Sulawesi Trip--Days 5 and 6--to Tando Bone and back again
Thursday, March 10
4th cycle day 64 km
Poso - Tentena - Tando Bone
The first 15 km out of town are flat
Then follows a 50 km scenic ascent which brings us to the pretty little lakeside town of Tentena where we’ll take canoes across the lake to Tando Bone
Lake swimming and Yoga
Accommodation in stilted wooden cottages right on the beach
Friday, March 11
Morning Yoga followed by rest ‘n’ relaxation at Tando Bone
Late afternoon we’ll take canoes back to Tentena (so that we can get away early next morning)
Accommodation in foreign travellers’ family guest house
Thursday was a day of serious climbing. About 20k out of Poso we crossed a big river, where some people had a swim in their cycle knicks (I didn't fancy riding with a damp squishy sponge in my shorts, so I just stuck my feet in). The locals were highly entertained by our swimming. We talked to a few of them and found out that there was a wedding going on down the road. When we asked one kid why he wasn't in school, he said he was taking the day off so he could eat beef at the wedding!
While I was chatting with these guys, with Colin interpreting, Colin told me I should tell them that they were very handsome-which they were, so I did. And they all blushed, which was hilarious.
Then we got back on our bikes and started climbing. Luckily a lot of the road was shaded, we were climbing right into jungle. There were a lot of bananas growing, as well as cacao and rice and corn. People were drying cacao beans alongside the road; the chickens would wander around and peck at them as they dried.
At one stop 'Pa Acok bought several enormous papayas and cut them up. We sat at the warung and chatted with the papaya-growing family and ate the papaya. These were far larger than the papayas you get in California-more on the order of watermelons, really-and weren't terribly sweet. As we climbed and climbed I actually did have to use my lowest gear, and I taught myself to count to eleven in Indonesian to keep my mind of the hills. Colin had been trying to teach us all by giving us numbers and having us count off every time we started riding, but I had only learned my own number ("unam," six). So I counted backwards and forwards up every hill. Then Charlie and I started quizzing each other on numbers and other terms: "OK, eight!" --dilapan! "Good evening?" --Selamat malam! Robyn actually knew a lot of Bahasa Indonesia so she was helping us with stuff like "I'm sorry" (ma'af). Anyway, somehow we all made it up to Tentena where we had lunch in a fish restaurant over the lake (the one with the scary toilet). And then we left the drivers behind and got into some motor-driven canoes with wooden outriggers stabilizing them, and we rode down the lake to Tando Boné.
Tando Boné, probably my favorite spot on this trip, is a resort on Lake Poso consisting of eight beachside cottages.
It's owned and run by a Dutch woman named Anneliese. The cottages have photovoltaic panels for electricity, and shower water is passively heated by means of 50-gallon plastic barrels painted black. Unlike the other beach cottages we stayed in, these were very well designed, sturdily built, and functional. Anneliese is married to a Torajan man, and they have two kids. There are also four or five staff members, a cook, and innumerable chickens. The place is not accessible by road-a lot of jungle and rice paddies lie between it and the nearest road-so you have to get there by canoe.
In addition to having a gorgeous resort, Anneliese also runs an NGO for children in the area. It focuses on education and medical resources, but lately she has been working with specific children with problems like cleft palates. She raises funds to help them get to Jakarta or wherever they need to go for reconstruction operations. The Other Paul, being a retired orthodontist, took a keen interest in this, as he had worked with children with similar problems in Australia
Lake Poso is one of the clearest lakes in the world (or was ten years ago, but see my comments above about sanitation…). It is sandy-bottomed and unearthly clear, and very large, maybe the size of Lake Winnebago. It's the perfect temperature for swimming (OK, maybe a bit warm by Michigan standards!) and best of all, has no sharks! Our stay was very uneventful, so I don't have much to say about it other than it was gorgeous and the food was wonderful and we all loved it. We spent a night and a day there relaxing before getting in the canoes and heading back to Tentena for the night of March 11.
We had just gotten settled in our rooms at the hotel in Tentena when I heard Charlie shouting for me to come to the TV. I ran in smiling, thinking that there was probably something funny about Japan or Tokyo, but then I saw everyone gathered around the screen looking grim. And I saw the footage that we've all seen a hundred times now, of that terrible wave crawling across the landscape and scouring away everything in its path. The news was all in Bahasa Indonesia so I couldn't understand much, other than that an earthquake had hit Sendai and rocked Tokyo, and a tsunami had wiped out a swathe of coastline around Minamisanriku. All I could do was sit on my knees in front of the TV and try to understand, and listen to the Japanese and English under the Indonesian translations. Finally I couldn't watch anymore and went back to the room. Sylvia let me use her iPhone to try and call Manolo, but of course the lines were all jammed up and calls couldn't go through. I just had to put it out of my mind, since I was way too far away to do anything about anything. Feeling that helpless really sucks.
To make matters worse, Colin had a fever, so he asked me to teach the yoga for the day. I've never really taught yoga, and I found it difficult. How do you talk and practice at the same time? What do you say to help people activate the right muscles? Charlie-also a longtime yoga practitioner-helped a lot, and everyone else was encouraging, but I kept it very basic. Anyway it helped me to relax-but I didn't get much sleep that night.
