Archives For Travel

All different kinds of dried fish are on sale at this little stall on the weekly animal market close to Rantepao.

You can smell the freshly ground coffee from miles away. Here in Tana Toraja the people grow two different kinds of coffee, Robusta and Arabica.

After the funeral Martin, my guide for the next two days, and I started to drive back to Rantepao, where most traveller stay. The landscape is just absolutely stunning. Little pockets of rice fields have been carved out of the forest. On all sides large limestone cliffs reach up and everywhere you can see farmers bringing in the second harvest of the year.

We stopped for about an hour in Kete Kesu, a traditional Torajan village. Here many people still live in the traditional houses with their distinct roofs. The ancestors of the Torajan people came from the north over the sea and they started to build their houses to resemble the ships they sailed on.

Everywhere you look there are graves. Some are over 100 years old. Some were being built right then by hollowing out rocks. Following a little path past the village we walked to a huge limestone rock. There are hanging graves on the side of the cliff. Some have fallen down and will remain so until there is another ceremony, where only two or three buffaloes are being sacrificed. There are skulls and bones everywhere.

Martin then invited me into his home for a traditional Torajan meal called Papilong. First we bought a live chicken on the market in Rantepao. At his house we cut down a bamboo pole and carried it back. Then Martin cut three segments off. These were filled with chicken, vegetables, herbs and coconut and then sealed with palm leaves. Then we put them directly in the fire, turning them once in a while. The meal is finished when you can’t see any more liquid bubbling out of the bamboo.

Being invited into an Indonesian home can be quite an awkward situation sometimes. You might have been a customer before, but suddenly your status changes and you then are a guest. You’re not expected to lift a finger and everything gets very formal. Not so with Martin, which might have something to do with his two children. They were very shy at the beginning, but after a while they got used to me and were playing pranks and telling me stories, of which I didn’t understand a thing. I’m sure they found this strange bule (Indonesian for foreigner) sitting in their living room very amusing.

While we waited for the meal to finish Martin introduced me to the grandmother of his wife. She died about a year ago and lies in the house of his in-laws. The funeral will be this December. In the only other room in the house three kids were watching TV. This made me fully realize that the Torajans really do live with their dead.

The meal was absolutely delicious…

You can find more photos from Tana Toraja here.

A traditional Torajan funeral is a big event for the local people in Tana Toraja. Relatives have usually been saving up for a long time to be able to buy water buffaloes and pigs to be sacrificed during the funerals. For this reason the deceased will be given their own room in a house and are considered still alive until the actual funeral.

Depending on which class the family is from, a funeral can last from a day to a week and the amount of animals to be sacrificed varies also. A family from the low class might only sacrifice 2 buffaloes and a few pigs. A middle class funeral will usually last 3 days and during its course maybe 15 buffaloes will be sacrificed. People from the high class might sacrifice 100 or even 200 buffaloes over the course of a week.

The price of a buffalo starts at about 20 million Rupiah, which is around 2000 USD or 1400 EUR. The price then rises steeply the bigger and the more white a buffalo is, reaching around 100 million in some cases.

The beginning of a funeral day normally starts with the sacrifice of a couple buffaloes. While friends or family members cut up the animals, processions of other family members take place. They receive food and tea or coffee in a special building and move to their allocated temporary built shelters after a while to make place for other family members.

Every group of family brings their own gifts of animals, but not all animals necessarily get sacrificed. At the end of the day every family member will be given a piece of meat from the sacrificed animals.

The majority of Torajans are Protestants and they don’t see any conflict between their old traditional animistic beliefs and their relatively new religion. I wonder, though, what the protestant church has to say on that matter.

The Torajan people are very welcoming and don’t mind at all that hordes of tourists come to watch their traditional funerals. They rather see it as a sign of respect for the dead. Although tourists aren’t required to bring a buffalo or a pig as a gift, every person has to bring something, a carton of cigarettes being the most popular choice it seems.

Below is a short video from the funeral I attended. The deceased woman originated from the middle class and had been dead for about a year.

You can find more photos from Tana Toraja here.

