Brave or Crazy?: This time last year: “Homestay? My home!”

This time last year was an incredible travel day. It was the day we left Tangkoko National Park, Sulawesi, Indonesia, where we went to see tarsiers. We set off just after sunset the night before and did a disappointedly short hike in the park to see these googly-eyed creatures. We didn't feel lucky to get to see them at all. Apparently, they’re very lazy when they wake up and basically don’t move trees much, so all the park ranger did was walk around with us and guide us to the exact tree where the tarsiers live. We were expecting those great aspects of wildlife spotting: the surprise element, the uncertainty, the unexpected!

Anyway, the tarsiers were quite cute. We saw a mummy in the group caring for a baby on her back. I felt really bad for using the camera flash on them and wanted to be able to take good photos on the manual setting, but it was early days in our travels and the photos were rubbish, so although I am terribly sorry for inflicting (hopefully) temporary blindness in a family of tarsiers, I'm glad I got some good shots.

We woke up early the next morning and went to the volcanic sand beach and enjoyed the calm but big waves and the warmth of the Sulawesi sea. On our walk back from the beach, we amused a couple of locals. This was a really small place – it does not even qualify as a village. It consisted of the national park, the road with a few houses and guesthouses by the side of it, and the beach. The ladies that passed by us on the road couldn't stop giggling. They looked at each other, pointed at Pete and almost wet themselves laughing! Later the owner from our guesthouse explained, crying his eyes out, that was because Pete was shirtless and they loved the combination of hairy chest, white skin and the result of years of beer drinking bouncing about as we walked. Very amusing indeed!

Pulisan Beach, North Sulawesi

The men of the non-village caught some fish and barbecued it in their back yard. They invited us to join them. Pete played football with the kids, I held the babies and we were feeling very much at home by the time we had to jump into the back of a truck to get somewhere where we could take a bus towards Lembeh.

It was a quite hilly and winding road and the truck driver was playing loud music and enjoying the bends in the road. I was holding on for dear life while the old lady beside me kept her hands calmly placed in her lap. I've got a video with ‘Imagine’ playing in the background. It was a beautiful moment!

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world...

We got off the truck and caught a minibus that stopped for us when the driver signalled to it. This was the day we unintentionally inflicted LOL on random people. The two ladies sitting beside us in the minibus found it so funny that Pete fell asleep and let his neck dance away with the bumps in the road. It was quite funny at first but then I just started to get annoyed. What’s so funny about someone sleeping? The bus driver joined in but stopped after a while. He asked where we were going and decided to change his route to save us a 10-minute walk to the harbour. The hyenas stopped laughing at that point and started to have a go at him because they were late for something (that’s what I understood with my very basic Bahasa).

I woke Pete up and as he was taking the backpacks down, I hailed the boat that was about to leave. Great timing, we thought! We made friends onboard the small boat and started to ask people where the best place to stop was based on cheap accommodation options. It turned out the island is full of resorts and there aren’t many budget places around aimed at independent travellers as it is full of experienced divers looking for weird muck diving critters. Pete wasn’t happy as he knew that was the case but we didn’t have time to discuss our plans before getting on the boat as he was too sleepy to argue and just ended up following me. Husband and wife communication (or lack of) is a universal language so I got a sympathetic smile from the lady sitting opposite me. I decided we should stay at her port as at least we knew her and she could help us get a taxi somewhere. Pete wanted to sit in a cafe, read the guide book and come up with a plan while I was frantically going through the pages of my Bahasa dictionary trying to have a conversation with her. We needed to find a homestay, not a resort, too expensive, I explained and she said: “Homestay? My home!” with the sweetest smile. So, after pulling Pete by the hand he finally agreed to trust my new friend. I think he helped her carry her heavy shopping bags.

When a single smile makes all the difference

We sat in her living room as she offered us some water, oranges and biscuits from the big tin she had just brought from town. Her husband was at home and went to fetch the water. She sent someone after her daughter who spoke really good English, made some phone calls and enquired about room prices. We explained that we came to the island to dive and wanted to stay somewhere with diving facilities - mum wasn’t that happy about it, their guests were not staying. They arranged a couple of mototaxis for us and we hugged a lot saying our goodbyes. I was so grateful for her motherly love. She was genuinely worried about us - getting on boats without knowing where to go, looking for cheap accommodation in a really fancy diving destination... Clueless boleh!

After an adventurous 45 minutes in the motorbikes (with big backpacks in an ojek), we arrived at the back entrance of Lembeh Resort. All we had to do now was go up a hill and down again in a tiny trek to the hotel. Thank goodness the biker boy helped with my heavy bag, otherwise I would have never managed to walk up that steep hill by myself, in other words, Pete would have to have done many trips there and back!

Lembeh Beach Resort: great people, incredible muck diving experience and beautiful sunsets

We had no reservation but they gladly took our Euros and served us a welcome drink by the pool. As I sipped my tropical cocktail watching the sunset, I thought that my Indonesian mum would be happy for us now. We got there, eventually, safe and sound.

Reminiscing about 14th October, 2013. Text written at Ho Chi Minh City airport, during a long layover on my way to Australia on 14th October, 2014.