Tag Archives: car

Hati – hati (be careful)

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March 16th

Today we must return to Makassar, because we have booked flights to Jakarta the day after. The travel distance is a bit less than 400km and the estimated driving time (as advised by motel employees) is around 7 hours. So the plan is relatively simple. However Sulawesi still has some obstacles in store for us.

We had spent the night in Wisma Surya motel in Palopo. The Wisma Surya motel is of a low standard. Facilities are dirty and poorly maintained (for example some of the door locks do not work properly). Travelers also need to share their rooms with cockroaches. On the other hand, the rooms have air conditioning (probably one of the most important things here), the price is low and the staff is friendly.

Last evening we had a small car accident and one of the cars lost a wing mirror. During the morning preparations we fix the problem ourselves (we decide not to waste time in search for a car repair service). The lost mirror is replaced with two makeup mirrors, fixed side by side with some duct tape. As the result, each of the two mirrors has a bit different view angle. Anders finds this convenient and perhaps even better than the original design. We also discover that the same car has a flat tire. Rūdolfs is very quick to replace it with the spare wheel and we are ready to leave (the time is around 7am).

The traffic in populated areas of Sulawesi can get really heavy. When we leave the motel the streets are densely packed with small motorbikes (maybe people are rushing to the work or school). After only few minutes we experience another accident – one of our cars gently touches a motorbike next to it [or the other way round]. As a result the motorbike loses its balance and the riders fall down. We stop the car to see if anyone is injured and how to deal with the situation. One of the motorbike riders is a young girl who seems to be a bit shocked by the accident. She is offered a seat next to a small kiosk on the side of the road. Here we wait the police to arrive. The happening attracts some local people. Several policemen arrive one by one, but the situation is a bit confusing as the police don’t seem to have a specific and quick procedure to go through. There is a man in the crowd who speaks English and he is prepared to help us to communicate with the police. Finally someone takes the girl to a hospital (probably someone from the family) to check her physical condition. I believe, it would be fair to say that this situation is nobody’s fault. In this chaotic (by European standards) driving culture things like these are meant to happen time to time. However our group is not in the position to waste the time and we are prepared to take the responsibility by paying a small compensation to the girl. The girl is examined in the hospital and no injuries are found, but there is some minor damage to the motorbike. Finally we have to agree to pay 2million IDR (approx. 140 eur) to the girl to be allowed to continue our trip without the administrative procedures.

During the two hours while dealing with the situation, the other car has obtained a new wing mirror and we are all set to go. The route takes us South along the ocean coast, and later West to Parepare. In this way we avoid going through the mountain areas. It seems that the fruits sold on the side of the road are specific for different areas in Sulawesi. We decide to taste Srikaya – a fruit which looks like a large pine cone. We find it sweet and very tasty. We also try Salak, which we are not so keen on.

Shortly after Parepare we get on highway. Now, for more than an hour, we can drive faster than in any other place during the trip. But little do we know that soon we’ll be slowed down to our lowest speed. The traffic in Sulawesi can get very heavy (it can’t be said enough). We enter Makassar from north in late afternoon and this requires a lot of mental strength. The road gets more and more packed until it is almost entirely clogged with cars and motorbikes of different sizes. Here we spend about 2 hours to drive 2 km. Ilgonis, who is driving one of the cars, leaves the drivers seat and manages to find a place to relieve himself from the liquids accumulated in his body. The car line has not moved a single mm by the time he is back.

The traffic jam ends on the large road junction, where one of the roads leads to the airport. We still must pass two toll roads (8500 IDR and 3500 IDR) before we reach Miko Hotel in the northern part of Makassar. Miko hotel is the same place we spent the first two nights in Sulawesi. Here we have also agreed to return the rented cars. We have arrived to the hotel before 8pm (11 hours after we have left Palopo). We have a lot of leftover food – instant noodles, rice, tin cans with fish, corn and peas, bread, jam etc. We decide to have this food for dinner and the reception kindly provides us with some hot water. We have the cafeteria area all to ourselves and we spend our last evening in Sulawesi in a good mood.

