Depressing Ujungpandang is still great seafood catch

UJUNGPANDANG, South Sulawesi (JP): All I remember of Ujungpandang is wide, wide tree-lined avenues, a gorgeous road along the beach called Strand Boulevard (this was in the days when Ujungpandang was called Makassar, which I still prefer), cakes so sweet they made your hair stand on end and the best seafood in this world and the next.

But this was the Ujungpandang (or Makassar) of more than 40 years ago, and, of course, things have changed.

I think it would have been bad if anything had remained the same.

The boulevard, now rechristened Jl. Pantai Losari, is still the most popular stretch for a late afternoon stroll to watch the sun take its daily dive in the sea. But now the road is half its former width, as the other half on the ocean side has been set aside for roving food and drink vendors. This may have made the spot even more popular, but it is horrendous for evening drivers who have to make do with a snail's pace (and lots of teeth grinding) when negotiating their vehicles through the mass of humans.

Too bad for the drivers, that is. The moral of the story?

Well, don't take your own wheels if you plan to linger a bit on Pantai Losari after sunset -- as you certainly should.

Why don't I include Fort Rotterdam among the remembrance of things past? For the simple reason that 40 years ago it was still in the condition that made it less than unworthy as a must- see item, and suitable only for the wrecker's ball.

But the thing was erected a couple of hundred years ago, when thick walls were thick walls and walls of forts even more so.

The fort has risen again (though not in its original function, thank you) and now rightly holds pride of place in the city.

Insist on a good guide who can tell you about the fort. One, a tourist industry student, attached himself to me, but when I asked him about divisions -- location of enlisted men's quarters, the commanding officer's quarters, magazines, mess hall -- the poor boy was at a loss for explanations, though he was rather voluble about the boring subject of atrocities inflicted by the Dutch.

I had looked forward very much to the few days sojourn in Ujungpandang, and was determined to have a good time. However, I wasn't prepared for the distressing sights that greeted me practically everywhere. Of course, news publications had been full of reports about the riots that took place some weeks before, but the extent of the destruction was stunning.

Few buildings were left in tact or so it looked to me, except perhaps in the outer suburbs.

Gaping holes that once were entrances, doors and windows had already been boarded up, leaving some local wags to comment sourly that the most popular type of building material at the moment was plywood.

What I found even more disheartening was that there seemed to have been an element of premeditation; how else to explain the mutilated houses in narrow streets of low-income suburbs, standing next to others that were left untouched?

Many were the homes of indigenous people who were embarrassed about the turmoil, including the governor who, to his credit, opened the grounds of his official residence to the fleeing Chinese against whom the violence was directed. Everything is apparently back to normal now, but I could still detect a degree of wariness among my Chinese cousins.

Despite the depressing views, I did have a good time, thanks to the seafood dishes for which Ujungpandang is justly famous.

I must admit that as a resident of Jakarta -- though ethnically from elsewhere -- I tend to regard anywhere on the coast, except our fair capital, as a paradise of seafood. To cut a long story short, I ate myself sick on giant prawns, sweet snapper, succulent bandeng (milk fish), and other types of goodies from the depths of the ocean that had gone straight from the sea into the pan.

Or on the coals, rather, because plain roast is probably the best way to eat fresh fish.

And since it was durian season in the city we, a niece and her husband who live there, went on durian binges several times.

If only for the food, I resolved not to let another couple of decades go by before setting foot on the soil of one of Indonesia's prettiest cities.

-- Gus Kairupan