Batman

Tentana, Sulawesi island, Indonesia (map)

In this blog: a change of island, some slow journeys, scootering around a beautiful area, and eating bat.

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Before I start I want to make an acknowledgement - these blog posts are long! I realise many people can't keep up and have to dip in and out of them, but I like to write it how I see it, and give the full picture of the journey to show it's an experience rather than just a holiday, so thank you regular readers (5 to 25 people a day it says) for your patience, and for reading it full stop! They take ages to write so I hope you find them as well written rather than boring, and continue to enjoy them wherever you are.

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Sulawesi is possibly the craziest looking island you've ever seen - from above it looks something like an octopus run over by a truck (see map link above). But this craziness extends to activities on the ground as well; the food, people, rituals and chaos, and as you'll see over the next couple of weeks it's often a weird and wonderful place.

After two months on Borneo, we took a flight across the Malassar Strait to the Central Sulawesi city of Palu, arriving at nearly midnight after a nearly two hour delay with Lionair. I'd accidentally (honest guv') left my Swiss Army knife in my hand luggage, and had it confiscated by security when boarding in Balikpapan, so after reclaiming it at customs in Palu, we grabbed a taxi into town and at 1am after three attempts, finally managed to find a guesthouse that was open, even if it was a bit of a dive. 

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Palu

The graffiti was the only interesting thing about Palu

Rene and I only had a vague idea of where we wanted to go in Sulawesi, so the next morning after a couple of hours research and planning, we realised Palu had nothing to offer us and tried to get out of there as quick as possible. With no bus station and only share taxi services scattered around the suburbs it was easier said that done though especially as no-one spoke an ounce of English, and it took a lot of walking and asking around ('bis Tentana?') before we finally found a ride, even if it did leave four hours later. 

We took a stroll through town. It was hot but a more pleasant dry heat in contrast to Borneo, and the open sewers beside the road sometimes stank as we headed to the waterfront, which itself was no better with a the sandy beach covered in rubbish and lined by street stalls on one side and dirty seawater the other. This was no tourist town. We turned down a small road and found ourselves walking through a small karaoke street party, where people were very supposed to see us and waved away, and a lady grabbed Rene's nose. This happened to me as well a few weeks before and we learnt that our Caucasian noses are quite a novelty, being long and narrow compared to the short wide Indonesian nose! Eventually we found seemingly the only nice place in the city to relax and wait a couple of hours, before we were finally on our way.

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On the road

The share taxi almost predictably left nearly an hour late - a people carrier 'kevved up' with a big exhaust, and for no particular reason except coolness or maybe because they considered it 'too safe' - they'd removed the airbag, headrests and seatbelts. Perfect! The scenery was noticeably different to Borneo, and a bit of reading soon told me that whilst Borneo was once part of the Asian continent, Sulawesi has been proven to have formed from landmass from both Asia and Australia and thus had some of the flora and fauna of both. No kangaroos though! A few cultural differences were also noticeable, such as the sight of herds of three or four cows grazing on the roadsides and feral dogs roaming as they please, often looking a bit mangy. We climbed windy mountain roads through rainforest clad hills, past small roadside produce stalls, before descending to the plains. The driver decided to take an hour and a half dinner break to chat to his friends, and we impatiently sat waiting whilst curious local kids spoke phrases of English, took our pictures and gathered to look in curious amazement as I, ahem, read a book. Eight hours later we finally reached the town of Tentena and arriving late at night for the second day in a row, had to do a lot of doorbell ringing before we found a bed.

Tentena is a smallish town set beside the largest lake on Sulawesi, and with a bit of altitude and a nice breeze is pleasant with it. It's hard to call it a beautiful place as few towns we've seen in Indonesia are, but it's certainly got some character with mountains all around, picket fences in front of houses, and many green areas. There are also more Christian churches than one community can possibly need - I've never seen so many in one town, though this strong belief caused all manner of conflict with other Muslim-dominated neighbouring regions just a few years ago and many people died in clashes.