The long and winding road back

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March 15th

Yesterday’s ship was boringly tedious. The six-hour journey reminded of Syrian refugee movement across the sea in boats to Europe, the difference maybe was the density of persons per square meter, which was much smaller than for the refugees. Therefore bearable. In Ampana the repaired car awaits us. We start the journey to Tentena. Night trip and at 1:00am we are already in the our known hotel Victoria. Again, the Internet and communication opportunities and cheap beer. Next happiness is the lux rooms with both a western style toilet, shower and an embroidered heart-shape at head of the bed.

For breakfast, the traditional pancake with bananas. And we are ready for the road. This time take a different road. First the Saluopa waterfall. To it through a beautiful tropical garden leads a walkway. Coffee bushes, durians, cocoa trees and something like pawpaw fruit. Next shaded trail runs along a creek, which is formed from the water of the waterfall. Then comes the stage of the waterfall itself where the water is forming beautiful patterns, creeks on the rock wall. And finally the last stage of the waterfall which has a pool at the the bottom, where a water column falls in. So there we are swimming and having a massage. It was refreshing and great.

At the entrance we buy durians. In the car they give off not too pleasant scent. After a while we become accustomed to it. However, we do not know how to eat these wonderfruit. Ilgonis gets in contact with the locals who cut one with a large knife and show what is edible there. Large stones and a little flesh. It is then for eating. Durian doesn’t delight us too much, so that durian pleasure goes to the locals.

We go through the local villages. In one village at every home there are Indian-hindu formations. Looks like this village represents Hindu supporters. On the other hand, Christians are already preparing for Easter. Preparing celebration space, bring palm tree branches for the celebration. In some villages there are crosses near the houses. Elsewhere the whole street is scattered with crosses. Again the narrow roads. It looks like the region is the rice granary. Rice in different stages of maturity. Planted in one place, in another already being harvested. The road runs along the Lake Poso. We stop at a place where there should be orchids. But nothing, they are not there. However, there is a lake and a naked bathing.

We continue the journey and whoops. A bar in front of the road. Roadworks. Need to stay bored for 3 hours. It is expected that only at 17:00 the road will open. The road builders do not want to work and, therefore, the road gets opened sooner. The mountain road turns into a flat coastal highway. It starts to rain. The gray car has a problem again. The oncoming car breaks the mirror of the gray one. What to do, how to live on? The car has an insurance. We are going to find the police to confirm the accident. The policeman doesn’t want to do anything, only a photo taken together with white people. The lease owner gets called, who says it is an ordinary case in these latitudes, and no report is required. We are looking for a hotel. The hotel was the worst of our entire trip. Settled for the night we are looking for where to eat. Some fish and beer. And have a good night.

Agnese’s notes:
The road on the west side of the lake Poso is good enough albeit narrow. The sights are definitely better on this side and since there were roadworks on the other side, it might be that this road is also faster.
As it turned out later, the car owner wasn’t saying that all is ok and that no report and even no mirror fixing is required, even though that is exactly what the policeman told us after calling the owner. Don’t trust them with the first time, ask to confirm again and again…
There were 3 rooms with air condition in the Wisma Surya guesthouse of Palopo town, but they were not very clean. However, it was possible to arrange normal food for the breakfast instead of bread with jam only.

