ND Food & Travel Posts

Journey to the Centre of Indonesia

The Indonesian island of Sulawesi is about the size of the state of Washington, with more than double the population. The largest city on the island is Makassar.
Back in March 2018 I was reading up on lesser-known scripts and added the city's name in Lontara script to OpenStreetMap (Makassar ᨆᨀᨔᨑ). This got a note in September 2018, removed in July 2020, and is now regulated by WikiData (the Lontara characters remain in the name:mak value).
Sometimes I feel like this is a cautionary tale about acting without local groundwork, other times an example of pushing the envelope? For now IDK, it's what happened.

This was my chance to see Lontara script in real life, both in a museum and on street signs in the tourist / jewelry district.

Panakkukang

Initially I was in the Panakkukang neighborhood, which had trendy restaurants (high-end burgers, "Mie Setan" with each spice level named after traditional demons), a mall, a Montessori school, etc. Possibly because of the university? I asked about this at a local cafe (which sold croffles) but I didn't get intel.
This would be a chill longer-term neighborhood, but limiting for a tourist unless you use Grab to get around town.

Jl. Boulevard is a busy divided roadway. There are men who stand on the median and block traffic for cars which are crossing the street to turn, in exchange for a tip. There is no marked pedestrian crossing.

On Sunday morning the street was closed in both directions to allow several vendors and a kiddie carousel. No idea if this was a weekly thing, but it was very popular.

Losari Beach

For the second part I stayed at a hotel in the "beach" area, which is more of a collection of parks and plazas. Across the water is the new Centre Point of Indonesia (CPI) development. More about this later.

The area is highly walkable. I ventured out early in the morning. There were some joggers who stuck to the road or sidewalk to avoid uneven tile. The parks have statues of former leaders, but more prominently feature these Instagram-friendly large letters. In addition to multiple MAKASSARs, you can pose with names of Sulawesi ethnic groups.

One park had these broken up blocks, which might be from an old fort? No idea. These were being used to write some mild graffiti (not pictured).

Centre Point of Indonesia

In the past 10 years, the CPI "megaproject" has been built with reclaimed islands to the west of Makassar's city center. It is remarkably close to the center of Indonesia (taking the extreme north, south, east, and west coordinates).

The geography of it all is highlighted by two monumental globes. In the background you can see one of two bridges -  this one has a superstructure in the shape of a traditional Toraja house.

The first project to be completed was the Masjid 99 Kubah. This is sure to be iconic for CPI and Makassar as a whole. Indonesian Wikipedia says it was inaugurated (diresmikan) in 2022, and pictures of the interior started appearing on Google Maps ~6 months ago. I didn't know that people were going inside, though! My bad.

Lego-Lego is a new boardwalk for people to walk, sit, and eat along the harbor. The area is surrounded by some sheltered cafe / seating areas and water stations. I've tried cropping this photo but my eyes keep telling me this is massive scale (find the person in the middle).

I could see this being a great place to watch fireworks or a musical performance, with the places around selling fish and chips. The harsh reality is that it must be frustrating to hold a business in CPI when the residential areas and daily business activities haven't materialized yet. How often are people filling this space to the point that you need 6+ restaurants?

From above the cafe buildings looked identical, but when I walked over I saw each of them had their own character. You can also see some Lontara letters below the '1' badge.

Speaking of Lontara, I think Lego-Lego is also going for the script vibe?

A portion of this hub island between the bridge and the mosque will become a public park. I did see a children's soccer practice, and multiple people jogging or biking. The inclusion of large blocks for sitting or climbing is giving New Urbanism.

Here's where I worry - due to the tropical environment, you could see nature had begun reclaiming the area - filling in between tiles, obscuring walkways and drains. With so few visitors, the trash cans must be going unmaintained for weeks.

So I am concerned that their stuff might get damaged or decayed on some level before it gets fully occupied!