Among the Natives in the Highlands of Sulawesi

Tuesday, June 26, 2007--Makassar (Continued)

I awoke this morning with a bit of a sore throat and a stuffy nose and head. Guess I am catching a cold. Many people here have coughs, so it is something going around. I can't ride buses and touch doorways without taking a chance. I just hope it won't be too severe.

I'm not happy with my hotel in Makassar. It's dreary. But there aren't any good budget hotels in the city apparently. If it were worth staying here to see more, I would move up to a higher class establishment, but this afternoon I think I saw all of consequence here after spending the morning arranging to leave tomorrow. I walked to the waterfront where there is a very nice new huge area of congregating. In the distance is a very nice big convention center. I walked down the main street to the area with the port and with the old Dutch fort--Fort Rotterdam. I circled around past nice churches, mosques, parks, shopping malls, etc. It's a big city, but there isn't a lot here for tourists.

As the day progressed, so did my cold. I decided to eat an early dinner and go to the room for the night. I stopped at a "Pedang" eatery--one with already prepared food in the windows. I picked out a piece of tuna cooked in a sauce (the tuna being locally caught), eggplant cooked and served in oil, cooked cabbage, and rice. It was a good dinner at a very good price.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007--Makassar to Rantepao

I took at pete pete (pronounced pet-te, pet-te), a small van which follows a set route to the bus station which was quite a ways from town. Until recently, buses could pick up customers at their ticket offices in town, but the local transport union fought against that. Now it is necessary to pay for local transport to the edge of town where the bus station is. I got to the station early and bought some water for the trip. Then I visited with a local young man who was waiting for a package to arrive on an incoming bus. Finally, a little after 10:00, our bus departed. Everyone kept saying it would be a 7-hour trip to Rantepao, the tourist center for Tana Toraja. But that must be with no stops! We stopped off and on to pick up new passengers along the way. We stopped almost an hour for lunch. We stopped again for a rest room stop. It was 20:00 when we finally arrived. I was exhausted, especially since the woman sitting beside me became more and more restless as the trip progressed. Being a local native, she prefers sitting with her feet up under her. Toward the end of the trip, she was starting to push against me, taking up my space.

Arrival was a mess. There were at least 5-6 guys wanting to take me to housing. I had already picked out a first and second choice of places to stay. They were at my first place waiting for me because they knew it was full. Fortunately, I got rid of them by going to my second choice place, since they knew there would be a room there for me. An interesting coincidence is that I began talking with a young man on the bus the last 20-30 minutes of the trip. He was going to visit his grandmother who rents out rooms. He told me the name of the place. When I looked it up in the guidebook, it was the one I had chosen as my second choice. When we parted, I told him I could come there if the first place didn't work out. When I arrived a few minutes after he did, he and his grandmother were expecting me.

The young man was coming here because of a huge religious conference. This town is mostly Christian, and it is full of people from all over Indonesia here for a conference. He is singing in a band that is performing Saturday night. I hope to be able to go to the concert. He sang a couple of songs on the bus and has a nice voice.

Thursday, June 28, 2007--Rantepao

My cold is bad. As is often the case, it is only on one side of my head right now--the left side. That helps, since the left nostril is clear for breathing. Still, I must sleep on my back to be able to breathe easily. I think I have a slight fever today, also.

The place I am staying had a nice breakfast this morning. They served a seasoned rice with a fried egg on top. I ate it with chile sauce. They also had bread with butter and marmalade. We had freshly made juice from an exotic fruit, hot tea or coffee, and fresh bananas off the tree. A couple here from Sumatra for the religious festival brought a cake to the table that she had made. It was good, too, with a strange texture. It looked like noodles standing up and snuggled together.

The tourist office suggested that I go to Bogu today. It has the best area market with native peoples from the villages coming to sell their goods. The market is held only every 6 days, so I would have only this one chance to see it. Actually, it was a good plan, since Bogu is only a short distance away. With my cold, I just didn't feel like going far. I walked through the countryside taking photos of the local architecture with tall swooping roofs. The market was so crowded that I could hardly get around. Many people were in native costumes. They were selling tomatoes, peppers, coffee, etc. Many live pigs were there; they were tied with pieces of bamboo to hold them in place for people to see them. Trucks had water buffaloes in them. They are mainly for sell for the funeral ceremonies that take place here at this time of the year.

When a person dies here, there is an immediate ceremony. Then the body is kept in the house until the July-August dry period. Then an elaborate funeral ceremony is held with the killing of buffaloes and pigs to serve food to the guests. Finally, the body is "buried" by placing the coffin in a tree or a cave. It's common to go to these ceremonies, but I have decided not to. It requires hiring a guide and taking a gift to the family. Mostly, I worry about it becoming boring after a while. I don't want to watch the killing of the buffaloes. And I don't want to spend 6 hours or so with people I don't know. I will go to see some of the burial places, but I will skip the ceremonies.

I had a nice dinner at a local place near my room. I had a noodle soup with lots of fresh vegetables and pieces of chicken. For my cold, I ordered a hot ginger tea with lemon. Then the owner gave me a nice fruit salad (really a homemade fruit cocktail with thick juice) for dessert.