Originally we scheduled to go to Bira in August as I already have cheap Garuda tickets acquired during travel fair last year. But in October I received a surprise in form of little blip inside me and there is no way I could travel to Bira with a baby less than 1 month old.
It had been too long since the last time I went to a beach so I made decision that we just had to go to Bira during chinese new year holidays before my belly gets even bigger that my pics on the beach would make me look like a humpback whale rather than a cute preggy mermaid (IMPORTANT). Besides we just need to take 2 days off out of total 5 days.
I booked a car (avanza) to pick us up from Makasar airport and drove us to Tanjung Bira. I checked several options I got from browsing the internet and finally settled on Bugis Makasar trip car rental owned by Mas Ayit (087841486660). His website: here
I paid Rp700,000 one way. There is also option to rent a car on daily basis with or without driver. I chose to just do drop off as we’re going to stay for 5 days and Bira is pretty compact. Being 19W preggy I dont want an ambitious itinerary. I just want to island hop and do some snorkeling, swimming on the beach and work on my tanning (NOT).
Other option to go to Bira is take public transportation from Terminal Malengkeri to Bulukumba and continue taking pete-pete from Bulukumba to your hotel in Bira. Taking public transport (Kijang in this case) means sitting for 5 hours with no aircon and squeeze with other people.
Mas Ayit’s driver is ready when we landed. The driver’s name Pak Majid is a nice guy. The car is still very new, Pak Majid said it was only bought last year.
We stopped to eat Coto Nusantara, near the port in Makasar before heading to Bira.
The 5 hours trip to Bira is a pretty enjoyable one even for this preggy woman. We passed thru Makasar- Takalar-Jeneponto-Bantaeng-Bulukumba-Bira. Takalar has nothing exciting to offer, but the view along Jeneponto is nice. We saw many field paddies, horses and cows along the way. Jeneponto is famous for its Coto Kuda and salt ponds.
We didn’t make any stop on our way to Bira. But on our way back we stopped at Jeneponto and had lunch at rumah makan Turatea, the famous rumah makan in the area.
Drive thru Bantaeng is also a nice ride along the coast
After reaching Bulukumba we stopped at Kulaka beach, near the ferry port to Selayar island to see the making of phinisi boat. Kulaka beach is stunning with white sands and coconut tree.
We finally reached Tanjung Bira around 3 pm and went straight to Bara Beach Bungalow. The plan was to stay for 2 nights in Bara Beach Bungalow as I wanted to swim in a calm Bara Beach and then we would spent another 2 nights in the luxurious Amatoa resort.
Both Bara beach and Amatoa resort is at the opposite end of the bay. Bara Beach bungalow could be reached thru walking from Bira beach during low tide only. It is at the farthest end of Bara beach and the road to the bungalow was not paved. It would be around 40 minutes walk from the bungalow to Bira if we took that road.
More detail and pictures on Bara and Bira on my next post.
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