November 29, 2010
My three day journey to the Togean Islands started with a 10 hour bus ride to Poso. For such a long ride, the bus fortunately had working AC and comfy seats. There were also several women traveling alone and they were friendly and livened up the ride. The one drawback was that the driver played karaoke videos on the TV screen most of the time. Most of the Indonesian songs sounded similar to one another and the videos were mostly a bunch of teens holding hands in a line and pumping their arms up and down. The volume was quite high so the music was hard to ignore – I managed to survive. :)
The bus rolled into Poso near 11pm and the Lonely Planet had mentioned a hotel that is convenient for the visitor who is just there to change buses. The hotel was right where the bus dropped me off and I asked to see a few of the cheaper rooms. The first two rooms had no working light in the bathroom so I upgraded to the next level and got a room with a lit bathroom and a fan. This hotel could easily be in a horror film and was the worst one I’ve stayed at. My bathroom was a traditional Indonesian one with a huge bucket, a moldy slash bucket, and a squat toilet. The problem was the hose going into the bucket could not be turned off. So the water ran constantly and created a waterfall over the bucket. This also meant that when I used the toilet my side caught the waterfall. I fretfully slept through the night thinking bugs were biting me. I’ve been paranoid about getting bed bugs and this surely seemed like a place that would have them. I seemed to have escaped that fate, this time.
I had been told there was a bus to Ampana, the town where I get the ferry to the Togean Islands, in the morning. I got up early to hit the atm and find some food before the bus. I found a market and got a few items – being charged the tourist price. One woman tried to charge me 3,000 rp for a bag of bread that had a price of 2,000 rp on it! I had also been told Poso would be the last chance for me to get money and I was running low. I tried several atms and none would work. I went to Plan B and tried to cash traveler’s checks. The first bank I tried wouldn’t cash them, but the teller was very nice. She got an ojek for me (motor bike for hire) and offered to pay for it because she thought I was completely broke. It was so kind of her and gave me one nice memory of Poso. I paid for the ojek to take me to two more banks with still no luck. I was worried about money once I was on the island, but figured somehow things would work out. Mostly, I assumed (correctly) that I could use a credit card. I headed back to the hotel and it turned out there was no bus to Ampana. I was told it only went at night and there was no way I could handle another night in Poso. So I negotiated with a couple who were to drive me to Ampana for an agreed amount. They also were to give me the front seat and said they had AC. Later they arrived late to pick me up and I got shotgun. We drove for less than 10 minutes and they pulled over. They said their “brother” would take me from there. I was irate when I found out that not only was I now to go in a shared van with no AC to Ampana, but I had to wait around until they had a minimum of 5 people.
I argued with the couple and “the brother,” but had few options. So I waited in the hot room. Then “the brother” said that if I paid for two people they would be able to leave right then. I said no. I am tired of assumptions I am made of money, especially when my money is extremely tight. He was obviously just scamming me because then he said we were leaving and for me to get in the van. We had enough people. Another tick, actually two because of the scamming couple, for problematic people in Sulawesi.
I got the middle seat in the small van, which meant I sat for hours on the bars framing the two seats. Eventually, I somehow got lucky enough to get the front seat for the last hour of the five hour drive. There was no AC and the driver smoked, but he was a safe driver. To add to the heat, the engine was under the floorboards so heat radiated up to my legs.
Once in Ampana I checked out a couple of hotels since the ferry was the next morning. I did have luck on my side that a ferry was going because the following day was a Muslim holiday and no ferries would run. However, this did mean that the ferry company charged an extra 20,000rp to everyone on my ferry. Prices aren’t posted so when I spoke with various people and tourists about prices I heard quite a range. This ferry ride was about four hours, but was very pleasant. There were three other tourists on board, including one American. He’s the only other American I met in Sulawesi.
I hadn’t had luck reaching the hotel ahead of time so hoped when the ferry docked at the main island, Wakai, I would find them to take me to the smaller island, Kadidiri. Unfortunately, it didn’t work that way, but another hotel on that island had come for the American. So all of us tourists took this boat. I moved into the Black Marlin for five nights of pure relaxation. I got a good chuckle though because the modest resort used their initials, “BM” on their sign and t-shirts. The place is owned by a British man and his Indonesian wife and apparently the initials don’t have the same meaning as in the US. There are only 3 lodging establishments on this sizable island and only a few overgrown hiking trails. The remoteness was welcome after the earlier stress of Sulawesi.
