John's Travel Report In Sulawesi
Sulawesi 2008 – Trip Report
Introduction
I must thank my Indonesian friends for all of the time and effort that they put in to our project, the search for and document of Rhododendron Vireya in the
Things, unfortunately, went bad from the very beginning of this journey. The first leg of the flight from
I found that I was completely out of shape. I could not take the heat as I once did. I thought that I was going to collapse on the homeward legs of the first two mountains, as small as they were. Then the Indonesian department of Forestry set us up to climb the wrong third mountain, again the smaller of two or three mountains in the same neighborhood. And then as we were driving back to our home base in Palu,
Planning
We, Garratt Richardson, my partner and I had been planning the trip for several months. We planned, initially, to search for Rhododendron Vireya on Gunung (Mountain) Sojol, a 3,000 meter mountain north of the Central Sulawesi capitol city of
I had an excellent introduction to the staff of Universitas Tadulako, Palu,
Our original plan was to fly into Manado, take care of some personal business in Tomohon an upland city near Manado, take a leisurely drive from Manado to Palu, meet our Indonesian guides, liaison with our University contact, pick up our permits, and then to climb Gunung Sojol. If there was time after climbing G. Sojol we would climb one or more of the smaller mountains south of Palu.
Prior to our trip Christoporus Merung (Chito), our contact at the University, had made detailed plans for our trek including a complete list of supplies and an estimate of the number of porters needed to carry those supplies to the summit of G. Sojol. He also made contact with Rudy Massie and Carry Vanderkley of the Seventh day
I, however, thinking that it would be more interesting to explore one or more mountains that had not previously been visited by other Vireya collectors / aficionados, changed the itinerary just a week or so prior to our departure from the US. The change was from climbing one major mountain, G. Sojol to climbing three smaller mountains: these were G. Ambang, a 1,795 meter mountain near the city of Kotamobagu; Gunung Boliohutu, a 2,065 meter mountain northwest of the city of Gorontalo; and Gunung Dako, at 2,300 meters within sight of the city of Toli Toli and close to a major highway. As a result of this change, all of the planning that had been done over the preceding several months by my Indonesian friends was wasted.
We had received some good advice – concentrate all of your efforts in one district or province to avoid duplication of paperwork and effort. We ignored that advice to our detriment. Other good advice might be, make your plans and stick to them.
The Trip
The revised plan was to fly to
Things went bad from the start. Our flight from
In preparation for the trip, I had placed my hiking pack in a large green duffle bag and secured the duffle bag with a bright green strap. My wife asked me why the green strap and I answered so that I could identify the bag at the
Our first order of business was to obtain a guide to the region, the
Next we hired a driver and vehicle: we wanted a four wheel drive SUV but had to be satisfied with a two-wheel drive. The driver’s job was to take us first to the city of
Gunung (Mountain) Ambang
We had decided that our first attempt at mountain trekking was to be on Gunung Ambang a 1,795 meters high mountain near the city of Kotamobagu 195 Km. From Manado. We drove to Kotamobagu along the relatively new
Bongkudai Utara is a nice little Christian town at about 300 meters elevation. The town is comparatively cool due to its elevation. This allows the local farmers, like those around Tomohon, to grow cool weather crops such as cabbage, squash and onions, most of which are taken to
It is noted that almost all of the small towns along the way were either primarily Christian, as indicated by one or more churches and no Mosques or Moslem with a Mosque and no churches. It is also noted that many of the minor officials that we encountered during or travels in Sulawesi were from
Let me write briefly of permits and officials and the like. Every trek or climb especially in one of the major “reserves” requires a permit or so. To climb Ambang required only one, signed by the head of the town, the Sangadi (The title of similar village officials might be hukum tua or kepala or village chief). To climb G. Daco required several permits, first from the Dept. of Natural Resources, the Forestry Department and the Police in Palu and then from the Department of Natural Resources and the Forestry Department in Toli Toli and then finally from the Chief of the District where G. Daco is located. We were very fortunate in that we had some excellent help from our Indonesian friends in obtaining these permits.
G. Ambang is one of the very many inactive volcanoes in Minahasa. G. Ambang, while not seismically active, is still spouting sulfur-laden steam out of numerous fumaroles. It was amongst these fumaroles and volcanic rocks that we found our one and only Vireya.
