Advertisement
Published: December 28th 2015
Edit Blog Post
Makassar
Fort Rotterdam in the rain Sunshine is the name of a guesthouse in Tanjung Bira, also known as Pantai Bira, a small village on the southern-most point of Sulawesi. It is also the name of a little girl, the daughter of the owner of Sunshine Guesthouse. You could say the guesthouse is named after her. Or maybe it is simply an appropriate name for a very sunny point of Sulawesi. There was a lot of sunshine in Bira. But before I got there I had to contend with the rain of Makassar.
Makassar is big. It is spread out. It is chaotic. And when I was there it was very, very, wet. Something to do with the rainy season. It has a sea-side promenade which they call a beach, even though there is nary a beach to be seen. It is however a pleasant spot to sit and watch the sunset. Or so I have heard. There was no sun to be seen when I was in Makassar. I did sit and watch for one though. While nibbling, together with the locals, at one of the stalls lining the promenade. Stalls selling some type of banana pancake with a topping of choice. I chose chocolate,
Makassar
Entrance to the fort because we all known that the chocolate-banana pancake is the classic backpacker dish. I deserved it, I felt. I had walked around Makassar the whole day visiting fort Rotterdam. Named after the city in Holland where my father was born. Visiting the old harbour full of Bugis fishing and cargo vessels. And speaking with an Indonesian girl who wanted to practice her English. Some of her questions were rather, how shall I put it, interesting… She was particularly interested in how to use the F word, in the context of F#@ Off! Not quite what I expected, I must say. But I tried to explain how it might be used, while stressing that it was a rather impolite way of telling somebody to go away.
Since Makassar was dreary and wet I decided to head to somewhere less dreary and wet. Or at least somewhere I hoped was less dreary and wet. Bira sounded just about right for it. A small village with a nice beach, and great diving and snorkeling possibilities. I figured that even if the rain didn’t let down, it was better spending my rainy Christmas days in a small village at a beach, than in
Makassar
This was once the Dutch Church in the fort a big stinky town. To up my chances of sunny weather I opted to stay in the Sunshine Guesthouse. It is located on a hill in town, which means good views. True to its name, the rain made way for the sun. There were a few other tourists around, but not many. I would say there were just enough foreigners around to make it pleasant, without making it obnoxious.
As for the beach. Well, the beach at Bira itself is not the best, but a short walk away is one of those postcard beaches, white sand, swaying palm-trees, azure water, and not a soul to be seen. Bira was a quiet little village. Until Christmas when the Makassar crowd came down and the beach at Bira turned into an overcrowded dump. Plastic bottles were casually discarded on the sand, and the sea turned yellow with banana boats full of jolly locals. It is a good thing this party crowd was also a very lazy crowd, because Bara beach, while only a 20 minute walk away, remained blissfully untouched.
I spend my Christmas days relaxing and nursing a little cold I had managed to contract. I wanted to dive,
Makassar
Typical Dutch architecture but colds and diving don’t go well together. So while waiting for my nose to clear, I strolled down to Bara, snorkeled the reef off Bara, and made some truly spectacular fruit salads with Sunshine. Not the guesthouse, but the daughter. She insisted on helping. I did the peeling, she did the cutting, and was in charge of arranging the fruit in such a way that they became works of art. After which she gobbled up the banana bits of the concoction. She rather liked bananas I noticed.
On Boxing Day it was finally time for my dive. After a ten minute refresher course. A much needed refresher course. The diving was… Alright. But that is because it is off-season. In the season, Bira is a shark infested haven so it seems. A place to spot hammerheads, whale-sharks, tiger sharks, barracudas, whales, mantas and all kind of other big watery animals. But they have all left. It wasn’t a problem. My main aim was to just get in the water again and refresh my diving skills. They are as terrible as always.
With the diving done, it was time to move on to the next destination. Another diving
Makassar
Old harbour paradise. I said goodbye to Sunshine on a sunny morning and made my way to Watampone to catch a ferry to Kolaka. Together with Niklas, a friendly Swede who, unlike me, is a professional diver. The two of us were the only foreigners on the boat to Kolaka. We excited much attention. Very few people go to Kolaka. Very few backpackers take this boat. We were not heading for Kolaka. It is just one point on the route to our ultimate destination. But for now, it is in Kolaka where I will leave you. Arriving at one in the morning, under a starry sky.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.114s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 13; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0834s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Philipp
non-member comment
Pantai Bira
I have fond memories of that beach in Bira...so beautyful and deserted. You should have visited the shipyards as the region is super famous for their shipbuilders. All traditional, all wood .... and they give you a tour of the half finished boats if you meet the right guy haha. Where did you take that ferry from? Makassar? Wonder where you will go..... interesting stuff. I went back to Makassar from Bira and then took a ferry over to Flores ...