Daniel's Microcosm

Manado is located at the northeast tip of Sulawesi in Indonesia, and is best known for its dive sites at Bunaken Manado Tua Marine National Park and Lembeh Strait. Lesser known is the nearby Tangkoko-Batuangas Dua Saudara Nature Reserve, where one can see Spectral Tarsiers and Celebes Crested Macaques in the wild. These primates are endemic to Sulawesi, and worth the overnight detour if one has any interest in wildlife above water as well (I’m assuming that the primary reason for a tourist to visit Manado is the underwater wildlife). Perhaps the most surprising thing I found out is that majority of the locals in Manado and its vicinity are Christians, and the evidence was clear when I was there: (1) Posters and banners were put up everywhere, advertising the Miracle Healing Service by Pastor Benny Hinn to be held at Manado in July this year; (2) The dive boat I was on was playing Christian songs like “Shine, Jesus, Shine” with the crew singing along; (3) On my last night, I had a communal dinner with locals at the Tangkoko Ranger Homestay restaurant (included in the price of my accommodation), and a prayer was said in Bahasa Indonesian (presumably to bless the food) before everyone started to eat.

Anyway, the main point of this post is to show how I travelled to Manado on a budget. SilkAir flies direct from Singapore to Manado 5 times a week, and a return ticket cost me 12,750 KrisFlyer miles (with online redemption discount of 15%) and S$137.80 in taxes. This excluded the 100,000 IDR (~S$13) departure tax at Manado Airport. The truth is, I wouldn’t have gone for this trip if I didn’t have expiring KrisFlyer miles in the first place; and looking at the options available, flying to Manado was the best way to use those miles.

Diving was undoubtedly the key event of my 6-day trip, and after much research and consideration I decided to stay at and dive with Two Fish Divers on Pulau Bunaken. While clearly not the cheapest option available, I felt that the package (accommodation, diving, equipment rental, resort facilities, inclusions) was value-for-money, and there wasn’t any negative safety review that caught my attention. Having returned from my trip, I would definitely recommend Two Fish Divers to anyone. My budget room 4 days / 3 nights / 4 dives package cost me 192 EUR (with single supplement) which included all meals and decent WiFi. (“Budget” because of shared bathroom, but only two units share the one bathroom, which is attached to both units.) Diving equipment rental was 15 EUR a day, and underwater camera rental was 15 EUR for 2 dives in one day. I also paid the Marine National Park fee of 150,000 IDR (~S$19.50) which is valid till the end of the year. Since my last dive was 7 years ago, I added on a Scuba Review course for 30 EUR which included some PADI video watching, and a pool session with an instructor. This helped to refresh safety aspects and regain my underwater confidence, and I was able to focus more on the underwater wildlife (and less on the diving itself) on the first open water dive immediately after. I considered doing more dives in a day, but I think for the novice diver it can be an overdose since it’s essentially the same extended wall of coral. Besides, I didn’t have a professional underwater camera like many of the other divers had, so I would not have been able to capture most of the things I saw.

Transport between Manado and Two Fish Divers cost 5 EUR one way at fixed timings, although from Manado to Pulau Bunaken, I took the public boat which cost me 50,000 IDR (~S$6.50) instead. The public boat left Manado at 2pm and dropped me off about an hour later near the Pulau Bunaken jetty, after which I had to walk about 2km to Two Fish Divers. The 5 EUR option arranged with Two Fish Divers directly does not require this 2km walk.

As for the rest of the trip, I will just list down the item/cost for easy reference:

Manado
Airport to Terminal Paal 2 by mikrolet (mini public bus) – 2,500 IDR (~S$0.33)
Terminal Paal 2 to Pasar 45 by mikrolet – 2,000 IDR (~S$0.26)
1 night accommodation at Hotel Angkasa Raya Inda (attached bathroom, no fan/air-con, breakfast of bread and tea, price is for 1 or 2 persons) – 110,000 IDR (~S$14.30)
[I found out after taking the room that Rex Hotel across the road had single rooms for 55,000 IDR (~S$7.15) with shared bathroom, no fan/air-con, breakfast]
Pasar 45 to Terminal Paal 2 by mikrolet – 2,000 IDR (~S$0.26)
Terminal Paal 2 to Airport by mikrolet – 2,500 IDR (~S$0.33)

