On the Go in Manado 10 - Tomohon

I woke early on the 10th day of the journey to the sound of gardeners outside my window tidying up the grounds of the Mountain View Resort in Tomohon.

This was on the wall of the hotel where I
spent my first night in Manado.  Maybe it
planted a seed in my head.

Looking forward to a full day of sightseeing, I opened the door of my bungalow and sniffed the cool highland air. Glancing the gardeners, I was surprised. They were an older Western couple. White people doing the groundskeeping in a place where the minimum wage was about $5/day. It was the hotel manager and his wife, diligently weeding and raking up leaves. 

This was one of three accommodations I stayed at on the trip run by foreigners. Seeing them has put an idea in my head, perhaps I dare call it a dream.

From the Mountain View Resort

I got 20 years of teaching in me still, and I've got no idea what I'll do in retirement. I can picture myself raking leaves at Joko's Inn, opening up somewhere in SE Asia in 2035. Obviously, this would take a lot of resources, and I've got no idea what goes into opening and running a hotel other than what I've gleamed from being an avid traveler these last few years. Anyways, just floating an idea... perhaps I'll make it into a goal. 

What to see and do in Tomohon?  The first place to visit was the central market in the heart of the city. I'd read online that there were quite some unusual foods being sold there. I wasn't looking forward to seeing dogs on the butcher block again, but the idea of eating bat intrigued me. 

wings sold separately 

After visiting the market, it was a pleasant ride up the green slopes of the Mahawu Volcano. The volcano's crater was within a well tended national park, and I was expecting a significant foreigner entrance fee. I signed their guest book and was asked to make a donation of whatever I felt like making. That was refreshing. 

The video just covers the morning's activities there in Tomohon; what happened on the way back from the volcano gets its own video. 

On the Go in Manado 5: On the Road

Finally, it was time to get my motorcycle rental and hit the road. The agency's rep was going to meet me at the dock where the boat from Bunaken lands, so I'd be on my way with no time lost. I was so excited.

After doing some paperwork there at the same warung where I'd waited to go to Bunaken (no fork-wielding toddlers around this time), I climbed on the Honda Vario 150, and vroom! I was on the road.

Even though it was fully automatic, meaning I had no controls over the gears whatsoever, I was immediately impressed by the motorbike. I normally drive (or rent) bikes that are 125cc, and that extra 25cc of this one's motor was noticeable. Secondly, it's a Honday and it was brand new, less than 1100 km on the odometer. It had some pick up and was perfect for negotiating my way through Manado's relatively modest traffic. 

First stop was IT World, Manado's largest technology mall. Among it's dozens of camera shops, there were a plethora of models to choose from to replace my broken GoPro.

Can't tell from the pic, but this little guy is
about 2.5" x 4" x 1" in size.

Based on some recommendations, I settled on a Xiaomi Action Cam. It came with a waterproof case that fit the same mount that my GoPro uses, so it was helmet friendly. And at less than $100, it didn't break the travel budget. 

Like with any new technology, there's been a bit of a learning curve. Sometimes, I thought I was recording and I wasn't. Other times, I thought I was recording and instead I was taking pictures. It also occurred to me that when it was inside it's casing, the audio would certainly be effected. Would it even pick up sound inside the case? I found out along the way.

Next stop on the journey was lunch with Steve. He'd been reading my posts about this trip on an online forum for expats in Indonesia which I've been participating in, and he invited me to meet, and after a lunch of my favorite Indonesian food, Siomay Bandung, it was off to his home to meet his wife Penny and their dog, Bosco (who had made the trip with them from America).

Video frame grabs are fun. It looks like Steve has gone
berzerk here.

It turned out Steve was from San Francisco and Penny was from Morgan Hill, both towns very close to where I went to high school and the region to which I feel most connected. Steve and Penny had a lovely 3 bedroom house and grounds 20 minutes outside Manado for which they pay less in rent than I do on my little Yangon apartment. Manado is a nice place to spend retirement. 

A road in Steve & Penny's village.. Crosses everywhere.

After a tour of the home (which I thought I was recording) and a couple glasses of cap tikus, It was already 3:00 and I still had quite some ways to go. Because of its relative position within its time zone, the sun sets early here; I didn't have a lot of time. Steve had recommended that I take the coastal route all the way down to Anurang, my planned destination for the first leg. When I left, I decided to take the shorter route; I don't like looking for new places in the dark. 

When I got the crossroads, I stopped and thought about it for a second. I thought about if I'd ever get a chance to check out this road ever again in my whole life. What's a little inconvenience in place of the joy of driving through the jungle alongside a beautiful tropical coastline? As you can see on the map at the top of the page, there's an obvious shortcut that I didn't take. I'm quite glad I didn't. The views were amazing.  

Steve had also mentioned that if I stopped anywhere along the way, not to be surprised if the locals asked if they could have their picture taken with me.

At a beautiful beach out on the tip of the peninsula, that's exactly what happened. An older man started talking to me, and when he found out I was from America, he said, "Trump, good! Lots of money!" That's a bit different than the reaction I got in Myanmar from a Muslim guy. His daughter wanted her picture taken with me. Then the old guy grabs his son and says it's his turn.

I know how these things go; I'd be there a long time. I made my apologies, saying "it's already late afternoon..." and was back on the road. 

Also because the camera was brand new, it didn't have a fully charged battery and so the video today kind of ends abruptly as I was coming around a corner. 

On the Go to Manado 2: First Impressions

I woke up bright and early in Singapore, ready for my morning flight to Manado.  I was a bit lighter in the wallet (not just from the gambling; everything in Singapore is SO expensive!), but glad that the journey to my destination had required two days. Part of travel's whole appeal to me is seeing unique, new places. Singapore is one of the most singular places I had ever been. Truly remarkable. 

I would be driving down the very road in this picture just a few
days after it was taken

The flight to Manado was fascinating. See, I'd been planning this trip for some time, or, at least, day dreaming about it while viewing Google Earth. I'd spent hours studying the satellite imagery of Sulwesi's north coast, looking for possible places of interest and stopping points. As it came to an end, the flight path of the plane took it directly parallel to that north coast. Here, I was seeing in real life what I'd spent so long looking at on a computer screen. Ooh! I know that island! Aha! I know where we are! 

As a middle-aged guy who's spent a lot of times in planes, getting a window seat shouldn't be such a thrill anymore.  One might think that I've gotten used to it by now.  Well, I haven't.  I'm still filled with a childlike sense of wonder when I get to stare out at billowy clouds, fascinating coastlines and even miles and miles of empty ocean. I hope I never lose that, and it's sights like this that help rekindle it. These two atolls didn't show up on the Google Earth. 

Striking similar, looking like cat's eyes and positioned in just the right proportion to each other and to the concave sloping coast of mainland below, it looked like the island of Sulawesi was looking up and smiling at me. 

Manado isn't that big of a city, and my hotel was fairly well located in it's heart. It was a short mini-van-bus ride into downtown, where I spent some time wandering and looking for a couple more items for my trip.  As dinner time came, I found exactly what I was looking for: a nice clean restaurant overlooking the water. 

After sunset, I went the other way from my hotel into the older part of town. This was on eve of Good Friday, and Manado is a fervently Christian town.

In the Western church, they've never reconciled the notion  of Christ's resurrection with all the pagan Easter stuff that goes on with eggs, and chocolate and bunnies. Well, here in Manado, they don't have that problem. In this mural, it kinda looks like the Easter Bunny was there at Calvary Hill.

At just two minutes, this is likely going to be the shortest video in this series.  Enjoy.