Pemalas at Togean Islands...

Pia kiipes palmuun!

Lazy days. After a horrific ride with a local boat in a storm (yes, I was near thinking we'll die...) we got to a small island Poya Lisa near Bomba in Togean. Looked like a paradise and to be honest, if you are a beach&ocean -person, it for sure is! Just a few bungalows, a family owned business and some extremely nice locals bringing you out for snorkeling for free.

I had an own bungalow and 3 fish based fantastic meals a day and they only cost me 11 e a day. Basically nothing, I think I have to move there! The days included only laying in a hammock, listen to waves (or a finnish dude playing ukulele or Elly singing on the pier) and maybe some snorkeling in the clean turquoise sea. And some party in the evenings of course. I thought I'd stay only a few days, then go to Manado and make it still to Kalimantan or Java but why, I can always go there the next time I come to Asia. Which will be in September... So I stayed at Poya Lisa bungalow number 4 (MY bungalow) for a week. Not long enough. Next time it'll be a month. Or months.

I had met only a few finns before I came Bomba but we ended up taking over the place. We were 4! Meaning half of the guests. And all traveling alone, ending up in the same island in the middle of Sulawesi sea. Thank you Juuso, Markus and Taneli for the fantastic time! And of course the rest of the group, especially Oli and Viara.

Only shitty thing happening was that I lost my phone in the first evening. After the 3-hour boat ride in big waves & rain I just needed a beer. And another one. A bit of arak (palm wine) and of course the finnish company also influenced the fact that the evening turned into a night. I probably used the phone as a torch when coming back to my bungalow and haven't seen it since. Shit. I don't care about the phone, but the sim-card & all the numbers. And I can't get a new sim for quite a while. :( But what ever, I loved it there!

After the fantastic week in Poya Lisa I left the island with Elly to visit some more islands at Togean. We stayed one night in Wakai at his mom's house. No one else of the family speaked english and my bahasa indonesia is...well...really, really basic so no big conversations. But nice to stay in with a local family, which was also a brilliant one, especially the kids Ipa and Epan. Funny dudes!

From Wakai we went on to Una Una, a volcano islands about 3 hours away. Elly's cousins also joined us on their way back home and we stayed 3 nights at his uncles, Bakikis, house on the beach. Again, the family spoke hardly any english but hands and few words here and there worked just fine. And of course arak and tuak (jungle beer) makes speaking in languages easier...

I CATHED A FISH!!!

My plan was to climb the volcano but the weather didn't allow it and we had to turn back half way. But what ever, we went fishing instead. Great night, first a few hours fishing, and I actually also GOT fish, then grilling and eating them accompanied by some more arak and the best company, Amat, Obi and of course Elly. I miss the place and the people already sooo much. Only thing I don't miss was the fact that the toilet was the jungle. And being the only foreigner on the island of course everyone was staring all the time where ever I went to and also asked me every time mana, mana, di mana, dari mana??? Yea, what do you think where I'm going to???

Boys got fish too!

After Una Una it was time to get an own bungalow again at Sunset Beach near Wakai. Owned by indonesian-english couple. And take a guess, of course there were again finnish people, this time 2 couples. So we were 5 finns, one french lady and Elly. I still have to wonder how all the finns end up in that place, I met no swedes, no norwegians, no danes, only finns. On the first night Elly and I picked up a “few” liters of tuak from the local village and ended up finishing it all. Which made me quite sick on the 2nd day. But well, where's a hammock, there's a happy Pia.

On the 3rd day we went for a swim in a lake which is isolated from the sea and full of jellyfish. Which don't sting! So you can swim among them, touch them and just be mesmerized. I took loads of pics and of course my “waterproof” camera broke up at some point. Got the pics but the camera is dead. So now I've lost my phone, broke my 2nd camera and also lost my good sunglasses in Toraja. Oh well... As long as I have my passport & credit card I'm just fine. After the swim it was time to leave Togeans (snif :´((( ) and take a ferry to Gorontalo. More about that later...