Well, I survived the ferry trip. The food sucked - watery rice, an egg, and some wilted vegetables - but I guess it was adequate. I passed the time by chatting with some of the local passengers, and trying to get some sleep on a very uncomfortable bench. I think I'll opt for bisnis class on my next long ferry ride! We arrived in Ujung Pandang at about 6 a.m., and I took a becak straight to the Legend Hostel. I was feeling a bit travel-weary, so I just sat in the café for a couple hours, sipping tea and munching on some snacks. Nice to be on level ground again! I didn't want to stay very long in the big city, but had a few errands to run before venturing out into the Sulawesi countryside. So I strolled south along the water to Makassar Golden Hotel to book plane tickets: I had less than 20 days before my tourist visa would expire, so my plan was to fly to Singapore for one night, and re-enter Indonesia for another 60-day visa in Sumatra. I booked a ticket leaving from Manado (in the very northeast tip of Sulawesi) to Medan, Sumatra, with a one-night layover in Singapore. Perfect!

Still a bit woozy from the long boat ride, I decided I needed a long walk. Might as well see a bit of Ujung Pandang while I was here. I strolled through various markets, and eventually wound up at the harbor where a few of the legendary prahu of the indigenous Bugis people were docked amidst the fishing boats. These majestic wooden ships were once feared by European spice traders, who were often attacked by Bugis pirates - earning the Bugis a prominent place in folklore: "boogeymen". The walk cleared my head and I was soon back into the travel spirit. That evening while talking story with other travelers at the hostel, I learned about some great national parks in Sulawesi's northern peninsula near Manado. I also met a Dutch guy who was living in Tana Toraja, teaching locals to be guides, who offered to arrange a cheap guided tour with one of his trainees. A plan was forming! After a great dinner of BBQ fish and a good full night of sleep, I was ready to hit the road once again. My bus journey would take me north and eastwards, towards Manado. First stop: Sengkang - a flooded village set amidst beautiful countryside. Bright green rice fields passed by outside the bus window, split by large rivers and broken by graceful limestone outcroppings. Sengkang is at the crossroads of the Sulawesi silk trade, so I took in a tour of local silk production - a true cottage industry, with local betelnut-chewing ladies weaving shimmering textiles on hand-crafted looms in the shade under their stilt houses.

Next stop: Makale, in the heart of Tana Toraja! I called Godi (the Dutchman that I had met a few days earlier in Ujung Pandang) and we set up a dinner meeting to discuss tour ideas. I had the day to kill so I took a local bus out to Lemo to get a taste of Toraja culture. It wasn't hard to figure out where to go - many tourists come through here so there are signs posted. Walking about 30 minutes from the bus stop, through a rice field, you come to the base of a flat cliff. Looking up, you see a series of rectangular openings carved into the rock face: ancestral graves. Many of the graves are marked with wooden figures called tau tau, and they are kind of spooky! I'm glad I was here early in the day, since they face east and were receiving some nice morning light...

In the afternoon I visited another nearby Toraja village: Kete Kesu, another tourist-accessible site of ancestral graves. These caves are at ground level, so you can walk inside and check out the carved wooden coffins. Many of the coffins were rotted and open, and the caves were strewn with human bones. Creepy. Also in Kete Kesu were some well-kept Torajian tongkanan - boat-shaped houses on stilts, which apparently represent the spaceships of the original Toraja ancestors, who were not of this earth! I also bumped into Godi, who was showing a friend of his around. We decided that we'd meet at 10:30 the next morning in Rantepao (tourist central for Tana Toraja) and tour around by motorbike to a few other Toraja sites. After a brief rainstorm I took a bus to Rantepao and arranged a motorbike rental. I was really looking forward to tomorrow! That evening a powerful rainstorm pummeled Rantepao. I broke my only pair of glasses while trying to swat a mosquito in my hotel room. My makeshift wiring job would have to hold them together for another couple of months.

The next morning I went to fetch the motorcycle - what a piece of crap! The kick-starter barely worked, the electrical system was completely non-functional, no front brakes, and the foot pegs shifted back and forth. What the hell, it ran OK, and at least the horn worked. I met Godi and his guide-in-training Singkali, and we were off! I immediately discovered that my rental bike also lacked shock absorbers. It was a painful ride... During the course of the day we visited several other Toraja villages, and Singkali provided some good background for what we saw. Toraja religion centers around ancestor worship, and funerals are huge village affairs. Buffalos, pigs, and chickens are sacrificed - the animal spirits guide the spirit of the deceased person along the correct path to the afterlife. (Since buffalo play such an important role for the Toraja, they are treated very well throughout their lives.) There was a funeral ceremony going on in the village of Alangalang, and Singkali introduced us to several of the locals. We left some small gifts, and sat and talked with a group of folks who were part of the cermony. Many glasses of tuak (a delicious wine made from palm sugar) were passed around, and the meat from the sacrificed animals was auctioned off. A big procession of mourners placed the coffin on a bamboo platform and hauled it to the grave site. Tears streamed down the faces of many of the women, and it was quite touching.

At the village of Bori we visited a graveyard marked with tall stone megaliths, and Singkali pointed out a huge tree with several rectangular wooden doors affixed to the trunk. They looked a bit like birdhouses, but they were actually the tombs of babies who had passed away. There is a beautiful story associated with the passing of a newborn: if a child dies before growing teeth, he is still considered "pure" and is thus returned directly to nature (as opposed to being entombed in a stone grave like everyone else). A rectangular section of appropriate size is carved out of the tree trunk, and the body is placed inside, standing upright. A small door of wood is placed over the small tomb. The sap from the wounded tree "feeds the child's soul", and as the tree grows its leaves offer the child's spirit to the afterlife.

