A day of exploring in Tana Toraja. I jumped on my scooter and travelled from my home stay in North Toraja, down to Tana Toraja. My first mission was to find Jesus. In this predominantly Christian area of Indonesia, there is a massive Jesus statue at one of the highest points, looking down onto the village. It was surely built with inspiration from Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. I arrived at the Jesus Christ Blessing Statue in Buntu Burake, Makale and realised there wasn't much to do there, other than admire the statue and the incredible view. I did very much enjoyed the drive up there, however. The second half of the journey was on mountain roads that were beautifully paved, with brilliant views and barely any traffic. After visiting Jesus I decided to visit Makale town centre. Makale is main town in the Tana Toraja regency. I went to the Pasar Sentral (central market) there and found some friendly people selling local cakes and sweets. I sampled a few of them and liked everything I tried. So I bought a big back full. These cakes cost just 1,000 rupiah each. That's just $0.06 USD! There wasn't much else that interested me in the market, other than a souvenir Toraja t-shirt. So I bargained for one of them and then headed out onto the streets. I was looking for something to eat when I found a meatball shop. A pork meatball shop in fact. As there are so many Christians living in this area, it seems that the sale of pork isn't limited in any way, and is readily available. I enjoyed my Bakso Babi (Pork Meatballs), which was served in a nice soup. These Indonesian meatballs are very different to the meatballs we have in Europe. In Indonesia they use tapioca as a filler, which makes them cheaper to make and gives a very chewy texture. As the soup was very salty, and I was already struggling with the hot weather, my next mission after leaving the meatball shop was to find myself a nice refreshing drink, such as coconut water or Cendol. I ended up finding a vendor selling something called Pop Ice. This is some powdered drink that's sold in small sachets. The vendor had dozens of different flavours and I chose melon flavour. He added a lot of extra ingredients and toppings to the drink, so it was amazing value at just 5,000 rupiah ($0.33). Feeling refreshed, I was ready to head back to my homestay in Rantepao, but a local man invited me to his home to try his wife's Pisang Ijo dessert. I had planned to continue the adventure a bit longer but the weather changed quickly and ruined that plan. Instead, I waited for the worst of the storm to end and rode my bike back 30 minutes in the rain to the comfort of my homestay, a hot shower and a lovely home cooked meal. 0:00 Motorbike Ride 2:52 Jesus Statue 14:53 Central Market 18:38 Local Sweets 29:23 Toraja T-shirt Hunt 35:00 Bargaining for T-shirt 40:24 Pork Meatball Soup 47:05 Toraja Fishing Lake 49:58 Cendol Hunt 53:38 Pop Ice Drink 1:03:49 Pisang Ijo Dessert