Batuputih (Tangkoko-Batuangas Dua Saudara Nature Reserve)
Terminal Paal 2 to Bitung by bus – 7,500 IDR (~S$1, one hour journey, regular service)
Bitung to Girian by mikrolet – 3,000 IDR (~S$0.39, 5 min journey, regular service)
Girian to Batuputih by pick-up truck – 10,000 IDR (~S$1.30, one hour journey, irregular service, I left at 12.30pm)
[Alternatively, I was offered to be driven to Batuputih from Bitung for 100,000 IDR]
1 night accommodation at Tangkoko Ranger Homestay (attached bathroom, fan, all meals, price is for 1 person but could be same for 2 persons) – 150,000 IDR (~S$19.50)
3.5 hour guided tour to see Spectral Tarsiers and Celebes Crested Macaques starting at 4am (price included English-speaking guide, camera fee, entrance fee, motorbike transport in nature reserve where it could be used, motorbike transport from Batuputih to Bitung) – 250,000 IDR (~S$32.50)
Bitung to Terminal Paal 2 by bus – 7,500 IDR (~S$1, one hour journey, regular service)

All in all, I spent about S$700 on this trip. Photos and videos are now ready for viewing under “Indonesia”.

The main reason for my recent trip to South Korea was to catch the cherry blossoms, and it was to my slight dismay that the weather was unusually cold the week I was there. As a result, I was slightly too early for the cherry blossoms in Seoul, and slightly too late for the cherry blossoms in Gyeongju. Oh, there were outliers I got to see assuredly, but I didn’t get to experience the peak of the cherry blossoms, that is to walk through an avenue of cherry trees with flowers in full bloom, ground littered with fallen petals, and petals falling down almost like snow. Something to look forward to in future, I guess.

The photo albums are ready for viewing, and to accompany them I’d like to recount an experience for each of the cities I visited:

Busan

According to Lonely Planet, Spa Land is “the largest public bath in Asia, perhaps the world”. And this is where I spent about 3+ hours soaking and relaxing in the spa’s 22 hot spring bathtubs and 13 distinctively-themed saunas. The spa uses two different kinds of water: Sodium Bicarbonate Hot Spring which supposedly removes dead skin cells and makes the skin and hair shiny, and Sodium Chloride Hot Spring which supposedly is good for blood circulation and helps to relieve pain and aches. I thoroughly enjoyed the one-person jacuzzi-style “water massage beds” – just imagine a shallow tub to lie in with strong water jets from below and all sides. 😉 I also spent about 5 minutes in each of the saunas, e.g. Finnish Sauna, Yellow Earth Room, Roman Room, Pyramid Room, Body Sound Room, Wave-Dream Room, Hard Wood Charcoal Room, Hamam Room, Bali Room…

Gyeongju

Tohamsan is a mountain containing two Buddhist World Heritage Sites, namely Bulguksa Temple and Seokguram Grotto. I know of Christians who are uncomfortable (or even don’t condone) going to non-Christian places of worship, but I’m not affected in any way as I view it as visiting historical pieces of culture. Besides, the ground I walk on and the rooms I enter are sanctified because of Christ who is in me. Anyway, call it coincidence if you wish to, but it actually hailed (yes, ice precipitation) for about 5 minutes while I was at Seokguram Grotto, and it was just at the time I was under the cover of the only shelter in the whole area, which is the grotto itself. The grotto is small enough that most of the tour groups and pilgrims would not have fit in, and they ended up running back about 1 km to the entrance of the grounds (no shelter along the way) when it suddenly started to rain/hail. When the sky cleared soon after, I stepped outside the grotto to see that the grounds, which was initially full of noisy kids and tourists, was completely empty – perfect for my photos! I couldn’t help but feel loved and smile at the “irony” of the situation. There is a video clip of the hail in my album.

Seoul

In South Korea, some of the shower heads have an additional button that needs to be pressed to turn on the water (apart from the usual tap), and one might accidentally press the button while showering which will cut off the water supply. To the uninitiated, this would appear as though the water supply had run out, or the tap had spoilt, and no turning of the tap one way or the other could make any water appear. So I went down to inform reception that the shower was spoilt (no way was I going to bathe with a pail), and of course the young guy (the place is like a hostel) was surprised and came up with me to check it out. It didn’t take more than 5 seconds for him to grab the shower head, press the button, and the water came gushing out…