Within the first hour of my arrival my flip-flops disappeared. I think the culprits were canine rather than human. It was hard to be upset though after spending hours in my hammock napping and reading. I also got in two dives and lots of swimming and snorkeling. My room was spacious and even had a shower! There was a sink, but no water came out. Just having some countertop was awesome though. :) Despite being co-owned by a British man, I still had to buy my own toilet paper. I also had a mysterious disappearance of my soap from the counter. So I bought more on Wakai when I joined BM’s regular supply run. The next morning my new bar was still there, but partially eaten. Apparently the jungle rats like soap!
The area has world class diving and I decided to do my first wreck dive and night dive. The wreck is an American B-24 bomber that went down on May 3, 1945. The plane crashed because an engine caught fire as they were heading to islands of Borneo to bomb the Japanese. Fortunately, all crew members survived and the worst injury was a broken arm (or leg). The crew had time to dump the ammunition and circle the area a few times before decided on a bay to land in. Then the plane floated for 1 ½ hours before sinking and settling in 20 meters (~65 feet) of water that is great for diving. The crew swam with the radio to a nearby island and was later rescued. The plane is in amazing shape and is largely intact. You can see the cockpit and even the foot pedals because part of the nose broke off. The rear gunner’s station (don’t know the correct lingo) was still there, which was amazing to see. I could also poke my head into the side door – after making sure no big groupers or poisonous lionfish were in there. The sea has taken the plane and the wings are covered with sponges and fish. There was even a tire with air still in it! Diving into history and into an era of such horror and turmoil was eerie. I tried to imagine what was going on at that time and what that crew went through. The war in Europe would officially end in less than a week and the Pacific War would end in three more months. With the passage of 65 years this war zone is now a tropical paradise. I saw no reminders of the war above the water; this plane was the only evidence that seems to remain in the area.
After the dive the BM crew unexpectedly stopped at an island. Now one of the divers was an Indonesian man from Jakarta. He had worn his briefs under his wetsuit and when we finished the dive he never put his shorts back on. So I sat there along with another western woman disgusted at him hanging out. While we are “docked” at the village dozens of men, women and children came to see the novelty of a boat. One of the BM workers asked the other western woman if she had a sarong to cover up with. She was in a bikini whereas I, by chance, had a tankini on with a towel over my legs. We didn’t have sarongs so she put her tank top on. The clear double standard annoyed both of us. This man, because he’s man, could walk around like an exhibitionist. I had to resist handing him his shorts!
My night dive was also spectacular. It took a few minutes to get used to the dark, but it was fun to see fish sleeping. One puffer fish had dug a little bed for himself in the sand and was curled up sleeping – adorable! We also saw a squid, which lit up so brightly under the flashlight. He stayed around the light for awhile and his own lights just seemed to move up and down his body. There were also lots of nudi branches, which are snails without a shell. They are spectacular because they come in so many color variations. Small lobsters, crabs, and shrimp also came out for the night. There was a slight current where we were so I had to keep reminding myself to shine the light straight ahead so I didn’t drift into the coral. So I had a lot of “firsts” for diving and would love to do more night and wreck dives.
Remember the Muslim holiday I mentioned? It was Eid-Al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) which celebrates the pilgrimage to Mecca and commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, for God. As charity is an important principle in Islam this holiday also involves charity. Families share their food with not just family and friends, but the poor as well. We were invited to a small hotel on Wakai for some of the feast. I’ve included pictures of the food here. It served as our breakfast. It was delicious and very generous. Once again, I felt badly not having any gifts to offer. I did bring stickers for the kids though. Apparently, the holiday is a progressive feast as families move from one home to the next. After our fill we took the boat back to Kadidiri and I crawled into my hammock.
I enjoyed most of the people on the island, some of whom I had met earlier in Makassar. However, there was a Norwegian man in his 70s who joined me and two other ladies for the buffet dinner at the hotel. He was quite opinionated and dominated the conversation, even going so far as talking over people. His t-shirt said, “Fuck Art Let’s Dance,” which I thought was out of place on the island – maybe NYC would be a better venue for that shirt. The crazy thing is his wife is an artist! Anyway, the beauty of traveling alone and not having to worry about impressing this man was that I excused myself and left the table. I did that a couple of times with people after I finished the meal. It was a wonderful feeling to know I could just get up and leave with my peace of mind intact. As I said, I enjoyed most people and in particular I befriended a Spanish woman, Bárbara. We have much in common and ended up traveling away from the islands together.
