If you follow me on twitter, you probably know that I won
two return ticket from Tiket.com to any city in Indonesia with Citilink back on
June 2015. Yes, it’s almost two years ago but I was not really in the mood for
writing my travel journey back then (excuses, excuses! Shame on you, Jani). So
on 3rd to 6th of July 2015, I went to Makassar with my
cousin. We visited and saw many interesting place there and I will try my best
to share it all with you guys. As for now, I present you the beautiful Fort
Rotterdam.
We came here by an angkot (it is called pete-pete in
Makassar). We get in to the blue pete-pete in front of Pantai Losari area and
took off right in front of the Fort Rotterdam entrance. I think it cost us
about IDR 5.000 for a single ride to Fort Rotterdam. Well, I just gave the
driver that amount of money and leave though. LOL!
Fort Rotterdam is a 17th century fort that lies
in the heart of Makassar. It used to be a fort to protect the city of Makassar
from colonist. However the Fort Rotterdam is given to the Dutch colony due to
the loss of Gowa Kingdom in 1667. And yes, I know this because I love my
country history (JK. I read this on Wikipedia
It is a rectangular shape fort and six bulwarks (only five
still visible to this day). There are Bastion Bonie to the west, Bastion Boeton
to the northwest, Bastion Batjang to the southwest, Bastion Mandassar to the
northeast and, Bastion Amboina to the southeast. This rectangular and six
bulwarks shape make the fort look like a sea turtle from above, hence the
Benteng Penyu (sea turtle fort) nickname.
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| Image source: here |
The entrance ticket was a pay-as-you-wish thing. So you can
pay as much as you feel, but mostly around IDR 5.000 or IDR 10.000 per person
is enough. There is also history museum inside the Fort Rotterdam area. It cost
you around IDR 10.000 if I’m not mistaken.
It was a huge place! Not to mention that almost every
building looks pretty similar. My cousin and I been wandering around for about
30 minutes or so before we decided to get a tour guide to explain everything in
here. I don’t really remember whether they set a specific price for the tour
guide service, but I remember I gave him IDR 50.000 for a 2 hours tour around
the Fort Rotterdam. Feel free to tip him as well.
I don’t really recall what he was talking about since it
happened two years ago. It was mostly about the fight of the Makassar people
and the history about the Gowa kingdom, if I’m not mistaken. If you are someone
who keen on history, I would really recommend you to come to Fort Rotterdam
when you happen to be in Makassar. Well if not, just come and take a lot of
pictures since the place is very beautiful to take pictures.
***
Fort Rotterdam
Jl. Ujung Pandang
Bulo Gading, Makassar
South Sulawesi, Indonesia
Opening hours: 8 AM – 6 PM
