Enroute from Bali to Toraja, visitors stop overnight in Makassar, a colorful port city. Also known as Jung Padang, this is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi on the island of Sulawesi, an island in Indonesia. Sulawesi is the 11th largest island in the world, and the 4th largest island in indonesia.

Makassar is also the gateway to Tana Toraja, the Toraja highlands, where we spent a week attending and learning about the unique funeral rituals of the Toraja people. We will start reporting on the highly unusual traditions of those people tomorrow.

One of our stops during this layover was the lively fish market at Paotere Harbor in Makassar. This is one of the larger fish markets we have seen. It had fish of all sizes, shapes, and tastes, and we found the vendors all willing to pose with their goods for our cameras.

Bugis is the dominant ethnic group in this area, and the Buginese are known for their boat building skills (from small fishing crafts to large wooden cargo schooners, all of which are built without nails), as well as having a historical reputation as pirates. The fisherman supplying this market still use those wooden boats, unloading their cargo here in the lively Paotere Harbor. The art of boatbuilding in Sulawesi was recognized by UNESCO in 2017.

The 99 Domes Mosque is a popular sunset destination (top-left). Construction on this mosque was halted for awhile, but restarted again last year. Thus, you can see it surrounded with construction cranes (bottom-right). This waterfront mosque is one of the landmarks of Makassar city, located right on Losari Beach. The majority of the local people are devout Muslim. However, there is also a large population of Chinese Buddhists and Daoists, and some Christians, who all live and work together. This multi-religious community is a common theme throughout Indonesia.

In the Karst Mountains around Makassar are many limestone cliff formations. Leong Leong Maros is a geopark in Sulawesi with prehistoric caves and Indonesian cave art. They are known to have one of the oldest cave paintings in the world. The hand prints (lower left) are intact, and you can easily see them after climbing some stairs (top-middle). There were many other caves in the area that are not easily accessible to tourists, requiring specialized spelunking gear to explore.

Rammang Rammang Maros is a village in the karst mountains, accessible only by small boats. Literally, the translation is Dark Village. It is far from any city lights, and is a photo opportunity for those wanting to photograph the Milky Way. The village is said to be totally self-sufficient, and we saw beautiful rice fields with limestone mountains reflecting on the lake. Enroute the landscape looks like a movie set out of Jurassic Park. At sunset, you can see hundreds of thousands of fruit bats coming out of the limestone caves, and expected to return by 5:00 AM the following morning.