Sulawesi: Tana Toraja and the Togean Islands

Arrive in Makassar

Sultan Hasanuddin Airport (UPG) to Makassar

• Repas du soir
• Nuit : Makassar
• Environ 45 min de route

Après-midi

If you land by early afternoon, walk with your guide through Fort Rotterdam, the Dutch fort rebuilt in the 17th century on the site of the Gowa sultanate's stronghold, then on to Paotere harbour, where wooden pinisi schooners still load cargo for the islands. The art of building them is on UNESCO's intangible heritage list. As the sun drops over the Makassar Strait, the seafront at Losari fills with food stalls.

Soir

In the evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week ahead and a welcome dinner: grilled fish, coto Makassar beef soup or konro ribs.

Compris

• Pick-up at Sultan Hasanuddin Airport (UPG)
• Fort Rotterdam and Paotere harbour with your guide, if you arrive by early afternoon
• Welcome briefing and dinner

Up to Tana Toraja and Kete Kesu

Makassar to Toraja Airport by air, then Rantepao and Kete Kesu

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Rantepao
• Environ 1 h de route

Après-midi

If the flight is not running on your date, we drive instead, via Pare-Pare and the coast, with stops and lunch on the way, and tell you before you travel. From the airport it is a short drive past Makale to Rantepao, our base for three nights. After lunch, your local Torajan guide joins us. In the late afternoon we drive the 4 km out to Kete Kesu, a village where a row of tongkonan, the ancestral houses with roofs that sweep up like boat hulls, faces a matching row of rice barns. Buffalo horns stacked on the posts show the funerals each family has held. Behind the village a path climbs past old wooden coffins and tau tau effigies set into the rock. Then we walk the 4 km back to Rantepao along the road through the rice fields, in the soft late light.

Compris

• Flight from Makassar to Toraja Airport (TRT)
• Lunch in Rantepao
• Kete Kesu with your local Torajan guide: the tongkonan, the rice barns and the hillside graves

Lemo, Londa and a funeral only if invited

Rantepao to Lemo and Londa, and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Rantepao
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

Torajans bury their dead in the rock, and this morning shows how. We start at Lemo after breakfast, when the light is still soft and the rows of tau tau, carved wooden figures of the dead, stand on their balconies dressed in real clothes, watching the rice fields below. Then to Londa, where a local guide with a gas lantern leads you into the cave graves: coffins stacked on ledges, skulls set on rocks, and more tau tau at the entrance.

Après-midi

We are back in Rantepao for lunch, and the afternoon is free. Funerals, called Rambu Solo, are held mostly in the drier months and can last several days. We never schedule or sell one. If a family invites the group through our guide, the funeral takes the place of the free afternoon; if the only invitation falls in the morning, we go to the funeral instead of Londa and visit Londa on day 4. Dress in dark, modest clothes and bring the customary gift of sugar or cigarettes. Buffalo and pigs are sacrificed, and you are free to stay back.

Compris

• Lemo cliff graves and tau tau effigies
• Londa cave graves with a lantern guide
• Lunch in Rantepao
• A funeral ceremony, only if a family invites the group, in place of the free afternoon or of Londa

The Batutumonga rice terraces

Rantepao to Batutumonga, then down to Lo'ko' Mata and Bori Kalimbuang

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Rantepao
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

From here the Rantepao valley opens out below, and on a clear morning you can see across the whole of it. Then we walk down: about 6 to 8 km on village paths and rice-field dikes, past tongkonan, bamboo groves and terraces stepped down the hillside, stopping at Lo'ko' Mata, a huge boulder cut with family graves.

Après-midi

Lunch is at a terrace-side restaurant in Batutumonga. On the way back to Rantepao we stop at Bori Kalimbuang, a rante, or ceremonial field, of standing stones raised over generations for funerals of high rank. The whole loop is about 50 km of driving, there and back. Back in Rantepao, if it is the day of the six-day market cycle, your guide takes you to Bolu's buffalo market.

Compris

• Batutumonga viewpoint on Mount Sesean
• Guided walk down through the rice terraces
• Lo'ko' Mata boulder graves
• Lunch at Batutumonga
• Bori Kalimbuang standing stones

The long road to Lake Poso

Rantepao to Palopo, Wotu and Pendolo, then Tentena

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Tentena
• Environ 11 h de route

Matin

There is no flight or ferry between Toraja and Lake Poso, and it is the only road north to the Togeans, so we leave after a 7 am breakfast and break the day three times. The road drops out of the highlands to the coast at Palopo, about two and a half hours, for coffee and a stretch.

Après-midi

Then north past clove and cocoa farms to Wotu for a sit-down lunch. In the afternoon we cross into Central Sulawesi and climb to Pendolo on the south shore of Lake Poso, for a walk on the shore. The last stretch follows the lake to Tentena, where the Poso River leaves its north end.

Soir

Dinner is together at the hotel, as Tentena has few restaurants.

