Vientiane

Whoa, so much has happened! If nobody objects, I'll fast forward a bit.

After Tana Toraja I headed to Pantai Bira, stayed four days in an amazing and socially fascinating and complex guesthouse called Sunshine (100 000 IDR, on top of a hill with nice breeze&view), continued to Makassar, Kuala Lumpur and then finally landed in Laos.

I wasn't supposed to come here - my next destination was supposed to be Hanoi Vietnam. However I received a hint about a job opportunity in Vientiane, and thus headed here. I met the requirements of the position offered and found the possibility of working here so intriguing that I had no chance than to cancel my future expeditions and stay put for awhile.

I'm to work with a team involved in development cooperation of Laos. I'm the computer guy, IT-support and -instructor. The contract is for one to two years, after wich I'm possibly ready for more adventures.

This blog has been my diary for the past two months, and might as well continue to be one as communication opportunities from here to home are existent but scarce.

That's it. I'll write down more when I'm actually ready to understand that I'm here and not moving anywhere.

Best wishes!
- Lauri


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Tana Toraja

In Tana Toraja everything resolves around death. Torajans spend their living days earning money for the moment of their death. If by the time of ones passing the deceased or his family does not have enough funds to organize a good-bye party, the corpse is held in the house (sometimes for years) until their financial situation permit an apt memorial service. The actual funeral can last for days and sacrifices play an important role; dozens, sometimes even hundreds of chickens, pigs and water buffaloes accompany the cadaver on his final journey.

The biggest funeral of the year is now here. The mother of a high-ranking police officer passed away three years ago, and the funeral started this Monday. Thousands of guests arrived from all over Indonesia to show their respect, and heaps of animals are massacred daily out of admiration for the late mother.

Funeral people

Tiny Toraja house

I’m not a big fan on live animal slaughtering, so I spent approximately fifteen minutes in the party, decided I’d had enough and headed out to explore the surroundings of Rantepao, the capital of Tana Toraja.  The nature here is breathtaking. Mountains dominate the scenery and fertile rice-gardens on the sides of the mountains lead to lush valleys decorated here and there with the roofs of the beautiful Toraja houses. The temperature wavers around confortable 25 degrees Celsius, and a small breeze keeps the air fresh and clean.

We drove south from the funeral to see ancient burial caves of the Torajans. The caves were indeed interesting but rather dark – we didn’t bring any torches with us and lanterns were rented for 25 000, so we only inspected the areas were natural light was present. When returning to our rental scooter we found our back tire gone flat. Usually bike repair shops are plenty, but this time there were none to be seen, so we pushed the bike around for an hour or two, until an apt service station was found. New inner tube cost 40 000, and the guy insisted on changing the bearings of the back tire for another 20 000. He told us to head straight back to the rental shop, for the bike was in no condition for driving, not to mention mountain exploring. We got back to the town, argued the money back from the repairs (we got the half) and insisted on getting a better bike next day for free.

Cigarets as a sacrifice

Dead dude

Wall graves and their guardians

Cave

Cursed tire

The next day we headed out early, drove through superb views, ate cookies for lunch and discovered that we were completely lost (if one can be considered lost when driving without a destination).  Lonely planet mentioned Siguntu as the place to be for panorama views, but our hand drawn map proved inadequate when trying to figure out the exact spatial distribution of the roads of the area. Finally after driving for ages on a bumpy road that seemed to lead us nowhere an Indonesian look-alike of Austin Powers stopped to explain us the amounts of rights and lefts that were to take us to our newfound place-of-interest. He ended his much-appreciated lecture with the words “andifyougostraightthereisawaterfall” and left. We started to turn our bike around and head back, but slowly our brains deciphered Austin’s pigeon-English advice and Koen was the first to wonder out loud “did he say waterfall?” So for the waterfall we went, driving half an hour or so until so-called road became too hard to drive with our bike. We continued by foot, and after another half an hour of walking besides impressive scenery of the biggest rice fields I’ve ever seen we came to the end of the road. We followed the sound of running water through the jungle and slid down some slippery rocks and finally found ourselves in a beautiful pond surrounded by flowers and dominated by a 30-meter waterfall. We enjoyed the scenery in silence for a moment after which I took a dip in the ice-cold water.