The climb to the summit of our G. Ambang was uneventful. The first third was through well-tended farmland. Most of the remainder was through tall alang-alang (Imperata cylindrica I believe), a two-meter tall sharp edged grass, and a thorny low palm that I believe was a type of rattan. This made for rather unpleasant climbing: the edges of the tall grasses are sharp while the palm is covered with thorns leaving many small nicks and scratches on the trekker’s arms and hands.
It was among these fumaroles, basaltic rocks and soft white powdery soil at an elevation of 4,500 to 4,800 ft. that we, or rather Garratt, found numerous plants of the Vireya R. radians. These Vireya were in a saddle hemmed in by a knob covered with thick brush and grasses on one side, a steep drop on another and a steep climb up some loose basalt blocks on the third side. We climbed for a short distance up the basalt detritus and considered climbing higher to the top of the mountain that could be seen in the distance. After discussions with our guide, however, we decided that the lack of a trail, the loose rocks and the steep slope made climbing quite dangerous. We asked our guide if there were another trail or path to the top and he told us that we were at the top. There was obviously some miscommunication because we could see another summit, of either the mountain that we were on, or of another somewhat higher mountain. The guide insisted that we were on the summit, the highest point of the mountain. It must be assumed that the guide meant that we were on the highest point of land either accessible by trail or that he didn’t know of any trails to the higher summit.
This was our first misunderstanding.
Gunung Boliohutu
Our next attempt to find and to climb a Vireya bearing mountain took place with the help of a member of a mountain climbing club headquartered in the city of
Our plan was to climb G. Boliohutu, a mountain that I had found on my tourist map of
To approach G. Boliohutu we first drove west for about 40 kilometers along the
Our first order of business the next morning was to obtain porters. Most of the locals were not interested for various reasons. We did hire one porter, a young teenager. Another villager could only help us carry our gear to the next small village. We were assured that once there the village chief would help us obtain some additional porters. Freddy, Lio’s friend, agreed to act as a porter and both Lio and June agreed to carry their own gear.
After trekking about 8 kilometers across some open farm lands and three relatively shallow river crossings, we found the chief, Pakuni Raja, at his home. (The river was probably the
During the stay at the
We found, during our discussions that evening at the base camp, that there were three mountains directly ahead of us and that we were on our way to the top of the smallest of the three. We were nonplussed to find that we had been diverted from the tallest mountain the previous day when we ran into the damaged bridge. We were now told, or rather I understood, that we could hike around the mountain that we were on to get to the higher mountain, not the highest mountain, but a higher mountain, but that there were no trails connecting the two. It was, all in all, quite confusing.
We eventually reached the top of our, as yet unnamed, mountain around noontime and found the campsite that Lio had used on his previous exploration. It seems that Lio didn’t want to disappoint us so he took us to the top, as we had asked, even though it wasn’t the top that we wanted. After a very serious discussion we determined that there was really no way to go from where we were to where we wanted to go unless we wanted to hack our way through the forest.
We didn’t find any Vireya on Boliohutu but are there any there? We saw some flowers high in the trees but could not make a positive identification. Are there Vireyas on the real G. Boliohutu? In my somewhat less than expert opinion, there is a very good chance that there are and that there are most probably vireyas on a large number of the mountains of over 5,000 feet elevation all through Sulawesi. It will just take some serious preparatory work to find them.
Upon returning our base camp we decided that we would stay the night there rather than attempt to walk out to the Chief’s village or to the home-stay. We didn’t want to get caught either on the trail or in the forest at night. It was a good decision because I had a difficult time the next day just trekking down hill to the base of the mountain and then across the rolling farmland first to the Chief’s house and then to the home-stay: a long hot gradual downhill slope along a muddy trail with three shallow river crossing. By the time we arrived at the home-stay I was completely exhausted from the heat and the lack of water.
Our biggest problem during this trek was the availability of water. We carried with us as much water as possible. I started with a one liter commercial bottle of water. I soon ran out and discarded the empty bottle. It wasn’t a very intelligent thing to do because we needed every available container later in the day. Once we had made camp the porters backtracked down to the stream that we had been following to obtain water to drink and for cooking rice for our dinner. They made another trip the next morning for the same reason. During this first day’s trek I consumed much more water than I did a dozen years before during our assent of G. Rantemario. During that trek I consumed only one liter of water during our 15-kilometer approach to elevation 4,500 feet and another liter on our climb from there to the 11,000 ft. summit.
