Rob and Anna's travel adventure

Bira, Southern tip Sulawesi

Anna's entry:

Today is December 24. Holidays don't matter as much when one travels for many months. Often, holidays become just another day in a calendar, a distant memory of the "normal" holiday agenda...
I feel happy today though and finally rested. The weather has been perfect for the last few days - the Western monsoon calmed down, and it is perfectly still on both sides of Sulawesi peninsula. We are staying on the Southern most tip of Sulawesi, on the East side called Pantai Timur. We have been here for almost a week now (after a futile attempt to find more isolation at near-by Pulau Selayar, which turned out to be another example of commercial greed taking over the island). And, we have been snorkeling and enjoying waves and sunset on the Western side (about 25 minutes walk from the Eastern side) called Pantai Bira. Pantai Timur (where we are staying) is secluded and quiet, it is a strip of perfect white sand surrounded by turquoise ocean and palm trees, and a few fishing boats. There is actually only place to stay on Pantai Timur - one thatch bungalow on stilts (which we are occupying) and one house (occupied by a Dutch couple). Besides that, our only company on the beach are the locals and sea gypsies. The sea gypsies have a Nomadic lifestyle, they follow calm seas and make their living by fishing. They set up their camp right on the beach; and in the evening the entire families gather around small fires for the meal. They sleep under the plastic tarp, and there is always laughter and good mood around their place. The sea gypsies are well accepted by a local community, and a mutual respect is a given. They seem genuinely happy and friendly, and we are always greeted by friendly "hello's" and big smiles. We were told that in a few months when the monsoon starts from the East, the sea gypsies will pack up and go to a new location, but for now while the weather and ocean are still on Pantai Timur, they'll be hanging around for a while.

Up till today there were only a few westerners in Bira, and we had the entire place to ourselves including the ocean, cliffs, beach, and town. Today, more tourists (mostly Australians) showed up on the West side, and the place started to loose its exotic feel. A lot more uncovered half naked bodies (frequently sunburnt) marching through the streets, often not in the best shapes that probably would have looked a lot better by being covered up (just a reminder, we are in the Muslim part of the country)... Luckily, by staying on the East side we are well isolated from bad foreign habits, and the four of us keep a piece of tranquility to ourselves, haring the ocean and a piece of paradise only with the sea gypsies...

Going back to the ocean.... We got some instructions from locals where to go snorkeling around the reef, and we were also told that we might get lucky and see a turtle. Huh??? Is that it? We should be able to do better that that we thought, but we kept our expectations low. After two days of snorkeling on the East side, we decided to take our chances on the West side - by that time the seas got really calm and visibility improved up to 20 meters (60 ft). We swam from the shore towards the reef, and decided to leisurely snorkel about 2 km along the coast line, and then turn around and return the same distance back - luckily both Rob and I wear wet suits, which allows us to stay in the water for hours (4 hours per day this time). We took it slow and easy, sometimes we felt almost weightless, if flying in the water... We were rewarded greatly with what we have seen in the water, and when we gave report of the marine life sightings after each snorkel day to the locals, they were pleasantly shocked to hear what we'd seen. Later on, a few of them were waiting for us with stories of our snorkel adventure. We were supposed to see a turtle, if lucky - what did we see? Here is the abbreviated list: 32 sightings of sea turtles, 4 sightings of black tip reef sharks, eagle ray, banded sea snake, two sightings of 40+ and 60+ napoleon fish, giant moray eels, 3 blue spotted sting rays, barracudas, yellow pipe/needle/trumpet fish, giant parrot and butterfly fish, clown fish, lots of hard and soft corals (some giant brain corals); numerous tropical fish.

After a long day of snorkel, we'd head out to a small restaurant for dinner, we wouldn't bother changing our wet clothes, straight to the eatery carrying wet suits, fins, masks, and snorkels. That's a good part about traveling in the developing world - foreigners are accepted wit hall their peculiarities...

Now, I have to share a not so happy memory... As a matter of fact, a very sad one. One night at dinner, I noticed a baby goat limping along side of the road. Bira has goats every where, but I never see such young babies by themselves. At first we thought, maybe the mother was somewhere behind, but the next day we say the baby goat by herself again. We approached her and realized one of her legs was broken, she could move but with difficulty. She was a tiny cute baby girl goat, maybe two month old, with big ears and cute brown eyes; and she did not have a mother. We petted her, and gave her some mango peels. She began eating it with great pleasure, but mostly she wanted to be cuddled. We started bringing her mango peels, rice, water, grapefruit pieces, and occasional donuts. At first, locals were laughing at us, but day by day they stopped, and we even introduced a few kids to feeding the baby goat. One day, we even noticed that her fur got washed from all the accumulated poop niblets. Eventually, we even tracked down her owner. We were cordially invited to his house, and he explained to us, that the baby goat was born with broken legs, and that her mother refused to breast feed her. The owner gave the baby goat a milk from a concentrate, but recently his wife has a motorcycle accident and broke her leg. After that, the owner did not have the time to take care of the baby goat, so he took her away from his house where he thought she'd be safer and would not be attacked by a pack of wild dogs. Do I believe his story? Maybe, but just barely... My translation is this - it is possible the goat was born crooked, but most likely she was run over by a crazy motorcycle - most assholes do not stop for anything or anybody. It is possible, the owner took an effort to feed the baby goat with milk at first, but eventually failed to see a point in continuing doing so - he couldn't sell a crooked goat for meet or cattle. It is possible, that he took a baby goat in a safer location (never mind all the traffic, motorcycles, cars, bemos) but most likely he simply didn't care to have her around - out of sight out of mind. I really hope I am wrong. And, I really hope that after our departure, there is still a kind soul in Bira who would not mind caring for a gentle, sweet, baby goat with big trusting eyes and floppy ears even though she has only three paws and might not live very long...

posted by Rob and Anna @ 7:05 AM