jpg" height="384" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Welcome to Polewali (for those of you arriving by boat).</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF0NAOXV8LbSz4ZjZG1fqYYiXFP1A1fSa_QgvZwb7c0b_rtUoaPZwa1U7Nr-IlbaRNsJhSVuG168TfntzJ5V_Qde8j4Z-eEZZZaVIPHAoJjlf3Em4P0HkKb461KlnKDx1KzdkCN2SqOdM/s1600/polewali_ride.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF0NAOXV8LbSz4ZjZG1fqYYiXFP1A1fSa_QgvZwb7c0b_rtUoaPZwa1U7Nr-IlbaRNsJhSVuG168TfntzJ5V_Qde8j4Z-eEZZZaVIPHAoJjlf3Em4P0HkKb461KlnKDx1KzdkCN2SqOdM/s1600/polewali_ride.jpg" height="384" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pedal-powered fun ride, Saturday evening on the Polewali waterfront</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I have seen in the last 6 days are a hell of a lot of cocoa trees! I
have walked around “clone trials” and attempted to tell one variety
from another by the shape of the pods. I have peered at leaves to see
the traces of the dreaded vascular streak dieback (VSD). I have attended
farmer training sessions on the benefits of <i>pemangkasan</i> (pruning), <i>
pemupukan</i> (fertilising), <i>kompos</i> (I think you can guess that one), <i>
pembersihkan gulma</i> (weeding), <i>naungan </i>(shade) and standing next to the
tree with an axe to increase production. (Actually, that is a old Kevin
Heinze technique they don’t yet know about. I’ll mention it next time.) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEuR-fRcMnJUCIWzzLwJzEd1oSsxHWI0NwlzWGXDCJUCAKMx3ZvNGgLBu_D5gHT3fh-sPWjWrs5q8B6fTW3y2J4JhtcB2HmoGqFlexvgM07-iTi1JhnbK6XcOP6j4Z0oxi0x8BDVSzVjw/s1600/pruning2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEuR-fRcMnJUCIWzzLwJzEd1oSsxHWI0NwlzWGXDCJUCAKMx3ZvNGgLBu_D5gHT3fh-sPWjWrs5q8B6fTW3y2J4JhtcB2HmoGqFlexvgM07-iTi1JhnbK6XcOP6j4Z0oxi0x8BDVSzVjw/s1600/pruning2.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A pruning lesson from the master, Arif</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ibNgH__fVWFg6ZfhkF3udNOyVcytd92wX3_dNi0B5wmPAIGe61kGTZelCybtta5Ir2eMKouzagsh-2jPnVwZkJER3H6mLVuxN7NxwH_KIp1Ib-lJdU0wZjHiVyzgPSa22nIYAoVWN80/s1600/planting_sdsb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ibNgH__fVWFg6ZfhkF3udNOyVcytd92wX3_dNi0B5wmPAIGe61kGTZelCybtta5Ir2eMKouzagsh-2jPnVwZkJER3H6mLVuxN7NxwH_KIp1Ib-lJdU0wZjHiVyzgPSa22nIYAoVWN80/s1600/planting_sdsb.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ode, Sue, Steve and Arif with the cocoa tree we just planted, cocoa farmers field day</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIWE3cCM6EGk3Z45lRBZaNsYO8tvwhzT8IPkuBptKzDt4fnxRcn-eJjhngWVKatBrbXpHhaU4xIX3G6jWUmM9Xvvze3Q4xu7iB16Umw2YMufKWwTkiXcE2-4ivX3lwC6IKWkciVkMVfNc/s1600/pods_lr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIWE3cCM6EGk3Z45lRBZaNsYO8tvwhzT8IPkuBptKzDt4fnxRcn-eJjhngWVKatBrbXpHhaU4xIX3G6jWUmM9Xvvze3Q4xu7iB16Umw2YMufKWwTkiXcE2-4ivX3lwC6IKWkciVkMVfNc/s1600/pods_lr.jpg" height="640" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Where it all begins: pods on the tree</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s no holiday, and that’s not what we signed up for anyway. But in the
bustle of activity, I am managing to chat to farmers, swap cultural
observations with my car companion Ayu, from Makassar, eat coconuts and
rambutan freshly cut from the tree, and soak up the classic Indonesian
vista of fluorescent green rice paddies fringed with coconut palms, with
hazy mountain ranges in the far distance. As we Aussies would say would
say by way of great praise, “Not bad”. </span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7FRjrPEkVpTa_RyKjVb1_1iQx1Ogxij-l87q7Al2lKStMQ1gHeS2ql9D5xN6Ws9eocz_96XYkrAR15tvE3ODK7qdco-usIQD3PIsORL8WWXLLfzU2577VNN4e2Ud95GQIMot2-1syddU/s1600/landscape1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7FRjrPEkVpTa_RyKjVb1_1iQx1Ogxij-l87q7Al2lKStMQ1gHeS2ql9D5xN6Ws9eocz_96XYkrAR15tvE3ODK7qdco-usIQD3PIsORL8WWXLLfzU2577VNN4e2Ud95GQIMot2-1syddU/s1600/landscape1.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Classic Sulawesi landscape: rice, coconuts, mountains</span></div>
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Words of the day </span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">pupuk: fertiliser </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ruko: house (<i>rumah</i>) with a shop (<i>toko</i>) at the front</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Still to come</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finding Sugar Man in Anreapi</span></div>
stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com5Sulawesi, Indonesia-1.8479079 120.52790959999993-1.8479079 120.52790959999993 -1.8479079 120.52790959999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753411330634462229.post-38797155476715053672014-02-09T13:50:00.000-08:002014-08-26T06:20:15.808-07:00Countdown<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two days to go. Then Sue and I will kiss the kids goodbye, give the dog an extra Schmacko, leave a fire extinguisher on the kitchen table and fly off for the first instalment of ... the Sulawesi Project. Our mission? To save the world’s chocolate supply from an evil fungus called vascular streak dieback. Well, that’s actually really Sue’s mission, or more accurately her honours research project in ecology, and as a scientist she probably wouldn’t say ‘evil’, but, well, she can be all sciencey in her own blog. My own role in the adventure is a complex mixture of language/cultural advisor, iPad solar rechargist, food taster and general factotum.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Having recently edited two Indonesian language textbooks for high school students, I am thoroughly up to speed with the everyday phrases of Jakartan teenagers, viz:</span></div>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saya mau menjadi teman kamu di Facebook. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[I’d like to add you to the list of people who can see my gallery of selfies online.]</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saya suka mendownload musik alternatif di iPod saya. </span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[I think you might be able to work that one out yourself.]</span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: 15px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Great ice-breakers though they might be, I’m not sure these phrases will get me far with the cocoa growers of Sulawesi. Instead, I am boning up with more appropriate vocabulary, such as:</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Apakah pohon kakao Anda terserang jamur? </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is your cocoa tree afflicted by fungus?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tolong tunjukkan saya pohon yang paling sehat. </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please show me your healthiest tree.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Apakah selalu begitu panas dan hujan di sini, atau mungkin kita datang pada waktu yang kurang sempurna? </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is it always this hot and rainy here, or did we just come at a bad time?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saya tahu Ramadan sekarang, tetapi apakah kami bisa dapatkan bir dekat sini? </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">I know it's Ramadan, but could we get a beer somewhere nearby?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maaf, saya berbicara tidak tepat. </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sorry, that was inappropriate.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">* * *</span></span></div>
<div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-7ff6e52b-1875-8857-a140-2ad5e48c831b"></span><br />
<h3>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-7ff6e52b-1875-8857-a140-2ad5e48c831b"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, what do we know about Sulawesi?</span></span></h3>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-7ff6e52b-1875-8857-a140-2ad5e48c831b"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, it is that funny shaped island that looks like a scorpion about to strike, located between New Guinea and Borneo. In olden times it was called Celebes, but people found that too hard to pronounce.</span></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-7ff6e52b-1875-8857-a140-2ad5e48c831b"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Makassar, the capital, is right down on the southern peninsula, about one hour by air from Denpasar (Bali). It will be our first port of call and,I imagine, the place we will run to if life in the rural outposts proves to be too much for our soft Brunswick sensibilities.</span></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-7ff6e52b-1875-8857-a140-2ad5e48c831b" style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Makassar is famous for a type of soup called <a href="http://dailycookingquest.com/by-cuisine/indonesian/coto-makassar-makassar-beef-soup" target="_blank">Coto Makassar</a></span><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, made from beef and beef entrails such as tripe, liver, lungs, etc. [Note to self: be sure to learn the phrase for ‘I am a vegetarian’: </span><span style="font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saya hanya makan sayuran</span><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.] </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Happily they also do a great line in seafood. [Also learn: ‘But I do eat seafood!’ </span><span style="font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tetapi saya makan hidangan laut juga.</span><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">].</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">From Makassar we will be heading off on a 10-day tour of the cocoa farms that are taking part in the research trials. First stop will be the wonderfully named Polewali. Once we get started on the actual data gathering, Polewali will probably be our first ‘base camp’. What is it like? Unfortunately the internet is not a mine of information on the town of Polewali. Perhaps this humble blog will help to put Polewali on the tourist trail. [‘Hey, what did you do on your holidays bro?’ ‘Hung out in Polewali. Had some awesome Coto Makassar.’ ‘Sick!’ ‘Yeah.’, etc.]</span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-7ff6e52b-1875-8857-a140-2ad5e48c831b"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unlike Melbourne’s eccentric summer weather [41, 25, 39, 28, etc.], the temperatures in Sulawesi are amazingly consistent all year round. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The climate graph for Makassar:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Note the difference between the "cold" and "warm" seasons! (Source: weatherspark.com)</span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-7ff6e52b-1875-8857-a140-2ad5e48c831b"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">is the closest thing you are likely to find to two straight lines. In the 'cold season' it gets to 30 degrees, with a low of 21. In the 'warm season' it gets to 32, with a low of 22.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The things that do vary, though, are the humidity and the rainfall.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://fs.weatherspark.com.s3.amazonaws.com/production/reports/year/000/033/999/f8db9a73/probability_of_precipitation_at_some_point_in_the_day_percent_pct.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://fs.weatherspark.com.s3.amazonaws.com/production/reports/year/000/033/999/f8db9a73/probability_of_precipitation_at_some_point_in_the_day_percent_pct.png" height="364" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Source: weatherspark.com)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, we are going in the rainy season and yes, we will possibly end up as two warm puddles on the outskirts of Polewali.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How will we survive?</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the style of Western explorers throughout history, and with some help from our friends, we have assembled a formidable arsenal of technology to help us collect and analyse data, communicate with family and friends back home, and play Angry Birds.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTKu371vU-_d4tfsK9dYtzi_7yqsX1dU1CIo34KOLwVV_bQM7MPwpbgIHSyFtvVfQzeRZ-wdSyGPDvypKGL6739Puq59HcNSBj8Z83Yto9pzpFn2tF3J-eUpkC9IiTnCkeURqHbT0PjbA/s1600/gear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTKu371vU-_d4tfsK9dYtzi_7yqsX1dU1CIo34KOLwVV_bQM7MPwpbgIHSyFtvVfQzeRZ-wdSyGPDvypKGL6739Puq59HcNSBj8Z83Yto9pzpFn2tF3J-eUpkC9IiTnCkeURqHbT0PjbA/s1600/gear.jpg" height="384" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">The pride of the pack is a Solar Gorilla solar charger and its cousin the Mini Gorilla battery (thanks Rory). So ...</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">will it all work in the rain, heat and humidity?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">will we find food that doesn't contain entrails??</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">is the language I have been learning really Indonesian, or some gibberish made up by a cartel of evil pranksters???</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">will we stop the deadly fungus from cutting off the world's chocolate supply????</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stayed tuned.</span></div>
<br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">© 2014 Steve Dobney</span><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></div>
stephendobneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06764814106247057029noreply@blogger.com2Sulawesi, Indonesia-1.8479079 120.52790959999993-1.8479079 120.52790959999993 -1.8479079 120.52790959999993