TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The elegance of Bira Beach is unique and distinctive. The beach is known as Bira Bay Beach as it is nested on the southmost of one of the ‘leg’ of Sulawesi Island. The gentle sloping shore of Bira holds fine grains of sand, as fine as pollens of a flower. Rumors say that the fineness of Bira sand is the best among in Indonesia.

I sat on one corner of a cliff of about 7-meter height. The cliff extends in length as if it fences the beach that is located in Bulukumba Regency. I took my time relaxing under a tree, being lulled by the breeze and watched the sunlight being refllected by the clear ocean. All of these dried out my sweat.

From my spot, in a far, I saw groups of travelers crowding the 40-meter beach. The looked happy playing on the sand, swimming, water-sporting or just taking photos. Rows of boats danced alongwith the rolling sea wave.

I walked further from the crowd, along the beach on which the water receded westward, towards Bara Beach. There was no strong fishy smell typical to coastal area and no sound of crashing waves. The small bay that hides the beach offers a calm sea wave. Fourty minutes later, I arrived in Bara Beach.

Not so different to Bira Beach, Bara Beach also has gentle sloping shore. The color gradation on the sea and rows of coconut trees has kept my eyes from blinking. While Bira offer the captivating view of the the rising sun, Bara offers golden moments of the sunset into the horizon.

I dame to Bira the night before, after a long delay at Malengkeri Terminal. The travel vehicle, a kind of minibus, that took me to Bulukumba was not full until 2 almost two hours later. When another travel vehicle offered me a ride directly to Bira Bay, I opted to go with them. I sat beside Pak Hafid, the driver, who always busy with his phone, horn and gas pedal.

Pak Hafid’s vehicle stopped several times for passengers until the outskirt of Makassar. This what makes the 190-km distance was traveled in four hours. The road from Makassar to Bira is coated with smooth asphalt. For me, the trip is fun instead of boring. I have never taken my eyes away from the window when the car passed by several regencies : Gowa, Takalar, Jeneponto, and Bantaeng.

In Jeneponto, I saw many restaurants offering horse meat menu, which is the regency’s iconic dish. After Bantaeng, I finally arrived in Bira. Pak Hafid dropped off my guesthouse gate after transporting two other passengers to their desired addresses.

Although it was weekend when I visited Bira on April, the beach was not too crowded. Since 2011, more domestic tourists have been visiting Bira.

“It was in fact, foreign tourists who first visited this place. They always seen on the beach even on non-holidays. Bule-bule likes to sunbath here. They say they got dark faster because they can lie on the sand longer. Bira’s sand is not hot. But many others also only stop for shorter time because they are on the way to Taka Bonerate to dive,” saud Daeng Aneng, who accompanied me to this place.

The diving spot mentioned by Daeng Aneng is Taka Bonerate National Park which is indeed a favorite diving spot for divers. Taka Bonerate hid the world’s third largest atol with coral reefs spreading accross 500 square kilometers coverage.

Daeng Aneng’s loud voice had accomapined me to Liukang Loe, an island across Bira Beach. It took only 15 minutes from Bira to the underwater parks around Liukang Loe. Colorful coral reef and other marine biota peeked from beneath clear sea water, in not more than 4-meter depth.

Fortune goddes was on my side that day as I encountered nemo (clown fish) after snorkled less than one hour. The nemo sneaked in and out between other fishes such as clown trigger fish, angel fish, banner fish and butterfly fish.

Daeng Aneng offered me a trip to the further Kambing Island, but I refused it beacuse I did not want to skip the sunset. I opted to go to a sea turtle breeding not far from my snorkling spot. I was the only visitor in the breeding that day. While dipping my feet into a pool where more than 10 turtles swam, I ordered a cup of coffee.

“Do you want to swim with the turtles?” said the lady who brought me my coffee.

“Ow, no thanks. I had enough swimming. A bit tired,” I said smiling, while my head imagined the horror of swimming among half-meter large turtles.

When Daeng Aneng joined me with his own coffee, he told me a brief history about the Pinisi boat makers. About how the Pinisi makers have always made the ship on certain days that are believed to be a good day according to their traiditonal beliefs.

Differently from other ships, Pinisi is built without design or drawing. The ship’s wall is made first, then the skeleton. For the ship’s keel (kalibiseang), besi, ulin and pude woods are used. Teak or bayam woods are used for other parts of the ship that are not in direct contact with water. The woods are bound together using nylon string, bamboo drawstring, bark and glued with putty that is made of lime and palm oil (nowadays, the putty is made of sawdust and glue). The pinisi construction is started with rituals to get approval from the inhabitants of trees.

After finishing two glasses of coffee, Daeng Aneng and me headed back to Bira Bay. The shore was less crowded. I bid a farewell to Daeng Aneng and withdrew away from the crowd. I sat on a log that was swayed by the wave, staring straight to the sky. The sun was only inches away from the horizon. Time went by and thesky was thickening, yellow as the sunflower.

Among the sound of waves and whining mosquitos I fell into silence. The time when the sun set is a meditation. Contemplative. A silence. Bira Bay Beach is indeed a match for a loner like me.

MONA SYLVIANA