The Ampana kingdom far far away

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March 14th

Morning for the sun and snorkelling weary vacationers begins unusually early. The first group gets up and eats breakfast 7:00. Then the captain by a boat on the calm sea carries them to the port in Wakai. The second group, which we are in as well, their breakfast of rice receives at 8:00 and are waiting for the captain with the boat to get to the port from which a speedboat would get us all to Ampana. Suddenly rises a great wind, the sea begins to billow, palm trees are shaking in the wind, flowery curtains in the chalets flap like flags. Our boat is severely delayed, finally we spot it swinging in the waves. For some reason the boat at a high speed passes our bay. It turns out the big waves make it impossible to drive up to the shore, so the boat is taken to a quiet bay behind the horn at the side of the village. The captain refuses to take us to the port in a storm, because waves can damage the boat. We begin to fidget, because we need to get in time for the speedboat that will take us to the Ampana to the cars. We are ready to offer the captain additional fee of 100,000 rupees, that is certain to inspire him for heroic deeds. We say goodbye to the hostess who was feeding us with delicious food all the four days. Also the captain rushes to say goodbye to his wife and for the safety on the sea brings a son-in-law. We ask Antonio the Catalan, who remains on the island, to pray for us so we arrive without issues. We are worrying all that we won’t make it in the time for the speedboat, going on the foaming sea. It seems that we cannot really get further away from our hospitable island. The engine puffs silently and slowly pulls us across the waves forward. Towards the harbour, the waves subside, and since the further ride is on a downwind, we realize that we will come in time – 10:00 precisely.

But when we arrive at the port we learn that the speedboat is delayed because of the storm. Boringness at the port building begins. We walk around the local shops, market. We are taking pictures of goats, rosters, dogs and the fish put up for sale. Ināra purchases a bright, flowery dress. Now she feels like the most beautiful girl in the village. Some storm survivors get some cold Bintang beer at a local hotel and for a moment feel a small surge of happiness. We buy cooked, warm eggs for lunch. We learn that because of the storm the speedboat will not come at all today. We are stuck in the islands. Some kind locals offer us to arrange a boat right here on the spot. Begins haggling for the fee. For a giant price (3.5 million rupees per boat) we are offered to be carried in two boats, one of which would be very slow. Then, after Agnese’s trip with the local official on a motorcycle there appears another better option – an offer to take us for a slightly lower price, and all by a single boat. Only this will happen much more slowly, like with a ferry. We understand that this is estimated as 4 hours. We take 6 other foreign tourists with us on the boat.

We leave at 13:05. As we will later need to conclude, we will be on the way more than 6 hours instead of the 4 hours. For a long time it even seems that the ship is more roaring in our ears, than moving forward. Landscape among the islands remains unchanged for hours. We don’t notice any waves in the sea, so it is not clear why the speedboat was afraid to come. We are lying criss-cross on the plank floor. An association arises with the Syrian refugees in boats crossing the Mediterranean. All the way we are tossing about, changing postures. Somewhere we get squeezed one way or another. We play a “board game” – “No, thanks” for a bit – as if there is no table it can not really be called a “table-top game”. While the engine is roaring we also try to waste time by a game – Silent Phone – in which one to another whisper in the ear the 8 titles of Latvian University museums which are well-known to Ilgonis. Only three museums remain and return to Ilgonis – the History, Oceanography and Literature, of which there actually only the first one exists. Still lying on our backs we wave our arms and legs for a bit, but after that continue to be located in a horizontal position, stunned by the the boat engine and stiff. A new association rises with the cartoon about Shrek, when Shrek with his beloved Fiona and the Donkey were sitting in the chariot and went to Princess Fiona’s parents to the kingdom far away. Donkey completely bored asked every minute – Have we arrived yet! – Shrek tired to answer him and shouted to donkey – Hold your tongue!- After keeping silent for a little, the Donkey found another entertainment. He blew up the mouth and time by time puffed loudly very close to Shrek’s ear. Also we like such donkeys were tossing and turning in the far way to Ampana and to ourselves quieter or louder asked – Have we arrived yet! – I guess someone also made the the annoying mouth-pops in between, just the engine of the boat was louder and no one heard.

Finally, already in complete darkness (around 19:30) we arrive in the shores of the far-away Ampana (60 km from Wakai) in the same spot where we left the cars. With a great pleasure we get back also our repaired car – the grey one. We fill the petrol, shop for groceries and go on to the winding road through Poso to for us already known hotel Victory in Tentena. At 1:00am we are kindly welcomed and given 4 in rooms for 3 people in each. Finally there is also a warm shower, as well as enough time to spend sleeping. From the top someone gives an indication that the breakfast will be at 7:30 tomorrow. When lying down it feels like we were still on the ship as everything is swinging a little all around. Someone whispers quietly in the bed – Have we arrived yet! –

Agnese’s notes:
The price of the speedboat Hercules was 150’000IDR per person but we got the money back when it turned out that it won’t come. Initially we chose the speedboat as the ferry is not going from Wakai to Ampana on Mondays and we could not wait till Tuesday.

