Blogs from Makassar, Sulawesi, Indonesia, Asia

Bin seit gestern in Makassar, Sulawesi, Indonesien. Ist bisher sehr nett hier, kaum Touristen, ein paar wenige Expats. Hatte gleich eine sehr intensive erste Nacht, nette internationale Englischlehrer getroffen und seit langem mal wieder lange gefeiert und ein paar Bierchen getrunken (wenn man das so nennen kann), die ich aber heute etwas merke.... Die Indonesier sind unwahrscheinlich nett und freuen sich einen zu sehen. Leider ist deren Englisch kaum existent, was besonders meinen ersten Essensbestellungen spassig gemacht hat und mein Magen sich gerade etwas freut.... Habe seit heute auch wieder eine neue Handynummer, also wer anrufen moechte, freue mich immer riesig: 0062 (0) 821 93 920277 (die 0 in Klammern braucht man wahrscheinlich nicht zu waehlen). Billige Call by Call Nummern ab 2 Cent pro Minute, z.b 01077, 01069 , 010029, 010091, 01067, 01001 Viele Gruesse ... read more

After take a rest at my friends home..why? because i am not stay in hotel.. I went to Pantai Losari. Losari Beach. This beach is only a small courtyard to sit and stand up strait Macassar enjoy sea views. Trow away all your imagination of beautiful sandy beaches, only beach parking along the street. But perhaps what makes this beach is frequented by people is the view of Kayangan island and the hallway to sit down to enjoy the fresh breeze in hot weather which is always here. Losari Beach is the landmark of the city Macassar. P-A-N-T-A-I L-O-S-A-R-I writing with letters that stand alone in the middle of the hall is the ideal domestic tourists for photos.Indonesian people love to take pictures with background views of the location it is located. Narcissistic. The place ... read more

Claire: Yesterday we experienced our first party night. The theme: Hoga togas. Sarongs were used in many interesting ways to appear toga-like. Even palm trees were plaited and used as arm bracelets, belts and hair ties. We had a big feast outside, followed by party games that the locals came up with. The guys had to climb under the table without touching the floor and pull themselves up again, (the tables are quite long and quite wide). There was also a flexibility game with a pole, and finally a best-dressed catwalk. After the feast we all walked the grueling 20m walk to the beach and played tug-of-war and other games on the beach, and ended with a beach bonfire and dancing in our lodge. Today has been very relaxing; I think most people were getting ... read more

Claire: Well the test was a success, we all topped the class! (Thank god). Only 30 coral families to recognise and name in latin tomorrow evening!). I saw a blue spotted sting ray today, and plenty of lionfish. It hasn't stopped raining since lunch, monsoon style, but we managed to catch a few rays after our first lecture this morning, I'm happy to report Ellie is slightly redder than yesterday, oh sorry, I meant brown. Ellie: I'm definitely brown, mum. Despite topping the class, whatever we wrote about sea slugs yesterday was wrong! Two people were stung by jellyfish today - Dean (marine biology student from Essex uni) was had by a Pacific Man o' War, and Tom (who is Tom? Claire knows..) got stung by a Bluebottle - in the face of all places! Lots ... read more

Claire: Having promised photos, this website is proving tricky at uploading them, so as I type I'm uploading the first 15 or so to facebook, so parents get someone to show you on facebook! We are 'frantically' revising for our first exam tonight, it's in 2 hours. We have to name all phylum, class and most genera of all invertebrates, and several common species found on Hoga, (I think it's roughly 120 names). Luckily last year we had a course on Inverts so some we can recall, but it is still challenging! I went on a dive this morning and began to spot corals and inverts that I can now name, which is impressive! With 2 dives and 2 lectures a day, the days are pretty busy. No time to sunbathe which is very upsetting!! We ... read more

Elly: This was our first full day on Hoga. We’re all taking a reef ecology course with a fearsome American woman who won’t let us loose on our research until we know roughly 40 families of invertebrate, 30 orders of fish, similar numbers of algal species etc. Myself and a couple of others aren’t certified divers yet, so had to snorkel today, but we still saw almost as much as the divers - a moray eel, an enormous plate coral, barracudas, other things… We are all resigned to the fact that we will be permanently wet! Claire: Last night was a bit of a horror movie set! I think most of you have heard now but I couldn’t help but mention George! As we were getting in to our mosquito net boudoirs Ellie happened to ... read more

Elly: We are now set up in our little shack in the middle of the rainforest. The ferries were certainly an adventure, but perhaps not one to be repeated. The second (overnight boat) was wooden, and we slept on plastic mattresses laid out on slats, with layers of people on top of layers of people. There was very little breeze and I don’t think any of us have ever felt so grimy and claustrophobic! One of the tanks in the loo was gushing water into the boat, and it took me and another girl a good while to work out whether this meant we were sinking or not. There was some lovely bioluminescence, thanks to the flying fish jumping around the boat. Claire: To say we slept well on the second boat would definitely be a ... read more

Claire: With 10mins of my laptops battery life remaining, I'll be brief! We both slept well last night, finally. I think we've almost overcome our jetlag now, it has been 5 days since we left you! (Happy Birthday Greg!). And we're setting off from the hotel in an hour. The first boat should get to BauBau at 5pm, (so roughly a 5 hour boat trip). Then the next boat leaves BauBau at 9pm. Apparently BauBau is incredibly beautiful, so we're allowed to have a wander, and get dinner and things! The overnight ferry provides plastic mattresses on the floor, there will be at least 60 of us heading to the island today, so we'll just have to grab an area and hold on to it all night! The luggage is going to be in the hold ... read more

Claire: So we've finally found out the true extent to this epic journey... We will arrive on Friday after lunch, having left Kendari tomorrow by boat to BauBau, then after a 3 hour stop off we will catch a 9pm OVERNIGHT ferry to the main Wakotobi Island, followed by a further boat to Hoga which *should* arrive at midday on Friday. Ellie: eeeeeeeeek! haha Claire: Thanks for that Ellie... Anyway, the last night in Jakarta was eventful with a movie night of Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey followed by horror murder films on HBO. (Why read Austen when the ITV series are so good??) Our masseuses came round at 6 and it was a very oily experience, but definitely worth it! We had a relatively nice and a late meal in the hotel and saw some ... read more