Kooky Canadians

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Scooter scouting

There wasn't much to see in walking distance, so Rene and I hired a scooter for a couple of days to get out and about. A few miles in, the vague hand-drawn map the guesthouse had given us was a little ambiguous and we took a wrong turn, heading up windy roads into the mountains. We kindof knew it, but kept going anyway to see what we saw. Both sides of the road were covered by often dense jungle, but often interrupted by clearings locals had made either just for the wood or to plant cocoa trees; the dominant crop of the area. Road building was in progress and we passed some women breaking up rocks beside the road with hammers into gravel sized pieces, and men building walls. We eventually found ourselves in a quarry and turned backed back on the workers advice, stopping to look at the fantastic views below on the way, looking at primitive hut houses and small veg patches set back from the road, and taking in the sound of the wildlife amongst the trees. We may have been lost, but it wasn't a wasted journey.

Eventually we found the beach, which is slightly perplexing as you normally need waves to make sand - something noticeably absent on this lake, but the beach very nice anyway It was a great place for a dip - probably the warmest lake I've ever swum in, and we found what we thought was a deserted waterside cafe for lunch. Rene doesn't meet many Canadians on the road, let alone French-Canadians (since French is his first language, and English a close second) yet here in this deserted place we found three of them from Quebec eating a melon so he was a happy chappy. They were heaps of fun for the hour or so we chatted over lunch, them sometimes en Francais, and they told us a few stories from their travels before showing us really stupid funny videos they'd made of themselves along the way - dancing in streets or doing silly monologues. Québécois are renowned for their very unique and quirky sense of humour I learnt afterwards, and here was proof.

That night we went for tea with some Swiss girls who stayed at the hotel, and I ordered a fresh orange juice. To my surprise there were quite a few ants in the glass either desperately swimming around or dead so I politely complained to the owner. To our surprise and amusement, she walked off and came back with not a replacement but a spoon, and carefully fished them out before grinning and walking off. Still tasted good! An even more pleasant surprise was Skyping my Grandpa that night - at 89 years old, he went out and bought his first computer recently, learnt how to use it through books and advice, and now here we were having a face to face chat. You're never too old to learn.

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Waterfalls and caves

On our second attempt at finding it the next day, we visited Terjun Salopa waterfalls, hidden ten miles from town along a rough lane. I'd see a photo before and it looked good, but nothing prepared me for the spectacular sight of it when we rounded the corner. It was a huge multi tiered affair with water cascading in consistent motion all the way across, indeed it was all so perfect it looked artificial, and with no moss on the rocks, we were also able to paddle amongst it. A beautiful spot to spend a couple of hours. The cafe back by the road advertised 'pyton soup', which we wondered whether was an Indonesian word or a misspelling. We asked the woman who pointed to a photo on the wall of a huge snake, before saying 'sorry, no python today'. Crickey!

Me ruining a photo of a nice waterfall

The stunning Terjun Salopa waterfalls

The scooter was a great way to get a feel of the area independently, as it can feel quite constraining sometimes just relying on public transport or the soles of your feet. We continued on and explored the town, visited a viewpoint with a fantastic panorama over the town and many nearby paddy fields, and finished up the day at a cave. It was dusk, and after walking a few hundred metres down a path through cocoa trees we got something we definitely didn't expect. Seeing the cliffs, I walked up some steps to a huge limestone overhang, to find not a cave you can enter and explore, but instead a shallow cave with piles of broken old coffins and a number of skulls lined up on rocky ledges. Actual human skulls. We were quite taken aback, but were aware burials around here are a little unconventional - as you'll hear in the next blog in no uncertain terms!

Bat 

The finish to our time in Tentena was a memorable one. That morning we'd popped into the local market for a look, and came across a huge section of freshly butchered bat meat. Yes, bat! 

It was a startling sight, but little did we know that that evening in a local warung (small cafe) we'd have the opportunity to eat it. It was a perverse temptation, I mean bats are scary things right, but the curiosity was too much and tentatively we went for it. There were just a couple of small bits of wing amongst it though otherwise you'd never know what you were eating, and the texture as ever was similar to chicken. But as far as taste was concerned, we guessed the burning sensation of huge amounts of chilli hid something just a little inedible without.

