a trip to palu

Palu

12-14 October 2013

Rita n Sofi

From the total of 34 province in Indonesia, Palu is the 28th  that I have visited. Only 7 more to go: aceh, gorontalo, kalimantan utara, papua, papua barat, sulawesi barat and sulawesi tenggara ! Yay!

At first, we wanted to visit besoa valley to see the famous megaliths. But we changed our mind, because we only have 3 days.. it would be too tiresome to go all the way to besoa valley. 

So we arrived at mutiara airport at 8.30am and met our driver Pak Man. After a quick nasi kuning breakfast, we went to Pantai Enu, Pantai Parimpi, and Tugu Khatulistiwa (the equator monument). It was a long ride, we arrived back at palu at around 7.30pm. oh, the equator monument is very different from the one in pontianak (http://ritaaza.blogspot.com/2011/08/ketapang-west-borneo.html)

pantai enu

pantai parimpi

tugu khatulistiwa

dureeenn

On our second day, we took an exhilarating tandem paragliding flight at matantimali. This is my 6th time flying and I love every minute of each flight.

with mr asgaf

After matantimali, we went to the famous tanjung karang beach. It was crowded (as already expected coz it’s a Sunday). We took a peek at prince john dive resort. It was a nice place. I thought it was very secluded like bara beach bungalow, but it wasn’t. http://ritaaza.blogspot.com/2013/09/tanjung-bira.html

pantai tanjung karang

Next on the list is pantai bone oge, another white sand beach.

pantai bone oge

pantai bone oge

We ended the afternoon at pantai khayalan, watching the sun sets into a bundle of clouds :P

sunset

On our last day, we went to see the cute tarsius. I once saw them at tangkoko, see http://ritaaza.blogspot.com/2010/05/cagar-alam-tangkoko-sulut.html

At kamarora, we did a short trekking here and there. And then we saw the tarsius. They say because it was summer, it was sooo hard to spot a tarsius. So when guest come to kamarora, they catch one or two tarsius and put them in a cage. They do this to make the guest happy.

I’m a little bit in dilemma at that time. I mean, I love animals and I love seeing them. And of course I love taking pictures of them and with them. But I want them to be free, not in a cage. And I don't want to disturb them. (we’re supposed to see the tarsius early in the morning or late in the afternoon when they’re starting and finishing their activities. Not during the daylight).

This experience at kamarora is sooo different with the one I had at Tangkoko. At tangkoko, I went to the woods early in the morning (when it was still pitch black) and actually waited in front of a big tree for the tarsius to come. And we didn't touch them, we didn't do anything, except watching them and taking pictures with no flash. And i was so so happy and fulfilled. A very different feeling with what I experience at kamarora.

As someone who doesn't know much about tarsius and its behaviour, I think that there’s something wrong about the way they treat the tarsius at kamarora. And how they disturb the animals just to make a tourist feel happy. They actually told us to touch the poor creature.. which we didn't do.

Sigh..

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