Indonesia days 13 to 15 - from East Kalimantan, Borneo to Makassar, Sulawesi

Day 13

The end of yesterday was a bit of a blur, the drive had been slightly scary with the driver seeming to believe that using his horn formed a protective forcefield around the car!

Brian also forgot to put a picture of one of the huge bird houses for swiftlets who build their nests to be harvested for birds nest soup. Indonesia produces 75% of all the nests for soup apparently.

She's put me on the spot now saying I hadn't put a photo of the huge bird houses erected all along the Mahakam river because, when I looked I hadn't taken a specific photo of one. The only one I could find was this one which was showing the stilts for a new house but, in the background, the large red buildings are bird houses and they are everywhere! Its obviously very lucrative to export to China for birds nest soup but, so much production lowers the individual price.

Back to day 13, another early start, though after an early sleep we didn't feel too bad, except that Brian has a cold, which probably means I'm going to get it, fingers crossed, we are both ok for all the snorkeling that is to come. The continental breakfast box had more pastries in than we can possibly eat, despite me giving one of my donuts to a small boy.

Jumping ahead with the photos to Day 14. In our open motor boat ready to cruise along the pure river to Rammang Rammang. It was lightly raining so we put our raincoats on, but that was just the start, boy, did it rain later!

The flight was fine, though required more thought than most, it stopped twice, so we had to make sure we got off at the right stop! We did, and we're met by Octo, our guide, as well as the driver. I think he wanted to take us somewhere, but at 08.30 we weren't really bothered. We'd asked for an early check in but that was not to be, they were full, so we didn't get into our room till just after 13.00. 

It was a very pleasant sail despite the light rain

We'd done the blog, gone out for a walk, finally it wasn't too hot, and then it threw it down. We first sheltered with a ginger cat on some chairs, which could have been far worse and then we dashed into a Starbucks where the two women in front of us were ordering about a dozen coffees and paying for them all separately... The rain eased so we made a run for it before ordering or we'd probably still be waiting. Back to the hotel, cup of free tea and went out again to a nearby street where every shop was a goldsmiths. Absolutely unbelievable, never seen anything like it, but we didn't buy. Walked to the water front where we could see the most amazing mosque, which we can also see from our room. Googlelens says it's the iconic 99 domes mosque.

We got off the boat at the small village and started a boardwalk round rice fields. The scenery was amazing but the increasing rain a bit tiresome

Usual stuff once in the room, laundry and shower. We have actually sent our trousers out to the laundry, so fingers crossed we get them back, I've rung, and they might be delivered, possibly, by 5 or 7 or something. Went to look at the bar, which as bars go only serves Bintang beer but that's probably all we'd have had anyway. Ate there too in the end, and a very early night.

He told this walkway is only a few years old, quite new, but it was in a poor state of repair. Bits had rotted away and fallen in to leave a gap, to be bridged by a few loose planks placed across the gap. Others were leaning heavily to one side. The wood was really slippery in the rain meaning you had to be really alert. Had we fallen in though I don't think we would have got any wetter!

Day 14

Hurrah for sleep. Huge breakfast, my selection today was fried rice and chicken, toast and peanut butter, fruit and bread and butter pudding and custard. Breakfast really is an extravaganza in all of these hotels.

Lovely scenery all the way through

Collected at 09.00 prompt and off we went to the Pute River and Rammang Rammang village. It was raining, but we put our water proofs on to get into the open boat to take us to the village, which was a few houses littered around a weird walkway that needed some serious maintenance and was very slippery. The scenery was beautiful, limestone karsts and low lying fields, odd in that half of them were fresh water for rice and half salt water for fish. 

A powered plough. They called this the Japanese buffalo. Once we got back onto the boat for the return journey the heavens opened and, by the time we got back to the car we were very, very wet!

As we got back to the boat, the rain got heavier. Octo and I weren't so bad with our cheapo, long ponchos covering us and our back packs that we could sit on, Brian however in his little jacket got really really wet. We both had feet that couldn't have been any wetter if we'd been swimming in our shoes, so not pleasant. 

We turned down the second walk in the rain and went to lunch. This plate is rice wrapped in in a woven leaf, possibly banana leaf in. Pick one up, turn it over and it's been scored through the leaf from corner to corner so you break it apart and scoop out the rice with a spoon

The next stop was Leang Leang Archeological site. 5000 year old hand prints. We couldn't be persuaded to leave the van to go and look, it was hammering down, and it was prayer time so there was no-one to let us in anyway.

The old port, our next stop where 'old' applied to everything! The ships look like they should have been retired many years ago and it's a surprise they are still floating and the trucks they bring the cargo on are from the 1950's, full of rust holes and various bits of rope to hold things on. Here, a bunch of labourers are hand loading bags of cement. 40kg each bag mind, not the 25kg bags we have in the UK, which are heavy enough

That was it for the day but Octo suggested stopping for coto (pronounced choto) a special soup of the region. Great idea, just what we needed. We both ate for £2.77 and it was delicious. As we got back to town the rain had stopped so we visited the old port, one of tomorrow's stops, as we were passing, and watched them load salt and cement off and onto traditional pinisi boats. All backbreakingly done by hand. Back to the hotel via a pharmacy, to pick something up for Brian who certainly hasn't benefitted from being wet!