It might appear odd that we were near a river or a stream for much of this section of the trek but that we didn’t have, or rather, I didn’t have enough water: the river and the larger streams are used by the villagers for drinking, washing and defecating. The river was so polluted that we didn’t trust the efficacy of either our iodine or my chlorine pills to purify its water. So we relied on a small clear stream that was near our route up the mountainside and which I treated, nonetheless, heavily with iodine.
Oxen dragging illegal hardwoods out of the forest had damaged much of the trail along the river and up the mountainside. It is a problem somewhat similar to that observed eleven years earlier on G. Rantemario. The deforestation here though is on a much larger scale. On Rantemario the process involved first illegally girding and cutting the larger trees once they had died; then cutting the small trees and the brush; burning the remains and then planting coffee, cocoa, cloves or whatever. The major difference is that on Rantemario we didn’t hear any chainsaws: on G. Boliohutu the sound of chainsaws was pervasive. Piles of newly sawn scrap wood are being left to rot in the rush to get the prime, now square cut logs, out to market. The jungle on G. Boliohutu with its tall hardwood trees is rapidly disappearing. No subtlety here; it is just a rush to make a profit before the logger’s friends retire or are voted out of office.
A pair of hornbills were heard and then seen as they flew over our camp. The sound of their wings as they fly and then glide through the upper canopy of the remaining trees is reminiscent of the sound of the Laysan Albatross landing on
One of the wild animals that is approaching extinction is the mythical Babirusa, the long legged half deer, half pig resident of these jungles on the
The Babirusa are usually trapped by the Minahasan or the Sangihe people from the nearby islands who come into Gorontalonese villages and stay there for several months, set hundred of snares and trap Babirusa, selling the meat to dealers who come from Manado to buy it each week.
She is disliked because of the perceived and/or genuine economic loss to village heads from halting illegal trapping in the Nantu Reserve. Neither the local villagers or the village chief and certainly not the trappers understand that the animals are endangered, nor, I believe, do they care. The Babirusa has always been there and it has always been fair game so why not now.
So ended our second misunderstanding.
After the completion of our trek to G. Boliohutu we returned to Limboto and then to Gorontalo for the night. The next morning we sent June back to her studies and family in
After meeting, for the first time, our guides and our contact with the local university and arranging for a rental car and driver to take us to Toli Toli. Our contact was a gentleman who had done environmental surveys near to G. Sojol. Our guides, two young men, had never climbed either Sojol of Daco but who had religious contacts in the villages at the base of Sojol. They were more or less facilitators, rather than guides. They would obtain all of the necessary papers and permits, help us obtain transportation and serve as interpreters. They proved to be exceptional young men.
Our first order of business was to obtain the next level of permits, this time from the Departments of forestry and Natural Resources in Toli Toli. To obtain these permits we first had to have our permits faxed to these officials from Palu. We could have taken these papers with us if we had known that they were required, but in
Our next order of business was to purchase provisions for our trek up G. Daco. These provisions included a case of bottled water and enough food for a small army – our experience had taught us that we wouldn’t know how many would be making the trek until we actually started.
The next morning we drove from Toli Toli to a town just north of the city and within site of G. Daco. On arrival there and presentation of our papers to the district chief we found that even though we had permission to climb G. Daco, we were headed, under the direction of the Forestry Department and a Department of Forestry ranger, who we were required to take with us so that we wouldn’t become lost, to a much smaller mountain nearer to the town.
This caused no small amount of confusion. The guide foisted on us by Forestry didn’t know the way: we found that he had never been on G. Daco. The map that we had from Forestry was inaccurate. In other words we didn’t know the way and according to the District Chief we most probably couldn’t find the way without some local guides. Fortunately, the Chief knew some young men from a local mountain trekking group who he called for a conference at the home of the local village chief.
Four men showed up at the Chief’s house. They knew the way to the top, having climbed the mountain two years previously. They described the trail, telling us that it would take at least two days to get to the top but that we could make a good start if we would agree to being transported part way up the mountain to the end of a small road on motorcycles. They also said that they would need some additional provisions that they agreed to purchase for us. One of their number agreed to be our guide. It was decided at about 9:30 that morning that we would all meet again at 4:00 PM. The head guide would obtain eight motorcycles and drivers, purchase the extra provisions and meet us with our guide at 4:00 PM.