Satisfied with this brief glimpse into the world of the Toraja, I decided to continue northwards. I woke up early the next morning, had a relaxing breakfast, and caught the bus to Tentena for an amazing 12-hour ride through steep mountains on the edge of pretty serious vertical drops. We finally had a break at Palopo, in the plains near the gulf separating the two southern peninsulas of Sulawesi's twisted shape, where we picked up several more passengers. Up again into the mountains, through some of the most spectacular unbroken jungle that I've seen yet! Miles and miles of pristine forest, and this wasn't even park land. The roads were terribly curvy and several folks were puking the entire time. Had a dinner stop in Pendolo, and then a hellish 3.5 hours further to Tentena along an incredibly bad road with huge potholes every 20 meters. An exhausting ride, and to top it off, the staff at my cheap hotel sat up into the early morning hours watching television with the volume cranked way up. Needless to say I slept in the next morning. Later the next day I visited the beautiful Salopa waterfalls near town, and had an excellent dinner featuring local cuisine: sugili - a thick steak about as wide as my thigh from a huge eel of the kind that thrive in Lake Poso, the large lake on the edge of town.

I would have loved to stay in Tentena for a few more days - it turned out to be a really nice town and there was much to explore. But now I was on a fairly tight schedule, what with having a plane to catch and some key stops beforehand, so I had to split. My next destination was Ampana, the coastal jumping off point for boats across to the northern peninsula. The boat to Gorontalo was leaving in two days, so I had time for a day trip by outrigger canoe to nearby Tanjung Api - the "fire cape". We motored about 30 minutes through crystal clear water to a little beach where natural gas leaks out of the ground. You can hear the gas hissing out of the rocks, and several spots were actually on fire - little sustained flames just above the stone! You could dig in the sand a bit and light a match, and it would burn endlessly. The surroundings were beautiful. Hundreds of mudskippers skipped at the water's edge, and many other cool plants and insects were just begging to be photographed...

And so I set off for the northern peninsula, with a stop at the beautiful Togian Islands along the way. From Ampana it was a five-hour ferry ride to Wakai, the first stop at the Togians. Ah, it was paradise. The ocean was smooth as glass, and the reef was amazing. 25 minutes (by boat, of course) from Wakai was Kadidiri, a lovely little island where I rented a small bungalow in an incredible setting: situated on a perfect white-sand beach, backed by thick jungle, no other civilization on the island at all, dolphins playing in the water just off shore, and limestone rock formations jutting straight up out of the sea silhouetted by the setting sun. For three days I snorkeled on pristine reefs, ate fresh fish for every meal, played volleyball and shithead (fun card game) with the other travelers, and forgot about the rest of the world.

I knew I was venturing into the land of the red-knobbed hornbill, a bird of exquisite beauty that had totally captivated my imagination in a National Geographic magazine. So I woke up early one morning and decided to go for a walk in the jungle behind my bungalow to see if I could find one. About 10 minutes into my walk the sky opened and sheets of water rained down. I managed to find a little shelter near a fresh-water spring, waited for an hour, and then headed straight back to the bungalows for breakfast. I tried again after breakfast, but now the jungle was steaming hot; at least it was done raining. I encountered beautiful butterflies, lizards with bright blue tails, all sorts of colorful parrots, and finally I heard the unmistakeable "whooshing" sound of wind rushing through the flapping wings of a hornbill! It must be nearby, so I quietly searched closer towards the source of the sound. Sure enough, a red-knobbed hornbill flew into sight - incredible! It reminded me of a big toucan, with similar mannerisms. Huge orange beak, irridescent blue feathers on the throat, and the amazing red crest atop its head. It lit on a branch and slowly moved its head from side to side. And then with another "whoosh" it was gone. Wow...

Though I could have stayed in the Togians for much much longer, I had to move on. It was an agonizing boat ride to the northern peninsula, trying to sleep on the hard floor of the deck amidst screaming babies and blaring music. It took a full 12 hours to get to Gorontolo, and I was beat. I rested there for a couple days, washing clothes and exploring Dumoga Bone national park, and then had a terrifying bus ride to Manado. I made the mistake of sitting in the front seat, and had to cover my eyes as the we sped through narrow village roads, sending kids leaping out of the roadway and wrecking their bicycles. It was quite a relief to reach Manado without serious incident. I spent some time here exploring the nearby towns and the amazing Tangkoko national park (the subject of the next page), and saved a couple days to snorkel in the waters of Bunaken marine preserve.

What a fantastic note to end on! I chartered a small boat with a couple other travelers, and we set out from Manado through the blue sea towards Bunaken. After a 45 minute boat ride, we arrived at a group of islands surrounded by abundant reef, and anchored at the reef's edge - just above a drop-off into blackness! It was pretty spooky snorkeling over the edge - like floating over a cliff. We snorkelled for a couple hours here and the sea life was characteristically fantastic. There were of course the usual Moorish Idols, triggerfish, puffers, etc. Highlights of this particular experience included my first encounter with the majestic lionfish, some beautiful stingrays with bright purple markings, a black puffer with orange and yellow spots, little garden eels, pipefish (which swim in groups with their long bodies stretched vertically, giving them a plant-like appearance), and a big sea snake! That one freaked me out - it was about 5 feet long, white with black stripes circling its body, snaking around the edge of the reef. It happily went about its business and slithered away into the darkness. We stayed that night at Homestay Martha on Siladen Island, with wonderful shell collecting on the beach in front of the hotel, more great snorkeling just off shore, and topped off by a beautiful sunset over the nearby volcanic island of Manado Tua. The next day I caught my flight to Singapore as planned, and wondered if I'd ever be able to make it back to this beautiful place...