On the Go in Manado 9: To Tomohon

I woke up early at the Mokoyang Indah Guesthouse (the previously described as the strangest hotel I've ever stayed in) in an effort to catch the sunrise. See, it was an eastern facing coast, and in my opinion there's nothing with the potential for being spectacular so much as the sight of the sun coming up over the water.

The fishing town of Belang

Alas, again due to the continuing learning curve in relation to my new camera, I watched a beautiful sunrise, was inspired, but did not get any of it on video. Made for some nice photos though.

The next leg of the journey, as they all were by this point, was quite short. I took a 90 minute straight shot into 4 hours of exploration by trying to use back roads, interacting with the people as much as possible, and stopping at any place along the way of even the slightest interest.  

The first order of business after leaving Tababo (Belang) was to find breakfast. It was in the small town of Bentenan, near the 'unnamed road' in the map above, that I found a tiny 'warung' selling various breakfast foods. I was there for only a couple minutes when the local elementary school gang came rolling in. They were there for their breakfast too.

They had fun talking to the 'buleh' and I had fun talking to them too. Eventually, when I was ready to go, I had to shoo them on. They'd be late for school.  

Move along. Nothing to see here. 

I  will say this about the roads in North Sulawesi. I hadn't run into any roads that I would call bad. Smooth, well marked, and wide enough to allow easy passing, these were how I would describe every pavement I'd gone down.

Until I ran into Unnamed Road. I know now to admit when a road isn't worth it.

Too many times over the course of my many motorcycle journeys I've ended up on roads that I cursed myself for taking, but had gone too far along to turn back. That wasn't going to happen in Sulawesi.

 

Eventually, I rolled into Tomohon. At over 3300 feet elevation, there was a coolness to the air, such a nice change from the sweltering lowlands. Surrounded by volcanoes, Tomohon is absolutely beautiful, and one of North Sulawesi's notable tourist areas.

I knew on arrival and checking into my bungalow that I'd be here a couple days.

Lastly, I tried to visit a waterfall that I'd found listed on a couple 'things to see in Tomohon' websites. Turns out I was looking in the wrong place, but I still found interesting stuff.