27/02/2014–An amazing sunset in Bira, Sulawesi

26/02/2014 - South Sulawesi Diving.

Today's activity, Diving!... amongst other things. 

Meeting the girls I met last night who convinced me to go diving today I geared up at the dive center and boarded the boat with a bunch of others and we set off to Goat island, apparently one of the better locations to dive.

Today involved two dives, both lasting around an hour each where there was plenty of things to see, from sharks, colorful coral, sea slugs, turtles, sea snakes, a minuscule seahorse and of course plenty of vibrant fish. Not nearly as interesting as the diving was in Galapagos but nevertheless these dives were fantastic with great visibility and plenty to see. 

The crew on the boat including us 6 tourists were all good fun to be around and we all thoroughly enjoyed our morning out in the open ocean. 

One interesting thing today was that when one of the crew members was checking out the second dive spot he surfaced to yell out "Shark, Shark"... most people's response would be "Argh" and stay on the boat, but on the contrary for us diver's our train of thought works a little differently, first yelling "where is my mask" and upon finding it jumping into the water to see the thing - it was incredibly amusing. 

I'm not going to lie, this trip was expensive and worthwhile but partly the reason why I went on this diving trip is because I rather fancied one of the girls I met yesterday, Jaya, from Luxembourg also a Gado-Gado - meaning half Asian mix, Cambodia specifically and she is just stunning.

Arriving back in Bira in the afternoon both fatigued from the diving we went on a walk to see the ship building process not far from the harbor. Now this was epic! These enormous vessels that are hand built out of wood take a year and a half to construct and sell for a billion rupiah... That's roughly $100,000; built using basic and blunt tools and to watch the builders put the thing together is a marvel in itself. Staggering!

I'm not going to romanticize the events surrounding the evening with Jaya because that is hard to avoid simply because it involved a sunset, all you need to know is that it was a activity filled day and the same could be said about the evening and unlike yesterday I got my second wind of energy.

Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures from the dive.

The children around Bira, Sulwesi, Indonesia

Amazing, the ship building process

25/02/2014 - Cycling SE Asia. Day 66 - MacGyvering is the way forward.

Distance cycled: 129.7km from Benteng to Bira beach Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Average speed: 21.3km/h
Moving Time: 6h05m
Elevation Ascended: 1095m
Burned Calories: 3228kcal
Burned Fat: 419g
Total Distance on Current trip: 5901km
Distance until I have cycled the circumference of Earth: 13,849km
Money spent: $20

View 25FEB14 - 500 in a larger map

 

Due to a snapped shifter cable yesterday was stuck with only three gears to cycle 30km to the nearest bicycle shop, this made the slightest uphill ascents incredibly strenuous but eventually I made it to a bike shop, however (there always seems to be a "however" in every situation here in Indonesia) the bike shop was incredibly basic, they only sold small children's bicycles and as such the lengths of shifter cables were not long enough for my bike but this wasn't my only concern because the gear shifter itself was somehow damaged too.
With a little bit of time and some "MacGyvering" using scrap parts from various broken bicycles within the shop I knocked up a solution. This is something I am quite proud of because this bodged up repair job works excellently. Pictured below.

The 130km I cycled today was painfully grueling only because I was so exhausted from such a terrible nights rest and like always when I sleep with local families, or in this case a police station I was woken up at a painful time in the morning because of the nearby mosques and roosters shouting their morning calling. I was on the verge of going on a massacre!... of course not on the Muslims I meant the roosters.

Normally in the late afternoon I get a second win of energy but today this was not the case. I struggled with turning every rotation of the peddles to get to south Sulawesi's most popular beach destination, Pantai Bira.
Arriving as the sky was turning a fluorescent pink over this beautiful location I was sure I wasn't going to leave this place after a single evening despite the fact I have I time constraint to see what i want to see and to return to Makassar for my flight back to Thailand in less than 2 weeks.
Not only this though but because I met a group of girls (from various places in Europe) at a restaurant they convinced to to go diving tomorrow, it's an expensive trip but I'm sure it will be worth it.

