From Malang, we take our last Javanese train trip to Surabaya.
(Note: this entry is quite short – we are leaving soon for an island sojourn and will be offline tomorrow. So you’ll have to wait to hear about the Torajan cult of death and other items of interest.)
From Surabaya, we leave the island of Java and fly to the island of Sulawesi by Lion Air.
We only spend one day in Makassar, and half of that sleeping. In town, we visit Fort Rotterdam. The next day, we take a 9-hour bus journey to Rantepao, the center of Toraja. We stay at Pia’s Poppies guest house.
We go to Pasar Bolu, the market where pigs and buffalo are purchased for Torajan funerals.
The whiter cattle are more valuable, for some reason.
There are also pigs for sale.
We travel around in these ridiculously small microbuses. At least they’re cheap.
We also visit the non-cattle market in Bolu.
Sight or Insight of the Day – Sulawesi
Do you remember reading Victorian novels and wondering ‘what the heck is an antimacassar?’ Of course you do. Well, turns out it’s to protect furniture from a gentleman’s macassar oil-soaked head. Macassar oil was supposed to be sourced from Makassar. Huh. Who knew?
Out-of-office message
After a two-day drive to Ampana, we are heading to the Togian Islands for a couple of weeks. They’re reputed to be quite nice. But they may not have Internet service. So we may be offline for a while.
When we’re back online, we’ll describe our encounter with a six-metre-plus python last night. Stay tuned!