Sulawesi Selatan
Sunday July 19
Today was a pretty easy one, we woke up and headed down to a crowded breakfast room for another awesome meal, I’m trying not to let my eyes get too big but there’s so much on offer. After breakfast we strolled out to find a book shop that dad wanted to check out but found a construction site instead. Footpaths are a fluid concept here, they mainly get used to plant trees and often open up into gaping holes in the concrete that reveal deep pits of drain water full of plastic bottles and dead rats. We walked past a few municipal buildings, a hospital and police station, we’re pretty much in the centre of town. Everything has that run down feeling, paint peeling and faded signage but the whole place is full of life. Traffic moves like frantic weaving, anywhere up to 5 or 6 people on a scooter, babies stare casually from between their dad’s knees as they duck and weave through trucks, taxis and rickshaws. The cats here are scrawny, they peer suspiciously out from rubbish piles with rheumy eyes and bald patches, nothing like the fat little couches from home. We wandered through Makassar Mall wondering why every storey was occupied by versions of the same shop, bright women’s clothes, headscarves and glitter shoes everywhere. The air con was a welcome relief for this sweaty guy. Eventually we found the Museum Kota Makassar which was shut so we dropped into a little masjid for a couple of rakaat. We’d found a picture of a wooden boat being built down on the docks and the geo location told us exactly where to go. It was an impressive hulk being built from soild Teak and Ironwood for a Javanese businessman. Kids were splashing in the water calling out ‘Hey mister!’. Lots of people greet dad with assalamualaikum and a smile, he looks the part, my greeting is always returned and people are always smiling at me. We came back to the hotel for a buffet lunch again, it’s something different every day and always awesome, it’s a bit indulgent but so good. After lunch I fiddled around a bit looking at google maps and seeing where we wanted to go, I got in touch with Anggi, one of Indra’s students and she;s coming tomorrow to take us out to see some things, anything historical and I’m happy. Dad had a nap, he was snoring instantly and I went up to the gym for a run. There were a couple of fat teenagers up there waving dumbbells around and taking selfies, they managed to keep it up for 45 minutes while I was in there. We went out again in the late afternoon and walked the length of Jalan Somba Opu, looking at the shops and the crazy apartments above, there are quite a few gold shops with crazy rich looking houses squeezed in above, Doric columns, marble, the lot. At street level babies played amongst the traffic and the usual cats sorted through the rubbish piles. Traffic was backed up all along Jalan Penghibur, everybody was out at Losari beach again for another night of hanging out. Fried banana stalls are everywhere and we seemed to be a bit of a people watching oddity, there are no foreigners here and dad looks like a white guru. People are very respectful and we never get hassled in any way, the footpath is the biggest challenge as it keeps disappearing into traffic or huge open drains. We’ve come back to the hotel for a little respite and might just hit up the room service.
We decided to go down to the restaurant again and grab a bite and dad told me the whole story of how he met mum again. It’s great to get the full storyline down, it’ll become art one day. Dad managed to eat an entire chilli hidden in his dinner and it knocked him around like napalm, pedas sekali! Faisal made us teh tarik again, I could drink it all day.