My husband returned from a trip to Indonesia with photos of houses he slept in and stories of how they were constructed. I recorded what he said on video to be sure I captured it all whilst it was fresh in his memory and to be sure I reported it accurately.
He photographed and stayed in two types of dwellings.
The first thing you need to know is that where he went on Salawesi, the scenery is beautiful and green because of the rain, every day, every afternoon, hours of rain.
The green is all around you. But the mountain tops are shrouded in mist.
The ground is covered in puddles. The sound of the running water comes from a nearby stream.
The houses are built from the abundant wood from the trees. But you cannot put the posts in the ground because they would go rotten. The posts are placed on large stone supports.
Like Singapore, traditional style, the ground floor is the void deck. You live and sleep upstairs, above flood water, insects, snakes, rodents, rats.
Can anything get up? Yes. Chickens, which are normally clucking below. Catch your flapping chicken which is fluttering about upstairs and take it back down.
How do you know your chicken from your neighbour's. The houses are built close together. You know your chickens by their size, and grouping. Mother and chicks. Maybe your chickens know you. And their home. Most of the time. Not always.
Christian Areas
Mostly, the hikers, climbers, stayed with their guide, named Christian, in Christian homes. But you do pass mosques.
Muslim Areas
Sometimes you stay overnight in mainly Muslim areas. There the call to prayer wakes up all the animals and poultry, making a cacophany of sound.
When you get up, you find the women are already preparing food for breakfast. The food might be leftover rice, and rubbery chicken.
At one point we stayed in the home of the village head man. There was no charge for accommodation. Instead, they charged for food.
We could roll our sleeping bags out on the floor. At one point, three of us stayed in a room with two large double beds, plenty of room for two of us to sleep inside sleeping bags.
We did ask for permission to put the sleeping bags on the beds. They granted permission. One person, nonetheless, slept in his sleeping bag on the floor.
The Indonesian money, like Indian money, sounds scarily large amounts. Thousands! But, although you might get scammed, if you keep notes of the exchange rate, you usually see that the numbers of Singapore or US dollars are far less.
Returning Home
One person got home and found three leeches in his tent.
Back in the UK, the tent is put up in the back garden, to dry out in the summer sun.