Portion of the huge rice plantation

Hard-working people

Top part of the waterfall

Yesterday we drove to the hills, found a cafeteria on top of a mountain, wondered the endless sceneries of fields and spotted a lone eagle circling the heights in search for food. Today was a market day. My hostel managed to burn my laundry, so I was in desperate need of new pants and T-shirts. Somehow I didn’t manage to buy any real clothes, but instead found a poncho that somehow turns in to tent.

Tana Toraja has been unforgettable. Tonight I’ll take a bus to Makassar and from there I’ll try to continue to the pristine beaches of Pantai Bira. On Wednesday I’ll head to Kuala Lumpur and on Thursday continue to Vientiane, Laos. Next update is going to come from somewhere along the road.

Megaliths

View from the cafe

Toraja houses

Views from the road

Best wishes!

-Lauri

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Kadidiri

Kadidiri 25th March, 2011

Oh life is good. We had to wait a few hours in the docks of Wakai for the Lestari boat to take us to their cottages in Kadidiri. The harbormaster joined us with some of his friends, and soon we were in deep conversation about the life in paradise. Most of it I didn’t quite understand, for we discussed in Indonesian, and I’m still better at asking questions than understanding the responses. Nevertheless life here sounded good, as people seemed to be far enough from the commanding hand of either government or church. As always laugher had a big role in our conversation, and when finally departing for Kadidiri we felt relaxed and light hearted.

View from the terrace

Reserving a spot with my sarong

Restaurant

My house

Lestari shares a beautiful beach with two other tourist complexes. A cottage costs 85 000 rupiahs including all meals, free snorkeling and fishing trips and good company. The family who owns the place is cheerful and some of the members speak surprisingly fluent English. There’s not too much to do here, I’ve now read three books in two days, played a lot of cards and learned the basics of chess.

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Kadidiri 31st March, 2011

Time flies really fast here. The daily routine consists of waking up early, a wait for breakfast accompanied with too many cups of tea and coffee, socializing/reading/playing cards or chess, lunch, socializing/reading/cards/chess, dinner, s/r/c/c and sleep. Kadidiri is breathtakingly beautiful, and it's really easy to get stuck here. I was supposed to leave today, but the idea of leaving just doesn't seem right, so I'll stick around for a couple more days.

I went diving today. The dive cost 24 euros with all equipment included. We went to see a small canyon that was covered with coral. The visibility was great - from 27 meters one was able to see the sun through the surface. Fishes were plenty and the coral indeed showed the full spectrum of color. I think I spent most of my oxygen just gasping for air when encountering another thing of marvel.

Later this week we'll hopefully go for island hopping. The sea has been quite rough, which is not normal at this time of year, and the local canoe-shaped boats aren't safe when surrounded by big waves.

That's about it. I'm happy and relaxed. More when we get back from our island hopping

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Island hopping was interesting to say the least. Our captain wasn't actually the one you can see in the picture below, for Tomi decided to stay behind and take care of the guesthouse. Instead the trip was organized by Pudin, a 23 year old dude with a big heart and a lot of energy, but zero organizing skills what so ever. I was only able to join the hoppers only for two nights, and due to the weather we got stuck on the abandoned resort for the whole time.

El Capitan Tomi

The resort was built by the government of Indonesia approximately half a year ago, but for some unknown reason it was abandoned right after it was finished. The huts are beautiful and spacious, and it is obvious that someone really put up an effort to make the place as cozy as possible. If there was electricity, the huts would have commodities like lights, running water and satellite TV. We slept at the restaurant on mattresses and hammocks and washed ourselves in the sea. Pudin was a great cook and food was plenty. After sunset we built a bonfire on the beach and kept a look out for shooting stars. Someone had brought a guitar, another a flute and I had my harmonica.

Island activities

Random beach

Sunset at random beach

Sunrise at abandoned resort

Local kids and farewells

Island activities pt II

Abandoned resort at sunrise

I'm now in Tana Toraja experiencing the interesting culture of the torajans - everything here resolves around death, and the most important thing one can do here is to die. But more about that in the next post. Farewell!

