MTC, Lapangan Karebosi, Makassar

At 4.00pm, it was still RAINING, so we took a cab to MTC, where we supposed to meet Anis. We went there earlier just to kill time and to see what the mall has to offer (as Anis said it is like Lowyat). It’s located right in front of Lapangan Karebosi which served the ONLY underground mall in Indonesia, via Karebosi Link.

Anis told us to wait her at the main entrance and once we reached there, I quickly identified which one was the main entrance. Since it was still early, we decided to have a quick window shopping, started with ground floor.
Tips : A must place to go.

The place was actually pack with IT gadgets, accessories, clothes, shoes and many more, exactly like Lowyat. Amazingly, they were selling DVDs, 10,000rupiah-RM3 for 4 pieces! And some of them are still in cinema! Hell yeah…I would have bought MANY DVDs if I wasn’t afraid of being caught by Malaysian Immigration. Hahaha!
Hubby tried to look for CF Card but there wasn’t much option to choose. The price was actually more than what Lowyat can offer, so he skipped buying it. We did look for shoes to be worn during India trip, but none can satisfy us. I had difficulties in finding the IPod casing as ALL salespersons didn’t get what I was trying to say. They know IPhone, but not IPod. Duhhh…
Anis then sms-ed and told that she will be coming after Maghrib prayer. So we still have more time to loiter around the mall. We stopped at one café at 4th floor and sat next to the window, where we can view the whole Lapangan Karebosi and Mandala Monument. While sipping ‘teh botol’ we had a chat with the waitresses.
There are four type of multitudes in Sulawesi. The Makassar, Toraja, Bugis and Mandara. She’s a Makassar and according to her, Makassar is quite rude compared to Toraja. Rude in terms of they way they talk to people. Besides, they will bring ‘badik’ (small knife) along with them. If they say they want to kill someone, they will kill that person there and then. Meanwhile, Toraja is a kind of race that is too arrogant. They embarrass to do cheap labor work. They let themselves unemployed, get poorer, than selling food at the street.

She also told us that Javanese are more civilized coz they are willing to work, anywhere, regardless what type of job they have to do, just to earn more. And that is why we see many Javanese in Malaysia. The story became more and more interesting when she started to tell us, there are syndicates of kidnapping babies and adults (below 40), kill them and take out their lung, heart, eyes and other organs, for black market! She, herself, as local, comes to work and goes back home using ‘pete-pete’ (small van without door), might put herself in that terrified state.

Tips : Always be cautious and aware of your surroundings, whenever you go.

She later changed the subject to Makassar type of marriage and burial. Makassar isn’t different with Malay where guys give dowry to girls. But Makassar can never marry a Padang, coz Padang guys will ask for dowry from the girls too. Hahaha! But burial ceremony even interesting! It’s all depend on how much money you have coz burial ceremony needs you to give the WHOLE village the meat. Sapi (cow) meat! Not one, not two, but more than three, A VERY VERY VERY GOOD type of Sapi (depend on how good it’s skin is). Crazy huh? So don’t be surprise if you find corpse in their house, on their bed, for more than a year.

And I don’t know why, a girl whom her grandma has passed away, need to give cow to the whole village! For what???

We were then speechless when she suddenly changed the mood to a vast issue of Malaysian victimizing Indonesian, a.k.a maid issue. We quickly told her that EVERY country has good and bad people. EVERY where is just the same. We told her what Indonesian workers have done to our country, like killing people, house-breaking, fighting each other, and she’s been quite tolerant when she heard that.

Tips : Pick your strangers and your topics. Try to avoid racism or country issue. Some people might not happy with it.

We ended up by paying for the drinks and said bye-bye to her. Such a beautiful young lady who gave us much info of Makassar. We continued walking down the mall and took the Karebosi Link to the other side. We snapped few pictures and seemed like they were preparing for something huge tomorrow. Some sort of ‘GODS parade’ where they wear like ‘dewa-dewi’ around town. (Don’t ask me what was that for.)
We then went down the underground mall and the place was actually quite huge. There were outlets selling bags, clothes, accessories, shoes, handphones, blablablabla…but wait…199,000rupiah for a ‘blueberry’ phone? Who cares if its not a BLACKberry? I don’t! So we quickly asked one of the salesperson but too bad, the price wasn’t for that ‘blueberry’. Duhhh…

Tips : Just grab any cheap gadgets! If it's not working, it's worth a buy. Haha!

Anis called! She has arrived at MTC!