Makassar Diary : Day 1 (Nom Nom Nom!)

Hellow ^^...

You probably can guess that i'm dying to write about our Korean winter trip, but as a highly OCD person, i cannot just skip earlier trip and go straight to the next one. Oh no, that's not even remotely possible! So before i can even begin to think about blogging about Korea, i should get this big extended family trip to Makassar out of the way!

So, last August (it's at the end of August so instead of 5 months ago, it's more like 4 *desperately trying to make it sound less backdated :p) one of my cousins from my dad's side of the family's getting married in Makassar. No, we're not from Makassar, we're actually from Banjarmasin, Kalimantan Selatan (South Borneo) but the girl he was marrying is from Makassar. Actually we've never even been to Makassar prior to this (i'm talking about myself, my 'rents and my siblings. The other relatives' been there because two of my cousins *who are doctors in training* are having their internships there) so we're pretty excited (coz new places always excites us haha).

It became like a huge extended family reunion ^^.

And it's not even all of us yet haha

Combination of my mum's fussiness (she's very picky with her airlines too haha) and my kiasuness made us ended up on super early flight with Garuda Indonesia to Makassar. We were already at the airport at the crack of dawn WTF.

Our sleepy faces after barely getting any sleep at all the night before. Me, especially

I washed my hair the night before so i wouldn't have to wash my hair before dawn, but for some reasons my fringe stubbornly parted in the middle GRRRR.

Trying desperately to "close the gap" with this magic hair pad (no, it didn't really work zzz)

The good thing about taking such an early flight is that we were in the same flight with our Mayor, Mrs. Risma. I care not about politics, but after seeing her upclose and personal, plus witnessing the way she interacts with her subordinates, her demeanor and humbleness (no entourage, and she's not even sitting in the business class but at the back with the rest of us. She didn't get any special treatments either, she lined up to get into the plane and got served her food last!)-it's safe to say i admire her now (even more so after i see how much she cares and personally handle/comfort  AirAsia QZ8501 victims' relatives at the crisis center later on)!

During the flight, i took the cliche up-in-the-sky pic for my Instagram (LOL)

Approaching Makassar

CL already arranged a rental car (she and KC arrived later that evening) for us to use during our 5 days stay in Makassar, and since we couldn't check into the hotel yet (but we did stopped by to drop our luggage first)-we went to pick up to bride and groom to be (coz we needed a guide hahaha) and went for breakfast.

Breakfast was a very famous local food called Coto Makassar

Personally i liked some of Makassar traditional foods, while the others were a bit too rich for my liking. Not a huge fan of coto, the coconut milk and the oiliness... That's just a bit too much for me. The bowl's actually small, btw!
 

Still very early when we're done with nowhere to go, so my cousin Odang (that's his nickname from childhood so let's just call him that here as well haha) suggested us to check out this famous dessert place called Mama. Yes, we spent majority of our time in Makassar eating like pigs, that's why the title's like that lah! We did make a detour to this unique underground shopping centre at Lapangan Karebosi (yep, it's underneath the soccer field-and that's why i said it's unique, as the shopping centre itself... feels more like a pasar for me zzz) for some emergency mineral water/tissue shopping (#asian #dontask) while i realized that i forgot to bring my sunnies and bought a super cheap one just for this 5 days because Makassar's sun's super bright, but then i totally forgot about the sunnies until the last day FML.

Mama is a vintage, old school little cafe (i guess it's a cafe?) that still maintain older style's charms. You can't really find this kind of places anymore in Surabaya (Malang still has plenty, though) so i found it to be quite unique. At first anyway. I didn't expect to go there 3x within 5 days...

There's an outdoor table too, in case you're those rare Indonesian who love to sit outdoor in our kind of weather haha (trust me, Indonesian are very fond of their AC...)

Just be careful, you might fell in the pond if you're too rowdy!

There's a stair leading to... i dunno what. Later we went to inspect but i'm not the second floor is for public so we immediately back down hahaha

The interior, very vintage right! With the unique blend of Indonesian, Chinese and Dutch influences

This corner makes me feel like we're in some old relative's vintage house >.<

I love these details...

There's a narrow alley leading to a very spacious parking lot. When i peeked into the building opposite, it was actually the baker's kitchen! *too embarrassed to snap a pic of them*

Mama mostly serves traditional and vintage style desserts and cakes.

