Another two islands: Sulawesi and Java

Sulawesi! Sounds a bit like the name of a princess from an oriental fairy tale to me. But it is one of the 17,000 Indonesian islands. Here, western lifestyle meets traditional customs.

In the otherwise modern port city of Makassar, I visited a historic Dutch fort from colonial times. Once again, I became an attraction myself, always this 'Mister'... 'Selfie'. Then I received incredible looks from all the people I asked for directions to the fish market. No one could believe that I really wanted to walk there (30 minutes). So the tuk-tuk driver really drove at a snail's pace next to me for 10 minutes until he finally realized that I really wanted to walk. Indonesians generally never walk anywhere.

With an unexpectedly comfortable and luxurious overnight bus, I continued to Tana Toraja, a region in the interior of the island known for its special funeral customs and traditional architecture. Here, funerals are turned into three-day ceremonies, where depending on the status of the family, up to 15 buffalo and several dozen pigs are sacrificed. All this is done to make it easier for the deceased to reach the afterlife. Since the celebration is very expensive and families often have to save for several years, the deceased are kept at home until then. The deceased family member is treated as if still alive and sometimes even seated at the dining table and 'fed'. Furthermore, deceased people are taken out of their graves and 'taken for a walk' every year in July and August, an alternating second funeral ceremony. Quite special!

Most tourists in Sulawesi follow the same route (south to north, or vice versa). After my time in Flores and on the public ferry, I was glad to be with other tourists again. I met some very nice people with whom I continued to travel to the Togean Islands. Paradise itself: beautiful beaches, great snorkeling spots right outside the door, and nice accommodation. Unfortunately, everything has its price. To get there, we had to endure a 20-hour minibus ride and almost immediately a five-hour boat ride. But it was worth it.

The journey to the north was also demanding: staying overnight on a public ferry (this time shorter, with many other tourists and a smaller ship) and then a 10-hour minibus ride to Manado.

Manado is not really a beautiful city, but I still liked it. Maybe because the houses, the style of the shops, and generally the lifestyle reminded me of Porlamar (the city where I spent my exchange year in Venezuela).

I spent a few more days on the island of Siladen with my travel group from Tana Toraja, about an hour's boat ride from Manado. Again, simply paradise! The beach may have been a bit less idyllic than in the Togeans, but the underwater world was even more magnificent. Here, I dived along a 'wall' for the first time: the place where the coral reef ends and the open sea begins. This means spectacular corals up to 20m above and probably just as much below. In addition, a wonderful variety of schools of fish and large turtles. Breathtaking!

Because I wasted a bit of time on all these paradisiacal islands, I had to rush to my next destinations. This included visiting the Tangkoko National Park in northern Sulawesi, where I could admire cute tarsiers, lazy cus cus, colorful hornbills, and voracious black monkeys in the wild. Great to see the animals in their natural habitat.

Then I took my first domestic flight to Bali. It was nice to simply book a means of transportation on the internet again, to know in advance when and where it would depart, that it would be on time and not wait for hours for other passengers, that it would be clean, and that I would have a seat for myself. Suddenly, you learn to appreciate so many things. It was also exciting to arrive at the same airport in Bali as about 50 days before and to notice how one behaves differently when you already know the country a little. So I didn't take an overpriced taxi anymore, but looked for public transportation. Pretty tired but successful, I arrived in Java in the evening.

Java is the main island of Indonesia with its economic and political center. This is my last island stop in Indonesia. Here, I wanted to climb the Ijen volcano with its blue flames and the active Bromo volcano, and finally spend a few days in Yogyakarta before continuing to Malaysia.

As I said, I was a little short on time, so I visited the Ijen volcano on my first day in Java. Since we had to leave at 00:00 for this, because the blue flames can only be seen at night, that meant only one hour of sleep for me. Then 1.5 hours of scooter ride, 1.5 hours of hiking to the crater rim, half an hour of descending into the crater, and finally: the blue flames! Once again: simply wonderful! And as a bonus, the incredibly stuffy gas-filled smoke, which forced us to wear gas masks. The local miners who extract sulfur here and carry it down from the volcano on foot, heavily laden, do not have such masks. Hmm... After the blue flame spectacle, we climbed back up to the crater rim and enjoyed the great sunrise.

Right after that, I continued by train, yes, really by train, to the next volcano: the active, bubbling, and smoking Bromo. Unfortunately, it was a bit too active at the time, so access to the interior of the crater was closed. Nevertheless, the next morning, I experienced another spectacular sunrise with a view of the smoking volcano.

After this marathon of jungle, long journeys, and sunrises, I was glad to spend my last days in Indonesia relaxing in Yogyakarta. Here, I visited the two great temples, Borobudur and Prambanan, the Water Castle of the Sultan, and went on a tubing tour through a cave.