Breaking rocks by the road

Basic hut home up in the mountains

Rene and the beast

View over the local area

Rotovating rice paddies

Going home from work

Bat carcases - scary eh?!

Cave Men

Mulu National Park, Malaysian Borneo (map)

In this blog: DIY rafting, the sight of three million bats, and the world's biggest cave passage

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It's funny how with nothing but a stretch of water and our imagination, four grown men can de-evolve into a bunch of teenagers.

This was in Mulu National Park, where still with Rene, Max and Tof I was experiencing the wonders of it's caves and jungle. Our hostel was close to a waist deep river, and after our intermediate caving session we went for a bathe to relax. The current was strong enough to take us downstream without being dangerous, and after a while Max came up with the idea of floating down to the park office, a quarter of a mile away. So we did. We soon found the water was too shallow really, and bashed ourselves constantly on submerged stones and logs, with a constant shrill of painful encounters echoing from all directions. 

Me, Tof, Rene and Max with 'the banana boat', in
front of the hostel, with Mt Mulu behind. Good times.

The water deepened and a couple of us clung onto some vines hanging down from a tree into the water, floating on the spot for a while. Tof spotted a huge piece of bamboo stuck in the river bank and yanked it out, and before we knew it to the tune of hysterical laughter, the 'banana boat' was born - a natural version of those inflatable things people ride behind speed boats at package holiday beach resorts. There was just enough boyancy in the bamboo that we were all able to claim a spot, straddling this piece of wood like you would on a greasy pole. For ten minutes of so we managed to float downstream, once again getting caught on the odd rock or tree before we reached the jetty, where we lifted it out and walking barefoot along the road, carried it back to the hostel much to the amusement of all the locals. We even stepped it up another gear the following day, cutting the bamboo into sections and lashing it together with some rope we found to form a raft. There was great anticipation when it launched, only to find it was barely capable of taking one of us. Oh well.

It was so much fun, so carefree and spontaneous, one of the benefits of being with a group and a great memory of this trip.

Deer Cave

Whilst Mulu National Park was all about adventure activities for us - our German/ Canadian/ Belgium/ British bunch of lads - it would be rude to visit without seeing it's main attraction - Deer Cave - the largest cave passage in the world.

Deer cave - the largest cave passage in the world

We wandered along wooden boardwalks through the thick jungle of the park, and after leaving the wooded area to see the rocky cave entrance my jaw dropped and seemed to stay dropped. It was truly awesome, the scale of what I saw beyond what my mind could comprehend, a bit like a natural Wembley Stadium inside except bigger and more impressive. We went inside along the nicely laid out paths, stopping for a bit of explanation along the way by the guide, who also showed us some fireflies. On the cave roof we could vaguely make out a large dark area which turned out to be large groups of bats huddled together, this explained the carpet of dry poo all around the cave floor, and the near overwhelming smell of ammonia in the air which was pretty unpleasant. A spot of a Tiger Balm around our nasal passages did the trick.

Neither words nor photos can do Deer Cave justice, it's one of those places when you just have to be there to be able to experience it.

Bat Exodus

A few hundred metres from the cave entrance was a viewing platform set up by the park where people congregate around 4.30pm every day. The reason? To watch the daily exodus of around three million bats leaving the cave to search for a spot of dinner.

We took our spot and waited patiently, before relatively small groups of bats started leaving. A Chinese-Australian girl held her shutter down constantly, taking hundreds if not thousands of shots to everyone's amusement. Gradually the groups started getting larger and more regular, until finally we saw one constant stream of bats exiting, looking like a stream of chimney smoke except morphing and moving in a wave-like pattern. Occasionally a separate group with leave the pack, spiralling off to one side in a circular motion like a spaceship. A mile or so from the cave, the stream dispersed into smaller packs, as the bats go off in different directions looking for fruit or insects, depending on what type of bat they are. 

