Malino: the hill town Makassar escapes to

Malino sits at about 1,200 metres in the Gowa highlands, an hour or two above Makassar, and the difference is immediate: the air cools, the rice gives way to vegetables, and the road starts to climb through pine and tea. It was built as a hill station in the colonial period, and it still works as one for people from the city.

The town is small and a bit worn, with a market, a mosque, a few streets of shops and a reputation for strawberries. The reason to come is the country around it: tea on the slopes, waterfalls in the valleys and lanes between market gardens that reward a slow morning on a motorbike. The centre takes twenty minutes to walk, and the best of the town is on its edges, where the lanes begin to climb.

The climb from Makassar

The road leaves Makassar through Gowa and climbs steadily for the last hour, winding through pine and vegetable plots with the plain opening out behind you. The surface is good, but it is narrow in places and shared with trucks, so the drive takes longer than the distance suggests.

It is about 70 km and takes two to two and a half hours by car. A motorbike is quicker on the bends and much colder and wetter when the cloud comes down. Angkots run from Gowa, so public transport is possible, but a car with a driver for the day is easier and lets you stop at the viewpoints on the way up. The last few kilometres are the steepest, and the temperature drops noticeably in the final half hour.

Tea, strawberries and market gardens

The tea plantations begin below the town and run up the hillside in contour rows, clipped and dark green. Malino tea is grown on estates that date from the colonial period; you cannot usually walk into the factory, but the rows are open to look at from the road, and the pickers are out in the morning. The estates draw their pickers from the villages around, and a basket of leaf goes down to the factory the same day.

Strawberries are the other crop, grown in raised beds under plastic in the gardens around town and sold at the roadside and in the market. Prices are low in season, roughly Rp 30,000 to 50,000 for a small basket. Cabbage, carrots, spring onions and chillies go down to Makassar every night in trucks, which is why the market here is best at dawn.

Waterfalls above the town

Air Terjun Takapala is the best known, a tall fall in the valley a short ride from town, with a car park, a few warungs and a lot of concrete steps. It is at its strongest in the wet season and can be a thin white line by October. The pool at the bottom is shallow and rocky rather than a swimming spot, and the steps down take about five minutes, all of them back up again.

There are other falls in the hills, some signed and some not, and the guesthouses will draw you a map. The best approach is to ask, take a motorbike, and accept that the last part may be a walk down a muddy path. Leeches are a feature of the wet season, and the rocks are slippery all year.

A hill station with a history

Malino's odd distinction is that it hosted a conference in July 1946, when the Dutch gathered delegates from the eastern islands as part of their attempt to build a federal Indonesia. It led to the state of East Indonesia, and it is remembered in the country with some ambivalence.

You would not come for the architecture alone, but the history explains why a small town at this altitude has a hotel with a ballroom and streets laid out for cars. The Dutch also planted the tea, and the paths the pickers use through the bushes have not changed much since. Near the market there is a small monument and a cluster of older buildings, most of them still in use.

Cool nights, wet afternoons and what to pack

Nights are genuinely cool, fifteen to twenty degrees, and the town has no heating; a jumper is not a joke. Rain is likely in the afternoon in the wet season and possible at any time, and cloud can sit on the road for hours. The dry season, roughly May to October, is the reliable window.

Bring shoes with grip, a light waterproof and cash, because there are only an ATM or two in town and they run out at weekends. Two nights is enough to see the tea, a waterfall and the market without hurrying, and the drive back down to the coast in the late afternoon is one of the best parts of the trip. The road is busiest between four and six, when the vegetable trucks head for Makassar.

• Start up the hill before eight to avoid the truck traffic.
• Ask your guesthouse which waterfall is flowing before you set out.
• Buy strawberries at the roadside stalls rather than the souvenir shops.
• Take a fleece for the evening, even in the dry season.

Questions people actually ask

Do you need a car to visit Malino?

It helps. Angkots reach the town from Gowa, but the tea estates and waterfalls are spread out along narrow lanes and a motorbike or a car with a driver makes the day far easier. Many people hire a car for the round trip from Makassar.

Is Malino cold?

Cool rather than cold. Days are pleasant, around twenty to twenty-five degrees, and nights drop to about fifteen. The town has no heating, so bring a jumper and expect damp air in the wet season.