"Fish, coffee, fish, textiles, fish,... " a Makasar Travel Page by wild.goose

Makasar is the capital town of the South Sulawesi Province. It's international airport Ujung Pandang is located approximately 45 min from the city.

The provice is comprised of 3 groups of people - Makasarese, Bugis and Torajan. I've been told that it's hard to tell the different goups apart simply by looking at them, even for the locals. However, though speech, this may be deciphered by their accents and dialects. Of course everyone still speaks Bahasa Indonesia, the offical language of Indonesia, though this may not be the case in the more rural areas where old folk appear unfarmiliar with Bahasa and pefer to speak the dialects of their desa (village).

The Bugis were expert nagivators that sailed throughout Southeast Asia delivering their spices, textiles and silver.

Torajans are popularly known for their coffee and textiles, the latter of which patterns are reminicent of a tribal influence with primary use of bold and angular patterns.

The Makasarese, apart from being renowed even within the Indonesian nation for the production of Markisa - a fruit similar to passion fruit - are remarkable fishermen. They indulge their lives in fish and fishing. No where else have I been, even within Indonesia, where people consume fish as lavishly as the Makasarese. You'll only understand when you visit the place. They dress their fish and have practically all their meals with an array of heavenly spices that will surely catalyse an adrenaline rush within your body.

The province used to be surrounded by beautiful coral reefs, however extensive land development and reclamation activites, coupled with ill managed fishing practices and harvests have severely damaged reef habitats as well as depleted fish stocks. Diving used to be possible in the offshore islands south of the province, unfortunately this is no longer possible or at least, not as attractive to tourists as they once were.