It was an incredible sight that wowed everyone there for good reason, and only added to the experience of visiting Deer Cave. Quite some day at the office.

Bad exodus - we watched about 3 -4 million bats leave, on
their nightly hunt for food. An incredible sight.

Himalyan heights

Indrahar pass, Himalaya mountains, India

This is a slight different blog post to normal. A tale of a 4,342 meter high mountain, a very long hike and a night sleeping in a cave. It will be something I remember forever, for both good and bad reasons, but before anyone worries - I'm fine!

One of my plans for India before I left home was to do some hiking in the Himalayas, and I was advised recently that the town of Dharamsala is a great place to do so. On my first day here I set out immediately to find a guide to do a multi-day hike, but with winter coming and it being the end of the season, after visiting about ten or fifteen local travel agents I couldn't find a single group going. I was a bit disappointed but at the same time expected and accepted it. I thought I'd wait a day or two and see if anything cropped up but unfortunately it didn't. I knew however that there was a simple day hike to Triund - a smaller mountain which lots of people did, and I chatted to a guy in a restaurant one evening who filled me in on the details. No-one in town sold maps, most likely because it goes against the guiding services they make money from, but I felt that using the Google map and GPS on my phone, along with a bit of intuition would be enough given it was a popular route, and for the most part it was fine. And before you wonder, I have done the odd bit of hiking on moors and mountains before, so I'm not a total newbie to this sort of thing. 

I set out from McLeod Ganj (1750m); the small town I was staying in soon after sunrise on Thursday morning with everything I needed for a one-day hike - a good amount of food, drink and first aid etc, and headed on my way through the local villages. A couple of miles or so out of the village of Dharamcot, the route basic map and reality seemed to differ, so I asked locals for directions as I went. At a fork in the path it seems I went the wrong way, and the path slowly got narrower and more off camber. I kept going, thinking it would meet another route, but after scrabbling down a bank to a stream the path disappeared. I decided it was definitely the wrong way, so frustratingly turned back to the point I thought I may have gone wrong - half an hour wasted but no harm done, and I was back on track. I continued uphill, and after a couple of hours I reached a ridge, arriving at the grassy peak of Triund (2825m) and saw for the first time the spectacular view of the Dhauladhar range - a line of snow capped mountains. I grabbed a cup of Chai - milky Indian tea - from one of the makeshift cafés and had a break for half an hour, admiring the view.

Small Buddist shrine at Triund, part way up

As I'd made good time, I decided to go to the point on the mountain where the patches of snow began; known as the snow line, and the guy at the cafe told me it was a straightforward hour and a half hike, so I head onwards and upwards. About halfway along I overtook four Indian hikers and chatted briefly as I passed. The fourth guy turned out to be an experienced local guide who they hired, and I chatted with him whilst he waited, mentioning in conversation that I couldn't find a group to go with so was just out for the day. 'We're heading for the Indraha Pass' he said, 'and you're welcome to join us - we're sleeping in the cave tonight, and you can hire gear at the next stop if you want'. I'd read about the route and cave - the starting point for the final ascent of the pass, and it sounded like a great offer. But I told him I'd think about it and see him at the snow line, and walked on ahead.

The newly formed Team Indraha

When they arrived at the Snow Line Cafe, I asked more questions about the weather, their plans and gear, and decided it would be fine. Too good an opportunity to miss. I had another cup of chai, bought some extra food and hired some sleeping gear from the cafe, who provide such things for hikers. With a sleeping bag and roll mat tied on my rucksack, I set off with the four Indian guys towards the cave, along with hilariously, a stray dog who'd followed them since Triund a few miles back! The terrain slowly turned from grass and trees, to a more desolate landscape of rocks and scrub. We walked up what used to be a glacier, but now is now just a rocky bed - global warming caused it to melt a few years ago, but their pace was a lot slower than mine - the guide was very experienced, but this was the first hike for the other guys. After a couple of hours, at around 4.30pm we reached Lahesh Cave (3274m), a place where shepherds often sleep in the summer, and it hit me - I was staying in an actual cave, up a mountain! 