Hier kommt die Sonne (Rammstein)

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March 9th

They say the sleep is better in a fresh air. This seems to be not the case this time. I wake up several times during the night. The history keeps silent on whether that’s the noise of the Molucca sea waves or the firm sleeping place which is not letting me sleep till the moment when the others are also waking up. It’s rather the firm sleeping place as I have foresightedly left the mattress at home…
Here one has to explain that we set up the base camp on the previous evening on the sea side – some under the mosquito net, some in the tent like me, some just in sleeping bag.
So I am looking through the net of the tent entrance and see that the Sun has risen quite above the horizon. Nothing has been missed and the camp is waking up bit by bit, our travellers’ group is gathering the sleeping accessories and preparing for the Big Event. Special glasses get distributed, cameras with light filters get set up and everyone reserves the nicest square meters of the beach for themselves.
Our activities are also observed by several Indonesians which arrived on the beach in the morning with their mopeds. They are, however, shyly sitting in the bush and our contact does not happen.

At 7:30 IT starts, first as a slight gap in the Sun’s puck that looks like someone would have bitten a round biscuit. Later it becomes similar to the protagonist of the classical computer game Pacman till around 8:44 we await a moment when for 3 minutes the Sun gets lost from the firmament. No, in fact it is not getting lost anywhere, just the puck of the Moon gets in the front of it with its broad back and in these latitudes, where we have come to not in the most easiest way, a strange twilight sets in for a moment. With the diminishing of the Sun’s light it gets noticeably colder. There were some clouds in the sky since the early morning which, when the eclipse was approaching, tried to cover the Sun, but they didn’t have courage to spoil the most important moment.
Meanwhile the first Indonesian group gets replaced by some other young generation Sun observers who have the special glasses as well in their inventory.
To describe the eclipse itself nothing suitable comes to the mind. It is indescribable by words.

When the brightness of the Sun comes back a photo of the united Latvia-Sweden eclipse observers’ group is made. The last joy in the water on this coast and we get ready for going back. After the Indonesian boys have shown us their tricks in the water, they climb palms and get us more than ten coconuts for which they get a small but fair fee. The coconut water turns out to be very refreshing.

At 10:30 we start driving with an aim to reach Ampana during this day – a place from where it is planned for us to go to Togean islands. Since it is a hot day, the crews crave for another swim. A half-suitable place gets found on the seaside and the heated bodies refresh in the warm sea.

We continue our trip for a bit more than an hour and then our bright and important day is, however, darkened by a “cloud” – we get a phone call from the crew of the third car with a message that their car has broken down and does not move. Since we are quite some stretch of the road in front of them, we return to evaluate the situation. All the signs are showing that the car has got left without a clutch which has not managed to withstand the stress of the several days in mountain serpentines. There are no tools and solutions initially, but we must do something. In the closest village using the “rich knowledge of Indonesian language” a durable rope gets bought and we pull the defective car to the Salodik village. The previously acquired new acquaintance Ipin gets called who promises to come and help.
Of course, this turn of events changes our plan considerably.

After a long discussion and involvement of several Indonesian “specialists” the solution is as follows – we trust the car to the locals together with a set sum of the many-zeroes money which would be necessary for its repair and also leaving in this car a big part of our belongings so everyone could move to the two other cars (luckily they are seven-seaters after all). In this way we would continue our road to Ampana, but the car after the repair would be delivered there by the locals and we would get it back after returning from the Togean islands. The risk, as a matter of course, rather great, but we don’t have any other acceptable options at 11pm.
Then the most complicated starts as after the already long day we still decide to go to Ampana where we arrive in the ferry terminal at 3:45am. The previously planned schedules have failed so we without pleasure choose to enjoy the not-so-comfortable hotel named “car” till the departure of the ferry.