Old school ice cream

Various kinds of kuih

And even their version (or should i say, attempt) of modern cakes

They seemed all very unusual for us so we ordered quite a few. Not all of them suits our very specific taste buds, but we found a few that's very similar to our Banjarmasin style kuih too.

I don't remember the name but i find the shape to be pretty fascinating

Quite pretty, yeah? I didn't try it so i don't know how it tasted like, but honestly it didn't seem like something i'd enjoy anyway *sorry, i'm a fussy eater*

They surprised me by serving the kuih we selected earlier in a very vintage looking two tierred cake tray (i'm a sucker for pretty presentations, in case you can't tell yet -___-, i love tierred cake trays because they make me feel like Alice in Wonderland!)

Obviously i cannot remember what they all were, but it's easy to recognize onde-onde right hahaha. The yellow roll thingy was durian something2 that my family claims to be yummy *i am not the biggest fan of durian*, and there were a few made of palm sugar that i did enjoy coz i have an unhealthy love for palm sugar...

Mr. Hunny enjoying his durian something2

And was fascinated by the kois

They were big and very tame! As in you can actually touch and stroke them (not that i did... I don't find the idea of touching fishes appealing... Unless they are fried...)

Cam-whored with the photogenic stairs

One more. I do realize that my top dipped crazily low here, but you can't see anything right... Maybe because there's nothing to see zzzz WTF

Mama is a pretty nice and interesting cafe, i'd highly suggest you to visit it if you're ever in Makassar! Later on i learned that people actually go there for the famous local dessert, Es Palu Butung and they're really quite nice! It's a must try. I will show you pictures of the ice in next posts okay!

When we were in Mama, we received a phone call from our hotel (we stayed in Aston Makassar Hotel) that our rooms were ready so we immediately scuttled back coz we're very tired :p. It was very nice of them to contact us so early, a few hours ahead of the official check in time (i highly recommend Aston Makassar! Great service and cleanliness!). I snapped thorough pictures of the hotel room but i would write a review on them in a separate blog post. For now, how about a little OOTD shot at the hotel room? Teehee...

Thick knitted shrug : I cannot remember the brand but i bought it in Centro Department Store, pretty sure it was from Korz
Loose Vest : Freebie from a magazine >.<
Paul Frank Inspired Jegging : StvShop Surabaya
Sneakers : New Look
Bag : bought in Taiwan

OMG my fringe! Grrrr

Since we all hardly had any time to sleep the night before, it didn't take us long to fall asleep and get some needed shut eye! 

A few hours later... My mum (who's actually quite skinny but eats a lot) already demanded for some food so we went to this famous depot called Aan Ping Lau. They have a branch in Surabaya but i didn't like their signature noodles in the Surabaya branch, we heard that the original noodles tastes super nice so we decided to check it out.

Very modest and yes, vintage looking depot *LOL*. I don't mean to sound snobbish, but coming from a big city, everything in Makassar makes me think about Surabaya twenty years ago-when i was juast a little girl.

This place's supposedly more famous for its porridge than the noodle so i tried it out

Look at the perfectly cooked half boiled egg oozing out! It's SUPER yum! Probably my fave food in Makassar and i'm drooling just looking at the pictures now zzzz

Hunny tried out their noodles and compared to the Surabaya branch i'd say it's 10x better, but i still prefer the porridge!

Just opposite Aan Ping Lau, we spotted Cahaya-a souvenir center Odang mentioned when my mum asked where to get souvenirs and traditional snacks to bring home. Nothing else to do so we went to check it out. It's a bit like those Balinese souvenir stores really.

Here you can practically get any souvenir you can possibly look for from Makassar in one place

Look at those dolls in traditional garbs. I was quite a doll collector (i have hundreds of Barbies and other dolls >.<, i guess i've always been a hoarder) when i was little (and am still very fond of them, i often stare longingly at them at toy stores, wishing i have a little girl as a reason to buy them hahaha) so i'm 100% sure i'd throw a tantrum so my 'rents would get them for me back then *LOL* (yes, i'm a spoiled brat)

The second floor's dedicated to clothing and materials

I was very interested in this unique shoe-shaped bag, but the price is quite insanely high (around IDR 450.000? I can't remember, but it was more than IDR 300.000 for sure) and i don't even know if i'd really wear it so i decided not to get it even though i really wanted to :p

Then i spotted some real butterflies encased in resin and made into accessories -____-. I'm against animal cruelty (but i'm not vegetarian okay, i love my meat! I mean, just eat them not torture them. Killing animals to be turned into an accessory is a total animal cruelty in my eyes!) so i would never get this!