The morning after sleeping at the police station

24/02/2014 - Cycling SE Asia. Day 65 - Just when I thought I sorted out all my bicycle issues.

Distance cycled: 67.9km from Makassar to Benteng, Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Average speed: 21.9km/h
Moving Time: 3h06m
Elevation Ascended: 356m
Burned Calories: 1572kcal
Burned Fat: 204g
Total Distance on Current trip: 5771km
Distance until I have cycled the circumference of Earth: 13,979km
Money spent: $11

 

View 24FEB14 - 500 in a larger map

I really didn't get to see much of Makassar as the weather kept me mostly indoors but after a gloss over the guide book Makassar didn't seem to offer anything worth checking out, besides ill be back here in two weeks.
Finishing up with booking flights and packing up my stuff I didn't leave till 2pm.
I did briefly meet an interesting character from Russia at the hostel; he was helpful when I asked for travel advise of things to do around the island but his main purpose for travel was to sleep with as many prostitutes as he could despite the fact he has a wife (also from russia) who apparently was traveling around Sulawesi too - he wasn't at all hesitant to tell me this information but this seemed incredibly odd to me, but I suppose each to their own.
Anyway getting out of Makassar was interesting, someday soon I would like to strap a GoPro to my bike to show you all chaos that it is to cycle in, out and within the bigger cities of SE Asia; aggressiveness is the way forward.
Sulawesi differs greatly from cycling in Flores, mainly due to the choice of roads, Flores has one, here there are many. To decide which way to go and what to see in just two weeks was difficult and unfortunately I won't be making it to the north of the island where the diving is suppose to be incredible however I think my route will show me a good portion of what this island has to offer, that is if my bicycle won't fall apart along the way.
Speaking of which, towards the end of the day, after the sun had set and I had a beautiful pink and dark orange lit sky overhead my derailleur cable snapped; this means that I am stuck with just 3 gears and none of which will help me climb any subtle hill.. Talk about bad timing! Makassar should have had the part to repair the issue and now I am 70km away. I tried repairing the issue by reversing the cable but unfortunately this did not work. My bike is still ridable for now but I have been informed by the police at their station at which I am now camped at that there is a bike shop 25km away.
The reason I have pitched my tent at the police station is because it was dark and I was unable to find a suitable place to pitch my tent. It's a secure place to camp although Indonesia is one of the safest places I have traveled in the world so security is never (for me at least) an issue here.

 

The wonderful and happy people of Sulawesi.

23/02/2014 - Getting my shit together.

Today I really was in need of doing a lot, first thing was first and that was to find a replacement front tire that was on the verge of being pretty much unusable as I was now cycling on Kevlar. It involved an extensive search amongst the multitude of bicycle shops in Makassar but I seceded, the tire I found was a cheap one that set me back less than a ten'er - we will see how long it lasts. I also purchased a pair of replacement inner tubes to help me out along my journey around Sulawesi.

The other thing I had to do was make a plan of where to go to next after this island. My original plan was to get a ferry from here to Borneo but due to my visa for Indonesia expiring in less than 3 weeks it was near impossible to see what I want to see here and there; also the schedule for the boats didn't coincide with any plan I attempted around the times they departed.

So after several hours of research and contemplating I managed to get some cheap flights (with my bicycle) from here in Makassar to KL and then up to Chiang Mai, Thailand where I'll spend 2 weeks cycling from there back to my uncles place south of Bangkok.

I was very keen to see Borneo but I'm now getting strapped for time so perhaps Ill visit it sometime in the near future.

The place I stayed at for the two nights was a bit of a hole and the only hostel in the city but the Internet was fast (difficult to come by in Indonesia) and I met a British travel photographer named Peter Loud - a genuinely nice and interesting character who was set in his ways but we were happy to share our photography techniques with one another.

Something I forget to mention was that when I was cycling around the block testing out my new tire in the rain my bicycle slipped out from beneath me and I stacked into the footpath I was cycling on. Now i have a bruised and grazed elbow, nothing too serious but maybe I should put the training wheels back on. :P

21/02/2014 and 22/02/2014 - Pelni ship from Maumere to Makassar, Indonesians certainly know how to invade personal space!