/ me


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Kei - Manado - Togean

Wednesday 23.3.2011

We spent the last night at Gearsons place on Sunday. The plan was to sleep well, for the previous night spent at the beach (although amazing) was rather tiring, and the next days were to be dedicated for travelling. Sitting still by the way is surprisingly energy consuming. However in the evening we were accompanied by a Canadian couple and ended up hanging out with them till midnight. Gearson was as drunk as ever, and his stories get crazier with each shot of sopi he drowned. The wakeup was at 3:30, so our series of sleepless nights rounded up to two. The following morning we flew from Kei to Ambon, Ambon to Makassar and Makassar to Manado.

Manado seemed like a nice place. People were different too, in a way that they looked you in the eye, smiled and said their hellomisters in a soft tone. The typical Indonesian way is to go haywire, jump around and shout as loud as you can until you’re noticed. From Manado we wanted to take a bus to Gorontalo, and as our hotel staff knew there would be only one bus a day leaving at 6:00 from a far away terminal we ended up having a third night with little sleep. In the morning we found out that there was approximately 5 buses leaving every 5 minutes, but as we already were at the station we decided to go on anyway.

The bus trip took nine hours. We somehow got off at the wrong station 30 km before Gorontalo and had to take an ojek (aka tuk tuk / rickshaw) to town. After about one and a half hours of driving we found our guesthouse and decided to sign in and finally get a good nights sleep. We wanted to take a boat to the Togean-islands, and the boat was to set sail on Wednesday. Somehow the schedule had changed and the boat was to leave in two hours. Good thing having vague or no plans is that changing them is really easy. So we decided to take the boat (12 hours) and spent an extra 10 euros each to get a cabin for the night.

View from Tuna Tomini

It’s now 7 o’clock and I’m wide-awake. I had a good 10 hours of sleep in our clean and air-conditioned cabin. We’re supposed to dock in Wakai in about three hours, from which we’ll take a smaller boat to the Kadidiri-island. More from there

Kei II

Kei 19^th of March 2011

It’s eight o’clock and I just woke up. It’s been a long time since I slept this long. I’m now recovered from the food poisoning, which was a rather mild one, so I guess I was lucky.

Fisherman Jesus

Yesterday we headed for the most famous beach of Kei, the Pasir Panjang. Sven hopped off Pelni in Tanimbar, so our group consisted of the French-German couple, the Yankee naturalist, the Dutch historian/roommate and me. We decided to walk, for the day was beautiful and the trips estimated duration was about one hour. Our takeoff got somehow delayed, and we finally left at 11:00 (as you’re supposed to do when on the equator).  My homesickness was somewhat relieved by the sauna-like conditions of the surrounding jungle, and after a while the sight of the pristine white beach was truly welcomed by all of us. The water was crystal blue; the sand seemed bleached white and here and there was palm trees that provided the much-needed shelter from the scorching sun.

Hammock

Koen enjoying the sun

As I lay in my hammock without a single thought in my head I heard some “Hello misters’” coming from a nearby bamboo-built shelter. I decided to face the slightly annoying curiosity of the onlookers and went over to talk to them. With my slowly improving Indonesian I learned that:

David is 30 years old. He and his two times older friend Moses live in the local village of about 320 residents. He has a wife and two kids, as does Moses. David wants to collect us some coconuts. Coconut in is kelapa (head is kepala). Young coconut milk tastes like water – old tastes like Sprite. Moses thinks it’s good we want to stay the night camping at the beach. He thinks we must eat. His wife can cook us dinner if we buy him the noodles and vegetables. If we don’t know what to buy he can buy them for us. The meal is ready at six o’clock. The price for five people is 25 000. Coconuts are free.

As always the guys ended up being really friendly. However Koen remembered we already promised Gearson (the guest house owner) that we’d dine there. So we said our farewells to the guys and hiked back. After a splendid dinner Gearson played Triominoes with Koen and me – a version of dominoes where the game is played with triangles that less surprisingly have three numbers instead of two. A few beers and some sopi accompanied the game, which complicated waking up this morning.

Today we’ll rent scooters, drive to the south and camp there. On Monday we’ll fly to Manado with Koen, and from there we plan to head for the Togean-islands. One week there, one week in Tana Toraja and then I must get to Kuala Lumpur to apply for a one-month visa to Vietnam. I’m planning to rent a motorbike and spend three weeks discovering the areas northwest of Hanoi.

