Makassar (and a map)

I wanted to have a map in one of these posts, so you can sorta pinpoint where we are, if you are so inclined. To orient you, the island names are in italics. Makassar is on the southern end of Sulawesi (in the middle of the map), and actually located by its original name - Ujung Panddang. We flew there as a stopover from Singapore, before heading on to our final destination of Sorong on West Papua.

Steve found this interesting geographic comparison between Indonesia and the US.

Since we had a day to kill, I set up a day tour around the area, and we had a driver and an English speaking guide.

In taking pictures of the 99 Domes Mosque, I could share some of the local dress with you.

Indonesia as a whole is a Muslim majority (88%) country, and Sulawesi island is one of the many islands where this holds true. As you head to the eastern parts of this far flung country, the islands are majority Christian.

This 99 Domes Mosque is still under construction, but its name derives from the 99 names of Allah.

These sweet girls were watching us as we were walking around (probably the first white people they’d ever seen), and they graciously agreed to let me take their picture -

Their dress is all the more amazing when you consider that the air temp was close to 90 degrees, and the humidity felt like the same number.

As we drove through town, we marveled at the “family van” -

at least these parents wore helmets; most we saw did not

We toured the harbor, but it was ghostly quiet due to being the day after Ramadan ended (Eid El Fitr), and thus a holiday for the entire island. We walked around the phinisi boats, which are a type that has been used through the Indonesian islands for centuries.

They are wooden, and made without nails. Also characteristic are the 2 masts.

I didn’t take a lot of photos there, but I did find a nice reflection -

Next we headed to Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park, which has a waterfall, many species of butterflies and a “stone forest”. As waterfalls go, we were underwhelmed…

… but the families spending the day there definitely enjoyed the refreshing coolness.

Very funny occurrences happened while we were at the park, and our guide had warned us about this - we were looked on as celebrities (again, the white people thing), and several people approached us and wanted to have their picture taken with us! We walked along the river just a short way…

… admiring the dense vegetation and eroded limestone walls, but we soon moved on to the highlight of this day trip - The Stone Forest. We passed lush rice fields as the karst hills started popping up -

From Wiki: Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone. This Stone Forest is the second largest in the world (second only to one in China).

We and our guide were dropped off by the driver, to make our way to the river…

… by walking along muddy local paths through the rice fields.

For some reason, this reminded me of Easter Island -

We had many beautiful creatures accompanying us -

After making it safely to the river…

… we enjoyed a relaxing ride…

… admiring the karst formations -

We then wandered around the village of Rammang Rammang…

… the name of which means “dark”. The village is ringed by the karst hills, making sunrise late and sunset early.

And we made it safely back!

So we now bid adieu to Sulawesi island and head further east to West Papua, where we’ll spend 2 weeks diving in arguably the richest waters on the planet.