Have you ever thought about living on the water? With that I mean in a house and not on a boat. Well, some people on Sulawesi did and have built a floating village on lake Tempe. All the houses are made of wood and bamboo material.
This all sounds pretty interesting, right? Lake Tempe was already on our bucketlist, but when Yusuf, one of the tour guides we met in Toraja, told us that he could arrange a place for us to sleep at the lake, we didn’t have to think about it for a second. This is gonna be quite the experience we thought. That there would not be much comfort we took for granted.
One day later our driver brought us to the quay in Sengkang and the adventure had begun. We left our luggage behind and with only one small bag filled with the essentials we stept into two small longtail boats that were going to bring us to our destination.
After a journey of half an hour on the water and through waterplants, we arrived at the floating village. The houses were made of bamboo and corrugated board and were, despite what you might think, pretty stable. The people in the village use boats to visit their neigbours.
The owners of the house welcomed us with a big meal and gave us some blankets and pillows to get through the night. Soon, the sun went down and it was just us sitting on the edge of the house staring at the clear starry sky accompanied by the noises of the animals living in and around the lake.
Sleeping was a challenge, since we shared two blankets to sleep on on the ground with seven people. An army of musquitos had gathered around our only lightbulb, but luckily the owners brought two musquito nets. Somehow, all squeezed together, we managed to get a few hours of sleep. Early in the morning we got up again, because we would be picked up by the boats to get back to the mainland and continue our journey to the south of Sulawesi. After a nice Nasi Goreng breakfast we said goodbye to the flooting village and its beautiful surroundings.
Even tough this stay does not deserve a place on my list of most comfortable ones, it definitely is one to remember and worth the backpains!
Written by: Kim
