March 15, 2019 - Makassar, Sulawesi, Indonesia - Friday, Day 68

March 15, 2019 - Makassar, Sulawesi, Indonesia - Friday, Day 68

Today we returned to Makassar. This is our farewell to Indonesia. We had stopped here on January 19th as we made our way north from Australia. That seems so long ago. 

When we entered the terminal, we were greeted by a group of women from the tourist board. They had set up 2 tables of foods that would be served at a wedding for us to sample. There were not many takers as passengers rushed out to join tours. We were able to take our time, and try a few of the dishes. They were very good. What a pleasant start to our day.

Our Greeters with Another Couple

They Brought the Goodies

Because we had taken a ship’s tour on our last visit, and had waked a good bit on our own we decided today we would walk again. It would be an easy walk to the market building we discovered last time. We have decided that we need another suitcase, and we should be able to find one there. Our plan was to shop the market for a price check before setting off for a place not far away designated Modern Mall on our map. We thought this would be the shopping mall our ExC guide had talked about.

The plan was working well. We did find a vendor with some nice suitcases on the second floor of the market. She was firm in her pricing, 550,000 Rupiah, but we believed that when we were ready to buy we could negotiate that down. That price seems huge, but Rupiah are 14,000 to the dollar. That makes the price about $39. Armed with this guideline we set off for the Modern Mall.

Our First Stop

As we did last visit, we carefully negotiated our way along streets lined with shops. We stopped along the way at a few of these that sold luggage. Either the quality or the price failed to meet our objective. We forged on.

The map application on my phone did not require an internet connection. It used GPS to track our progress. We confirmed that we were on the right path periodically. About 5 weeks ago Makassar had suffered serious flooding after heavy rains. There were signs of that. There were also many puddles in the streets from rain that had passed through this morning before we arrived. The forecast called for showers and thunderstorms throughout the day. At mid morning we had only experienced an occasional drizzle. No need for our umbrella.

We passed motor bike dealers and repair shops along the way. As we got farther from the port the shops became more industrial in nature. Products were hardware, piping, cables, large mobile rotisseries perhaps for use in preparing street foods and at last, an ATM. We had on 90,000 Rupiah left from last time. It seemed likely that we would need another 500,000 if we could not use a credit card for the suitcase. We knew that at the market cash was required, but hoped that the Morn Mall shops took credit cards.

We turned one more corner and ahead of us was the Mall. It was very different from what we expected. On the ground floor all around the building perimeter were vendor stalls. We passed them and walked up a stairway into the building. There were many aisles of stalls, but most of them were closed with steel shutters. The few that were open had some clothing for women and odd household products. We made our way deeper inside and came to a large unobstructed are with merchandise of all sorts spread around escalators. This core had escalators going up 6 floors. The walls looked very worn. A stage on one end of this floor was very dusty with signage wishing a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. What we thought were closed stalls were in fact abandoned. 

We made our way up the escalators in search of a luggage shop. There was none. The escalators stopped at level 3. The rest of the floors were abandoned and closed. We wondered how long it was since this was a Modern Mall. Disappointed, we exited.

We walked around the block past more industrial shops. Then we saw it a building with a sign that read Department Store. WE worked our way through more vendor stalls on the perimeter until we found an entrance and made our way inside. 

Holy Moly! There was only one floor. It was packed with women’s shoes of every style and color you could imagine. And they were cheap. Most were under 50,000 Rupiah or about $3.50. The most expensive , and they looked pretty nice, were around $10. Far cheaper than what we in Singapore. We made our way up and down the aisles of shoes and past the many women shopping until we found one small corner of the store with packaged foods and household items. We think this is what qualified this as a Department Store. This was a very different and interesting experience.

We now knew that we would have return to the market area for our suitcase. First we had to return to the ATM machine for Rupiah. When we found it again we discovered that the machines, 2 of them were inside a glass lobby guarded by an armed guard. He greeted us kindly when we walked up, and opened the door to direct us to the available machine. There was a button to choose English. From there everything went as though we were at home except that the keypad for entering the PIN was so sheltered that I had to stoop to see the keys. Even then it was my knowledge of the numerical keypad layout that let me enter my number. after that all went smoothly. I pocketed our 500,000 Rupiah and retrieved my card. We walked out feeling rich with what our bank later advised was $35.16.

We carefully made our way back to what had been our first stop. On the way people let us take their pictures and then took pictures of us. We did not meet anyone who spoke English, but we communicated in some way. Everyone was very friendly.

We returned to the first luggage vendor we had encountered earlier. The young lady had been joined by mom and dad. She started the process at the same price she had asked for before 550,000 Rupiah, $39. After some back and forth she took our offer of 450,000 Rupiah to mom. After the appropriate shock and complaints she accepted. We got an adequate case for $31. We took their picture. They took ours. We were all happy with the transaction.

We went straight to the terminal. The tourism ladies now offered cakes and free soft drinks. How could we say no. The chocolate cake we tried  was firm and moist. It was very substantial or heavy, not too sweet and very good.

Back on Maasdam we met two older ladies at the elevator. They had a very bad experience with a cab driver. Before boarding they negotiated a fare of $5 to take both of them to a shop. They even consulted wit a nearby policeman to confirm that it would be $5 total. So, off they went.The driver tried to take them to a different place and when they arrived where they wanted to go he demanded $50. They gave him $5 as agreed and he became belligerent. After a while they just walked away feeling frightened. He did not pursue them. We later heard of 2 similar incidents. The same thing happened to some passengers on our January visit. It seems that it would be wise to put the fare in writing before boarding a cab here. We are glad we are walkers.

We had lunch and went to our cabin to shower and rest a bit before dinner. After dinner we watched a BBC documentary on Birds of Paradise in the showroom. Next we went to the piano bar where the pianist vocalist Jamm was presenting a program of Andrew Lloyd Weber tunes.

View Out the Port Gate

Our Market is the Low Building Left of Center

Port Terminal, Mosque and Administration Building

We Got Back Just Before the Rain Hit

This Busy Place Needs Administration

Jamm is very talented and an excellent entertainer. He was on the World Cruise last year. In November we saw him again on Azamara when we went to Cuba. We sat and listened for 45 minutes before calling it a night. He performs every night after the main show. We are usually too tired to attend, but tonight we had a strange energy even though we were fatigued from the activities of the day.

We went to bed at 10:00. This became 11:00 with a time change. Glad tomorrow is a sea day.