Compris

• Drive from Rantepao to Tentena with your guide
• Coffee stop in Palopo
• Sit-down lunch in Wotu
• Stop on Lake Poso at Pendolo
• Dinner in Tentena

Tentena at dawn, then out to the Togeans

Tentena to Poso and Ampana, then by boat to the Togean Islands

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Togean Islands
• Environ 5.5 h de route

Après-midi

We stop in Poso and have lunch in Ampana. From the harbour a chartered boat for our group takes about two hours to reach the lodge in the Togean Islands, a national park of forested islands, reefs and mangroves. There is no public ferry to wait for.

Soir

You arrive in the late afternoon, with time for a swim before dinner at the lodge, where all meals are included.

Compris

• Dawn on the Tentena bridge over the Poso River
• Drive from Tentena to Ampana with your guide
• Lunch in Ampana
• Chartered boat from Ampana to the Togean lodge
• Dinner at the lodge

Reefs and the jellyfish lake

Togean Islands by boat

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Togean Islands
• En bateau

Matin

We set out by boat in the morning, when the sea is calmest and the light is clear through the water, and snorkel at two or three reefs chosen by the boat crew for the day's conditions: hard and soft corals, giant clams and reef fish in the shallows, with drop-offs where the reef falls into deep blue. Snorkel gear is provided, and you can stay on the boat at any stop.

Après-midi

Lunch is on a beach or back at the lodge. In the afternoon the boat takes us to Lake Mariona, on the small island of Katupat off Togean Island: a marine lake cut off from the sea, reached by a short path, where you can swim among stingless jellyfish. Their numbers vary, and we check with the boat crew before going.

Soir

The late afternoon is free: a hammock, a kayak, or the jetty at sunset. Certified divers can arrange a dive with a dive centre on the islands, including the wreck of an American B-24 bomber from the Second World War.

Compris

• Snorkelling boat trip to two or three reefs, with gear
• Lake Mariona on Katupat and its stingless jellyfish
• All meals at the lodge or on the boat

Activités en option

• Scuba diving with a local dive centre, including the B-24 wreck (certified divers, paid locally)

The Bajau of Pulau Papan

Togean Islands to Malenge and Pulau Papan, and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Togean Islands
• En bateau

Matin

We leave after breakfast: from lodges near Kadidiri and Wakai, where most Togean lodges are, the boat ride east to Malenge takes about one and a half hours each way, and we confirm the time when the lodge is chosen. A snorkel stop breaks the ride out. At Malenge a wooden footbridge, reported at between 1 and 1.8 km, runs across the shallows to Pulau Papan, a village built on a small rocky island and over the water around it. Storms have taken planks out in places, so if it is broken we land at the village by boat instead. With your guide and a local host, walk the boardwalks between houses, see fish drying on racks, and stop for coffee with a family. Please ask before taking photos.

Après-midi

Lunch is in Malenge, and we are back at the lodge by mid-afternoon.

Compris

• Boat to Malenge and Pulau Papan, with a snorkel stop
• Pulau Papan Bajau village and its footbridge with a local host
• Lunch in Malenge and dinner at the lodge

Across the Gulf of Tomini to Gorontalo

Togean Islands to Gorontalo by boat

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Gorontalo
• En bateau

Matin

After breakfast a chartered boat carries the group north across the Gulf of Tomini to Gorontalo, about four to five hours depending on the sea. The public ferry from Wakai to Gorontalo sails only on certain days of the week, so a charter keeps the group on its own schedule; we confirm the ferry timetable as the fallback when we book. We leave in the morning, when the gulf is usually calmest, with water, snacks and shade on board.

Soir

If the crew judges the sea too rough, we go back to Ampana by boat and continue by road, and tell you the plan the evening before. Lunch is in Gorontalo on arrival, then the afternoon is free at the hotel, with a shower and full power for the first time in three days. Gorontalo is a quiet provincial city, and its Benteng Otanaha, a hilltop fort above Lake Limboto, is a short drive if you want a last view. In the evening we gather for a farewell dinner.

Compris

• Chartered boat from the Togean Islands to Gorontalo
• Lunch in Gorontalo
• Farewell dinner

Activités en option

• Benteng Otanaha fort above Lake Limboto

Fly home from Gorontalo

Gorontalo to Djalaluddin Airport (GTO)

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 45 min de route

Matin

A slow last morning after breakfast. There is time for a walk to the market or a coffee near the hotel, and your guide checks your flight before saying goodbye. Your guide and driver then take you to Djalaluddin Airport (GTO), about 30 km and 45 minutes from the city, for your flight to Makassar or Jakarta and your connection home. If your international flight leaves from Makassar, Jakarta or Bali the same day, allow at least four hours between the domestic flight and the international one, as domestic schedules in Indonesia often change.

Soir

If you would rather not rush, we can book an extra night in Gorontalo, or in Makassar, Jakarta or Bali on the way home, and we send the flight options with your final itinerary.

Compris

• Drop-off at Djalaluddin Airport (GTO)