Day of crazy traffic

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March 2nd

Our day started very good, rental cars arrived early, one was white, next was gray and the third was black, or – we got two Toyota Avanza’ s and one Daihatsu Xenia. Drivers with the experience of left side driving took their places and our journey had begun. First we visited the harbour with traditional wooden ships built by Bugis people. We were allowed to explore one of them from inside. The day was sunny and hot.

Our next job was to buy supplies for the trip at the supermarket. It took a long time. After filling gas we were ready to leave Makassar but there was an obstacle, a big traffic jam that lasted for an hour. What an incredible mess, small motorbikes sneaking in every gap! For all these reasons we left Makassar only in the afternoon. In the dusk we entered mountains and the rain started. During the day it was sunny and hot. Our team was split by traffic and we could not contact each other by mobile phones due to a bad network connection.

The road was full of surprises, there were pits, sand piles, wrongly parked cars, careless pedestrians, dogs. People’s activities are concentrated on roadside, seams that all Indonesian life happens here. So gradually we get accustomed to local specifics. But luckily we reached Sengkang without any scratch (many thanks to our drivers) and we spent a night in a luxury looking apartments. A dinner and cold beer after this long trip were right on time.

The day of millionaires

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March 1st

After 4am after journey of around 38 hours and half-slept night in the airplane we finally arrived at hotel Miko. We sort out the formalities for the hotel and around 5am can already go to bed. Just need to listen to the morning prayer and the dream can start. What a pity that less than 4 hours are left for this lovely activity.

At 9am we arrive for breakfast. Everyone is enthusiastic, just from time to time someone tries to fall asleep. The hotel is ok. For the breakfast we have tender rice and rice with spices, some fluffy, white, supposedly meat, also something like liver and a spicy soup. Everything is well. Some are complaining that they don’t have windows in their room, some others do have a window but it is looking to a chute. The eclipse t-shirts are distributed.

The day is dedicated to exploration of Makassar. But foremost the business. The sorting of car rental and currency exchange. The conversation with the hotel staff are long. Finally we get a minibus with driver and a guide. We had been thinking that the rental of the car will take the most time, but that’s not so. We finish that surprisingly fast.

Now the currency exchange. We walk in several banks and decide for the one where we started. The process takes time. We understand then that in this country nothing is happening quickly. The rate such that for 10’000 rupees one needs to pay 66 eurocents. And so – hurray, we become owners of several millions. We are millionaires, there are no problems.

Now to the city. We go to the port where there should be the old wooden ships. But it’s not so, they are not there or our guide did not know how to find them. Instead we find a fish restaurant. The entrance doesn’t look trustable but here they don’t care about the outside look yet. At the entrance there are several boxes with different fish, We choose the one which is called Dorada in Europe and another one, a bit fatter. The fish here cost 3.5 to 4.2 Eur for a fish. I imagine how much would it cost in Europe, uhh. And then they start to bring us all kinds of starters, spicy gherkins etc. Another bonus of the restaurant is that there is live music being performed here. The people are happy, take photos, also gladly sing themselves. Also our guys sang ” ja es būtu to zinājis, ka tik labi šai vietā…” [Latvian folk song]. The response was average, the Indonesians need to develop to understand us.

And then to the city sightseeing. We proceed to Hollanders’ fort [Fort Rotterdam]. Many local youths are hanging out here. Many want to take photos with us. We meet an interesting man who teaches English to the young sailors. He promises to show us the wooden ships. Then we walk to the sea coast. No effective sunset as there are clouds. However the clouds give a nice background. Just need to walk some 2km and we are back in the hotel. Just one more procedure left – the distribution of money. There are lots of banknotes, many jokes and a millionaire status for everyone. Can sleep peacefully. Only thoughts on how to keep that fortune are bothering.