I’ve noticed I haven’t actually done any thinking while here. It’s really easy to immerse one self in the beauty and curiosities of the surroundings and disregard questioning the reasons of being here. However one important part of happiness is said to be meditation: evaluating and judging ones thoughts and emotions.

I know I’m happy, but my joy is shadowed by the memories of people that I miss. My shallow knowledge of psychological studies tells me its just one face of a cultural shock.  Disregarding that, I feel I left behind people really valuable to me, and I’m skeptical of ever finding us in settings equally enjoyable like the ones we were in before. At this point a layman-philosopher would throw in the cliché “Life goes on”, but the thing is it doesn’t. The life I left home is not the life I live here. In my thoughts and feelings that life is on pause; its slowly fading and losing detail, but no new material is added.

Conclusion: Friends and family – send me emails (lauri.pynnonen(at)tut.fi). I need new material concerning your lives, for you form the life I still have there.

That’s enough meditation to ensure happiness for the time being. Now breakfast.

Coconut drinking contest

David getting lunch

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Sunday 20^th March

It’s now midday. I’ve just returned from a trip to the southern parts of the island of Kei Kecil. We rented a bike yesterday and drove to a beach in the south. I forgot my hammock and had to sleep on the beach. It didn't rain, so everything worked out perfectly. I've got to run now, so this post is going to consist of fotos. Suggestion for the details of the story are accepted!

My accommodation on the beach

Another view

Stevie finding snacks

Sunset

Sunset 2

Night and bonfire

Night and bonfire 2

Me after a good night sleep

-Lauri

Kei

Kei 16th of March 2011

We bought economy tickets to a Pelni boat called Kalimutu. The German explorer known as Sven who arrived late to the harbor was driven to the boat with a tiny fishing vessel and he climbed aboard while the boat was already on its way.

The ship was to take us to Tual, the capital of the Kei-islands, in 36 hours. The economy class is the cheapest of classes (1st class was 900 000 IDR, 2nd 750 000 and economy 242 000), but you travel without a cabin, basically sleeping at the corridors of the boat or on the deck. This would not be a problem if the boats weren’t immensely overbooked, but luckily I had a hammock with me that I hung on the deck and actually managed to enjoy the trip, slowly swaying over the filthy floors of the boat, glaring at the endless sea decorated with flying fish.

The boat lost one of its engines during the trip, and we arrived 8 hours late to Tual.  I somewhat disregarded my hand hygiene during the cruise, and was rewarded by a food poisoning that bound me to my bed for the next day.

It’s Thursday 17th today and I’m back on my feet. We’re residing at a guesthouse called Savana Cottages. Gearson owns the place, a blond haired dark skinned man who left Holland due to some drug-related problem and arrived here to try again from a fresh start.  I haven’t really explored the place yet because yesterday was a bit hazy, but it seems really quiet and beautiful. Last night I forced myself to eat a bit of rice and coconut, and now I’m slowly regaining my strength.

The next stop from here might be surprisingly Manado in North Sulawesi. I was thinking of conquering Sulawesi during this trip, but wasn't so keen on rushing away from Kei. However I've come to the conclusion that one week is enough here. Coen happens to be going to Manado, and he seems like a really cool guy, so I guess I'll join him on his quest.

I guess that's it. My head is still functioning with 50% efficiency, and writing seems a bit difficult. I'll get back with pictures, this place seems amazingly picturesque.

Best wishes!
-Me

Banda

March 5th

At two o’clock I left the hotel to slowly wonder to the direction of the harbor. I stopped at a restaurant to have a tasty lunch of fried noodles and chicken. In the next table a silent Chinese guy was sitting, and he later accompanied me to the Pelni terminal. I was told that a confusing chaos would wait for me at the terminal, and indeed it did. Hundreds of people inside and outside the waiting room with huge amounts of luggage of all sorts created a wave-like movement that made even breathing difficult. In half an hour or so people started pushing to the direction of the boat, and I too was forced to the depths of the huge vessel.

Fishing at Banda

The Chinese guy did not speak much of Bahasa Indonesia, nor did he speak English. He was really prompt on conjoining me with another westerner, and every time somebody with a slightly paler skin complexion passed by he caught my attention by shouting “you, you, you” and pointing his finger at the stranger. I did after awhile stray in to a conversation with a Dutch history teacher Coen, who had already travelled more that 40 hours from Makassar, Sulawesi. I followed him to the economy-class quarters in the lowest deck, and played cards and studied Indonesian with him and his new local friends. In the end the eight-hour boat trip was really joyful, with all the locals participating in our language school and everybody sharing snacks and stories.

