Indonesia Chapter 1: Pelni, Sulawesi and the Togean Islands

Indonesia. I think it's love. From the endless 'mister-mister's to the epic boat rides, and from the overwhelming consumption of rice to the consistant inconsistencies. I miss it already. I started my jounrey in Kalimantan, crossing to Sulawesi, flying to the Moluccu Islands, crossing back to Sulawesi briefly before crossing over to Flores, then heading by boat and bus all the way west visiting Lombok, Bali (briefly) and Java. Sixty days just wasn't enough! I think it would be possible to spend over a year in Indonesia and still not have visited all the islands. In fact, I'm sure.. considering there are over 17,000!

So my journey in Indonesia commenced with a boat ride. Neigh, a ship journey. And not just any ship journey.. but that aboard the infamous Indonesian Pelni. Now readers, a Pelni is a very unique experience. Allow me to attempt to share with you. Firstly, I had no idea what I was getting myself in to when I boarded the ship in Tarakan in Kalimantan in an attempt to reach Panteloan in Sulawesi. Walking to the ship up the jetty I started to realise what people had meant by the Pelni being a 'big' ship. It looked large from afar but as I approached it's size completely dwarfed the thousands of locals boarding (who looked more like ants than people). I can only speculate to the amount of people on this ship; but imagine a 9 storey ocean liner cramed so full of people that they are forced to sleep on the numerous ship decks, the stairwells and anywhere else there was room, leaving only tip-toe space through the hallways. I would guess more than 2000. And there were only 3 'buleh' (Indonesian for caucasian persons); me and a young English couple. Needless to say, this isn't a typical tourist vessel. Upon boarding we were swifty escorted by a concerned security guard to his office and told, "Tarakan orang (people) are very dangerous. Criminals. But you safe here. Stay here and I keep you safe." Ok. What HAD I got myself into? Of course the three of us, on our stringent student-backpacker budget, had only 'Ekonomi' tickets which meant we all had a single hard wooden bench to sleep on in the lower deck of the ship, with no airflow, cramped among the supposed 'criminals,' crying babies and I'm also sure I heard a rooster crowing somewhere down there. We thought that it surely couldn't be that bad. We only had, what I naively thought, 8-10 hours till our destination.

 

Above deck, still smiling

After a few hours we gathered confidence to head to the upper deck and explore the ship. Thankfully, conditions everywhere else in the ship weren't nearly as bad as those down in the Ekonomi section. But, after discussing with many locals in psuedo-Indo (thank God I bought a dictionary in Tarakan before I boarded the ship) we recieved converging information about the ship arriving at 8 o'clock, the next evening! Wow, time-anticipation-fail. Up until this point the maximum amount of time that I had spent on any public transport was about 6 hours. Now, 6 hours is a complete piss in the park. Hell, 30 hours seems like a completely reasonable time to spend on a single public transport mode.

 
Dinner, I shit you not!

The journey was memorable. Rice and (insert some random mystery meat here) for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner. Once we recieved a deep fried, severed fish head atop our, somewhat dirty, bed of rice. That time it was straight to the kiosk to purchase the life-saving Indomie mie goreng. Chatting to all the locals, trying to work out what the hell they were saying. The Pelni certainly gave me an intensive course in converstaional Bahasa Indonesia. We recieved special treatment by not getting kicked out of all the places the locals would otherwise; the first class lounge and outside the bridge room. By the time we left the ship everyone knew we were there and were coming over to say hello and take our photos (I wonder how many random Facebook photos we're in?). And our security guard friend ensured that we were the first ones off the ship, even ahead of the first class passengers. We felt privilaged considering we'd payed less than just about anyone else to be on that ship.

You know when some things are so bad they're good? The Pelni is definitely one of these experiences. Thirty hours later we arrived at our destination.. somewhat dehydrated (purposefully for fear of having to use the toilets, imagine) and malnourished, but high in spirits none-the-less. Love or loathe the Pelni? I choose love.