The hospitality of both the village and district chiefs was outstanding. We were given lunch, and both cold and hat drinks and were offered the use of a bedroom and bed while we were waiting.
By 4:00 PM all of the motorcycles and drivers had arrived in a cloud of gasoline exhaust fumes, the head guide showed up with the additional provisions, including batteries for the guides walkie – talkie. The forestry ranger had gone with one of the motorcycle drivers with my pack to the end of the road to arrange for a place for all of us to stay and for porters for the next day. In addition, three young men showed up with their hiking gear, asking if they could go along with us. The only one person who hadn’t shown up was our guide. I was more than a little apprehensive in that sunset on the equator is at 6:00PM.
A short time later we were informed that our guide, the one that was going to go on our trek with us, had changed his mind. I understand that the reason given was that his wife was upset because he had a job and that she didn’t believe that I was wise to take off for a couple of days with so little notice.
At that point Garratt and I decided to call it off and to head back to Palu with the idea that we still had time to try our luck around
So the next morning we started on our way to Palu; passing on hair pin curves; scattering chickens, old women, little children and goats; driving in and out of foot deep ruts; missing oncoming vehicles by inches while skirting hundred foot drops by a few more inches, the edge of the road crumbling under our outboard tires; the driving being take over by one of our crew when the driver started dozing at the wheel. We were only a couple of hours out of Palu when the inevitable occurred.
Sulawesi – The People
One of the mot enjoyable aspects of this trip to Sulawesi was the opportunity to talk to the local people, students, salesmen, betchak (pedicab) drivers, men and women selling produce at the local pasar (open air market), clerks at the hotel, at the clothing store and at the modern air-conditioned store in Palu where we purchased our daily ration of two liter bottles of Indonesian beer.
I was asked, “Where are you from.” as soon as I entered the pasar in Toli Toli. My response, “
The children walking by the hotel and those at the village chief’s house in Toli Toli were especially friendly. The girls from the Private Moslem school giggled and waved to me as I called out ‘selamat siang’ (good afternoon) or “Good afternoon.” The boys replying “selamat siang” or looking at me out of the corners of their eyes as they walked by. The children at the chiefs house crowding around as we, their elders discussed our trek into the nearby mountains and following me as I counted with them to a hundred and said the ABC’s and taught them a few phrases in English.
Then there were the three teen-aged girls on the street in Palu who took their own cell phone camera pictures with me. They were teenagers, unworried or rather unconcerned about international relations and the tensions between Moslems and Christians.
The Highway
The
The Highway had been completed by a Korean contractor just a year or so ago. It should have been in very good shape considering its age but it wasn’t. as with all things concerning public works in
The surface of some of the road was right at high tide level. The result was a deteriorating road with a narrow sandy beach or muddy tidelands on one side and a swamp on the other. Most of the mangrove swamps with their multirooted trees have been destroyed. Some are being replanted by various conservation orgsanizations and student groups.
There are villeges and towns every few kilometers along the highway. Most of the villeges are comprised of small neat houses, shops and restaurents, most set back from the road for a few meters. Most again had flowers such as Bougainvillea and small flowering trees, Plumerias, growing in their small roadside gardens.
The main course, and sometimes the only meal available in most of the smaller restaurents was fried fish, white rice and a cooked green water plant. The larger restaurents someimes had a second choice, fried rice. The shops carried everything from high-energy drinks and bottled water to snacks. Small temporary roadside shops carried vegetable and some fruits: unfortunatly very few fruits, including ome of my favorites, durian were in season.