4th cycle day 64 km
Poso - Tentena - Tando Bone
The first 15 km out of town are flat
Then follows a 50 km scenic ascent which brings us to the pretty little lakeside town of Tentena where we’ll take canoes across the lake to Tando Bone
Lake swimming and Yoga
Accommodation in stilted wooden cottages right on the beach
Friday, March 11
Morning Yoga followed by rest ‘n’ relaxation at Tando Bone
Late afternoon we’ll take canoes back to Tentena (so that we can get away early next morning)
Accommodation in foreign travellers’ family guest house
Thursday was a day of serious climbing. About 20k out of Poso we crossed a big river, where some people had a swim in their cycle knicks (I didn't fancy riding with a damp squishy sponge in my shorts, so I just stuck my feet in). The locals were highly entertained by our swimming. We talked to a few of them and found out that there was a wedding going on down the road. When we asked one kid why he wasn't in school, he said he was taking the day off so he could eat beef at the wedding!
While I was chatting with these guys, with Colin interpreting, Colin told me I should tell them that they were very handsome-which they were, so I did. And they all blushed, which was hilarious.
Then we got back on our bikes and started climbing. Luckily a lot of the road was shaded, we were climbing right into jungle. There were a lot of bananas growing, as well as cacao and rice and corn. People were drying cacao beans alongside the road; the chickens would wander around and peck at them as they dried.
At one stop 'Pa Acok bought several enormous papayas and cut them up. We sat at the warung and chatted with the papaya-growing family and ate the papaya. These were far larger than the papayas you get in California-more on the order of watermelons, really-and weren't terribly sweet. As we climbed and climbed I actually did have to use my lowest gear, and I taught myself to count to eleven in Indonesian to keep my mind of the hills. Colin had been trying to teach us all by giving us numbers and having us count off every time we started riding, but I had only learned my own number ("unam," six). So I counted backwards and forwards up every hill. Then Charlie and I started quizzing each other on numbers and other terms: "OK, eight!" --dilapan! "Good evening?" --Selamat malam! Robyn actually knew a lot of Bahasa Indonesia so she was helping us with stuff like "I'm sorry" (ma'af). Anyway, somehow we all made it up to Tentena where we had lunch in a fish restaurant over the lake (the one with the scary toilet). And then we left the drivers behind and got into some motor-driven canoes with wooden outriggers stabilizing them, and we rode down the lake to Tando Boné.
Tando Boné, probably my favorite spot on this trip, is a resort on Lake Poso consisting of eight beachside cottages.
It's owned and run by a Dutch woman named Anneliese. The cottages have photovoltaic panels for electricity, and shower water is passively heated by means of 50-gallon plastic barrels painted black. Unlike the other beach cottages we stayed in, these were very well designed, sturdily built, and functional. Anneliese is married to a Torajan man, and they have two kids. There are also four or five staff members, a cook, and innumerable chickens. The place is not accessible by road-a lot of jungle and rice paddies lie between it and the nearest road-so you have to get there by canoe.
In addition to having a gorgeous resort, Anneliese also runs an NGO for children in the area. It focuses on education and medical resources, but lately she has been working with specific children with problems like cleft palates. She raises funds to help them get to Jakarta or wherever they need to go for reconstruction operations. The Other Paul, being a retired orthodontist, took a keen interest in this, as he had worked with children with similar problems in Australia
Lake Poso is one of the clearest lakes in the world (or was ten years ago, but see my comments above about sanitation…). It is sandy-bottomed and unearthly clear, and very large, maybe the size of Lake Winnebago. It's the perfect temperature for swimming (OK, maybe a bit warm by Michigan standards!) and best of all, has no sharks! Our stay was very uneventful, so I don't have much to say about it other than it was gorgeous and the food was wonderful and we all loved it. We spent a night and a day there relaxing before getting in the canoes and heading back to Tentena for the night of March 11.
We had just gotten settled in our rooms at the hotel in Tentena when I heard Charlie shouting for me to come to the TV. I ran in smiling, thinking that there was probably something funny about Japan or Tokyo, but then I saw everyone gathered around the screen looking grim. And I saw the footage that we've all seen a hundred times now, of that terrible wave crawling across the landscape and scouring away everything in its path. The news was all in Bahasa Indonesia so I couldn't understand much, other than that an earthquake had hit Sendai and rocked Tokyo, and a tsunami had wiped out a swathe of coastline around Minamisanriku. All I could do was sit on my knees in front of the TV and try to understand, and listen to the Japanese and English under the Indonesian translations. Finally I couldn't watch anymore and went back to the room. Sylvia let me use her iPhone to try and call Manolo, but of course the lines were all jammed up and calls couldn't go through. I just had to put it out of my mind, since I was way too far away to do anything about anything. Feeling that helpless really sucks.
To make matters worse, Colin had a fever, so he asked me to teach the yoga for the day. I've never really taught yoga, and I found it difficult. How do you talk and practice at the same time? What do you say to help people activate the right muscles? Charlie-also a longtime yoga practitioner-helped a lot, and everyone else was encouraging, but I kept it very basic. Anyway it helped me to relax-but I didn't get much sleep that night.