High on the priority list for the three muskateers at this point was beach, sun and relaxing. However, for this to occur we would need to make the 11 hour car ride from Pantaloen to Ampana in order to reach the (somewhat pain-in-the-ass-to-get-to) Togean Islands. The taxi ride was torturous, to say the least; rallying across the coastline while our driver chain-smoked the entire journey (seriously). Arriving at Ampana at 6am and realising that there was actually no boat to the islands until the next day we crashed, hard, at a hotel in the meantime.

I thought I'd nearly cry, I'm sure like most others who complete the marathon journey, when I saw Kadidiri Island! Arriving (after an additional 8 hour boat ride) to the island we were greeted with crystal clear water, home to vibrant coloured coral and tropical fish, white sand beaches and perfect blue skies. Snorkelling in the bath-like temperature water, enjoying the sun set over the  water was definitely the perfect end to the first, and certainly not the last, multi-mode-transport adventure.

For anyone who has been to the Togean Islands, they will know what I mean when I say they are un-fricking-believable! As the lonely planet says, '[the Togean islands] are difficult to get to, and even more difficult to leave.' As such, everyone you meet out there is staying 'longer than expected.' Because of its remote location, the group of islands attracts a different crowd of people than you might find elsewhere in Indonesia such as Bali or the Gili Islands. Often you wont find people on 'holiday' looking for a party but rather long-term travellers or those who aren't afraid of a bit of an adventure.  At the end of the day everyone would commune at the long tables under the dining bungalo for food, bintangs and a de-brief on the days activities. The great group of people on the island and the home-style communal dining further make this my favorite group of islands in all of Indonesia.


Our secret lagoon
 Over the course of a week I canoed to a secret lagoon where we saw, what we found out later, possibly a baby whale who got stuck in there; made a 3 hour ride in a small outrigger to climb an active volcano on Una-Una, sleeping on the floor in some random families house; dived at a perfect B-24 bomber wreck of Pulau Kadidiri; snorkelled an amazing reef and explored white sand secluded beaches off Pulau Malenge; got a little bit silly with some arrak with the Bajo family whose losman we stayed at in Kadidiri; and slept in shack-like bungalos on the beach.

Sleeping under the stars
But all good things must come to an end. In order to leave the islands you must first determine when the boats are leaving. Finding information is somewhat impossible in Indonesia, people rarely know anything about public transport; it arrives when it gets there, it leaves when it's full and costs as much as you're willing to agree to. Approaching the end of Ramandan and the beginning of Idul Fitri this was only all too clear. For example: in previous days there had been no boats leaving the island but the day we all decided to leave, four mysterious boats departed the harbour. The 10-hour night boat to Gorantalo was overcrowded due to the massive amounts of people on the move to be with their families for the holiday. As a result, you slept wherever there was, or wasn't, room. My original choice of sleeping on a makeshift bed of a plank of wood balanced on two oil drums, under the stars, on the ship roof was foiled by the arrival of a massive storm and torrential rain. Getting off the roof of the ship could have ended badly as it was a case of scrambling along the edge, holding on to the rails and climbing down a ladder to the slippery deck below. Instead, I slept in the 1 metre wide, nearly dry, hallway of the main deck while people had to tip-toe around everyone else who was sprawled about blocking a clear path. It seemed as though this style of travel was becoming a regular occurance for wanting to get anywhere worth while in Indonesia.

Pulau Bunaken in the north of Sulawesi was next on the cards after the 20 hour journey out of the Togean Islands. Days on Bunaken are best spent in the water diving some of the best reefs in the world, relaxing in the hammock reading and enjoying life's simpler pleasures. Bunaken had a similar lifestyle to the Togeans, but because of their more accessible location, have more tourists and holiday makers. Having said this, it's still possible to find a quiet place away from the more 'resort-style' accomodation by opting for the losmens run by quirky local families.

After enjoying island life a little more and much deliberation on where to head next (the options were north, south or east) I booked my first plane ticket in Indonesia headed for Pulau Ambon in the Moluccu islands further east of Sulawesi with the intention of later heading to the Banda Islands.

Stay posted for Chapter 2: Moluccu, Toraja and the Pelni trilogy..