Makassar, The First Eastern Escapade

I had once an ambition to set foot in every airport in Indonesia. Well, sometimes I made an unrealistic ambition. The trip all over Indonesia is very costly. Indonesia is a vast country and the distance between each island is very far. For example, if you want to go from Jakarta to Papua, it can take 7 hours. Meanwhile Jakarta to Singapore is only one hour. That’s the reason why so many Indonesians prefer to travel abroad than exploring the country.

However thanks to Air Asia. They now open hub in many islands in Indonesia such as Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi. And with their promo fare, we can get very good deals sometimes. My ticket to Makassar only costed Rp. 350,000 (approx USD 35) return! Crazy deal, huh? Normal price would be Rp. 1,500,000 – Rp. 2,000,000 (USD 150-USD 200). So, I didn’t waste my time and just booked the ticket.

I went there with only a friend of mine. Our itinerary was simple. We would visit Tanjung Bira beach and then just explored Makassar. We arrived there early in the morning and went straight to Malengkeri bus terminal. There is no bus heading to Tanjung Bira. There is only chartered un-airconditioned car and we must haggle the price. We got around Rp. 75,000 (USD 7.5) for 7-hour journey to Tanjung Bira. If you go in groups, it’s better to rent a car in Makassar. Or the crazier idea is to go by motorcycle there (as I read in one of the blogs).

The 7-hour journey was worthed it. The road was perfectly smooth ashpalt road and the view was gorgeous. We saw savannah, mountain, and ocean. It can be compared to Great Ocean Road in Australia, I guess. One note, everytime I go to other part of Indonesia, other than Java I mean, I find that the road is perfectly in a good condition. Not like in Java which has bumpy and broken down road especially Pantura road. Guess too much corruption here in Java, eh?

We arrived in Tanjung Bira in the evening and searched for local hostel with air-conditioner, of course. We stayed at Riswan Guest House. It was only around Rp. 100,000 per night for air conditioned room. The eastern part of Indonesia has of course hotter climate than the western part. Tanjung Bira is still very untouched, I may say. Not many tourists came there, perhaps because the access is pretty difficult. We enjoyed sunset that night and went bed early, because we were very exhausted. In the morning, we just explored the beach. Tanjung Bira beach is the most beautiful white-sandy beach I have ever visited. The sands are like white flours, literally. Too bad we didn’t get the chance to snorkel at Liukang Island, because we had to go back to Makassar at 12 PM that day. Hopefully we could go back there someday.

The last day we spent it in Makassar city. We rented a motorcycle and rode around the city. It was crazy, never do this, I suggest, because my friend’s mobile got robbed. It’s better to take taxi around, or try to search for bus route. Just never ever ride a motorcyle around the unfamiliar city. Due to that bad accident, we reported to the police station, and we had no desire to get around the city anymore. We went straight back to the hotel and took a taxi to the airport in the evening. Places you can explore in Makassar are Fort Rotterdam and Losari Beach. Don’t ask me, I’ve never been there, I’ve just almost been there.

Interior of Sultan Hassanudin Airport, Makassar

Sunrise at the airport

Sunset at Tanjung Bira

Morning view at Tanjung Bira Beach, Makassar 

Tanjung Bira area, still so quiet in the morning

White white sand

Crystal clear seawater

I loved it here

The travelers

That Phinisi boat is actually a cafe