Travelling through the tip of North Sulawesi
The big contrast of Sulawesi and Java is the lush and heavy greenery. On this visit ( worth mentioning this is not my first time here) I went to Manado, Tangkoko Nature Reserve, Tomohon and Bentenan.
Manado is pretty similar to some cities in Java, things seems to be on top of each other, built organically, cities in Indonesia where the city planning or any building regulations doesn’t seem to exist. Considerations of what is important and what is beautiful in the city doesn’t seem to relate to my own. The big mall Manado Town Square built inches away from the edge of the sea, obscures the beautiful view of the two visible mountains in it’s horizon. A view in almost other places in the world people would pay premium price to see, here can only be seen in the smoking area of their food court.
That is why I chose not to linger in Manado, I only went to stay in a nearby resort, visited the North Sulawesi Museum and had lunch in the mall. From the resort I traveled by car to the other side of the island to Tangkoko National Reserve. Which was an amazing trip, I think it needs a full blog update on. But the travel there were simply brilliant too.
The journey made me realise that this part of Indonesia is unbelievably rich of simply everything. For example in the 2 hours drive to Tangkoko from Manado I went through a village that is filled with Rambutan tree, then a village filled with Duku Tree, a village with gold mine, a village with a lot of fresh water fish farms and the list continues. Yet the people living there seems to be unaware of this wealth or maybe just to used to all of it to realise it. Everything is so beautiful and cheap. When we (driver and I) stopped to fill out the petrol tank on a side road Indonesian style warung, I bought a kilogram of Rambutan for Rp 5,000, which is 33 cent Euro, or £0.26. In China town in London 10 rambutan would cost you £3.
The abundance of resources also seems to fuel creativity in creating products from their natural resources. In Tomohon area alone there is a village that does bamboo weaved stuff, a village that makes clay based pottery, a village that makes wooden furniture, and a village that makes amazing wooden house.
Traditional wooden houses are more prevalent here than it is in Java and Sumatra, people have wooden houses as is or wooden houses meld into a brick building of a ground floor. Although most are in their original dark wood colour, a lot also are painted in different colours, orange, pink, green, or the combination of colours. Making the whole journey a feast to my magpie-like-eyes.
I am really glad that I have just read Paul Theroux’s Great Railway bazaar and have this blog. It has encourage me to consider more of my surrounding whilst travelling, taking things much more slowly, talk to more people, ask more question also allowing myself not to be bothered if I don’t get to see a particular thing. Now for me the travelling also part of the wonderful adventure.
How about you? Does having a blog wants you to visit more ‘must see places’ or does it make you appreciate the travel itself? Or both?
Also, have you been to this part of Indonesia, what do you think about it?
My mum is from Manado 🙂 But my grandparents moved to Jakarta when she was a kid so I don’t go there often.. in fact I’ve only been there once in my life.
And it’s true what you said about the mall. Even my cousin who lives there does not like it, it ruins the scenery but the damage’s been done 😦
Oow…! Good to know that people who live there doesn’t like it too!
waah, gantian aku yg mengiri!! aku belum pernah ke Sulawesi sama sekali, walopun waktu kakak ipar masih hidup kami sekeluarga sering berencana (= berkhayal) liburan ke sana karena dia dari Manado & keluarganya masih tinggal di sana. akhirnya belum kesampean deh, tapi semoga suatu hari nanti bisa ke sana. 🙂
kurasa sih blog-ku sendiri ngga memotivasi diri untuk bepergian, tapi baca blog kamu ini yg bikin parah, ngidem pengen ke mana2, hahaha… just kidding, please keep posting them! 😀
🙂 I think I might like this better than Sumatra
Wah ini WordPress semacam kacau, it didn’t show my full response. Inilah sebab mengupdate dengan pelbagai devices. 😦
Sepertinya in a way I’d now rather have your Bali relaxing time than my travelling all the time in Sulawesi. Me travelling is really just a lazy escape from actually doing anything meaningful. hahahha.
ahaha, tapi kirain memang serius kamu lebih suka Sulawesi dibanding Sumatra. 😀 and i take your word for it!
yah, kalo soal escape from doing anything meaningful sih idem deh, why did you think i only post my sewing projects? LOL.
🙂 iya nih. Sewing projects is result driven, traveling semacam hedonistik hahahah gak ada keuntungan nyata..
I’m half Manadonese (half Padangnese) and my mum’s family are still there. But the last time I visited Manado perhaps ten years ago! I was born in Manado and lived there til I was 3. Duluuu waktu jaman smp perna ke manado dan blom ada itu mall2, lautnya masih bagus blom dipakein walls, terakhir kesana sama pak suami uda berubah banyak!
Di Tangkoko, ketemu dengan si Tarsier/Tarsius ga Ndien? They are so cute with their big eyes! Speaking of food did you try the special food from Manado called Paniki??😅😅
Ah One of my trips previously is also when I was at Junior highschool, there was only 1 hotel and 1 supermarket called Jumbo. Hahaha. Lautnya masih lumayan bagus sih mba. Just a shame that they have not preserve the view. Tangkoko story is coming next. Hahahah Paniki, not this time, have had them before though. Found good place to have a coffee.
North Sulawesi has been on my bucket list for some time. I was born in South Sulawesi and spent the first 10 years of my life there, but never ventured much to the north area. Having a blog makes me want to visit the path less traveled, because finding a hidden gem makes me feel a million dollars :p
I am interested in South Sulawesi too! Yes it does feel good to find the places that others have not been, I love that feeling too. But I am thinking more and more that the ‘undiscovered’ is the stories of the people and culture that comes with the place, they are so interesting.
I think both, because we used to it, we (often) unaware of the wealth.
🙂 iya kayaknya yah na?
Kemungkinan besar Ndien, tunggu sampai kehabisan. Pasti baru berasa, seperti pepohonan rambutan bapakku tahun ini yang gak berbuah habis kebakar kemarau panjang kmren. Jadi beli rambutan, rasanya gimna gitu. waktu banyak dibagi-bagiin gitu aja.
Iya…sayang banget.
Dulu sering ditugaskan ke Manado, dan aku selaluuu suka karena satu makanannya, kedua karena ada saudara di Tomohon dan Tondano. Jadinya bisa sekalian mampir dan selalu dibikinkan abon Roa super pedes *duh jadi lapar pagi2 haha 😍😍. Ke Bukit Kasih juga ga Ndine? Aku baru tahu nih Tangkoko, kapan2 ah mampir. Oh iya, pernah snorkeling sama saudara di Bitung, baguuss banget. Lebih bersih daripada Bunaken.
Oh gitu. Roa Rica emang enak banget. Tangkoko deket Biting padahal Den. Kalau Bukit kasih udah, tempat2 yang wajib kunjung aku udah semua, tapi yah itu, blum aku perhatikan dan aku amati dengan cermat. 🙂
sulawesih emang menarik untuk dikunjungi ya kak
iya win, ayoo marii…