I traveled from Makassar to the land of the Toraja people to live with a local family. The Toraja people are a tribe that lives in Central Sulawesi and are famous for their interesting rituals. Normally, the journey from Makassar to Toraja Regency will take a whole day. The guidebook will tell you that it’s a 9 hour bus ride on mostly bumpy roads. Thankfully, I found out that a new airport has been built in Tana Toraja and there are several weekly flights there, direct from Makassar. A 35 minute flight beats a 9 hour bus ride, without a doubt. A flight with Lion Air costs 1,100,000 rupiah ($75 USD) and to check 20Kg of luggage there is an additional fee of 500,000 ($34 USD). Definitely more expensive than the bus option, but well worth it to save a whole day of travel. The new Toraja airport is very nice. Very clean and surrounded by beautiful scenery of Tana Toraja. Since there is only a maximum of 1 flight per day, it is a hassle-free experience. Not a long wait to pick up luggage or the like. I arranged with my homestay to be picked up by car. Apparently there used to be an airport shuttle bus but due to lack of demand it no longer runs. So private transport is the only way. It costs 250,000 rupiah ($17 USD) for a 45-minute private taxi ride, which is quite expensive compared to the prices of taxis and the Grab app in Indonesian cities. In this part of Sulawesi, unfortunately there are no metered taxi apps or phone calls. I did rent a motorcycle for my entire Toraja trip, so no more hassle or expense with transportation. This is also arranged through my homestay at a cost of 100,000 rupiah ($6.80 USD) per day, which is quite reasonable. At my homestay, called Rura Raya, I was greeted by the lovely lady who runs it with her brother. He is so friendly and gives the kind of personal welcome to a stay that you can only get in a homestay, not in a commercial hotel. This homestay is located in Rantepao, the main city of North Toraja Regency. It is a separate regency from Tana Toraja Regency where the airport is located, but both regencies are home to the Toraja people. Homestay Rura Raya is in a western style house, surrounded by Tongkonan, which is a traditional Toraja building. There are many small Tongkonans used to store rice, and large Tongkonans that were officially the family’s home, before they moved to the more modern building they built next to it. My room was simple, but very comfortable, with an attached bathroom with a hot shower. There is no AC but it is not needed because the climate in North Toraja is very cold, being at a high altitude. The room costs 855,000 rupiah ($58 USD) per night and I think it’s a good value compared to other options in the area. There are some real hotels in the Toraja area but they all look pretty awful, so a homestay is definitely the way to go if you visit this place. After settling into my new home, I took the motorcycle out for a little adventure. I found a village called ‘Ke’te Kesu’ where they have a traditional Toraja cemetery. In this cemetery, Toraja people are buried on the ground, with coffins mounted on the edge of the cliff. It was an incredible sight, and unlike anything I had ever seen before. 0:00 Toraja Flight 2:52 Toraja Airport 7:28 Road Trip to North Toraja 10:15 Toraja Homestay 31:04 Toraja Motorbike Adventure 36:51 Ke’te Kesu Village 40:58 Toraja Cemetery 💗 Help the channel grow with likes, comment and subscribe. If you want to get better please share my videos with your friends on social media. 📱 Instagram (Live Story Updates): 📱 Facebook (Shorter Vlogs ~5 minutes): 📱 TikTok (15 – 60 Second Vlog Clips): 📱 Twitter (Not using this much):
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