2015 - SWAN HELLENIC MINERVA - PARE PARE, Indonesia

This was an incredibly long trip for me .. I do not usually do all day trips but this one looked interesting even if it was about 14 hours long

Here is the route .. . About 300 km round trip

We spent no time at all getting out of Pare Pare ( that is not a spelling mistake .. Pare Pare it is )

and into the countryside .. love to see Lily ponds

Lots of interesting buildings & the scenery is beautiful ..

We made a pee stop here and were treated to tea .. drinking it out on the terrace, the guide pointed out the hills opposite .. named 'female', No idea why.

Only a short break & back on the bus .. passing locals ..

This odd shaped structure below is a Tongkonan .. a traditional ancestral house of the Toraja people. Built on stilts & they have no nails.

Wikipedia tells you more

Here we are taking a walk to see traditional graves of nobles ..

Very elaborate .. very expensive ..

You can see they are cut into the hill-side ..

Kids everywhere we go like to see photos the tourists take of them

Now we approach the village .. & more Tongkonans .. traditional ancestral houses of the Toraja people. Very nice but I do not recall having a look inside one.

Regular people live here ..

That was a very pleasant spot to wander around for an hour & it must be time to eat ..

These girls, wearing traditional dress show us the way to our seats out by the pool..

The Bamboo band give us a tune ..

Notice how glum all the kids were .. not a smile among them

Bit of a storm coming & time to leave ..

Just in time to miss the downpour but some hardy souls got out to have a look at this .. The Baby Grave!

I stayed on the bus.

We headed back to the ship through the storm & night fell .. not fun to drive at night & it went on for hours .. far too long.

If any of this is of especial interest you should have a look at the Wikipedia for Toraja