Inside the ferry

Garongkong ( Sulawesi) Port

When I was in Kalimantan, I met a few people who had been to Sulawesi. They said the road is really bad and a lot worse than Kalimantan roads. I was terrified because I  was worried my scooter was not going to make it and my trip would end.

When I arrived in Sulawesi, I was mentally prepared for a bad roads… but to my surprise the roads were good, almost perfect. So I continued from Andi Mattalata Garongkong port to Makassar. I liked Sulawesi straight away, the nature here is completely different from Sumatera or Kalimantan, and very beautiful. I went to few places in Makassar like Fort Rotterdam and Losari beach, and my eyes were spoiled with the view.

Fort Rotterdam

Losari Beach #1

Losari Beach #2

On the way I found ladies selling traditional cakes, which were all delicious. I was shocked when I found they eat horse here. I had never seen people selling horse meat before. I had to turn around and make sure what I’d seen was real. I took pictures but didn’t really look at the object.. it took me some time to finally be able to look at the pictures.

Traditional Cake

Horse meat

Here in Sulawesi, there are many overloaded buses like this and it did not surprise me when I found this bus crashed along the way.

Overloaded buses

A crashed bus

From Makassar, I continued to drive to Janeponto, Bantaeng, Bulukumba, Tanete and Bone. From Bone I took a ferry and arrived early morning in Kolaka. In Kolaka port, there was little accident when they unloaded the ship. One of the trucks reversed and crashed into my bike. I’m glad my bike was okay with only few scratches. When I saw how they loaded the bike I could tell this kind of thing would happen. I was terrified when I knew they wanted to put my bike under the truck but I protested and my bike was too big anyway, so they finally made a safer space for my bike.

The view

Sunrise in Kolaka

From Kolaka I went straight away to Kendari and again the view was amazing. In Kendari I met another group of bikers from Kendari and stayed there a night and had dinner with the bikers. The next morning, I fixed my exhaust pipe and continued.

The bikers

My original plan was to go to Wakatobi but the ferry schedule was uncertain and I did not want to be trapped there, so I continued to North Kolaka instead. On the way, my bike broke down again. As it was almost dark, the lady at the mechanic shop asked me to stay a night there while her husband fixed my bike. Their neighbor came to see me and we chatted about their culture. They are Bugis and in their culture a man cannot get married if he doesn’t have enough money because he has to buy the bride and the pretty ones are more expensive. I was joking with them and told them to move to other part of Indonesia so they can get married.

The mechanic’s shop

It was nice for the lady and her family to have me there but I had to continue to Palopo.

The road

The view #1

The view #2

The view #3

In Palopo I decided I need a break and and asked the police station if I could possibly park my bike and my belongings there. After all paperwork was done, I parked my bike in a safe place inside the police station and flew to Malaysia to stay with my friend for a long holiday break.