1. Good Karma

   The world should be governed by well travelled people. We know how important it is to do well by the people we meet, be they locals or fellow travellers. And in the end you will get back whatever you paid forward. This is something I strongly believe in.

2. Food

   Being a traveller is like being a soldier. Eat while you can. You never know when your next meal will be. Food is one way of taking in a new culture and experiencing new things, so when it comes to food you should always go local or at least have a go at it.

3. Camera Memory Cards

   Murphy’s Law in this case states that whenever you see something truly amazing your camera will angrily flash at you and give you the finger. By the time you deleted some of those old crappy stupid photos your first ever elephant will have vanished into thin air or only show you his bum. Always have enough memory left by the time you leave your crappy guesthouse room in the morning and always have a spare memory card, so you can switch. And always switch early rather than too late.

4. Patience

   If you’re not patient on the road you’ll be miserable a lot. There’s misunderstandings, people around you when all you want is being left alone and there’s waiting, a lot of waiting actually. There are language problems, a lot of hassle with touts and loads of other people trying to take advantage. Just take it easy. After all you could be sitting in an office being bored beyond witless.

5. Passport Photos

   This is something you seriously can’t have enough of. You’ll need them for visa applications, visas and then some more visa applications. In some places getting just four passport photos made can be ridiculously expensive, so stock up when you’re in a cheap place. Get like 20. You’ll thank me later.

6. Condoms

   Although it might be slightly awkward carrying an extra large pack of your favourite flavoured little friends around it’s always a turnoff not having one ready when you so desperately need one. Remember to pack them in a cool and shady spot in your backpack and use them fast. They don’t travel very well.

7. Drugs

   Mushrooms, ganja, alcohol or whatever else takes your fancy. Travellers love trying new things and drugs seem to be very much part of the rite of passage. On the low side they can get you into deep trouble. The kind of trouble where you look at the same room for 10 years or even the kind of trouble that dramatically reduces your life expectancy to zero. On the high side drugs, if used sparingly and if you stay clear of the hard stuff, can make you perceive your surroundings in a completely new and different way. Drugs travel even less well than condoms!

8. Time

   Without time you only have haste and that’s the death of every genuine memorable experience. 23 countries in as many days is not the way you should travel. I’m the last person to tell you how you have to travel, but just this once I’ll have to do exactly that. Take your time, travel slowly, and get to know a place rather than rush through it. Not seeing everything you wanted is just a reason for another trip.

9. Fun

   This one’s quite obvious and it almost didn’t make the list. It’s very important, though. There are many times when you have anything but fun. When you’re sick, frustrated or just plain fed up with it all. This is normal. The trick is to have more fun than not and maybe develop a bit of a selective memory. Forget the bad stuff, except when it makes a great story, and remember the fun.

10. Diarrhoea Pills

    Bombay belly, the bane of all travellers. Very hard to avoid unless you have a stomach that’s not upset by copious amounts of chilli, foreign bugs or undercooked chicken. Once you stood under the shower for hours with food and drink coming out of every opening you realize that what you need is the biggest and most powerful stop-the-runs pill ever produced. Seriously, pack some!

11. Money

    Some backpackers have hit the jackpot. Literally. There was one English dude who won a million bucks on New Zealand’s Lotto system. In case you haven’t been that lucky and mum and dad don’t feel like financing your global escapades, then you need cash. Spend it wisely. Not saying you need a lot of cash to travel, but the more you have the longer you can travel without the inconvenience of work.

12. Common Sense

    Sometimes you can get yourself into a bit of a situation. Thailand and its lady boys or drugs or gambling or a combination of all of em are just a few examples. Just ask yourself what would your mum want you to do? And remember, if she’s got bigger hands than you, put that drink down and have a closer look before you take her home.

Do you have anything to add to this list? I welcome your comments!

A ferry can be a crowded place full of people, fridges, scooters, satellite dishes and animals. In a place like Indonesia boats are the most used mode of transportation.

This pic was taken quite some time ago while on a pleasure dive somewhere deep around Simon’s Reef close to Gili Trawangan. It was after the tsunami and we hadn’t had any customers for some time, so we just took the boat out for fun.

There should be 8 monkeys. Can you spot them all?

