Tana Toraja (Mountain people and their culture).

On the island of Sulawesi you can find the Toraja people who believe they are among of the oldest people on earth. Where exactly they come from, they aren't really sure about, but they believe it is Indochina which is the old name used for Vietnam and Cambodia from the time when these to countries were one.
Their ancestors came by boat to this oldest island in Indonesia, sailed and carried the boats up the river and ended up in the highlands.
The houses are pointy and symbolize these old boats. They are also lined up facing north towards Cambodia.

Symbols from sagas and ancient history lies deep within the religion carrying the buffalo as the most important one. The Torajas keep their dead treated with balsam for up to several years until they have money enough to provide a proper funeral. The ceremony is a festive and happy day and symbolizes that the dead has gone through life at earth and is now ready for a life on another world. The Toraja people place the dead in coffins and carry them to up to the mountain grottos. They will make a wooden statue that is being placed in the mountain wall where the body is placed so that the ancestor that comes to collect the spirit will know where to look.

The scene is almost taken from an Indiana Jones movie. Death plays a major role and I found a mystic and very exciting culture. Runes and ancient Viking and Nordic signs and symbols are also to be found here.

If a child dies the body will be placed inside tree. This is done to give them back to nature so they can start all over again.

The landscape here is cold but with a very rich green forest.

Every Saturday a market takes place. Here you can buy everything from buffaloes to tobacco.

Tana Toraja is one of my favorite places to visit and I believe one of the most interesting places on earth.

BOROBUDUR
(CENTRAL JAVA)

Borobudur (One of the worlds seven wonders)

The world's largest Buddhist monument is situated about 43 km northwest of the city Yogyakarta on central Java. It was built sometime between 750-850 a.d. when the Sailendra dynasty had the power here.

About 100 years after the monument was finished the volcano Merapi had a big eruption that nearly covered all of Borobudur in ashes. At about the same time inhabitants started leaving central Java and the monument was almost hidden for about thousand years. This lead to the fact that Borobodur was neglected, that Buddhism was had to give way for Hinduism and numerous changes of power on Java.

Borobudur consists of nine terraces on a 118 x 118 meter base. The six lowest squared shaped and the three upper circle shaped. In the center of the upper most circle is a big stupa. Four stairs leads up to the top and if you start at the eastern stairs and follow all the terraces clockwise, the reliefs and sculptures tell you about the Buddhist universe and also life on Java around a thousand years ago. The whole trip is about 4.8 kilometers.

The view is great from this massive stone construction and you really don't need a guide.
Get up there right at sunrise to get the best pictures and avoid the tourist masses.

MAHAKAM RIVER
(EAST KALIMANTAN)

Kalimantan makes out two thirds of the island of Borneo. The rest is the eastern part of Malaysia with the regions Sabah og Sarawak along with the sultanatet Brunei Darussalam.

Most of Borneo consists of mountains, but Kalimantan has mostly lowlands covered in woods with mainly mangrove on the coastline. Most of the transportation of goods take place on the many, and very big, rivers in the region.
This island has a vast variety of both people and animals.

Arriving on the Pelni ferry from Sulawesi, I chose Balikpapan harbour as my first meeting with the island. I had been travelling for almost four days without any land in sight, sharing a first class cabin with a lawyer from this place and he helped me finding a good hotel for the first night.
After a shower and a good breakfast, I headed out to find where the to get the bus to Samarinda.

Samarinda greated me with sunshine and streets filled with mopeds.
I wanted to find a guide that could take me up the Sungai Mahakam River all the way to Long Bagun.
This trip would take about three days, over 523 km. up the river to central Borneo.
The first guide I met seemed to be a nice guy and could offer a trip that sounded great. However, his price was more than I was willing to pay and I headed in to town to try to find a cheaper guide.

Kl.15:15 a little fellow came over to me and asked if I needed a guide. He offered to guide me through Dayak region and then come back on a different route.
This sounded interesting and after agreeing on the price we headed of. A minibus took us to the boat and on the way I asked Budi, my guide whether he had brought a knife. He just looked at me and asked: "why?"
I got a bad feeling, was he the right man for the trip? He didn't seem very well prepared.

The boat was a 2 story solid timberboat and reminded me of one of the boats used in the series of Mark Twain: "Adventures Of Huckberry Finn."

It was getting late and I was sitting out on deck along with a boy holding the torch to light up the water. This was so the captain could steer away from all the logs in the water he told me. I was also told that the river was full of crocodiles and even freshwater dolphins. It would be difficult to spot any dolphins, however, since the river was quite large after the rainy season. Well, all I had to do was to keep on board since I wasn't to eager to become dinner for any crocs. I doubted that the captain would come looking for me if I fell in the water.