There is a sandy beach that you can walk to from the hotel beach, but I could never find my way. So one late afternoon a local young man (his family owns the neighboring guest house) led me and two Polish men through the forest. We watched his brother climb a coconut tree and cut some down. An amazing feat! We had to walk through a swath of cut down trees – you can see some of the trees I had to balance on. Two dogs were with us and the chased a wild pig for bit though I never saw it. We saw a pretty sunset on the beach, but walked back before the sun had disappeared. None of us had flashlights and I wanted to avoid broken bones. The guide began lighting dead palm leaves to protect us from the wild pig. Telling me that got me nervous! You can see a picture of our bonfire.
This local guy also showed me a coconut crab, which you can find in one of the pictures. They are huge and use their claws to crack open coconuts! They can climb the trees too, but usually just wait for the coconuts to fall. People eat them, but fortunately this one has gotten a pardon because the hotels like the guests to be able to see it.
I joined a group on the beach for my last night on the island. We had good laughs and guitar playing. Later we kicked back by a bonfire. And to think I was on my way to bed when I got the invitation!
The next day a bunch of us from the island were catching the ferry north to Gorantalo, which is back on the mainland. The ferries only go a few days a week so there’s usually a changeover of tourists. Many tourists do stay much longer than they anticipated and I would have been one of those tourists if Thanksgiving in Singapore wasn’t calling me. One woman had a dramatic experience when she took this ferry from Gorantalo to the island. It is an overnight ferry and after sleeping for a bit she found her camera missing. She had an idea of who took it and informed the captain. When the ferry docked no one was allowed off and the police boarded. They found the man and his camera, but is that the end of the story? No. The police offered up the man as a punching bag to the other passengers. The other passengers apparently were disgusted that he would steal, but were also irate that they were delayed because of him. Once the passengers had finished unleashing their anger on him the police took their turn. Then they took the man off to prison. And the tourist left with her camera.
The ferry was actually quite pleasant. A bunch of us tourists got the cheap tickets and rented a mat for the upper deck. The night sky was beautiful with a full moon (or nearly) and rain clouds stayed away. I mostly hung out with Bárbara and some guys from France. We played cards and pooled what food we had so we had some sort of dinner. We bought the last two cup’o’noodles from the food vendor onboard. I laid out my sleep sack over the mat and got in a few good hours of sleep. It actually got a little chilly and that sheet was just enough to keep me warm. We were told we would dock at 6am, but we arrived at 3am!
Bárbara and I both wanted to fly out of Sulawesi and we were told the best option would be to head to the Gorantalo airport rather than driving 8 hours to the Manado airport. We took the advice and got a ride to the airport (with a successful atm stop along the way!). I had looked online before about Manado flights, but you can’t buy tickets for Indonesian airlines online and no travel offices were available. And once I got on the island there was no internet and definitely no travel offices. So we were supposed to be in a regular taxi to the airport, but the man’s father wasn’t answering his phone so instead we went by a motorbike rickshaw type thing. Bárbara and I were squeezed in with our luggage and after the 40 minute ride our legs were stiff. At the airport we found that the flights we wanted were extremely expensive – I think a holdover from the Muslim holiday. We were told a flight from Manado to Jakarta that night would be almost half as much. However, we couldn’t buy the ticket at the Gorantalo airport. The direct flight to Singapore was $350 so that was out of the question.
So we decided to head to Manado and grumbled that if we hadn’t listened to the “advice” about the Gorantalo airport that we would already be half way to Manado. Bárbara was likely taking a flight the next day, but I needed to get to Manado for that night flight. That meant I didn’t have time to go to the terminal and get a share car to Manado, but had to get a private one. The man who had brought us to the airport said he would call a driver for us. It took the man an hour to arrive, but we were assured that leaving at 8am left us with plenty of time to get to the airport. The driver, who didn’t speak English, had another passenger who was “his brother.” The man who arranged this assured us we would go straight to the airport with no stops and with no other passengers. He said this was a private car for us and we agreed to pay the private car fee.
