The Remarkable South Sulawesi (Part III: Falling in Love with Matano)

January, 22nd 2011

Thanks God it’s Saturday, we’ve been waiting for today since the first day we work here. Why? Because, Saturday means we could come home earlier at 3 pm (on the regular day it will be 5 pm) the sky’s still bright and we could explore the lake from the corner of the camp: Matano Lake! Yeaaah, I can’t wait any longer to swim on this crystal clear water.

My favorite picture. Thanks for the shot, Andrew!

David standing on the Gazebo

Andrew and David. Happy face, like a kid met a new toy.

Me playing with the life vest

Me and Andrew

Before we off to the camp

They said, once you drink water from Matano Lake, even accidentally, sooner or later you’re gonna come back to Sorowako. I really hope so, because I accidentally drank much water when I swam there 😀

The Remarkable South Sulawesi (Part II: First Step in Sorowako)

After 14 hours of sitting prettily, we finally arrived at Sorowako. A phone call from our company driver told us that we should get off at Wawondula intersection. So we made sure the bus driver to stop at that place. At first we thought that Wawondula intersection was a nice bus shelter. In fact it was not. It was just a wayside, lies in an intersection. We felt like we were in the middle of nowhere at that time.

David and Andrew at Wawondula Intersection

At 9.15 WITA, we finally picked up by the company driver with a nice Ford. The driver drove us to our Camp. It was an old camp, a little bit untreated well, and it was in a heavy renovation. It’s pretty fine to me.

View from the camp. Can you see the Matano Lake overthere?

David, made a phone call in camp.

Me at the Gazebo, on the lakeside, lies in the corner of the camp.

We had to take a Safety Induction class at 10.30 am, so we had to prepare. Meet me again in the next post. I’ll tell you more about Sorowako. See ya! 🙂

The Remarkable South Sulawesi (Part I: Arrived in Makassar)

Last January, this year, me and two friends of mine went to one of my favorite island, Sulawesi. We were involved in a company orientation program, you know such program to introduce the company working-environment to its junior engineers, for around two weeks.

I always love the atmosphere of the brand-new place I visit. That was the first time I step my feet in South Sulawesi Province. 2.45 hours flight from Jakarta to Ujung Pandang (a.k.a Makassar) felt like a minute because of my enthusiasm. Arrived in Sultan Hasanuddin Airport (I love this airport, newly built, looks like Changi airport in a very little percentage), we went for late lunch at KFC on the corner of the building. Then, we directly rode a cab to the bus agency, Bintang Timur, 30 minutes from the airport.

Sultan Hasanuddin Airport, Makassar

The bus agency lies right in front of Makassar Town Square (Matos), one of the most popular shopping center in Makassar. Unfortunately, we didn’t have adequate time to explore the mall, besides we brought some big bags (no one wants to go to mall with such big bags).

We waited for the bus about 30 minutes before its departure to Sorowako at 6 pm WITA (Makassar time). And of course we didn’t want to waste our precious 30 minutes, so we did pray, and answered the call of nature. And spada! I found that in Makassar, the water is freakingly bad. The color of the water is not clear, but brown-yellowish colored. Here I post the picture.

The brown-yellowish colored water in Makassar

At 6 pm o’clock, the bus started to leave for Sorowako. The bus was quite comfortable. The seats were wide, and there was a leg holder under the seat. Very comfy! And to keep our precious stuffs safe, there was a locker for each passenger, big enough to keep our notebook bag inside. Yeah, time to sleep, see you in Sorowako 😉

Hello world!

Hey, there, hello from Indonesia. I made this wordpress account since February 2010, but I didn’t have time (lie) and willingness (honest) to post something. And now, April 2011, I think I need to make my travel journal, since I love traveling so much, though I don’t do it very often. And here it is, I decide to set this blog as my place to share some places where I have been.

I hope you, guys, enjoy my blog. I really hope it can help you to know more about places, especially some beautiful places in Indonesia.

Warmest regards,

Ryo.