The following morning we where served breakfast which was oilfried bananas and a delicious coffee. Budi and I got of the boat in Melak. From there we caught a motorised canoe for another two days until we reached our destination, Long Bagun.
Up here the only inhabitants are the Dayak Indians and they are not used to white people. Many was very afraid and hid in their homes. When they saw my camera they most have thought that I was the devil himself. I asked Budi to persuade them to be photographed for some money but that was totally impossible. The landscape was amazing and the long houses of the Dayak's had beautiful woodcarvings.
The next day Budi came running and screaming in Indonesian. He had seen a snake… That's when I realized that Budi was no guide but a local an wanting to earn some extra money. This scared me a bit. I guide without a knife who is afraid of snakes might not be the ideal guide in the rainforests of Borneo.

Budi and I talked much with the people in the village and they showed us how they made their houses. I once more attempted to get a photo of some of the people and this time I managed to persuade a couple to let me take three pictures inside their house.
They told tales about hunting and medicine men that could wake up the dead.
They also gave me more practical information such as not to touch the dogs in fear of rabies.
We stayed for two days and then started on the return to Samarinda. We got in the same boat with the same boatguide as before.
The weather had been great all the time but know I could tell that the Gods weren't too happy. Thunder and lightning almost forced us to stop several times. We got a bit down the river but after three hours we had to stop at a strange place where a few medicine men lived.
The moment we lay the boat to the jetty the rain stopped. We walked up to the house, which reminded me of an old barn just darker. There was no stairs just logged that were cut into steps and that we had to climb. Inside it was pitch black. Budi was looking for someone that he knew here and a few minutes later we stumbled upon to little mad looking fellows. Budi jumped to the roof but soon recognized his friends, the local doctors.
One had a little spinning toy tide to a leather rope and had the greates time spinning this around the floor. He laughed like a kid and revealed two black teeth.
He had a marvellous necklace made of teeth of wild boar, perls and some black little figures. I asked to buy it but he rejected and said there was more to it than what met the eye. I didn't doubt it. They did however offer me some blowpipes but they wanted a fortune for them so I wasn't interested. I did however buy a necklace and manged to get a few wooden figures aswell.
It was time to leave and we took farewell with the men.

On our way down the river we encountered a pack of longnose apes in the threes and after towards dusk the river opened up in to a lake. It was time to look for a place to camp and prepare some food.
The following day was quite grey. The for came creeping upon us and after a while it was so thick we manged to get lost. After an hour and a half we finally got back on the right track again and even the weather got a bit better. After another hour we came to a little village. The village had a little shack that posed as a restaurant and we got some food and coffee. It was great to stretch the legs after hours in the boat.
Again I was the centre of attention but this time the people wanted to be taken picture of. In fact it was difficult to take a picture of anything else than the kids in front of me.
Budi and I went for a walk on the jetty and met a man and his family. He had a bird tide to a string, and every time the bird tried to fly the man dragged him dow to the grown again.
He wanted e to take a picture of this for some reason but I was rather shocked and just tried to forget about the whole thing. Finally Budi manged to calm me down and we went back to the boat while all the kids waved goodbye.
About an hour later I spotted the fantastic sight of about 350 eagles in the sky above us. We also saw countless Blue-eared kingfisher in front of the boat.
A while later we arrived in Tanjung Isuy. Here I met a hunter who invited me to go blowpipe hunting with him. We started out with three dogs but one ran of and we where left with two. We carried three meter long blowpipes and darts dipped in poison and other natural ingredients. The rainforest was tick and difficult to get through. We had to cross several deep rivers and I was about to give up a few times cause I really didn't want to get my camera wet. Just one fall and all of my pictures from the trip would be lost.
The hunting was difficult. I tried to get some birds, but I have no idea how close I was. The hunter got food enough at least.

When we returned to the village Budi had already arranged with transport to a larger town where we were to spend our last night. Dayak Indians drove us there on their mopeds. They carried long swords and didn't go anywhere without weapon after dark just in case they met snakes or other dangerous animals. I looked at their swords and laughed when I though about my chose of guide.
I slept like a rock that night and got up early the next morning for a ice-cold shower and one of java's brand of cigarettes.

A little while later Budi and I eat breakfast together for the last time. Vi laughed and talked about all the things we had encountered together on this trip. The time we got lost in the fog, and especially the medicine men.
After a few hours drive we were back I Samarinda again. I caught the first bus to Balikpapan and stayed at the same hotel as the first night I came to Kalimantan. I met the owners of the hotel, who were Chinese and had dinner with them. One of their servants drove me around the city that mainly consisted of oilindustry.

Det next day it was time to head back to Java and Surabaya again...