took us 5 hours.  bus rides in makassar are never boring. this time we passed by a really nice valley with the view of a mountain. and the weather was really cool because we're already halfway on top of a hill. 

see what i mean? this picture does not do justice to how breathtaking the view is. you can see spots of house from above. and  from where we're standing it's actually a restaurant, with the view of the mountain. after almost one and a half week of total work and labor our beloved lecturer took us to this much needed trip. breathtaking view, cool weather and restaurant with killer view? i couldn't ask for more. 

  

tana toraja, also known as tator by the locals. this place is really chilly. i mean, it gets really cold to the point when you speak you see your breath. however it doesn't seem that way in the picture. see the mountain at the back of the houses? that's where the coffins are hang or placed.

that's real buffalo horns right there. the more horns there is, the richer and higher status the owners are.  the architecture of toraja is really unique and it's really symbolic too. these houses don't usually stand alone, and there's usually a few of them in a place. during the past the bigger ones are houses (nowadays they live in concrete house but some still live in houses like these), and the smaller ones are used as a rice barn.  if there's a death in the house the body is kept at the back of the house.

the miniature house is actually a coffin where the body is laid before the grand burial. the people of toraja are mostly christians but they still practice a really elaborate from of honoring the dead. the bodies are kept from either a year to 5 years, depending on how long it takes for the family to save money to buy buffaloes (one buffalo can cost up to 7 million rupiah or more) and all the necessary things ( the unique houses are built especially for the burial ceremony ) , and to make sure all family members, from overseas especially attends the funeral ceremony. for them, a funeral is a really happy and joyous occasion.

the coffins. some are hang on top , and some are placed just there. the higher the rank, the higher the coffin. these coffins are really really old, and most of them are rotten already because it's all made of wood. some of the hanging coffins has even collapsed, exposing all the skeletons inside.  even the coffins has a symbolic meaning. if it's the shape of a pig it means the decease is a commoner, and if it's a buffalo head then the person comes from a upper class family. 

there's a whole lot of cow dung. imagine the smell.

at the back of the market is where they sell pigs. when we were on our way walking into the area some of us nearly got knock by the pig on wheels.  the workers were transporting the pigs and boy, is their business good. and there was a lot of pigs. there were tons of them, some all tied up, some still in their ranch. the tied up pigs were really scared, and when one tries to escape ( they used only leaves/grass to tie them up but it's really strong) the others would struggle to escape too. the noise that they make was really disturbing because the pigs seems to know that they're gonna die soon, and some of my friends got kinda upset because the sounds really really pierces your mind and you start contemplating to stop eating pork because of all the things the pigs goes through.  basically the place was kind of dangerous. imagine if the buffaloes were to struggle and break free. 

pigs on wheels.

the sacrifice ceremony. as i've mention before, it's a joyous occasion for them. buffaloes are slaughterer in front of the guest. we were late. by the time we reach  they've already slaughtered the buffaloes. but somehow one of the stronger ones stood up, with neck all exposed because they slit it, and it tried to walk but fell again. the villagers will first cut the tail and the hooves and give it to the kids to play. the kids didn't seem to mind all the blood. the floor was extremely bloodied. the head will be given to the head of the village. and they took record time to skin the whole buffalo. within minutes the buffaloes was cut up into small pieces.  we even saw one of the cut out buffalo's muscles moving i didn't know how to react to the camera. should i smile? or should i be sad? it's a funeral. animals are slaughtered alive. i gave a blank expression. poor pig. it was tied up there and i believe saw the whole cutting up process. a friend even ask me if the pig would feel afraid *it doesn't seem to be expressing any type of emotions though*, does it know it will be sacrifice soon? 

the body

pretty sunsets while heading back to makassar. the journey took us 12 hours. and no, there's no option of taking the flight. only by vehicle. 

the journey to makassar was a really bewildering experience for me. i'm pretty sure if it's not for the measured drawing i wouldn't have been able to experience all of this, especially the bus rides, and the journeys. toraja is a pretty famous touristy place and i guess there's guides who can bring you there.

going to makassar, bone, wajo and toraja was really an eye opener. now i can't wait for my next trip to vietnam. this time it'll be just me and my friends and i pray that we would get to experience the place like a local, like how we had it in makassar.

:) 

sorry for the delay, it's been over 2 weeks since coming back from makassar, and i figured if i don't blog about this i might have forgotten detail from the trip! *not to mention the report for my lecturer - gasp! *

oh, and this is a really really long post. you have been warned. 

ok so here's the story about makassar, it's the place that was chosen for us to do a measured drawing about traditional houses in bugis culture. we've already been warned by our lecturer that the place that we're living will only have the most simple things ever. she wasn't lying. well, actually our situation was a little bit better than our seniors. 

makassar is the capital of sulawesi and it's actually at the south of sulawesi. sulawesi is a really really huge island. so the place is pretty much developed, if compared to the small parts of town that we went later.  we were separated to 2 groups, one to bone (read as bo - ne) and us, to wajo. the journey to bone took us 4 hours, and another 2 hours to reach wajo.  the difference in terms of travelling long distance here is they don't have any street lights, and they don't even have any highways! and there's only one lane each way. wooden houses and paddy fields lined the road.  the scenery along the way is absolutely stunning. we pass through valleys, vast paddy fields that look like art, and between huge rocks! which i think is actually space between 2 mountains. at one point a really big truck carrying goods had to manually carry down all of it because the truck couldn't pass through the narrow way. for uncountable times the little bus narrowly scratch the opposite traffic, or the other way, and we're all scared for our lives but there wasn't any accidents along the way at all!  the long and bumpy bus ride was really fun and there wasn't one time that it wasn't interesting at all. the scenaries kept us all wanting for more. oh and the bumpiness? it was just like riding a crazy roller coaster, but with wheels.

