Fiona Petite Traveler: Discovering South Sulawesi (Tanjung Bira, Tana Toraja, Pare Pare, Makassar)

July 14th - July 23rd 2015

Me and my family went to South Sulawesi for Eid Mubarak Holiday. Me and my big sis flew from Soekarno Hatta Airport Jakarta and the rest of the family flew from Adi Sutjipto Airport Yogyakarta. We arrived in about same time in Sultan Hassanudin Airport, Makassar City. After that we went to the parking lot and got in to my car.

Then the journey of Discovering South Sulawesi started....

Day 1

We went to Tanjung Bira, located in the most southern tip of South Sulawesi, about 200 km from Makassar. Took us 4 hours to get there because the road wasnt so nice. We arrived at night so we went directly to our hotel which was Bira View Inn.

Day 2

I woke up early in the morning and finally saw the beautiful beach right in front of our hotel.

Bira View Inn

View from our hotel

Stairway to the beach

On that day me and my family booked a snorkeling package to Liu Kang Loe Island. The boat was IDR 350.000 and the snorkeling equipment (mask, snorkle, fin) each costed IDR 25.000. The island is located about 15 minutes from Tanjung Bira by speed boat. There are 3 snorkeling spots ; sea turtle conservation, coral garden in front of Liu Kang Loe Island and another sea turtle conservation (smaller than the first one tho)

Flirting with sea turtle

Liu Kang Loe Island

Familia

Day 3

I woke up early and went to Mangga Lodge to dive with South Sulawesi Diver. The package costed IDR 900.000/2x dives (including pick ups and lunch). Saw so many species that I never seen before.

1st spot : Levis 501

Depth only 5 meters max, water was cold as hell, great visibility.

Wobbegong Shark, can you see it?

Selfie with Rainbow Runners

Levis 501

2nd spot : Shark Point
Depth was about 21-23 meters, water was warm, 15 meters visibility, crazy waves!
We dived in a crazy weather condition. The waves were very high, I even hesitated to jump into the water, I asked my instructor named Elvis "Is it safe? Should we go back?" He said it was fine so we went into the water. As soon as we dived, Elvis poked my shoulder and pointed at a black tip shark, I was in awe. The current was fast, we were drift diving, we even held to corals to slow down. I saw black tip and white tip shark, eagle ray, sea turtle, many more!

Me and Elvis

Black Tip Shark

Eagle Ray

When we finished our 2nd dive and came up to the surface, we couldnt see our boat because it was too far. We drifted wayyyyy too far from the boat and the boat didnt follow our bubbles. The high waves made me dizzy and we did our best to give signs of our location to the boat, but the boat still couldnt see us. We decided to go to the nearest island, following the waves. After an hour of struggling, a local man came to us and helped us. Due to high waves, the local man's boat nearly flipped over. I was thrown into the water again, I was so freaking tired. Finally our boat saw us and rescued us. Then we went back to Tanjung Bira.
Damn, it was tiring and scary. But Thank God I was still be able to live to this very second. Honestly I didnt regret diving there despite the bad weather, I learnt so much that day ; how to stay calm, how to survive and how to trust your instinc. Super amazing experience!

Day 3

We went back to Makassar City last night, it was pretty crowded because it was the night before Eid Mubarak. We stayed in Losari Beach Hotel. On day three, we went to Trans Studio Makassar. Was so so, not very big and the rides were not so fun for adults. At night

Day 4

We went to Bantimurung, about 90 km from Makassar. After about 1.5 hours ride, we arrived there. It was super crowded ugh. The attractions there were also not very well maintained hmm.