I went to Tana Toraja in one highly impulsive trip. I had always wanted to go there since a long time ago but the opportunity never arrived. It was far and felt quote remote like it required a lot of effort and it's expensive. Last November when I suddenly had to go to Makassar for a work project, I checked the map and found out that it's actually the closest big city to Tana Toraja. I honestly know Italian cities and regions geographically better than Indonesian ones because the infrastructure here is so bad and expensive, so inaccessible that it's hard to get them embedded in our mind.
Other than public transportation, another thing that makes it easy to travel alone, especially as female, around Italy but not Indonesia is of course safety. Particularly now that I was travelling to another island I had never been to. I needed to take some extra measure. My plan was to find some kind of tour, to be on a group, or maybe a private tour. But I couldn't find one that fit. I found instead an instagram page where local university students offer to make custom itineraries for tourists. Every information was actually easily available with some google search, but this service provided me with a local contact, female, in case something went wrong.
Even with things sorted out, I still asked a friend who is from the island of Sulawesi, and she strongly suggested me not to go. She told me although the area is predominantly Christian, hence should be safer, it's better not go alone as female. I really didn't know what possessed me around this time but I guess when I'm determined to do something and I want it, I would do whatever mind game necessary to get to it. For two or three days before the trip I was filled with anxiety. Excitement mixed with anxiety. I questioned whether I would make it out alive and unscathed. It really felt like a big uncertainty.
The plan was to go from Makassar to Toraja by plane and came back by night bus. But one day before the trip the flight was cancelled. This meant I had to go by night bus. Nine hours on the road in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. At this point my anxiety doubled. I arrived to an extremely crowded bus terminal because people were going back to Toraja for regional election. But no one bothered me and no one paid me a single attention although I clearly looked different. Something that would probably not be the case if I was in Java. And to my relieve what I found was a very clean and organized bus. Probably the best kind of long haul bus I have ever ride. Even better than the fancy ones in Turkey.
Along the road in the this middle of nowhere in this middle of the night it suddenly dawned on me that I was really completely alone. The voices in my head said, 'What the fuck were you thinking?!'. I simultaneously felt like the bravest, the craziest and the stupidest version of myself. I had always been alone most of my life, it wasn't a new feeling, but this was the first time that I was completely alone, physically. Like if something happened to me right here right now, no one person I know was in my vicinity. No one would know. I would just disappear.
But all feelings and situations were temporary really. I didn't disappear. I made it out alive and well. The trip was actually very safe, the people were very nice and friendly. The place was really unique although it wasn't exactly as I imagined. It wasn't as traditional as what I thought the community would be and certain places looked a lot better in photos than in reality. But I was glad my impulsive self made this crazy trip happened.
