Back from Manado

Overall my experience has been great, once we landed on the Sam Ratulangi airport. The people are friendly (except when they drive), and dive sites are nice. It's a pity we didn't get to see much of the big fishes (as my sifu says, the Manado fishermen are too good, they've caught most of the edible fishes).

We stayed at this hotel called Quality Hotel which deserves a mention. It is strategically located in the town center. There are many food stalls within walking distance, and the Mega Mall is not far away. The staffs are friendly and service is good, not to mention the rooms are very very clean and tidy. One funny thing is when sifu told my friend about our accommodation, it goes like this:

Sifu: We'll be staying in Quality Hotel
B: So which hotel is it going to be?
Sifu: Quality Hotel la
B: I know it's gonna be a quality hotel, but what's the name?
Sifu: Quality Hotel loh. The name of the hotel is Quality Hotel
B: Oh...

We dived at a few locations, mainly around Bunaken Island and Lembeh Strait. According to the web, it would've been better to dive between May and October, the so-called "dry" season, as visibility can reach up to 35m. Overall here there's an abundance of lionfish, porcupine fish, puffer fish, razor fish, and nudi branches. I managed to spot a white tip shark, though my friends saw 3. There's also something special there, called the electric clam. It's a red clam with electical charges but I didn't manage to take note of the electric charge.

There are many makan places. Wisata Bahari, seated on the waterfront, offers a variety of fresh seafood, from mantis prawn reared inside 1.5l mineral water bottles, to coconut crabs and lobsters. Another worthy mention is Raja Sate, just a little further on the opposite of the Mega Mall, which specializes in grilled meat (satay). Somewhat off the main street is Green Garden, a Chinese restaurant that has satay babi and a lot of Chinese dishes. Over here they maintain a couple of display aquarium with a variety of sea creatures. One of them even has a Mandarin Fish!

There are also a lot of stalls at the waterfront selling banana fritters and grilled fish. Didn't really try them out but they all looked quite good. We've even seen a whole team of police stopped by a banana fritter stall to have their afternoon tea.

One word of caution, their chili are REALLY hot. You have been warned. :P

Apparently the massages here are pretty good and cheap too. My friends went for it on the second day. I wanted to save it till the last day of diving, but missed it because we didn't have enough time in the end.

There are 2 famous alcoholic drinks here, the Cap Tikus and the Saguer. I heard that the saguer is a lot like our toddy. Cap Tikus on the other hand is a clear distilled (also palm based) liquor with alcohol content of about 50% (my estimate). Here they like to use coconut for a lot of their cooking and baking. Coconut syrup (like our gula melaka) is also often used, especially when you order a coconut drink. They'll add it for you or give you a small cup to add as you see fit.

As I went there mainly for diving, didn't really have much time to visit other attractions. Apparently there's a city called Tomohon which is surrounded by 3 volcanoes, about 25min (according to some online source, locals told me about 40mins) away from Manado town. There's supposed to be a hot spring around there too. Then there's the Tangkoko National Park which has the world smallest monkeys - the big-eyed Tarsius. These are some of the attractions that non-divers can go have a look.