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The sleeping bus was not bad at all, but still I arrived tired in Rantepao. We got picked up by Yatim our travel guide who brought us to our hotel. 

We had a delicious breakfast with fresh fruits, nasi goreng and fruitjuce - what a treatment. 

At 9 am, Yatim came and picked us up for some sight seeing.

The traditional tongkonan houses are impressive. Their roofs, which used to made out of bamboo are similar to a ship or water buffalo head. Nowadays they use tin as roof material as it is much cheaper and longer lasting. The storing rooms for rice and their houses look the same, they only differ in size.

First stop was a funeral place which was not used at the moment. There were big stones in the middle with a woiden hat on stilts, it is used to give away meat at a funeral. The stones are a reminder of the dead, the bigger the stone the more waterbuffalos were slaughtered. The animals are not used on the ricefields anymore, they were replaced by japanese buffalos. They are only held for funeral purposes.

The funeral wedding we attended was breathtaking. Local families offered waterbuffalos and pigs to the deceased. I bought them 10 packs of cigarettes, according to oir guide that is a perfect present. Seeing the animals and knowing they all get slaughtered the nexr day made me feel weird. Men were dancing and performing traditional war scenes, in the background pigs got slaughtered, women brought tea - you cannot compare it to a christian funeral. 

After a lot of observing and speaking to locals, Esli and me got hungry. So we jumped in the car amd drove off to a viewpoint, where we first had some noodles. We then drove up the hill, passed big rice-paddies and stopped at another big stone with family graves. It is ao imressing seeing a death-ritual culture so close. Cuffins were open om the ground, the carrier standing one to another - a fascinationg experience.