Each of the larger towns along the Highway also had a gas station (with gasoline going for Rp. 4,500 ($.50) a liter or about $2.00 a gallon. The price of gasoline went up to Rp. 6.75 per gallon while we were in country. The price will probabley increase with time because
Each of the larger towns also had one or more hotels – the star rating depending on the type of toilet facility, squat or seat, and whether there was a functioning fan. The one we stayed at in Tomini, at the junction of the Highway and the road leading over the mountains to Toli Toli had a resevoir filled with water for one’s bath and for flushing the squat WC, a kapok stuffed mattresss , screened windows, and a fan that stayed on until 11:00 PM when the generator was turned off. The restaurant attached to the hotel served rice and fried fish and greens for dinner and, if my memory serves me right, rice, fried fish and greens for breakfast, a balanced meal of protiens, vegetables, and carbohydrates- what more could we ask. I can’t remember whether we were able to find our usual two one liter bottles of beer in Tomini or not. If we did, I am sure that it wasn’t cold. (
Each of the town and villages along the Highway as were most towns and villages out in the country side, marked as being either Moslem or Christian by the presence of either a mosque or a church. There seems to be a dozen ornate new churches plus another dozen older churches in and around Tomohon and
Then add in the almost frantic driving habits of the commercial drivers and many, if not most, of the private drivers, honking, passing braking, accelerating over any stretch of 50 meters or more, chickens, children, strolling people, cows, goats, motor cyclists, trucks, busses, pot holes, damaged or failed culverts and bridges, the lack of seat belts, the driver texting or talking on his ubiquitus cell phone results in an altogether unpleasant traveling experience. I commented to Garratt that it was a hell-of-a place for the deaf: Garratt answered that it was worse for the blind.
The trip over the mountains from the north side of the island near Toli Toli to the south side was particularly difficult. The road was partially washed out in some areas. There are on coming trucks, motorcycles, other vehicles and large busses to both share the road with and to pass on the earliest straight section of road. Every passing is a near collision with the distance between vehicles seemingly no more than a few inches. The drivers didn’t seem to mind that there was a steep hill on one side and a cliff on the other separated by a third class road with grades sometimes exceeding ten percent along a series of hairpin turns punctuated by loose rocks and ruts.
Miscellany
Hotels
We stayed in a variety of hotels during our trip.
Flora
One of the plants observed along the road from Toli Toli to the
The sago palm is the source of a high calorie very starchy food. The palm is cut down, split in half, the pulp is scrapped out, mixed with water, separated from the starch and either cooked or baked. The starch is similar to the casava, a native of
The lontar (sugar palm) is, I understand, the source of a sweet liquid called “saguer”, which ferments very rapidly so that in a day or so it has the alkahol content of beer and in a few days that of wine or fermented grain and there fore the source of ‘tuak” or “sopi”, the nectar of the gods. (http://www.manalagi.com/jamesplace/indonesia/sopi/index.html).
Air Travel
I was quite impressed with the airlines in
The exchange rate for Indonesian Rupiah (Rp.) is approximately Rp. 9,000 to $1. A $100 being equal to a little less than Rp. 1,000,000 (1 juta) with the largest normal Indonesian currency being Rp. 100,000 and the normal unit of currency being Rp. 50,000 ($5). We each exchanged $2,000, approximately Rp. 20,000,000, for a three-week stay. We exchanged most of our funds right after our arrival in
The people are honest but it really isn’t wise to be flashing a bundle of Rp. 50,000 notes in front of a crowd of people whose average pay per day, when employed, is around Rp. 20,000. One needs to carry around several large bundles of bills, pealing off a few as he makes his normal transactions during his trip. The typical traveler in some of the more remote towns and cities looks quite funny with pockets bulging with wads of Rupiah, wallet, passport, camera and what ever. You can always leave some of your money in your hotel room or in the hotel safe, if there is one.
My problem was that I could never remember in which of my billfolds I carried my Rp. 100,000 bills and in which I carried my wad of Rp. 50,000 and smaller bills (the smallest common bill being Rp. 1,000 and worth about 10 cents). So I was always searching through my many cargo pants pockets for either my money, or my camera.
Moslem Clothing, Headscarves etc.
During three weeks of travel in
Maintenance
It seems that little or nothing is maintained in
Sanitation
In two of the cities that we visited trash was deposited in piles along the street and either burned. There was some garbage collection but it did not appear to be on a regular basis and it wasn’t very efficient, resulting in garbage, papers, water bottles and rotting food littering the sides of the road and sidewalks throughout the cities.
