Parepare waterfront

As I said, I really enjoyed my short off-the-tourist-track stopover in South Sulawesi's port city of Parepare. Here are some waterfront scenes.

Parepare market scenes

I love visiting places where I'm the only tourist. My overnight stay in Parepare was a great such stopover experience. It's a port city about half way up the south western leg of Sulawesi, and a good place to break a journey between Torajaland and capital city Makassar. I stayed at the well-located Lotus Hotel (pictured above right).

As ever in Indonesia, a stroll through the market is a pleasant and photogenic experience. Stallholders are universally friendly, and generally love to have their photos taken by strange foreigners like me.










This girl was putting on an act for me. She was actually fine about the photo!

And so was this one.

Ramadan sunset in Parepare

I was in Sulawesi right in the middle of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and during this time of course, devout Muslims need to fast through the daylight hours.

I'd been a little concerned that it might have impinged on my own desires to feed and water myself whenever I felt the need, but in practice there was no problem. There are a fair few non-Muslims around, much goodwill and tolerance, and enough food and drink vendors willing to service us.

The bulk of the Parepare locals were observing though, and as sunset approached, the excitement was palpable.

It was five minutes to six. The seafront food stalls were full of happy groups, anticipating the party to come. The cooks were cooking up a storm.

Still one minute to go. The food is out there on the tables, right under people's noses. They're holding their nerve.

Suddenly a siren sounds and everyone's into it! It's a six o'clock swill, so to speak!

Except for the group below, who obviously were last to place their orders, and were still sitting there patiently, awaiting their turn.