May 21, 2009

makassar: boating to a small island

we went snorkelling on the last day at i-dunno-what island, maybe samalona, maybe kayangan or maybe lae-lae. but i just cant recall the name.

crystal clear water.

boy and lian.

yean and me.

bearbear and me.

and here goes the v-session.

lian.

boy.

stubborn bearbear. should hav posed 'v' to the camera, instead he was waving at me. what for?

jeff.

yean.

and the floating frogs.

starfish.

and more of starfish.

bearbear loves swimming!!

sweet couple wth.

i hav some serious business here, rite in the sea. take a closer look at my angelina jolie's lips. so pouty and sexy. 5 damn huge mouth ulcers broke out, and i got swollen lips, sexier than angel.

and bearbear swam to me.

old friends of mine!!

crazy!!

bersantai. one of my favourite pics.

thats the end of makassar trip. now, we are back in msia and live happily ever after...

makassar: back to town

after a day in torajan land, we went back to makassar and this took another 8-hr van ride. it was almost a torture to travel at long daytime hours!!

in front of the hotel.

at heart of torajan town. i din bring enough shirts, ended up wearing bearbear's one. not too baggy, quite comfy indeed!!

farewell, tana toraja.

vanilla plant.

going downhill. and its gonna be another long mountainous ride!!

reaching busy old town of makassar and heading to chinatown. no pic again!!

May 20, 2009

makassar: tana toraja

tana toraja is also known as land of the heavenly kings as the torajans believe their ancestors came fr heaven. and thus, funerals for the dead are often a unique and grand for the reason that the dead has to be sent back to heaven, the place he originated in. prior to this custom, its common for the torajans to keep the dead in their house for months or maybe years while saving for sufficient funds and waiting for the rice harvest. a proper funeral may usually last up to few days/weeks and the entire function will cost abt RM100,000 or more as many buffalos/goats/pigs will be slaughtered to mourn the dead *more like a celebration as there will be music/dance performance or even bull fighting during the funeral*.

nice greenery. a view fr the hotel we stayed.

passing by a village at mountain.

buffalo head on a traditional house, tongkonan. buffalo represents wealth in torajan culture.

hanging graves at lemo. coffins were inserted in the cliff and a tau-tau puppet which resembles the dead was placed in front of each grave. there is also a tree grave for dead babies which i forgot to take a pic. fact is, i suddenly became pantang so i din take any pic of graveyard!!

overlooking paddy field fr hanging graves.

hanging graves in background.

burial site.

the making of tau-tau. i call this a tau-tau gallery.

as if there is no paddy field in kelantan.

wiv our guide, najah.

had lunch here.

and the tamarilla juice was so heaven.

taxes were costly!!

nah, ladies, lesson learnt, dun ever ask for gender equality!!

a big catch of ikan bilis!!

at kete kesu, the most picturesque traditional torajan village. some of them are rice barns.

me waiting to go ladies room.

friends and najah set me up!! i was interviewed by local media for a tv programme of Visit Indonesia 2009. moral of story, dun imitate their accent while speak bahasa.

the horn-shaped rooftops of tongkonan are somewhat similar to minangkabau's.

the torajan town.

makassar: off we went

makassar is a complete letdown. but the whole trip was fun cuz i travelled wiv a bunch crazy ppl. we were flying to makassar on the labor day after i bade farewell to pn.wanie at alamanda. she was flying to new york while i'd just be in se asia.

at departure hall.

bearbear was taking some random pics throughout the 3-hr boring flight. let's enjoy his art pieces.

blue sky and one of the airplane wings.

bright sunny sky no.1.

bright sunny sky no.2.

ok. finally!! we reached makassar international airport at 10pm, indon time, then took an 8-hr van ride to rantepao, the city centre of torajan land.