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salam, i just came back from Kota Makassar in South Sulawesi. I would say, me and kak wan had such a great great experience there. there were only 3 days visit but we wisely used our time as good as we can yet to be honest 3 days were actually not enough for us to shop, shoot and explore the place. Most of the people i met were said, “why makassar? if u wanna go shopping, go for bandung/jakarta etc.” but for me every places have their own interesting story to experience with. =) Alhamdulillah kami selamat pergi dan balik.
1st day (7 May 2010)
We depart from Kepala Batas in the early morning and transit in LCCT for few hours before off to Kota Makassar. During 4 hours journey to Makassar I could see breathtaking blue green South China Sea with small islands from above. indescribably beautiful i would say.
We arrived at the Sultan Hasanuldin International Airport aka Ujung Pandang Airport at 6.00 pm malaysia and local time just that 6.00 pm in Makassar is a Maghrib Prayer time for Muslim. As our friend in Makassar didnt come and fetch us, we turned to our plan B (always ready with back up plan when u are travelling) which is buy a taxi ticket at the taxi ticket counter. we paid Rp. 100,000 for one taxi EXCLUDED tol fee. added with tol was around Rp 108,500. the taxi was a TOYOTA AVANZA car. hehehe cool huh? :p well, we could see VIOS, Suzuki, FORD and so many imported car that used to be a taxi in Makassar.
It tooks 30 minutes from aiport to our hotel which located in Pantai Losari. We stayed at Golden Makassar Hotel. It was Rp890,000 for 3 days and 2 night staying, divide by two, it was around RM181 per person including breakfast.
We went out for dinner after isyak around 7.30 pm local time. Stepped out from the hotel, turn right and went straight along Pantai Losari beach we could see one big funfair across the sea.The local said that was the biggest funfair in Asia. The night life in Makassar wasn’t that bad as in a lot of people relaxing and lepak2 along the beach with the people selling kacang rebus,pisang epe and so on, and we could see kids that dont have shelter, staying and sleeping along the beach and their age just around 4 years old and above. We had bakso and pisang epe for dinner that night before went back to hotel and get ready for tomorrow’s plan. Pisang epe is pisang abu that will be eat with “gula”. the gula has 4 flavor either chocolate, keju, durian or biasa. i preferred coklat flavor of pisang epe, and you know what, it was YUMMY!!!!:D (Rp7000 for 3)
notes: I saw many kids do not have house/shelter. I dont know if they even have their parents. but it seems like they have no choice but to make a life themselves, they have to work or begging from others or the worst thing i ever saw when a kid asked for a food from the local, a food from other’s mouth, some of them take the food that was left on the road. i’m not insulting here but to realize that we had everything we MUST be grateful. The next day i could see more and more kids that being abandoned and some of them are with their very old grandmother, and some of them with their blind grandfather.
2nd Day (8th May 2010)
Woke up at 5 am subuh time in Makassar, took a bath and ready for breakfast in the hotel. Bihun in Makassar looks like tauhun in Malaysia. Maybe i can try fry the tauhun in malaysia see if it could turn out like bihun in makassar. heh. we walked around the hotel before went to MTC (Makassar Trade Center in Karebosi) to shop. Rp3000 per person for tuk tuk (i dont what is the car called but it is like tuk tuk in Thailand).
15 minutes from hotel to MTC. the stalls open at 9.00 am. I just found out that MTC has everything u need from garment, fabrics, tudung, Computer and accessories, women accessories, mobile phone, cafe, carrefour, food, everythings! i bought 2 pack of Photo glossy paper A4 size for RM9 ringgit only :p and now i regret not to buy Canon Printer Catridge Ink at MTC. :p Kak wan and I bought Songkets and stuffs for sourverniers and blablabla som many things to listed out. :p
since i havent bring so much money, i just walked around and meets the local people there. haha and almost everywehere i went to in Makassar there was only one thing they said for me to bring home was to say hi and send their regards to “betul betul betul kids” UPIN and IPIN. 
even in the flight i heard indonesian people said “sudah sampai ke Kuala Lumpur, bisa jumpa sama upin ipin” something like that lah i dont really know how to exactly recite their slang:p
After shop sampai lebam and lapar, we had our lunch at the fourth floor of MTC, I had iga penyek while kak wan had nasi kuning for lunch. Local said if we want to eat Coto Makassar we should go to Nusantara and find out the Coto Nusantara and you know what? we missed it since we dont have enough time to go there. T_T.