This problem is compounded by the fact that most sewage is collected in roadside drains with removable concrete covers being used as sidewalks. In the cleanest of the cities visited, Kuta, on the
One should not be surprised to find that there are few strollers out to enjoy the cool evening air. Most people, in those cities where they are still allowed, take a betchak to wherever they want to go. A betchak is a bicycle propelled three-wheeled pedi-cab with a covered seat. A short betchak ride can be taken for as little as Rp. 1 per child or person to the Rp.20 per hour that I paid for ride around the city of
Cell Phones
Cell phone towers are located throughout the
On
Accident
On our way to Palu, south of Termini out rental car driver ran into a motorcycle driven by a young woman: she died an hour later. Our driver wanted me to remain in the car with him; I guess so that he wouldn’t get lynched. I was happy to comply until her husband placed her in the back seat of our vehicle with me, blood coming out of her ears and mouth - I bailed out. Then just as I got out of the car a voice from behind me says, "Is there anything that I can do. Do you need a ride?" Our two Indonesian companions told us to get out of there, now. The man behind the voice, an Austrian tour guide, drove us right to our hotel and then left. We saw him a day later as we were heading to
Conclusion
Our first thoughts after leaving the scene of the accident were for our two Indonesian friends whom we had left behind at the small medical clinic along side of the road to Palu. Fortunately they had been detained for only a few hours over night as witnesses and were not charged with any crime. The driver of the car had been jailed – he was under age and driving without a license. Our friends were told that the owner of the vehicle was a local policeman. So we were still worried that having the deep pockets our partners or we would be charged with something or other. It seemed wise to depart Palu and to depart as soon as possible.
Our next order of business was to obtain transportation to Bali where we were then scheduled to fly to
Time Line:
Date | Location | Comment |
|
| | |
|
9 May 08 | | Arrive |
|
10 May | | Stay at Nina’s House in Tomohon. |
|
11 May | Tomohon | Nina’s House |
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12 May | | Drive from Tomohon to Kotamobagu. Pick up guide. Visit mountain town of |
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13 May | | Climb Gunung Ambang with Guide – Misli. |
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14 May | | Drive from Kotamobagu to Limboto. Pick up guide, Leo. Drive to Mohiryolo near G. Boliohutu. Stay night in house |
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15 May | G. Boliohutu | Climb to base camp. |
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16 May | G. Boliohutu | Climb to top and back to camp. |
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17 May, Sat. | Gorontalo | Walk from camp to house. Drive from house to Gorontalo. Drop off Leo in Limboto. |
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18 May | Tinombo | Send June home to |
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19 May | Tinombo to Palu | Drive Tinombo to Palu. Meet with Carry, Rudy & Bram. Send driver home to Bitung. |
|
20 | Palu | Arrange for trip to Toli Toli / Gunung Dako. |
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21 | Palu to Tolitoli | Arrive in Tolitoli from Palu at night |
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| Tolitoli | Paperwork for G. Dako climb. |
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23 | Tolitoli | Start and abort climb of G. Daco. |
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24 | Palu | Drive Toli-Toli to Palu. Accident near Tomali |
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25 | Palu | See Rudy and Garry. Garry obtains tickets to Denpassar. | |
26 | Denpassar/Kuta | Fly from Palu to Denpassar via |
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27 | | Depart Denpassar for |
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28 | Silverdale | Arrive |
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Fruit and vegetables
Corn
Rambutan
Pineapple
Bananas
Durian
Langsat
Papaya
Soursack
Pomelo / giruk
Kalapa muda
Roadside carts
Red lights
Motorcycles
Betchaks
Heat / humidity
Accident
Planning / changes
Restaurants
Coconut trees
Plantations
Clove
Cacao
Drying on road side
Palms
Sago
Sugar
Bureaucracy / overwhelming
Conservation areas
Farce
Local administration
Logging
Chainsaws
Hardwood
Farming
Hornbills
Sound of a feathering albatross overhead, a swoshing sound
Primitives
Vs villagers
Logging
Sewage
English
I am waiting for you
We will expect you
Key on arrival
Driving
Seat belts
Passing
Curves
Speeding
Trucks
Busses
Children
Animals
Deaf / blind
Horn
Police, Army, Officials
Compounds
Uniforms
Corruption
Pervasive
Sanitation
Rivers
Streams
Sewers
Family ties
Supit
Clinic
Stewardesses
Elegant
Restaurants
Fried rice
Vegetables
Water
Fish
Maintenance
Dirty windows
Paint
Herbarium Celebense
Universitas Tadulako
Palu,
Department Biology,
faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Tadulako University
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