This list, which only existed in my head until now, started out with number 3 around 20 years ago and I’ve added destinations and trips to it as I found out about them. In time places moved up and down or disappeared completely as I visited them. There’s obviously many more places I want to see and things I want to do, but there’s got to be something special to make it onto my top 10…

1. Travel up the Congo River
   The Congo, in the heart of Africa, represents for me the magic I associate with that continent. Lush rainforest, genuine experiences and extremely hard travelling!
2. Drive from Capetown to Marrakesh
   When I was little my Dad always brought travel magazines like Tours back home. A lot of them dealt with off road tours through Africa, how to outfit cars, which routes to take and so on. It obviously left an impression on me.
3. Hitchhike from Munich to Beijing
   I was around 9 years old when I first thought it’d be awesome to drive all the way from my hometown to China. In time this has morphed into hitchhiking, as a cheaper, more flexible, but probably more dangerous alternative.
4. Dive and travel Antarctica
   Huge icebergs, penguins, sea lions and many more amazing animals. Just imagine what the underwater world looks like there…
5. Navigate the Mekong River
   I have crossed the Mekong many times in many countries and the idea to help navigate a boat from China all the way to Vietnam has been growing ever since.
6. Explore the Bamiyan valley in Afghanistan
   Ever since I heard about the huge Buddhas I wanted to see them for myself. Even though they have been destroyed by the Taliban regime I still want to go and explore the little caves left behind by Buddhist monks.
7. Experience the Hajj
   I am not a Muslim or very religious, but there’s something about the pilgrimage to Mecca that I find fascinating. Maybe it’s a couple of millions of people in the same place actually believing in a God. That’s got to make for a special atmosphere.
8. Live among the Orang Laut for some time
   The Orang Laut are scattered all across Southeast Asia. The name literally means ’sea people’. Their way of life, so closely connected with the ocean they live on, has always fascinated me and in a way I can identify with that.
9. Travel to the (original) Burning Man
   Nowadays there’s a few BM branches around, but I’d like to see the original in Black Rock Desert in Nevada.
10. Cross the Sahara on the back of a camel
    Just another one of my weird dreams. Call me a romantic with no sense of realism, but I think this would be a fantastic experience.

Will I ever make it to all of those places, do all of those trips? To be honest, I doubt it. There are too many variables. Some of those countries aren’t really that safe (yet), I am perpetually in a state of near bankruptcy and a couple of those trips shouldn’t really be done. That’s not the point of this list though. My wish list ,or dreams if you like, are an indication for the kind of experiences and adventures I want and seek and usually they push my limits a little bit further out. It’s my minds way of telling me that I’m ready for the next step away from my comfort zone.

It’s important to have dreams as well. Without them I might as well work on my tan on Ballerman 6. What are your travel dreams?

This image was taken on a little road trip to Glenorchy, a little sleepy town about an hours drive from Queenstown. The road ends here and you can feel it. The air smells fresh and you’re surrounded by mountains and sheer vastness…

Children are awesome. Especially when travelling in Asia. It is very rare that I pass up an opportunity to take a few snapshots of kids. Usually they follow me around and yell ‘Photo, photo, Mister!’. And all they want in return is to have a look at the little screen on the back. Then they go on telling me the news of their day, blissfully unaware that I don’t understand a word. It always makes me chuckle.

These four girls from the little village of Lamalera wanted their picture taken, but always got scared and ran off. Eventually they managed to stand still for a few seconds.

In Asia you see a lot of girls, kids themselves, looking after their younger siblings. They expertly carry them around on the hip, pick them up after they fell over and feed them rice and some fish.

These two cheeky boys in Dili wouldn’t stop talking. All I could understand was ‘photo’ once in a while. They seemed like tough little cookies. I suppose they would have to be living in one of the many refugee tent cities.

Crossing a border can be a daunting and nerve wrecking thing and that might not necessarily have something to do with those 2 kg of cocaine hidden in between your smelly socks.

I always think that customs officials are being trained to put on mean faces, to make you as uncomfortable as humanly possible. You might be getting the look, when you’re in trouble with your girlfriend, but that has nothing on your average customs guy. It’s almost like they have x-ray vision, but they use their superpower for evil and not for good.

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