We went back to hotel by tuk tuk again. at first, he wants to charge Rp10,000 per person then i said “datang tadi kami cuma perlu bayar Rp 3000 pak, tak apa lah. makasi” Then he said “ok Rp3000″ . Our first planned was to straight go to Somba Opu to buy sourverniers but there’s alot of stuffs we need to carry. we went back to the hotel first and went out after maghrib.
The night life in Makassar again been “macet” (busy) with the motorcycles, becak, cars and the people itself. you can hear the horn sounds everywhere. there really use it wisely compared to malaysian yang some of them malu-malu nak tekan hon. (just kidding, no offend ya!) 
But trust me, in makassar if they dont use the horn, then accident might be happened. why? because there are a lot of cars driving closely to each others, the motorcyles were riding close to each others. plus there are a lot of kids playing near the roads and some of the pisang epe stalls are absolutely right behind the main road. huhu. new experience of different culture and night life thou.
After had Nasi Goreng Seafood with cumi(sotong) and udang and Nasi Goreng Special with Bakso as our dinner, we went back to hotel and tidur. pancit after one day shop at MTC. The local said, another cheapest place to shop was in Central right behind the MTC yet we didnt go other wise we need to add another hand to carry stuff we bought at MTC. :p
3rd day (9th May 2010) LAST DAY
wuhuuu, our last day in Makassar. a lot of thing we have not explore yet. we havent been to Nusantara harbor yet, we havent taste the Coto nusantara yet..huwaaaa, we havent have time to go to kampung nelayan and taste the ikan bakar yet. and there is actually a lot of thing we can explore in Kota Makassar only not for 3 days but for 5-7 days excluded shopping :p
On the last day, we went to have a walk along Pantai Losari again during day time. from the hotel we heard the indonesian traditional song. pegi2 tgk rupanya there’s a monkey show. interesting to see. then we saw a group of kids jump into the sea. Then we walk again along the beach until we reached to Dataran Pantai Losari. we havent spent too much time there, we went back to the hotel for breakfast at 9.30 am and stepped out again to Sulawesi Art Shop to buy another songket n stuffs. we head back to the hotel at 12 noon for packing and get ready to fly home! the taxi driver fetch us from the hotel to airport at 2.00 pm. it cost Rp 120,000 per taxi (it was not a taxi, it was actually a SUZUKI car that used to be a taxi.) the taxi car was provided by the hotel, Rp 120,000 was including the tol fees, if we ask for outside taxi driver, we might charge Rp100,000 per car EXCLUDED tol free which is cost Rp 8,500.
we arrive at the airport around 3 pm. we walked around the art shops in the airport to buy a Shawl for Kak Nad that made 100% from cotton but i could not find any of it that 100% made from cotton. They only have 50% phasmina 50% silk or 100% phasmina but not 100% cotton.
I tried to find fridge magnet as well, but there is no fridge magnet in makassar, i did tried to find it from the day first until the day to depart. same goes to the shawl, they normally sell phasmina/shawl that made from phasmina or silk.
Our flight take off at 5.00pm and arrived at LCCT at 9.00 pm. Kak wan went to Seri Kembangan for meeting while i was wondering around in the aiport for my next flight to Alor Setar the next morning.
Sangat ngantuk ok nak tunggu the next flight. lepak2 until i started a conversation with Sara. She’s from Manchester, waiting for her next flight to Jakarta. She travels alone, her friend dah off to Vietnam. borak2 with her about Thailand, Malaysia, Phillipines, not to forget my experience in Makassar. :p after all, i had such a great experience yet i almost pancit bila sampai umah. :p
