Reemerging post-vacation

Ramadan is over and I have returned to Jambi and its Internet access after two weeks traveling around the funny shaped island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. My flight home Monday morning was filled with many Indonesians who were also wrapping up their holiday from work and school that celebrated the end of Ramadan. I will try to write a quick overview of my trip and you can check out the photos that illustrate it. I started my trip in Sulawesi by meeting my friends Katie and Sarah, two other VIA volunteers, at a rundown hotel in Manado, North Sulawesi. From there we took a thirty minute boat ride to Pulau Bunaken, an island famous for its amazing diving and diverse sea life. The five days we spent there at a little homestay/diving outfit was almost paradise: diving twice a day, great snorkeling, fun locals, strong palm wine, good weather, and no links to the outside world. In the five dives I did I saw several turtles, white-tipped reef sharks and enough new kinds of fish to bore you completely. While we could have stayed there our whole vacation, the price tag as well as other sights to see called us away. Next we went to Tangkoko Nature Reserve where a few guided treks led us to sightings of hornbills, black macaques, tarsiers and a viper. The village Batuputih where we stayed was basic but charming, especially when we went and swam in the ocean with the locals and consented to take photos of the over-eager children. From there we headed to Tomohon, rightly known as the city of flowers, where we climber a volcano, visited a sulfur lake and wandered through the local market that was rumored to sell bats and dog meat, unfortunately we only saw grilled rats...

Our early morning flight the next day took us to the far south of the Sulawesi, its capital Makassar. Katie and I spent the day hanging out with Sarah and her local friends until our night bus carried the two of us up to Tana Toraja. This city didn’t even feel like Indonesia, its unique culture and bizarre funeral traditions were completely different from anything I had previously experienced. Our first day there we rented motorbikes and met a local guide Johnny who took us to a few funerals that turned out to be much more like weeklong parties for all of the surrounding villages. The first one was more intimate and we were invited to watch up close and take photos of the dancing, traditional costumes, procession of visitors and their gifts of live pigs, and a cockfight we were informed is actually illegal. The next funeral was of a much wealthier family so in addition to pigs, there were many buffalos- even two rare, expensive albino buffalos that all of the locals were gossiping about- and a deer! Since the traditional animal slaughtering was planned for the following day, we settled in with some guests to a lunch of rice, marinated chunk of pig fat, and freshly boiled buffalo meat- all eaten by hand out of a banana leaf of course- and washed down with continually refilled cups of palm wine. The next few days Katie and I went by motorbike and foot to continue exploring the different villages with their interesting architecture and curious locals, we visited a village weaving center and hiked to the top of the nearby Mt. Sesean to enjoy its amazing view. While all of the locals were extremely friendly, the time for our night bus back to Makassar and my flight home eventually came and after splitting our last pitcher of palm wine, Katie and I headed home.

Back in Jambi now and after a couple days of work I am still wondering how things are supposed to change after the end of Ramadan. The pace hasn’t quite picked up as I expected it to because Monday we all got off work early to go door to door visiting friends as part of the Idul Fitri tradition, and yesterday we got off work early to see a cheesy love flick with coworkers. However, I was still given a few tasks: to start a blog for the organization, some translation work, and plan the bi-weekly English lessons I will be giving to the staff. We will see how time brings the office back to work but right now I am ok to just rest and do laundry finally.