I arrived in Makassar on Friday, 13th October 2017 in the afternoon. This should be my 9th city visited in Indonesia after Batam, Tanjung Pinang, Bali, Lombok, Jakarta, Bandung, Medan and Jogjakarta. True to my expectation, life here seemed more relaxed and even the traffic jam was more bearable if compared to other big cities in the nation. Makassar is the fifth biggest city in Indonesia.
After taking the bus from Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport, I was dropped at the last stop in the city and I quickly hopped on a trishaw (known as "beca" among the locals) which should be the first experience of my life. I asked for the price before the ride and was told that should cost me Rp20 000 (which was about RM6). It was not an easy task carrying other (heavy) people on a three-wheeler bicycle and one had to be a really skillful person to maneuver the trishaw in between speeding cars and motorcyclists and vehicles parked on the sides of the road.
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| my trishaw ride #1 |
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| my trishaw ride #2 |
Makassar is a historical city, famous for its spices trade back in the 16th century. It is also called Ujung Pandang (from 1971-1999) and the names are used interchangeably. One famous English writer/literary figure who had been here was Jospeh Conrad when he was a sailor/mariner. I tried to google for more information of his life spent in Makassar but found only it was just a mere mention of his stay here. Joseph Conrad was quoted to say Makassar as "the most beautiful, and maybe the most clean cities of all cities on these islands."
The pics taken were at the spots mainly around the hotel area, along the road beside Losari Beach and Fort Rotterdam. The congestion could be bad at certain times of the day. I could see that Makassar is still fast developing and this could be observed opposite the Losari Beach area where there was some sort of a mega project going on.
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