We hit the road and napped as much as we could. We made a few stops for the driver and I found it interesting that he and “his brother” were not speaking. They both smoked profusely though – ugh! We stopped for lunch, but didn’t stay too long before hitting the road again. We also had to make several stops for gas because the gas stations had no petrol. Instead the driver bought bottles full of gas and poured them in the tank. You can see a picture of another guy filling up his car. Later the driver made another stop and came back proudly showing off his Guinness beer!!! I had kept my mouth shut about the cigarettes, but there was no way I was going to let him drink beer. So in my very basic Bahasa Indonesian I told him no and had to say something again when he snuck a sip later. As we finally rolled into the outskirts of Manado at 4:30pm the driver starts pointing out hotels for us. So Bárbara and I became less confident that he knew where we were going and used her dictionary to try to explain. Somehow that even seemed ineffective. We called the man who had arranged this ride and told him the score and to talk to the driver. The driver soon pulled over and Bárbara and I were worried he was kicking us out. But he actually was dropping off “his brother” who then paid him for the ride.
We arrived at the airport at 5:40 and the flight was at 6pm. By this time Bárbara had decided to also take the flight so we were hoping it was delayed like most flights in Indonesia. We were held up arguing with the driver though. We had paid 300,000rp of the 700,000rp before we left so he could buy gas, but we only offered him 150,000rp more. We figured we had been scammed once again and told this was a private car when there was another paying passenger. And that passenger had the expensive seat. The man who arranged this said for share rides the front seat is 150,000rp, the middle seats 125,000 and the back seats 100,000. We also had been told we would arrive with time to get the flight and it was pretty clear we’d miss it. This was in part because the driver kept making stops (for beer!) that he wasn’t supposed to. He was very angry and we soon had several porters surrounding us. One porter spoke some English and tried to translate both ways. We also called the man who arranged this, but I have no idea what he said to the driver. Now the driver might have been screwed by the man who arranged the car or it might have been the other way around, but no matter what Bárbara and I got the short end of the stick. I figured the driver could just not pay the other man his cut.
We offered the man 200,000rp and he still wouldn’t take it. Finally, we just walked off to see if we could somehow make the flight. I was anxious expecting the police to come after us. We went through security and while at the check-in counter the driver appeared demanding money again. I offered the 200,000rp again and then we both just stood there. Eventually he took the money and left. I felt a wave of relief. He probably didn’t have a license to drive paid passengers so couldn’t go to the police. Or maybe, given what I’ve seen of the police, people don’t like to call on them.
The economy seats were sold out for the Jakarta flight so now the ticket was around $300! And the morning flights were just as much and I was trying to catch a Jakarta to Singapore flight in the afternoon that I had already booked (for visa reasons). We went to an upstairs travel office and spent well over an hour trying to figure our options. It was cheaper for me to stay an extra day in Manado and buy a new ticket from Jakarta to Singapore than to get out the next day. Bárbara figured other arrangements for the next day. We headed to an airport hotel. If it hadn’t been for Bárbara’s company I really would have gone crazy when the frustrations and long travel days. It took us 30 hours to get from the island to Manado!
I had a day to spend in Manado, but there isn’t much to see. It is a nice, clean, safe city, but no real attractions. I walked around a bit and stocked up on toiletries (much cheaper than in Singapore). Then I watched tv in my room – yes I had a tv – and a shower! After Bárbara left I stayed in our room one more night. Unfortunately, I didn’t sleep well as I once again imagined bugs all around me. This time though I woke up to lots of long thin bugs flying around and hanging about. They seemed to have come from the bed and cut their way through the sheets. We hadn’t had this problem the morning before so I think the eggs just hatched. So I spend the first bit of the morning killing about a dozen bugs. They weren’t bed bugs though. The hotel manager didn’t seem too concerned, but I did pay him a little less than the rate. I was also afraid they were in my bags or laid eggs in my bags and I didn’t want to bring bugs to my friends! So my bags have stayed on a balcony and I’ve cleaned everything that I’ve brought in. When I first arrived late at night I washed my clothes and borrowed some from my friend. So far no bug problems!
Overall I enjoyed my travels in Indonesia, but I don’t think Sulawesi was worth the hassle and extra expense. I spent two weeks there and only really had fun for my five days on the island. Half of my time was spent riding buses, vans, or ferries. They are building an airport in Ampana so the islands will be easier to get to, but that will probably spoil why they are so special. The islands are so remote and only a few travelers are willing and able to go to the trouble to get there.
I arrived the night before Thanksgiving and it was great to see my friends. We went out to dinner on Thanksgiving and then they hosted a potluck over the weekend. I think I stretched my stomach to record proportions! It was wonderful to have a traditional Thanksgiving and all the way in Singapore with friends. It’s funny that three friends from NYC now live here. I did get a cold that I’m still recovering from – I think from the AC. I guess I got used to fans. Next week I head to Vietnam.
