Leang Leang prehistoric park

Time to get back to the Makassar trip stories...

The last article on the trip in this blogspot, On to Makassar city referred to the second day of the trip, 4th May 2013. The following day we visited a number of places near Makassar before resting for 3 days. On 9th May we started making visits again by going out quite a distance outside of Makassar. starting with a place called Taman Prasejarah (Prehistorical park of) Leang Leang.

The park is situated within an area with a long limestone hill range.

I was told it is famous for prehistoric drawings inside its caves.

Along the way to the caves there are some interesting rock formations.

 See my right foot in bandages? Well, it was actually in half-cast up to my thigh due to a fall on 23rd April which caused a serious bone fracture and torn ligament.

As it turned out it is quite a distance to get to the caves. And then one have to climb up quite high up staircases. I'm afraid it would be too much strain (and pain) for me to walk so far with injury and on crutches.

So I decided to just sit on a bench and watch the rock formations while others went to explore far...

How the Malays' economic dominance was usurped by the non-Malays

Peace  be upon you all. A few hours ago a friend of mine who is an activist in Islamic finance gave me a pdf copy of an academic study of how the Malays' economic dominance was usurped by the non-Malays through the introduction of fiat money and banking. She passed it to me via Facebook and I wanted to share it with others through that media. Unfortunately my other friends have trouble uploading it. So I decided to change the whole pdf document to jpeg and put it here...

Nuqtah exhibition at Galeri Shah Alam

This is from 3 days ago.

On Tuesday me and wife went to Shah Alam to attend a radio live interview. After that we went to Galeri Shah Alam, the local art gallery.

There is a particular exhibition we want to have a look at.

Called "Nuqtah - Jalinan Dua Tradisi: Puisi Melayu Dalam Keindahan Seni Khat", the name of the exhibition could be literarily translated as "Nuqtah - Interweaving Two Traditions : Malay Poetry in the Beauty of the art of Islamic Calligraphy".

That itself could explain the theme of the exhibition. For what the word Nuqtah means, have a look at the article "Nuqtah" khat exhibition at Chandan art gallery, Damansara Heights made over a year ago.

The exhibition was started about 2 weeks ago. We were invited to the official opening on 23rd June but could not make it due to certain constraints. So we came in on Tuesday just sort of to make amends...

"Nuqtah - Jalinan Dua Tradisi: Puisi Melayu Dalam Keindahan Seni Khat" would continue at this gallery until the end of the month. You can visit their Facebook page here

On to Makassar city

Continued from A look at the University of Hasanuddin, Makassar.

OK. In terms of official border, the University of Hassanuddin lies 1-2 km outside the city of Makassar.

But urbanised sections extend well outside the border.

It is only when one has passed certain monuments such as this then one is officially in the city...

As we went on towards the city centre another university came into view.

This is its hospital.

I could see a number of mosque including this.

A prominent landmark of Makassar, one of its tall buildings.

Entering the city centre. In general I noticed the buildings are around 5-6 stories tall. 

But the city is sprawling covering quite a large area. I was told Makassar is the biggest city in Indonesia east of Surabaya. For the record this is the 1,155th article in this blogspot.

A look at the University of Hasanuddin, Makassar

The article Flight to Makassar shows us arriving at the city of Makassar airport late in the afternoon. The following afternoon, Saturday 4th July 2013 we started exploring the city.

We started by having a look at its main university, the Universitas (university of) Hasanuddin.

Like the airport, the university is named after a prominent 17th century ruler of the kingdom of Goa of which Makassar, also known as Ujung Pandang is the main port and centre of commerce.

Our host is a senior lecturer and professor here. However she was also attached to the Akademi Pengajian Melayu (Malay Studies Akademi) at Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

She showed us around a few faculties including that of literature of which she is a main member.

However what caught my eye the most is the medical faculty which runs its own hospital.

This is because we've just learned that there are quite a number of Malaysians studying at Hassanuddin university and most if not all is in medicine.