'The Bali Kiss', in SULAWESI !!

Uchu, my Guide, picked me up on his motorbike at 9am this morning and we drove north into the countryside to see another ceremony, 'The receiving of guests'. This meant Pigs! The guests must bring pigs with them. Each pig brought was measured as the family hosting would be expected to return the favour when visiting their guest's ceremony, they must bring a pig of the same size and value.


The countryside here is magical. If it weren't so far away from what we know as 'life', I'd be quite tempted to stay and claim a piece of the beauty for myself. It was cloudy today adding to the atmosphere and mystery of the ceremony and it was trying to rain. The roads (roads?? more like tracks) were muddy from rain on previous days.Two minutes after this photo was taken, Uchu tried to get his motorcycle (a relic) up a muddy and rocky hill, the last, before we actually arrived. The motorcycle struggled and eventually Uchu lost balance so we went down, the bike fell onto its left side still pointing up the hill, I was on the back. My leg, my poor leg, got burnt not once but twice by the monstrous exhaust pipe. Two Bali kisses.

The Bali Kiss, the other burn is below and on the inside of the calf

(You dont have to hang around Kuta - Bali's infamous beach for the young backpackers / Australians - for long before you see a girl with a white bandage patch on her legs, the burn is referred to as a Bali Kiss.)
It was sheer agony. What was I thinking, his tires had practically no thread and it was an old bugger of a machine on its last legs. I was stunned into silence by the pain and didn't or rather couldn't react fast enough to stop what I was watching, Uchu's fingers coming at me. He had simply licked his fingers and wet my wounds. I could've shrieked (or slapped him) but I just stood there with my chin on the floor.

Traditional houses 'Tongkonan' in background, Offered pigs in foreground

Important Guests Arriving

I asked him if there was any Aloe Vera growing near by, he popped off to find what he called forest medicine and I headed to the first and only Bule (foreigner) in sight. The guy, an Englishman, didn't have anything in his rucksack and all my stuff was 1hr away down the muddy tracks back in Rantepao. Uchu came back with a liquid in a small plastic bag, he proceeded to put this on my wound, by this time I just needed something and I had to trust the 'magical' forest medicine.... We watched the ceremony and joined in with the family there for a little while

Man drinking Arak out of Bamboo

We were offered food Pig's Liver cooked in a Bamboo stalk, rice and Arak (rice wine) I ate rice and fed the pig liver to a 1 yr old kid who was hanging around seemingly hungry. We ate with our hands and the kid promptly fell alseep on my lap once it was full. After a quick stop there it was back to town. I wasn't too thrilled by the idea of getting back on his bike but this village was in the middle of no where and his bike was the only mode of transport available, every else had walked here.

I got back to town, cleaned my wound and smothered it in Biofine. Later that day I found a chemist and bought some gauze. I tell you buying medicine up here was a nightmare. I had to find more gauze, Id bought the entire stock (5 patches) from the two shops Id found and eventually I found 'The Drug Store' it didn't look any different to the other bric & brac shops I'd been to. The owner was a tall Chinese guy. He refused to sell me gauze and insisted that the only thing I needed and therefore was going to buy, was this Chinese version of Betadine with alcohol. I had two deep 2^nd degree burns on my leg and he wanted me to keep the wounds open so they would dry out. All well and good in theory but try that in Tana Toraja and at the end of each beautiful day you end up picking the dust, dirt and field out of your soon to be infected wound. The alcohol was immediately placed on my wound by his female assistant, at this point I did shriek and asked her to at least wash her hands but he said ‘no, no need, this is an antiseptic’ I nearly died then and again when the alcohol kicked in.

The next day my American friends and I rented a guide with a 4x4 and we spent the day exploring the south. It was glorious, the weather amazing and the scenery to match. Unfortunately I cannot show you the pics because I lost them in an internet café in Bali when the pc crashed. That added to the depression of being housebound in Bali due to my burns. I lost 5 gigabytes of really great shots (notes to myself:(cliff face graves with taut au balconies, Tau Tau shops), Suayant, Tampangallo, Sangalla, Ke’te Kesu (beautiful intact Alung village) and La’bo (making of the Alung)))

On Saturday we took the local Bemos to the weekly live market. This is where the locals buy and sell their beloved buffalo and a few pigs. Albino buffalo with a few black patches are considered to be la crème de la crème and they can fetch up to 70,000,000 Rupiah ($7,400)

The leg on market day

After that we took more bemos further north and went to the annual Kick Boxing event. It is bizarre, about 800 boys and men gather on a field and they pair up holding hands and then rush at each other, some fly through the air. They attack by kicking their opponents. There are a couple of rules which amidst the chaos were being adhered too. Sue and I walked amongst the crowd at the start and shot photos but that soon ended and we had to seek refuge as the crowd quickly and it seemed organically aged into adolescent men and then older. It was quite an experience.

On our last day I got lucky, I met Damien Roux, a rather dashing French Doctor. I cannot tell you how happy I was to meet him. The girls and I spent the day exploring the north of Tana Toraja. We came across a lady who invited us in to meet her 'sick' husband' She had a Tau Tau of him amongst in one room where family photos adorned the walls. Her Husband was in his coffin in the southern most room and the other room was her bedroom.

At the end of the day Damien met us as planned at Mambo's (headquarters, our restaurant) and he was very kind. First he fed me a rather large painkiller, then he encouraged a large Bintang (beer) and half an hour later he took me back to my hotel room to carefully clean my wound by taking the dead skin off with sterilized tweezers and washed hands. I tell you he, to this day, is the only medic I've come across who's washed his hands and I'm actually finishing this post off from Bali after having seen two other professional doctors who have clinics that are run to attract Bule clientele. (ie Bule expect cleanliness and sterilization)

I left Sulawesi on the 12th September the day before Ramadan started, it also happened to be the day my visa ran out but as far as I was concerned it was a happy escape from the travel chaos that ensues during the Ramadan period.. hungry men don't drive buses or taxis during the day and everything can become quite testing, quite frankly I was happy to miss out on that experience.

Its been 5 days since Ive been back in Bali, I was really happy to get back here and see my friends and my wounds are finally almost healed. I look forward to Sacha's imminent arrival and that of Natalie's - she actually flew back to Asia last Saturday and is in Malaysia, she may come to Bali and join me for Bunaken!!!!!!!!! :)))) Happy Days ahead and yes I really really hope for a surf soon..........................