We arrived to Banda Neira in the dark, and headed to Vita Guesthouse according to advice given to me by my friends. We shared a room with Coen, paying 50 000 rupiahs each (including breakfast).  Somehow all the foreigners of Banda ended up in Vita, totaling in eleven persons equally curious about discovering the wonders of this place. In the morning we found Banda to be indeed a distant paradise with lush jungle, beautiful beaches and an active volcano in the middle of it all.

Snorkeling, I'm on the left

Banda consists of eight miniscule islands, whose size is often exaggerated by the tiny dot drawn on maps to represent the location of the so-called Spice Islands. Six centuries ago the Portuguese, British and Dutch were determined to find the source of nutmeg and cloves, spices that at the time were scarcely available and in their weight more valuable than gold. Columbus was one of the explorers destined to find the route to the East Indies, but he stopped midway, finding another continent instead. The Portuguese were the first to arrive here, but were soon fenced off by the heavily armed Dutch, who by time managed to turn the Spice Islands into nutmeg producing factory.

The locals were hard to control, which reduced the production rate of the valued spices and caused financial losses to the big blonde barbarians. The problem was soon solved out by deporting and killing the bandanese farm owners and by replacing them with slaves and convicts imported from far away lands. For hundreds of years the rest of the islanders were harassed, abused and massacred by the Dutch invaders.  In late 19th century the British managed to smuggle out nutmeg and clove sprouts from Banda and planted them in easily accessible Malaysia. This made the spices considerably cheaper, and little by little the Bandanese got back their lands. It seems little has changed since, and in Banda it’s easy to immerse one self in the colonial era of the East Indies.

Entrance to a Dutch fortress

Penteng Belgica ready for action

A dutch soldier (Coen)

The following days we spent by exploring the Dutch fortresses and houses and relaxed at the laid back beaches. One morning we climbed the 600 meters high volcano Gunung Api to see the sunrise with Coen. Rest of the time we spend under water. Snorkeling in Banda is superb, for the coral filled shallows are full of thousands of different kind of flora and fauna alike.

For two days we escaped to a tiny island called Ay, which felt like a trip to the past. There were no tourists in Ay, nor was there televisions, Internet or mobile network.

A red snapper visited our dinner table

Sunrise from atop of Gunung Api

Surprise guarding the trail down

The days went by too fast.  We had booked a boat ride to Kei-islands for Monday 14th, and suddenly that was only a day away. We had decided to dedicate the last day for snorkeling, but Sunday started off rainy, and our group had scattered all over the islands. At noon we decided to go on anyway with the small group that was around, even though the weather suggested bad visibility and the boat rent seemed expensive when shared with only four people. We drove about an hour to the nearby shores of Banda Besar and found the marine life to be more alive than ever. Jesse had unluckily forgotten his snorkeling gear and therefore spent his time photographing the surroundings from the roof of our boat, and thanks to his elevated position he was able to spot dolphin fins in the far distance. We pled for our captain to take us to see the dolphins closer.


When approaching the desired spot we were followed by the most curious of the dolphins, which swam close to the front of the boat staring at us from only a few centimeters away from the surface. We dropped to the sea in the middle of the pack of more than a hundred dolphins, and snorkeled with the amazing creatures for an hour or so. At some point I dived way too deep following the playful animals and managed to conjure a world-class headache magnified by the lack of oxygen and high pressure, but still the whole experience climbed to take the first place in my list of once in a lifetime experiences.

View from the boat

We with a local family that invited us for a dinner

Entrance to Finnish fort

Finnish fort from afar

Thunder storm seen from Pulau Ay

Nutmeg

A loud bird

Beach at Ay (Coen at the distance)

Stevie and Flo

Tiny footprints

Fishers and a sunset

The following morning we rushed to the PELNI that was to take us to the amazing Kei-Islands. The boat left surprisingly one hour early, and one of us was left at the harbor staring at the only mean of transportation gliding to the horizon. But more about that in the next post!

-Lauri