I was prepared to take a ton of pictures as we headed to the small hill town of Malino, a popular getaway, known for its tropical flowers and lush tropical plants which thrive in the fresh air...
..., but the weather was a bit devilish with us. Lots of rain fell on the highlands, and although we managed to miss it, it left the area thick in fog, where you could not see anything past 20 yards.
Several beautiful mountains in this valley, but you wouldn't know it.
Add to the lack of views the numerous potholes filled with rain water, the torrentuous waterfalls washing out the very curvy road, and you have the perfect ingredients for a disappointing day.
And we drove two hours there and back. Oh yes, we have a car, without a driver.
We basically just rented this dude's car for 6 days, as there are no legit car rental places in the entirety of this huge island. He didn't even ask me for my driver's license. It's the way this place works. He delivered it at the hotel promptly, as promised, and he will pick it up from us at the airport when we leave. It's in pretty good shape and handles well.
Driving is indeed treacherous. Motorcycles come at you from every direction. They outnumber cars at least 20 to 1, and we saw children 11 or 12 years old driving them, everywhere. We've seen as many as two parents and three children (one a tot), riding on the same small motorcycle. You must be alert at all times, also because people here drive very aggressively. And I love it, I'm in my element. Diane, hmmm, a little less.
At least we had a nice sunset on the way back
Money issues. We did not bring with us an excessive amount of cash, figuring we will be hitting an ATM, as needed. But in Sulawesi, it's not that easy. Even in the big city, ATMs are mostly only available in the local language. When you find one that gives you English as an option, it rejects your card, because it's not local. Banks won't let you use your debit card to make a withdrawal, so we had to use our credit card for cash, which charge ridiculous rates of interest.
Many places won't even accept credit cards; we had to fill the car with gas in cash. Luckily, the price of gas is cheap here.
As days pass I am more cognizant of the fact that nearly zero percent of the population speaks English, or any other language for that matter. I say, the young go to school, don't they teach them a foreign language? Bank employees, are they not required to speak another language? I would say that I have traveled extensively, and never have encountered a place as monolingual as this. This said, I am not launching a complaint, it's their home and they speak their language, rightly so. I'm just making an observation. It's not stopping us from anything, it just makes things take a little longer to achieve, and it's often hilarious.
It took about 15 minutes to make these kids understand that we wanted 2 cups of tea. I used hand gestures as if I was sipping. I acted as if I was dunking a tea packet in the cup of water. Finally we resorted to Google to set us straight. Turns out that "two teas" sounds almost as if it were Italian. In Italy they say "Due te'", here it's "Dua te'". Had I known that I would have asked in Italian and we would have been all set. The three, especially the girls, continued to giggle about the exchange for a long time. We all had a good laugh.
So, very few meaningful photos today. We have not yet decided what to do tomorrow. Good Night.
Next day, new post...
Unexpectedly, another most pleasant day.
Not having any plans, we were expecting a very lazy day. It turned out anything but. The owner of our residence gave us three more places to visit in town, so we followed her advice.
The first stop was a currency exchange place where we cashed most of our dollars. We ended up with over 6 million rupiahs and can now relax a bit.
We then went over to one of several traditional markets. If you haven't seen the video I posted on fb, you may want to go back and check it out. You'll get a better idea of what I mean by friendly people. It was only a vegetable market, although a couple of stalls did sell salted dry fish. We had a ball with the vendors; a most endearing lot.
Stopped for lunch in a fish restaurant; the city specializes in seafood. Diane had grilled prawns and I had my usual Tom Yam, which I have come to adore.
We had intended to spend some time at a city beach, but rain got in the way. We went there just the same, and Diane enjoyed picking up shells from the black sand beach.
We saw this unique way to transport a child. About an hour later we saw the same man still walking.
Our third stop was at the fishing port, where locally built ships abounded. Sat in a coffee bar that had no coffee, but enjoyed two peach teas with the locals.
These kids loved us
Took a little rest until dinner time, when we decided to give a try to an Italian restaurant called La piccola Italy, which had very good reviews on the web and is only three blocks away. We were greeted by the entire staff who shouted, "Ciao Belli!" in perfect Italian. It was a good meal. Exiting the premises, a gentleman was about to enter and saluted us extending his hand. He was the owner, and yes, quite surprisingly he was an Italian expat who married a local woman and has been living here for several years. He was quite pleased to meet us and invited us back in to treat us to some complimentary Limoncello and Chocolate liqueur that he makes himself. We sat and chatted for more than an hour, both enjoying each other's company. Diane did not mind our speaking in Italian and enjoyed the visit as well. Not an incredibly exciting day, but much more pleasant than expected.
Tomorrow we'll be leaving Makassar, heading about ten hours north of here to a place that has a very unique claim to fame. Stay tuned and I look forward to telling you all about it. Later Gators.
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