we spent the night at bone at an empty community hall, and sleep on the floor. the toilets was decent enough, because we were expecting worst (read : no doors, toilet bowls and lights). for some odd reason i had an obsession with toilets while in makassar. we had a draw on which 2 groups had to depart to wajo the other day and my group got it, so again we went for a bus ride, but this time it's just on a normal straight road. the thing about south sulawesi is the place is literally covered with paddy fields. the place is so flat , and when you look out across the horizon everythings is so flat and green. it's like looking out at the sea but you replace the sea with paddy fields, you know? i didn't know the sky could be so breathtaking. everything feels so abnormal *in a good way* because i'm so used to seeing buildings everywhere. simple things has never look so good. yes i am smitten with the view. very.

the journey was suppose to be 2 hours but it took 4 hours because there was a traffic jam. the villagers were building dams and they placed the stones in the middle of the road thus disrupting the traffic. when we reach wajo we were warmly welcome by the kabupaten ( ministry?) of wajo, and they had the nicest office that i've seen since stepping into makassar. and then we had one of the best lunch ever at their office. the deputy kabupaten was so nice! he even ate lunch with us! in malaysia they would have separated the vip's and the non vip's already. they even provided us with a place to stay for the night, at their vip guest house, which was  the head of kabupaten's formal house. the house is situated on top of the hill, where you can see the whole of wajo from there which was really really nice. we even saw the view of the sea (which we found out later that it is a lake! it's the famous danau tempe! i've never seen a lake so huge! ) and boy the dinner, dessert and breakfast that they provide was the best food ever that we've tasted. 

we had to leave the very next day to the village where the research house is located. the village head greeted us warmly and all 10 of us stayed at his house, which is quite big and spacious, really. the house is really tall, roughly 2.5 meters above ground, where they store rice (a majority of them are farmers) and they live upstairs. the village head's house is quite new, and i guess he didn't have time to built a toilet yet, so we had to use the neighbor's one. it was kinda decent i guess. erm, let me describe how it is. ok, so you have to walk about 10 meters to reach there, and the toilets has no lights. and apparently no one has been using that toilet because the water they had was really dirty, but still decent, because there was a flowing source, where water are pumped by electricity from underground. the toilet was ok, because i had to remind myself that at least we had a toilet bowl and a door. the seniors had only a hole on the floor. till today it puzzles me on how the whole flushing system works. because you see, there's only a toilet bowl, and no flushing system. i don't even dare to use the torchlight to look at the bowl. bathing time was kinda fun too cause there's only 2 rooms to bath and while waiting we fooled around (read = scared) the chickens, we even spotted a hen that was sitting on her egg!! (yes i'm a city girl all of this intrigues me ok) once we even spotted the gecko!!!! it's a sort of lizard, but erm 10 times larger and yuck-ier than the normal house lizard because when you see it from afar it feels okay but when it starts to crawl, the hair at the back of our neck starts to stand, i have no reason why. this particular gecko has one lost paw, and when you look at it it's brownish but from the photograph it has blue spots all over it. do you know it has medicinal properties and cost around rm1100 and more in the market? 

and the people there don't use fan at all. they only have lights. but the weather is kinda similar to here in malaysia, so we got used to it. and their electricity supply is  weak because on the very first day when 5 of us charge our laptop, the whole village went out of lights.  the following days was better because we only thrifted the electricity at the house only. for every. single.day. once i used the hair dryer thinking the electricity could take it. silly me. i thrifted the electricity and it only came back in the evening. the hair dryer was never use again.  

the mosquitoes are legendary too. i got bitten the worst. i look as if i got chicken pox. the funny thing was the insect repellent that we brought from malaysia actually attracted them. i gave up trying to stop them from biting me. for once i didn't hate smokers because the smoke actually help shoo the mozzies away!  and oh, do you know by 5.50pm it is already dark like how it is here at 8pm? and the sun comes out really early too, by 5 am it's already bright and shiny.

and may i add that the people there are the nicest ones that i've ever met? they are so genuine and real!!! can you imagine that they would take all the trouble to cook and bring it to us although the village head's wife has prepared food for us? and they would invite us to their house to stay with them , which was politely decline because we had to finish up on the measuring business. i mean, we're all strangers but their hospitality really touched my heart. i am really really grateful for that. they really took care of us and our needs when we were there and i swear from the bottom of my heart none of us acted like brats. 

staying at the village made me realise how lucky and blessed i am * trying not to sound like an old lady*. i mean, i take a lot of things for granted here and the people there live in absolute simplicity. living there is like going through basic living 101. and i had that i've-went-through-this-nothing-is-going-to-stop-me moments, again.  when we had hot shower in toraja i felt so ecstatic. and planting rice is no easy business. these people work so hard every single day. imagine if one day no one wants to plant rice anymore! *gasp*  their life is work, go home, sleep, wake up really early, go work again.  

and don't let me start on the toilets. flush-able toilet are godsend, seriously.