We all chatted outside for a bit - they all worked in the finance department of an American pharmaceuticals company so I learnt a bit about their lives. Then came a problem - the meths cooker they'd hired wouldn't light, and they'd not checked it. The guide tried to mend it but it couldn't be fixed, so instead him and I went out to gather stuff to light a fire. We were well above the treeline so there was no wood, and all we could find was bracken-like material. Remarkably, they managed to get a fire going with it for long enough to boil a couple of pans worth of 'Maggi' - India's version of supernoodles and we ate until full. Phew.

Fantastic view and sunset. We were so far up the horizon looked plain odd.

Tea time

Cave man. And dog.

Funnily enough there wasn't much in the way of entertainment, which was a strange sensation for me. I'm always surrounded by sometime to read, somewhere to go, something to do, but here - nothing. The guys had a pack of cards, but without much light they decided to just go to sleep. At 8pm! I got into the sleeping bag fully clothed, which wasn't enough for the zero degrees of the cave, but would have to do. The guys all slept in a line for warmth, and I was stuck on the end between them and the stray dog! She had followed us all the way, and decided to come and huddle up next to me for the night to keep warm! As far as a pillow goes, my rucksack folded in half had to make do. It was eleven hours between going to bed and waking up, and I reckon I slept for about three of those - it was pretty awful. I was cold, the guys snored, the mat and pillow were uncomfortable, and to top it off the dog barked twice in the night which startled everyone, for us to discover she was barking at a mouse that was running round the cave! Some experience.

Sunrise

At daybreak it was time to get on. With a big hike ahead of us, I was expecting the cooker to get going for a big breakfast, but the guys had no such plans, and I had to make do with a couple of handfuls of almonds and some bite-size chocolates. With a mountain stream nearby though, at least we had plenty of water. I walked with the guys for half an hour or so, but spent three-quarters of the time with the guide waiting for them to catch up - they were all extremely unfit. I wanted to get back to my hotel that night, and there was no way this would happen at this speed, so I asked the guide if the route to the top was straightforward - he said 'yes, just follow the painted arrows and piles of stones, and we'll follow on behind'. The path on the whole was well-constructed, well marked out, and whilst steep; pretty safe to walk on. At an altitude of over 4,000 meters though, I was well into the zone where the altitude has an effect - I had a slight headache, my pulse was very fast and my breathing heavy; having to stop every ten paces or so. Up to 4,500 meters though it isn't necessarily unsafe, just uncomfortable. 

Three hours after leaving the cave, the end was in sight and after walking the last five meters across soft snow, the most amazing view opened up, as I finally reached the ridge of Indrahar pass - 4,342 meters above sea level - just over half the height of Everest. In front of me lay an amazing panorama of the next range of even higher mountains, further into the Himalayas. I stopped in awe for half an hour taking it in, eating some snacks and snapping some pics. 

At Indraha Pass, 4,342 m

I couldn't stay forever, tempting as it was, so descended slowly and carefully, passing the Indians after an hour or so (I did ask but didn't remember their names!). They were going to be camping halfway down at Triund, whereas I wanted to get right to the bottom to my hotel, so we said goodbye and I pushed on back. About halfway down the tiredness started kicking in - going downhill requires concentration rather than pure fitness and is very hard on the knees, as well as toes which constantly bang against the inside of your shoes. I really couldn't wait to get back, yet was getting more and more tired. 

A few hours later I was finally down in the valley - it was heaven when I eventually got to the surfaced road, and even better when I saw the hotel and limped in, slumping straight on the bed. After over ten hours, and about fourteen miles of walking, seven hours of which were just descending the 2,600m altitude drop, I was finally back. I'd managed to squeeze into two days what the guided tours do in four and was really paying the price. Everything was aching terribly and I was extremely hungry, but I'd done it. The experience of a lifetime.

P.S. - in case you were wondering - yes I'm still keeping up with the blog, in fact I have four of them written and saved on my iPad ready to go, but like every simple task in India, just finding WiFi is an ordeal and it's taken days to do so!