MAKASSAR, SULAWESI - VISA. AMUSEMENT PARK, FOOD - 9 TO 13 SEPTEMBER 2019

MAKASSAR

COSTS

Car from Bira to Makassar 800 000r

Room at Makassar Golden Hotel about 450 000R

Visa fee 500 000r each

Agent fee 250 000R each

THE ARRIVAL

Arus’s friend arrived at 10 am in Bira to drive us to Makassar.

The trip was long but we broke it up with a tasty lunch and drink. I wasn’t feeling too well so we had to make a few urgent toilet stops along the way.

We finally arrived at the Makassar Golden Hotel. We checked in and after looking at our room we moved due to the lack of sea view.

We called Mina who was working about being our sponsor for our visa extension. She couldn’t make it but she arranged for her best friend Kiki to help us.

THE PROMENADE

I liked to have a morning and/or afternoon walk along the promenade. 

MAKASSAR GOLDEN HOTEL

Well, this hotel wasn’t up to expectations.

The good – the room/s were big, the bed comfortable, the staff very good and there were good views from restaurant.

The not so good  - the room was in need of maintenance, the pool was dirty as it had no filter, bags of rubbish and pool equipment and chemicals were lying haphazard over the gardens, the building was falling apart, outside noise at night was loud and the breakfast was ordinary.

There are much better hotels in Makassar. Don’t stay!

MUSIC OR NOISE

On our first night, music started thumping a deep bass at about 11pm and continued to 2 am.

The next night, we were bombarded by two lots of music till a ridiculous time in the morning.

We moved rooms to one facing away from the city. Finally, a good night’s sleep!

THE VISA EXTENSION PART 2

We had already started on the visa extension that we got about a week ago. It was possible to get the next extension so seeing that we knew what to do we thought all would be okay ...

Kiki (Mina’s friend) arrived at 10 am to our hotel and then we caught a car to the Immigration Office. We were fairly confident we knew what to do.

At the desk Lia, the Immigration Officer  informed us that we needed a signed form from Trully if we wanted to change sponsors. Oh dear. We couldn’t contact Trully so Lia contacted her for us and she agreed to sponsor us again and the passports would be ready tomorrow. Lia was annoyed with us until we all realised that the problem was with Trully’s mobile number as you needed ‘whats app’ to ring her and I didn’t have Whats app on my mobile.

Anyway, all was sorted then in the afternoon we got a message from Lia and Trully that the Immigration online system was down and our visa couldn’t be processed until it was fixed. Oh dear!

Nothing we could do until all was good. We put all this aside and carried on with our holiday.

The following day, we contacted Trully and the system was back on line and the visa extension would be ready tomorrow.

The next day, we met up with Trully at our hotel. Trully had our passports and completed visa extension and we paid her 500 000r for visa fee each and 500 000r for Trully’s effort.

All good now for the next seven weeks!

FOOD

We had a great fish dinner at the Noddle House and a free dessert and ice block. The staff were lovely and the owner friendly and generous.

There was a good coffee house just down from our hotel. We sat there many times enjoying hot and iced cappuccinos.

The warungs along the promenade had delicious snacks and small meals. I loved the hot corn on the cob, the avocado with chocolate syrup juice and the hot rotis smothered in palm syrup and melted chocolate and sprinkled with Milo. So yum!

THE TRANS STUDIO INDOOR AMUSEMENT PARK

We caught a grab to the Trans Studio Mall for the indoor amusement park. The entry was just over 100 000r and it included all the rides. There was no crowd and no queues.

The best rides were the mirror maze, the tower, the ferris wheel, the water boat ride and the roller coaster.

It was fun and later we walked around the shops in the mall and had lunch.

DINNER WITH MINA AND REVAN

On our last night in Makassar, Mina and Revan wanted to us to dinner.  They were at a conference and drove 2 hours to get there. We had such a good night eating, chatting and laughing.