Travel For Life

I define my three days trip in Toraja in February 2011 as my biggest adventure because I’ve got a lot of things to see, to learn and to write from the trip.

I started my trip at 9.03 in the morning after taking nine and a half hour in the bus. I and my friends went to see a unique funeral ceremony in Prokotedong, about ten kilometers from the city center. I met a family member who loved sharing information about the ceremony. We spent almost an hour talking about this. He said that Torajanese people are willing to spend hundreds million rupiahs for the ceremony, for their beloved parents. I tried to be a nice comer, I sat and talked with them and I was offered to have their beverage which is one of their warm characters as I am a local tourist. At that time, I believed that Torajanese people are the warmest people I have ever met.

On the second day, I went to two Torajanese cemeteries in Kete’kesu and Londa. Torajanese people do not bury a coffin; they put it on the cliff. The higher the place is, the higher the social status of the body on it. I was amazed by two coffins hanging on the ceiling of the cliff and one in the highest place that wondered me how they put it there. A man who was busy working on puppet representing the dead body explained to me. When I left Londa, I took six kilometers trekking to Kete’kesu. There I just knew what trekking meant. I was guided by some children. When I didn’t know the direction, I asked the locals. The funny thing is I asked to three people in three different places, but they said the same thing that it was two kilometers left to Kete’kesu.

My third and last day in Toraja became a climax of my trip. I did and learnt new things at the day. After having breakfast, I and my friends were headed to Batutumonga, an uphill village in Sesean Mountain. From there, I walked about three kilometers to Lokomata where I saw a big stone with some quadrangle holes for putting a coffin inside. It was another cemetery. I also saw how farmers did their activity in the paddy field and asked them when I wanted to know the direction to Pana. I did my first hitch-hiking to Pana and it was fun. In Pana, I got a chance trying Torajanese royal outfit and seeing the oldest stone grave and one of two baby graves on trees in Toraja. When I saw a woman who I believed as descendent of Proto-Malay people, I wanted to take a picture of her. Her family and her husband agreed but she covered herself when I tried picturing her. As a nice tourist, I canceled taking her picture.