 

View Larger Map

 

I haven't really had to take any mass public transportation in Indonesia except for the occasional small ferry from one island to another. So this experience on the KM. Umsini from Maumere to Makassar was interesting and uncomfortable but undoubtably I wasn't doing myself any favors by opting for the cheapest economy ticket.
I had heard and read some horror stories about these Pelni boats but in all honesty it wasn't all that bad.
I had Indonesian special forces help me with my bags and bicycle when boarding the boat and although everyone is crammed in like sardines once you have found your place you make the most of the time you have, whether its practicing your bahasa Indonesia, catching up on sleep, sewing up various items that need fixing or if your like me all of the above.
One complaint I do have is that it is horribly hot, that uncomfortable humid temperature with the residual stench of bodies and cigarettes, perhaps the perfect conditions for bacterial growth.
I found a solution to cope with the heat and that was to use my USB fan to cool me down.

Being approached by locals often I was asked the following questions:
First question - where are you going? Isn't it obvious I am going to Makassar, like the thousands of other people on this boat as it is the final port of call?!
Second question - do you have a girlfriend/wife? To this I would reply that my bicycle better than having a wife as she doesn't complain, moan or bitch.
Third question - which religion do you follow? Normally I would tell people who ask me this question that I am Christian and no one would bat an eyelid. However here on the boat I had time to tell the truth, I told them "I don't follow any religion". One woman who I was sharing the cabin space with actually gasped, shocked by what she just heard. So I asked her (in Indonesian) "why must I have a religion?", I asked everyone in the cabin this question with each and every person having a blank look in their gaze, dumb-fuddled and perplexed by this question they perhaps had never heard or asked themselves. Of course I could have rambled on about the benefits of being an atheist, living life without restriction and being free but I knew that these words would have fallen on deaf ears.

I slept on my ground mat beside my bicycle next to a 6yo boy who pummeled me with various limbs throughout the night flailing his body around unable to sleep in a single position only to be woken up at 6am to Celine Dion playing that track from the movie Titanic, this was a little unnerving and defiantly the most inappropriate song to play on the loudspeaker of a passenger ship.

Conditions onboard the K.M Umsini

20/02/2014 - Cycling SE Asia. Day 64 - Flores, done and dusted.

Distance cycled: 98.6km from Moni to Maumere, Flores, Indonesia.
Average speed: 17.6km/h
Moving Time: 5h35
Elevation Ascended: 1799m
Burned Calories: 3365kcal
Burned Fat: 436g
Total Distance on Current trip: 5698km
Distance until I have cycled the circumference of Earth: 14,052km
Money spent: $21

View 20FEB14 - 500 in a larger map

The Lonely planet guide book read that cycling here in Flores is only suitable for those with Tour de France levels of stamina, endurance and strength but here I am at the end of my trip in Flores feeling somewhat disappointed because cycling here wasn't nearly as challenging as I expected.
At no point on the roads here did I need to dismount and push my bicycle up ridiculously steep hills, I sincerely wanted this as it would give me more of a sense of accomplishment.
Don't get me wrong, cycling Flores wasn't easy and certainly doing what I have done in the last week isn't something for most people.
Totaling over 500km of winding roads over mountains and volcanoes from the most westerly point of Flores to the largest city, Maumere; I enjoyed the cuisine, the local hospitality and pretty much everything this island has to offer, simply beautiful with mostly sealed roads and little to no traffic on them. Not to mention I cycled this distance on a bald front tire that is dire need of a replacement.
Thank you Flores, you are on par with Lombok with being my favorite place on Earth.

Again I got rained on today and the covers I use to "protect" my panniers from water are pretty well useless and so because I had some time in the evening after checking into a hotel I went shopping for duct tape and some sheet plastic, with these materials I knocked up several dry bags to line the panniers to stop my belongings getting (more) wet and/or damp.
Nothing I own right now is completely dry... Also my belongings are emitting a pungent bad odor, first thing I do when I get to Makassar is a huge load of laundry.