A four day; three night tour to Tana Torajo was
recommended by several people and it was amazing, totally different to anything
we have seen before. We took an air-conditioned, comfortable bus, which took ten
hours to get to Rantepoa. We stayed in a low budget accommodation, recommended
by the Lonely Planet. Food was good, accommodation very basic, but it worked. We
hired a guide and driver for two days.
Toraja is know for its boat shape houses and their
burial ceremonies and graves. The first day we visited the villages of Bori,
Palawa and Batutumonga. We saw many of the tongkonan (houses and rice storage
buildings). We saw some graves carved out in big boulders and cliff faces. We
also took a walk through the country side and saw some of the villages close up.
The country side is stunning, mountains, valleys, rivers and rice paddies. On
day two we first went went to a market, where they sold buffaloes, hundreds of
them and pigs. We then went to another village called Lemo, more touristy this
time. Then we went to a funeral ceremony. This one was not too big: only four
days and only 10 buffaloes to be killed as well as several; pigs to feed all the
hundreds of guests. We were made very welcome and stayed for about two hours.
We then went to look at a tree in which they used to
bury very small babies. To finish off yet another village and a very old burial
site with wooden coffins that had rotted and opened up to showed many skulls and
bones.
We learned a lot and had two amazing days. Then back to
Makassar on a 10 hour bustrip.
Today we are shopping for food, do internet stuff and
get ready to leave early tomorrow. Unfortunately the fridges are playing up
again so we'll need an engineer this afternoon (fingers crossed).