Taken through the window of our 12th floor hotel window of the beautiful 99 Dome mosque, an icon of the city

Well the trousers are back, hurrah. Slightly warm, double hurrah for Brian as his others are still wet, and it was free, a benefit of our room, triple hurrah! 

We went up to the bar on the 19th floor again, but we weren't the only ones today and it was very smokey. So beer and crossword and then to the restaurant Octo had recommended just round the corner. A very nice BBQ fish, with ridiculously hot sauce and rice set us up for the night.

There was also a fairly impressive looking Catholic church too

Day 15

The weather forecast was rubbish so first stop was to buy a poncho for Brian. I've only been suggesting it for a year, since I bought mine in Ecuador.

Looks good at night too

First stop was the Sultan Hasanuddin graveyard. He is the last sultan of the region, but a national folk hero, even though he was defeated by the Dutch. It's his airport and university. 

Sultan Hasanuddin's tomb. Although not the biggest amongst his relatives tombs he is the most revered. He was the last absolute monarch of the area that is now Makassar and it was he who put up strong resistance to the Dutch when they came to conquer in 1669. He put up fierce resistance, but was eventually beaten. There were subsequent Sultans but they lacked any power

Second stop was the Balla Lompoa. Don't really have any idea what it was about, but we drifted through. Octo didn't seem to have much to say.

A statue of the rather dashing Sultan Hasanuddin 

Third stop was the Fortress Somba Opu, which had buildings in the style of all the local regions, and this is where Octo came into his own, telling us about the buildings from Toraja, where he and the driver come from, and which is apparently the most tourist visited area in South Sulewesi. "Perhaps you have 3 days and we can take you there?" No, thanks. He really didn't want to talk about anything other than Toraja, which really got very irritating. It was really beginning to feel like he didn't actually know what he was showing us here, he didn't know where there were toilets and yet he claims to have been doing this 15 years. Brian has just looked this fort up and is now quite irritated, it was the site of a huge battle between the Dutch and Sultan Hasanuddin. It was very important and only rediscovered in the 1980's but we were told nothing of this.

Balla Lompoa. Octo, our guide didn't make it very clear what this was about. It was built in 1936 and, from what I can make out from the internet, it was the last palace built for the Gowa kingdom for the 35th Sultan Muhammad Tahir Muhibuddin. It was built as his official residence, although he had no power, that was held by the Dutch colonial government 

An unscheduled stop at the mosque of 99 domes, which we couldn't go into, unsurprisingly, as the call to prayer had just gone out. Fortunately we could go up to the second floor and look down, which was probably better anyway, though it felt wrong just walking in while people were praying. For an amazing building that was only officially opened in 2023 there are an awful lot of leaks. Brian didn't notice one wet patch on the shiny marble floor and fell flat on his bum. So he still got wet trousers despite his new coat!

Inside the Balla Lompoa where the Sultan would have received visitors, flanked either side by family and/or loyalists. You can just imagine the Sultan sitting up there, this room has atmosphere and history

Lunch was close by, though neither of us were really bothered, but we had another soup, similar to yesterday's but with toasted coconut.

Here's where we got frustrated with Octo. We are in Somba Opu, as far as we were told, a government owned area where they had built replicas of traditional houses that have fallen into disrepair. He was keen to show us these Toraja houses with roofs in the shape of a ship (he is Torajan, about 150km north). We didn't do much else and after he'd told us all about these houses we left. Reading on the internet later, this was Fort Somba Opu and was the fortified commercial centre for Sultan Hasanuddin and the Gowa sultanate and was the scene of a savage battle between Dutch, using 2000 Burgis (the arch enemies of the Gowa) and the Sultan. It began on 14 June 1669 and was overrun on 22nd June when Sultan Hasanuddin abandoned the fort and his kingdom. The Dutch destroyed the fort and it lay forgotten until the 1980's when sections of the fort wall were excavated and items recovered and put in an on-site museum. It would have been very interesting to visit the remains and the museum but Octo didn't even mention it!

Our final stop was Fort Rotterdam, built by the Dutch, and added to by the Japanese, on the site of an original Indonesian fort, built to defend against the Dutch. Again we've just looked that up as again, the only thing he really wanted to talk about was Toraja and the model of the distinctive building they had.

Arriving at the amazing 99 Dome mosque, only opened in 2023

So back to the hotel to prepare for Another early start tomorrow. We originally booked a 10.30 flight which they just cancelled, hence we are on an 06.15 flight.

Inside the mosque. We are on the first floor as a call to prayer was going on downstairs. I took no photos of them worshipping below.

Looking up at the ceiling. It's huge and very beautiful, but it's got so many leaks, water was dripping in everywhere!

Our last stop was Fort Rotterdam. This is a model in the museum and shows the shape of a turtle. We didn't spend long enough in here, he rushed us through, another irritant! 

On the walls. We're walking along the right shoulder and, in front, the wall going left is the head of the turtle

Originally it was built by Sultan Allaudin, who also built Samba Opu and others between 1590 and 1637 as protection against an expected Dutch assault on the kingdom. After it fell the Dutch renamed it Fort Rotterdam and modified the buildings to European designs. When the Japanese took over in 1940's they built the single story buildings you can just see in the distance

We've now flown into a different time zone and island. This is Ambon, one of the Banda Islands and is 1 hour ahead of Makassar time, 2 hours ahead of Jakarta time and 9 hours ahead of UK time. It's sunny and warm here but we're only here one night as we're off on a small plane to Banda Neira, a smaller island. More on that in the next blog