Needing to escape from Jeneponto after a slightly stressful time organising training courses, I headed down to Bira for the weekend, and actually quite enjoyed it. Bira is the type of place recommended in Lonely Planet, so popular with backpackers. It also seems to be popular with drunk Russians, retired Dutch and VSO volunteers.
Actually most of the tourists there are local - Good Friday is a public holiday here, but with no family or religious obligations for the overwhelmingly Muslim population, so a good opportunity for a weekend away.
Bira is so nice, that even the "Karaoke Bars" (i.e. knocking shops) are hidden discretely off the main road in the forest. Which leaves the main (and only) street free for shacks selling fish, cold beer and snorkels.
Bira is a bit of a long way to go for most people (6-8 hours from Makassar), but for me the motorcyle ride there was one of the highlights, threading along the coast for 100km on increasingly broken roads, an opportunity to notice the contrasts between different areas. Things look much nicer as you move east - Bantaeng is a tidy little town, Bulakumba is really quite shiny in parts, and the peninsular down to Bira reminds me a bit of Cornwall. But hotter, and with more goats.
Why is everything in Jeneponto so broken? In Bantaeng, you get proper roadworks - diggers, cones, diversion signs, the lot. In Jeneponto, a hole big enough for a motorbike to fall through appeared in a bridge, about 3 weeks ago. The hole is still there - and all the warning drivers get is a couple of branches hacked off a nearby tree and laid in the road. Something's wrong here.
Metres of golden beaches. That isn't rubbish - just plastic bottles used as floats for fishing nets.
Megan the motorcycle stops for a rest near Bantaeng.
