Makassar is perhaps best known in the UK for having led to the anti-Makassar cover for the backs of armchairs to prevent the hair oil favoured by Victorians and Edwardians from damaging the upholstery. Apparently it is made from 2 common local products, coconut oil and clove oil amongst other things. However, it was not the desire for hair oil that brought us here. Considered to be the gateway to eastern Indonesia for hundreds of years, Makassar is the most important city in Sulawesi and a thriving port. Like all big cities it is a bit lacking in charm and it is hard work to get around and find what you need.

What we needed was a dentist as Chris had broken a tooth. We made our way to the tourist office to ask where we might find a dentist only to find it closed up. Across the road was what we thought was a hotel that might be able to help us but on going inside we quickly realised it was a hospital and soon had an appointment with the in house dentist. The surgery nurses were delighted to be dealing with Brits and Chris’s Columbian hat did the rounds.

Indonesians just love that hat.

Tooth fixed we started our jalan jalan (walking about) to find somewhere where we could buy underwater gear as most of our snorkelling stuff was either worn out or had been given to needy fishermen. We passed a small sports shop which had just one reasonable mask which we bought but then discovered another shop that had everything we needed including the owner, an Indonesian Indian who had lived in Canada and spoke perfect but rather rapid English. He did us a very good deal on flippers, masks and snorkels as well as entertaining us for an hour.

Makassar had three other saving graces for us:

The first was a secure anchorage a little away from the main port at the small island of Pulau Lae Lae where we also secured a local water taxi to ferry us to and from Makassar, which takes only 10 minutes but where it is impossible to land the dinghy.

Pulau Lae Lae

The second is an Immigration Office where we could extend our Indonesian Visa. We managed to get the paperwork done in a day thanks to the good offices of Arief, the local yacht agent. The Immigration Office is quite a journey out of town so being driven there was a great help. It was packed to calamity. The difficulty for us as always is ploughing through the language barrier to get to the right person. It took several hours even with Arief then he went back 2 days later to collect the stamped Passports.

The third is Makassar’s relative proximity to Tana Toraja, a quite unique mountainous area 150 miles to the north that we wanted to visit but with a tour guide who knew the area well. Rusli was recommended to us by Arief and we got to know him a little when we had lunch with him at a rather special fish restaurant where we discussed booking a tour with him and also when he guided us around Makassar’s impressive Fort Rotterdam built during the time of the Dutch occupation.

Fort Rotterdam, a slice of the former Dutch dominance.

So after successfully extending our Visas with the help of Arief, who was also sorting out a laundry and getting our gas bottles filled, we agreed a price for the tour with Rusli. We arranged to leave the boat for four days in the care of Sempo, the local boatman who ran our water taxi and lives on Lai Lai . We had a day to get ourselves ready for Tana Toraja including packing some warm clothes as we were warned it would be cool and rains every afternoon. Cool……………….oh joy!