Manado - Day 2

The streets in Manado are exceptionally quiet on Sunday morning as most of the people there would have gone to church service or mass. Perhaps in addition to that, it is also the long weekend Hari Raya Aidilfitri (or Idulfitri) holidays. So, it was a quiet morning.

After having our complimentary breakfast buffet in the hotel, we walked down the Sudirman Road (Jl. Sudirman) to Plaza Marina to ask for boat transfer service to Bunaken island. There are 2 ports where boats leave to Bunaken island from Manado which is at Plaza Marina and Pasar Bersahati. Plaza Marina was just about 15 minutes walk from Travello Hotel. After attempting to negotiate a reasonable price, we decided that we should head to the other port instead. Public boats usually leave from Pasar Bersahati.

We took a mikrolet (the blue minivan bus) written "Wonasa" near the roundabout to Pasar Bersahati, which I believe is the main port. A ride in the mikrolet cost only Rp 2,000 (around RM0.70) per person.

You will know you are there when you see...

... a lot of boats and ships.

On normal days, there will be public boats available, which is way cheaper, but it was the first day of the Raya holidays and we have no option but to charter a boat to Bunaken. One can get to Bunaken with only Rp 7,500 to Rp 10,000 if those ferry like public boats are operating. Anyway, we chartered a boat for Rp 400, 000 for a return ride.

Our boat, the smaller one with one engine.

The ride was smooth but slow. It took us about half and hour or more to reach.

Bunaken! :)

The water was clear but the beach was not clean. As we enter the island, we have to pay 'entrance fee' of Rp 50, 000 per day or Rp 150, 000 for a whole year calendar pass. The payment can be made through your resort. If you are an Indonesian, you pay very much less (but I could not recall how much was it already).




Since this is the National Park of Bunaken, the fees are for the purpose of conserving/ preserving the sea, corals, reefs, etc.

There were a lot of tourists around and many of the accomodations were full. We managed to get a place called Froggies, which I have made a reservation earlier online.

There were a lot of frogs in Froggies.

It was a small resort. Initially we thought of staying in Bastianos, Froggie's neighbour, which is bigger and looks nicer (from the outside) but they were already full house. Nevertheless, Froggies was a decent, cosy, little resort.

Their rooms are in atap-house-'bungallows' like this:

which sits on the hill of forest. You'll need to do some climbing too, but it is a cooling place to stay especially at night. Plus, there is free natural fauna orchestra playing in the background.

We stayed in the biggest bungalow on the top which has 2 rooms and a living room (which was not really essential for us). This cost us 30 EURO per person per night, inclusive of breakfast, dinner and drinks, which means as a whole, we paid a total of 120 EURO (RM 600)! A 2 person bungalow without sitting room is 5 EUR cheaper per person per night, which could save us a big chunk of RM 100. But it was all occupied :(

Our bungalow, the Clown Fish.

Honestly speaking, I have no complaints on the resort. Place was okay, people were nice, food were nice but the price is just unbelievably, chockingly, slaughteringly expensive!

Not only this particular resort but the island. We were in Indonesia using Rupiahs, and suddenly in Bunaken, everything was in Euro. No doubt you can pay in Rp but all the charges were too crazily expensive. For 'angmohs' maybe okay but I'm just an Asian student. This was the most expensive island I have been to. If I were to go back to Manado again, I will not stay in Bunaken. I would rather make a trip, do the snorkelling or diving and head back to stay in Manado instead. That one night stay really burnt a humongous hole in my pocket.

Putting that issue aside,... the bungalow we stayed was alright. The view was good as it is a seaview.

They also have a variety of books for you to read. I wanted to read Tony Parson's Starting Over but did not really have the time to do so as it was a short one night stay.

Food were really good. It was nice and tasty. During lunch, we had this corn fritters called "perkedel milu" which is one of the must try if you go to Mandano. Lunch is inclusive if you are doing snorkelling or diving with the resort. Oh! They serve desserts during dinner too. We had chocolate brownies. Yum! :)

Meals are served in that long table.

There were also local live band playing while we were having our dinner. They were all workers of the resort.

What did we do over there? Basically, we arrived in the afternoon, had lunch, went to snorkelling/ diving, came back, bathed and rested, had dinner, met and chatted with a French couple who sat beside us, went back to bungalow, chatted a while, went to bed and sleep. We left Bunaken the next day, after having breakfast.

At first we wanted to do the Discover Scuba Diving course (half day course) but the resorts that offer this course were pack and full. So, we did snorkelling instead except the one who had the license to dive. We went to this diving spot called Fukui, which apparently has giant clams sitting 20 metres underneath. Snorkelling was nevertheless great. I saw a lot of fishes and corals. Sometimes those corals are so freaking near and that makes me swim panickly over to a deeper area. It is always amazing to look under the sea. Looking under the sea is like looking into a totally different world. I should have gotten a underwater camera! sigh.

I would love to float there and snorkel all day long and enjoy the wonders of this underwater world but there were too many 'things' biting me. I have no idea what on earth was it. We were all bitten but I am the most severely bitten, maybe because the other 2 snorkellers went up first and I don't have a wet suit. :S

The locals said it was the little jellyfish but my friend said it was the sea 'bacteria'. I don't know. I just know it was painful and itchy. :( But it was just for a short while. I was fine after napping and have forgotten all about it.haha

Next stop: Tomohon-Tondano