Leaving Flores on to Sulawesi

Thursday 11 of August Maumere

So later this evening I'm catching a Pelni Ship to take me from Maumere to Makassar on the island of Sulawesi. Its supposed to be a great way to travel, which i hope is true as the trip will take 20 hours.

This past week in Flores has been a bit intense, I've seen some amazing things, beautiful places like the pre-historic looking kamodo dragons on Rinca, the lovely traditional villages of Bajawa, a little sun and sand on a secluded island off the north coast of Riung, and the unbelievable coloured lakes ok the Kelimutu Volcano.

I've also had my share of some yummy (but not so good for my tummy) foods like nasi goreng (fried rice), mie goreng (fried noodles) , ayam goreng (fried chicken) - lots of fried food if you hadn't noticed, not exactly healthy. But my favorite thus far is probably gado gado - sauted veggies in a peanut sauce. I say not so good for my tummy because as it was inevitable i got myself a little case of TD (traveller's diarrhoea) and based on my syptoms it looked like it was bacterial... so it was saltines and water for a few days.

Cousin of the Month Awards definitely goes to Chintu (aka Dr. Ketan Amin) for hooking me up with some antibiotics. Mom, before you worry, i am completely 100% okay. promise :)

I'm definitey ready to leave Flores. Lonely Planet has a section on Solo Woman Travellers and it reads that although travelling in South East Asia is safe, women travelling in Indonesia have reported some negative reactions. Its much better in the buddhist countries (hence why i never felt like this in Thailand). That pretty much summed it up in a nutshell. You get tired of the honking and hallo miss quite quickly. Through out my trip so far i always seem to meet the right people at the right time. Having bumped into Helena was a blessing because i don't think we would have enjoyed Flores as much if we were travelling alone.

I'm looking forward to my visit to Sulawesi. My plan is to spend a few days in the Tana Toraja region to visit the villages and to hopefully get invited to a funeral. Yea, you read that correctly. The tribes here have a massive celebration/festival once a year to bury their dead. It includes dancing, eating, drinking, sacrifices, and burying the dead in graves made into the sides of cliffs. The season starts in July and ends in August. Thousands of people from Sulawesi living elsewhere as well as hundreds of tourists visit to help celebrate.