Makassar hadn’t really been on our radar until someone we sailed with last year said they had really enjoyed it.  It’s the capital of Sulawesi, the 5th largest city in Indonesia and Phil had seen it described as like Jakarta but with better food and better sunsets. We hadn’t visited any of the country’s big cities, so this seemed a good chance.
Our anchorage was well placed in a shallow, muddy, well protected basin close to some of the main sights: the Kubah 99 mosque and Losari Beach (no sand to be seen). We could tie our dinghy up with a stern anchor set to keep it off the sea wall at Losari Beach and a good supermarket, restaurants and laundries were all within easy walking distance.  Being so central had its disadvantages in the noise levels.  At our first anchor spot we were on the line all the local water taxis and passenger boats took to and from the ferry dock.  We moved further in to get away from these but couldn’t escape the call to prayer from 99 Kubah and the other waterfront mosque.  Losari Beach was home to the night market and on Saturday night the music didn’t stop until dawn , and every night four Phinisi, traditional trading boats now converted for tourism, played loud music as they toured the bay. Every evening before we hoisted the dinghy alongside Serenity we filled it with water to flush out any of the waterfront rats that  might have taken up residence (none did).

99 Kubah mosque from our anchorage

All sorts of boats came past carrying passengers - all with a wave and a smile

One of the four Phinisi that toured the bay every evening, all with band, singers and loudspeakers on board

The main form of transport in the city is the Bekac, a motorised or pedal powered cycle rickshaw and, being among the few obvious tourists in the city, we were followed by them offering to take us to the sights.  We had a day to ourselves, walking around to stretch our legs after several day spent on board, then employed one of them, Adi, to take us to the traditional boat harbour and the market.  The boat harbour was full of traditional working boats from small fishing boats to massive trading Phinisi.  The Phinisi were having cargos of cement off loaded: craned off the boat then a gang of four men to lift each bag onto the shoulders of another who carried it onto the waiting lorry.  We understood that the cement came from Papua and that although the labourers were Indonesian all of the ships were Chinese owned.  The market was massive, meandering around a number of streets and alleys and we were able to buy all the fruit and vegetables we needed for the coming days.  Our driver came along to interpret, and we may have got something closer to local prices as a result, but we do enjoy the direct interaction with the traders using our very limited Bahasa.  After a break for lunch Phil was driven to the bottle shops to find the cheapest price to top up our beer supplies.

Ice for the fishing boats

Traders

Off loading cement

Market 'stalls' on the pavement

In another day by ourselves we walked the city looking for a barber for Phil.  The nearest two as shown on Google were closed.  We were eventually directed to a smart place where the staff seemed thrilled to be dealing with tourists and amid lots of laughter, but not much English, Phil had a haircut and beard trim with complimentary hair wash and head and shoulder massage thrown in.  After lunch in a seafood restaurant, we found the tailoring and fabric sales area of the city where there were several huge fabric stores and Sarah topped up her supplies.

As we passed the police station two officers stopped us to chat and practice their English, and to have the usual selfie

The batik section of the fabric shop

We wanted to see something of Sulawesi away from the coast.   The main tourist attraction on the island is Toraja where the villagers have intricate burial rituals and equally intricate houses, but that was a day’s drive away in the mountains and would have needed several days to see it properly.  Instead, we settled for the Rammang-Rammang Kaast Village about an hour's drive from the city and we paid for Adi and a friend to take us there in his friend’s car.  Rammang-Rammang Village was a simple village set in a valley on the edge of the mountains and surrounded by dramatic limestone cliffs. To get there takes a boat ride up a river between the palms and then there are walkways round the village between their fishponds and rice fields.  The paddies had been harvested and were dry but would be pretty in the growing season.  The caves we saw were not particularly interesting, but it was a swelteringly hot day, and we didn’t walk to the furthest cave, which may have been the best.  On the way back down the river we stopped at another small settlement where the kaast rock formations were quite fantastical.

River boat

Rammang-Rammang, with raised walkways round the ponds and rice paddies

Limestone carved out over the ages

Back in Makassar we had time to visit the 99 Kubah mosque, arriving just in time to be deafened by the call to prayer sounding over the loudspeakers.  We see still allowed to go into the viewing balcony.  As with all the mosques we have seen the interior is simple but beautiful.  We don’t think the domed structures on the outside have any practical purpose other than decoration. 

Inside 99 Kubah

Finally, we had a selfie stop at the monument marking the centre of Indonesia.
Our final day in Makassar was Sarah’s birthday and we used Google to identify a restaurant with good reviews.  The one we chose turned out to be so popular we got the last available table and enjoyed an excellent lunch of prawns grilled on the barbecue outside with rice, steamed vegetables and a variety of sauces - all with a generous dose of chilli. Then it was back to work to get Serenity ready for passage making with a final trip to the supermarket (when we wanted a Bekac driver to take us back to the waterfront with our shopping there was none in sight) and stowing everything on board.
We will now be pushing on west through Indonesia to be ready to check out near Singapore before our visas expire on the 4th of November.  That’s about 1,000 nautical miles and we will be making a number of overnight passages without any very long stops anywhere on the way.