from Dublin to........Mirissa, Sri Lanka: Pantai Bira..... Sulawesi, Indonesia

Located in a southern corner of Sulawesi on the way to….well, nowhere….Bira is a very small coastal town divided into the touristic section and the half where locals live. Now when I say touristic, you shouldn’t picture major hotels or anything remotely close to that….there are a few guesthouses on the beach and some set slightly back and the odd very small boutique resort, yet despite this the town is exceptionally quiet save for weekends when hoards of local tourists file in by the bus load and make a mess of the place. Even on weekends you can easily escape them by venturing to the adjacent beach.

Bira is a destination for diving, snorkelling and just chilling on a fine white sand beach with nobody else to disturb you. It is a pleasant enough 5-6 hours by kijang from Makassar unless you get a psychopath as a driver or your vehicle is full (can mean anywhere between 10-14 people). On the way back I nearly lost it as I was couped up against the car door with about one inch of wriggle room about ready to jump out the window before the vehicle finally stopped at let a few passengers off. Thank f#$! for that!

I ended up staying in Bira for three weeks as I became quite ill and grotesquely deformed and unfit for travel with other humans. Being in Bira was a blessing at this time as the guesthouse owners Nini, Gav and their daughter Sunshine were particularly friendly and helpful and I could quite happily be miserable in a hammock or on Bara beach until my face blew up and it was quite evident that I was in desperate need of some hard drugs from a quack doctor. I must have visited the beach almost every day over the 20 days, most often Pantai Bara, but on a few occasions when I had a scooter I went to Pantai Ara (rent them from Bob).

Pantai Bara is visible from Sunshine Guesthouse (where I stayed) and probably my favourite beach in the area. It is about a 2.5-3.0km walk either along the water’s edge at low tide (or up to the chest during high tide) or the baking hot back road through the dodgy karaoke precinct in the bush. Bara isn’t particularly long but unlike many other beaches, at high tide it still has some sand that isn’t submerged, and the all-important palm trees for aesthetics. It is super quiet and relaxing. There is some coral reef that you can swim to around high tide that is ok with the possibility of seeing turtles and bumpheads. The beach is fringed by a couple guesthouses and a small dive camp so you can get a beer there if you are desperate. As for food you are best off eating before or bringing something with you. The sand here is incredibly fine to the point it is almost like flour. Beautiful. So easy to spend the whole afternoon here. And half an hour before the sun sets, begin your walk back to town and finish off the day with a beer at one of the million empty warungs on Pantai Bira. Repeat the following day.

Pantai Ara is a 20 minute ride east along the coast. Only visitors with motorbikes head here. It is best to visit the beach outside of high tide as you won’t have any beach to lie on! When you reach the beach, ride as far left as you can and then continue on foot past the small rocky outcrop to a narrow stretch of beach which has a nice shaded area in the back corner. Nobody else will be here. Guaranteed! The beach has a very gentle slope so low tide takes the water’s edge out a fair way. This is an area infrequently visited and without any guesthouses nearby so the beach does have a reasonable amount of plastic bottles and drift wood that has accumulated on it but aside from this it is relatively clean. The first part of the beach has some small boat builders and seaweed farmers. The second half is protected by rock cliffs and no peering eyes.

On your way to Ara, stop by Pinisi, the small village that is famous for its wooden ship building which dates back centuries. These days most of the large boats end up in China as passenger ferries. They are impressive things to look at. The great thing about wandering through the ship yard is that you will see boats in all different stages of construction as they ensure that all the laborer with specific skills are always working on something….it’s a small production line if you like. I don’t quite know how they get them in the water but they do wait for a king tide. If you are in the area and they are due to launch one, hang around for it.

The other two drawcard activities are the snorkelling and diving. As you may have read in previous posts, I am not a fan of snorkelling trips. I decided to try one last one as there was a good bunch of people going and it was cheap, only US$5 each with 6 or more people (organise this through Sunshine Guesthouse as you will have a better experience than other people who met boat drivers on the beach). For US$5 you get a six hour trip at three to four different sights which can be at your choosing. I highly recommend going to the reef between Shark Point and the lunch spot on the nearby island. Spend a good couple hours here. The corals in the shallows are excellent! And there are turtles at the reef drop-off. Shark Point of course has plenty of sharks and turtles but isn’t great for coral. You can also go along the mainland past the shipwrecked barge but currents can make this less enjoyable for weak swimmers. Equipment and lunch are not included. Schools or bumpheads, snapper and the odd very large barracuda are possible.

I didn’t go diving in the end due to illness and my dislike for the main dive operator in Bira. Those that did go diving said it was quite good and had very close encounters with sharks and huge schools of fish but nobody saw the giant sun fish. Goat Island is a good spot to go diving but you may have to talk your operator into going out there as it is a little further away.

I wish I had some food options to recommend but it is more a case of recommending the least bad places to dine. Warung Bamboo is busy and reliable but service can be hit and miss. The food isn’t anything to get excited about but it’s better than the noodles in a cup at the beach warungs. Try and get the young girl Dewi to serve you as she is the most reliable and has a good sense of humour. The only other place is the warung further in town immediately to the left of the only ATM. She does quite a good Ayam Rica Rica (spicy sweet and sour chicken dish – not like the terrible Chinese dish you may be thinking of). The food was my only gripe in Bira. It gets very tiring very quickly. A few of the fancier places have restaurants as well and serve up acceptable food at a much higher price (still very affordable for most).