Arrival by air
The airport is at 20 km from UP center, and not so far from the bus station.
Taxi's to the center cost 17.000 Rp, to the busstation should be less.
If you take a good hotel like the Radisson, just call them and they will send a free car to pick you up.
There are 4 flights a day to Manado, all departing in the morning.
Be careful at the airport: You will undoubtedly be approached by a guy who will try to sell you a tour to Toraja. As long as he only brings you to a hotel in UP, it's OK, but don't go with them on a tour. We were approached too, and he brought us to his office. Luckily we didn't do it because the prices they ask are ridiculous. When we came back from Flores, we saw the same thing happening with a German couple. We saw them in the hotel afterwards and their trip would have costed 480 US$ for 5 days! You can do all this much cheaper on your own without being dependent of the same guide all the time.
Going to Rantepao There are basically 4 ways to get Rantepao:
1) You take a tour with one of the touts at the airport, but I advise against it because it's very easy to do everything on your own and much cheaper too.
2) You can rent a car to Rantepao, even directly from the airport. Price was about 300.000 Rp for the car (6/98) and the trip will take 6 hours including a stop in Pare Pare.
3) The cheapest way is walking out of the airport for 300 m till you reach the main road. From there, you flag down a van which will take you to Pare Pare. From there you change cars to Rantepao.
4) If you have time enough, and you want to go to UP first, then you can better take a bus to Rantepao. Litha Company is excellent. Litha Bus company’s buses leave from the "Terminal Bis Panaikang". I recommend using this name rather than the alternate name "Terminal Bis Gowa" as suggested by some of the guidebooks, as the latter terminology only caused confusion.
Regular Ekonomi bus leaves at 8:00 AM. and tickets to Rantepao are Rp 15,000 (12/98).
The air-con express bus leaves at 10:00 AM and costs 28,000 (12/98). They drop passengers off at their final destinations (i.e. the hotel of your choice).
It took about 9.5 hrs to get to Rantepao.
Flight schedules Here is the flight schedule leaving from Ujung Pandang valid in May 1998:
- Denpasar: 2 flights in the afternoon (price 555.800 Rp 9/98)
- Manado: 4 flights in the morning (price was 853.900 Rp 9/98).
- Palu: 1 flight in the morning
- Surabaya: 5 flights in morning and afternoon
- Jakarta: 5 flights in morning and afternoon with stop in Surabaya. Price was 1.600.000 Rp with Garuda (9/98), Merpati is cheaper at 1.1196.000 Rp (9/98).
- Maumere: 1 flight a day around midday, going further to Kupang, 545.900 Rp (9/98).
- Ambon: 2 flights (morning and afternoon) , price 802.000 Rp (1/99).
Accommodation All the big hotels offer incredible bargains nowadays (5/98).
Radisson: small rooms, prices start from 149.000 Rp including breakfast. Their restaurant is good, except the lobster. They don't have a swimming pool, but they have e-mail and internet at 45.000 Rp per hour (10/98).
Sedona: big 5-star hotel. We payed 400.000 Rp for 1 night. The standard rooms here are bigger then the suites in the Radisson. They have a swimming pool, their breakfast is poor quality. I got an e-mail from the manager saying their breakfast is now up to 5-star standards. They also have a new website at www.sedonamakassar.co.id (10/2000).
David Sills stayed at the Ramayana Satrya due to its relative proximity to the bus station ("I can’t think of any other reason to stay there"). It’s an OK low-end hotel – an "ekonomi" double (noisy fan, mandi) cost only 20,000 + 2,500 tax – 11/98). Mediocre restaurant. The Ramayana Satrya is about 3 long hot km from the Panaikang bus station. Rp 500 Pete pete (bemo), or 5,000 for a non-metered taxi (12/98).
A much cheaper option is the legend Hotel, but their dorm beds can be noisy due to the next door karaoke bar, price is 7.500 Rp pp (10/98).
What to do ?
Fort Rotterdam is quite nice. It takes less then 1 hour to visit.
Bantimurung waterfalls: at about 35 km from UP. We hired a taxi to get there (70.000 Rp). The falls are OK to fill up some time before you take your plane in the evening. Plenty of butterflies.
Warning
Reports from 8/99 say that there is tension in UP because of refugees from Molucca living there and military personnel being stationed there in case they need to intervene on the Moluccas.
In the mean time, problems on the Moluccas are only escalating with more killings being reported. |
