Kingwilly's Sulawesi Sojourn

[kingwilly]

Sulawesi, is that spidery armed island in between Borneo and the Phillipines, it's famed for some great diving and islands.

However, this island, apparently created when the Australian and Asian plates collided also some some quite mountainous regions worth visiting, and visit KW did.

General plan was to fly to Makassar, AKA maSUCKSa since it sucks, according to the german backpacker we meet. Flights from Jakarta take about 2.5 hours and cost about 2-3 million rups ($200-$300) - on Garuda, I'm sure the low cast carriers are cheaper.

After Makassar we planed to hire a car and travel up to Tana Toraja, a place that I had not heard of previously..... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

[kingwilly]

Makassar is hot and humid, we stayed at a waterfront hotel, Pantai Gapura, (+62411 350 222) that had standard rooms for 450 IDR and slightly better rooms, on stilts overwater for 700 IDR.

One of the bonuses of this hotel, was it was central to the waterfront, port (think sailors and sailors establishments) and it also had a naff boat shaped bar overlookin the sunset, so some drinks were in order,

choice of bintang beer, or bottled Guinness.

[smeden]

no more pics?

[robuzo]

Looking forward to reading more, Sulawesi is a place I've long wanted to visit.

[kingwilly]

looking out over the pier next to the hotel bar.

[kingwilly]

Well, its thirsty work. At 25,000 Rupiah per large bottle of Bintang, we sort of settled in till after dark....

The new jewel and pride of Sulawesi is the Transtudio Indoors Theme park, apparently the largest indoor theme park in the world. It had all sorts of lights and spotlights flashing out over the harbour.

[kingwilly]

This bar we were at was described in the lonely planet as a rocking place to go, well, all 3 or 4 of us decided it wasnt that busy on a Sunday evening, so were else to go?

So we opened our trusty Lonely planet guide and read this....



That's gotta be like a red rag to a bull dont it?

[kingwilly]

It was a street about 1-2 kilometres long, and they were all Karaoke or fish bowl bars, with charming names.





We thought we better enter at least one of them to see what it was like,




the subtitles on that song were "Come into my guitar" wtf ?

they had private rooms and baths and all that, but we were not all that interested in all that malarky, so home we went.

[kingwilly]

I forgot to mention, Makassar was renamed Ujung Padang. However, the original name is back in vogue.

Ujung Padang has an old Dutch fort and beautiful schooners in the harbour. The town is especially famous for its seafood.

It did indeed have an old dutch fort, free entry, though the guard cheekily asked us for a donation, a dozen 'helpful' tour guides, and a museum that cost about 3,000 IDR (or 30 cents US) to get in.

[kingwilly]

some of the boats in the HArbour.

[kingwilly]

Plenty of pedicabs to take you around, prices ranged from 7,000-15,000 Rupiah per trip.

Though this ass asked for 150,000 Rupiah after 3 trips. (he didnt get it)

[kingwilly]

Just down the road from the hotel, opposite the Fort, there was a carpark, that turned into a number of fish warungs (shops) in the evening.



They all looked much the same. We stopped at this one.



The fried fish, BBQ'd calamari and BBQ'd prawns were good, the crab and baked fish were not. Beer was cold. Evening was bloody warm.

[robuzo]

Sounds like it was more fun than the German backpacker suggested it would be. What's your final verdict- are you pro- or, wait for it, antimacassar? I think I'd like to check it out, but looks a bit like adventure travel, so better leave the wife and kid and go it alone, or with a wingman. That street around the port area- does it have another name?

[DrAndy]

Not really much in that town, but Tana Torajah is definitely worth a few days

find a local lad (maybe from your g/h) and get him as a guide to all the burial places, they are amazing. Maybe two days of walking around beautiful countryside to find them all

also try to get to a funeral ceremony; they sacrifice water buffalo! I have a few old pics of the parang cutting the jugular and blood spurting everywhere

if you go to a funeral, take a pack of cigarettes as a present for the relatives. Make sure you get some of the local coffee too, it is the best

and try not to eat the funeral delicacy which is some weird shit stuffed in bamboo tubes

[kingwilly]

To be honest I wouldn't reccomend makassar as anything other than a means of getting to sulawesi, we didn't have time but there is some options for experienced divers, and 3 hours away is dream beach, by all accounts. And don't be fooled, that street was called jalan ? Tbc but it is an extension of the waterfront road starting at the roundabout at the fort, it may have had hundreds of dodgy bars but bangkok or pattya it aint. Little english is spoken, little attention or interest was shown to us jonny foreigners, and often the prices quoted were three or four times that of jakarta.