One more because i'm so gobsmacked, i mean... Who would want to wear a dead animal (bug!!! Ew..) on their phones? There were necklaces too and that's even creepier!!!

But i could be biased because i didn't feel so offended when i saw other bugs (ugly ones) turned into a decorative piece zzz. I still wouldn't want to own them though. 

Anyway, you can get a free passion fruit (again, another Makassar specialty) juice when you spend a certain amount in Cahaya (or you can just buy it la, it's not expensive).

Love it, sweet and sour with the crunchy edible seeds!

The view outside Cahaya store, i think it was the Chinatown area and you can see a lot of temples there (btw, Makassar's so strange, they actually display coffins in front of the store-which is located in one of these packed type of townhouses! Side by side with eateries and other type of everyday businesses... Very perplexing for us!)

Like this one (i'm obviously talking about temples, not coffin stores)

Or that one

Our next destination was back to the airport to pick up KC and CL, on the way there we passed by the famous Losari beach and saw a spectacular sunset.

Hunny snapped this from our car, pretty impressive, eh?

Very artsy fartsy, yes? Haha

After picking up KC and CL we... Went for dinner! LOL. Really, spent the entire day just chowing down food, it was a miracle that i didn't gain any weight afterwards! Thankfully so, i totally cannot afford that WTF zzz.

Makassar's very famous with their seafood and the first meal with the extended family was at New Dinar (we ate there one more time at the last night in Makassar *___*).

That's my extended family-from my father side. Everybody's busy mingling while i... spaced out

Like i mentioned many times, i'm essentially a very shy person at heart. I was painfully shy and scaredy as a child and i never fully lose that side of me. My extended family only know me as this super quiet, shy girl and i revert back into that persona whenever i saw them, including this first night. Later on this trip, i... pretty much showed them my true color, thanks to my sis in law who's super loud and funny, i cannot control myself when she's around *LOL*. I don't know how surprised my aunts were when they realized that i have this loud, crazy side they've never seen before...

Busy nom-nomming

I didn't snap all of the food's pic (coz i was too shy as well la) but i did snap some of the strange looking one. Like this weird looking fish with rock hard outer "shell", the shell's not edible yah, don't break your tooth trying to bite into it!

It's for decorative purposes only haha

The black thingy in the middle is a special Makassar style cooking (sigh, i dunno the names) and my mum loved it. It's sweet but with bitter charred taste, not for me!

While i was busy snapping pics of the fried fishes, hunny was more interested in their original forms.

Ugh, ugly fishes

The weird square fish that the attentive staff immediately posed when he saw hunny snapping pictures hahaha. Look at his accusing eyes "You ate my siblings!!!!". Well, you're next, fishie!!!

One more

This one not a fish but CL acting cute hahahaha

We weren't ready to call it a night yet and decided to try out another of Makassar specialty (as if there's no tomorrow zzz), pisang epe, and we went to Losari Beach (where the pisang epe seller lined the street) for them.

Touristy pic with hunny

And CL

Candid pic that shows that i am way too attached to my phone...

My mum, aunt and uncles

Trying out the pisang epe (which is essentially a grilled banana with palm sugar sauce)

We posed so happily with the pisang epe, but our real reaction was reflected by KC below :

LOL

Yep, we DID NOT enjoy it! The banana tasted raw, and not nice at all *LOLOLOL*. It's a matter of taste, of course, i know a lot of people likes pisang epe, we're just not one of them! None of us seemed to be able to finish a single portion, and each portion's already split among multiple persons *LOL*.

My bro with my cousins (i have a lot more cousins than these haha, more boys than girls in this family though), he seems to blend in with them (three of them are my peers while the two in the far right and left are the two doctors who are younger than me) although he's much older than them :p. Odang looks suspiciously so much like my nephew D that i want to pull his hair out *LOLOLOL*

Since we have so much plan in the next day (the elders' plans including Odang's wedding preparation, which we all intended to help out hence the early arrival in Makassar, but never quite realized because we *the younger generation :p* ended up doing more touristy things than helping out... LOLOLOL, basically we did nothing to help out with the preparations!!!), which mainly revolved around trying as much local food as possible, we decided to retire to our hotel rooms afterwards. 

So that's it for my day one, i will review the hotel next and please look forward for the second day-it's a lot more interesting!

#Pink