[robuzo]

To be honest I wouldn't reccomend makassar as anything other than a means of getting to sulawesi, we didn't have time but there is some options for experienced divers, and 3 hours away is dream beach, by all accounts. And don't be fooled, that street was called jalan ? Tbc but it is an extension of the waterfront road starting at the roundabout at the fort, it may have had hundreds of dodgy bars but bangkok or pattya it aint. Little english is spoken, little attention or interest was shown to us jonny foreigners, and often the prices quoted were three or four times that of jakarta.

No reason to hang around in a place like that when there is all of Sulawesi. I know a guy at the Spanish embassy in JKT who lived in Sulawesi for a while, has some amazing stories, mostly diving.

[kingwilly]

And DrAndy is correct Toraja was amazing, I'll get some more pics ip tomorroiw, but white water rafting and walking, easily 3-7 days worth. The funeral season is july august

[nightowl2548]

Did Sulawesi get hit by that eathquake last month? That whole country seems to be particularly plagued by earthquakes, Tsunamis and Krakatoa sized volcanos. Makes California look quiet in comparison. Maybe it's just the shoddily constructed reinforced concrete hovel comming down with the mildes shake, but it seems like every year Indonesia gets devestated.

[kingwilly]

Did Sulawesi get hit by that eathquake last month?

nope. didnt even feel it.

That whole country seems to be particularly plagued by earthquakes, Tsunamis and Krakatoa sized volcanos.

True, part of the pacific rim of fire, due to the collision of tectonic plates.

Makes California look quiet in comparison.

dunno, I think California is due a big one soon, real big.

Maybe it's just the shoddily constructed reinforced concrete hovel comming down with the mildes shake, but it seems like every year Indonesia gets devestated.

That's also 100% the truth as well.


Back onto Padang.

Hotel Bar.



hotel pool with Koi, or are they comets, in it?



shitty old Kampung.,



bird shop



not sure if I want to use this public tiolet or not, bad i had to!



Port area.

[kingwilly]

We hired a car, using the Hotel, but the airport had cars for hire for about the same price, I also had a contact via the indonesian forum that was also about the same price. 550,000 rupiah per day all inclusive. (airport was 400,000 not including petrol and drivers daily allowance and lodging.)

We then drove up north., coastal road for 4 hours to Pare Pare, and then inland for about 4 hours to Tana Toraja.

There really wasnt much else to see or do in between...

Shitty coastal road....



Big decorative mosque on shitty coastal road



What's this?

Some morons having a laff in their traditional costumes on shitty coastal road.



Let us past knob jockeys



Lunch spot. The driver had decided that we wanted a tourist style eatery, hmmm, higher prices, crappy food., BUT they had cold beer, and the beach looked nice. for a beach on a shitty coastal road.





but no monkeys

[kingwilly]

We then turned away from the shitty coastal road, a couple of roadies in hand.

view was pretty hazy



We saw this small mosque, thought it was pretty, in fact after this, most of the population was more Christian than Mulism, the mosques began to peter out, and pork and beer were available on menus again!






Afternoon tea by the side of a valley, they had a pet rooster.

[Rural Surin]

Another splendid photo spread, Wills. I trust you had time to spend in the back country as well..?? Cheers!

[wefearourdespot]

Sulawesi, is that spidery armed island in between Borneo and the Phillipines

I would rather say it is between Borneo and New Guinea , the island between Borneo and Philippines is Palawan .

[wefearourdespot]

Makassar is hot and humid, we stayed at a waterfront hotel, Pantai Gapura, (+62411 350 222) that had standard rooms for 450 IDR and slightly better rooms, on stilts overwater for 700 IDR.

guess you forgot three zeros here (or meant THB instead of IDR)

[kingwilly]

I trust you had time to spend in the back country as well..??

That I did, and really, that's where the highlights start, problem is I dont have much time for TD right now...

guess you forgot three zeros here (or meant THB instead of IDR)

ooops., so i did., 700,000 IDR

I would rather say it is between Borneo and New Guinea , the island between Borneo and Philippines is Palawan .

hastily checks his google earth maps....

ooops, you right.