MANADO

I bought rm70 return trip ticket from KL to Manado last febuary.I must say the place is really eye opening for newcomers.Its took 4 hours from KLIA to get here which i think the longest flight u can take to east Indonesia.The place situated at the end of Sulawesi island.In the air before the airplane touch Sam Ratulagi airport i see what i familiar with.A lot of palm oil tress,actually the closer the airplane to land i realise its not palm oil tress like in KL.Its actually coconut tress,i never saw so many coconut tress in my life. From the internet search i done before i came here i knew Manado is 90% christians which i also think the most developed city in Indonesia with christian majority.But what shock me is the numbers of churches here.Its like one church for every few blocks.Its not just in Manado city but also built in a large numbers in other Minahasa areas.They must be really reliogous people.

Another point to remember is to get to Manado nowadays is much cheaper through KL rather than from other Indonesian cities particularly jakarta and makassar.Even manado situated about 3 hours flight from jakarta and suppose to be a least developed city its not really a place u can call improvised like cities in Cambodia and Vietnam.Its cant rival jakarta with its very few more than 10 storey building but have everything a city need.paved road across town up untill downtown areas,shopping malls,nightlife and 5 star resort as well.Bear in mind even though this place suppose to be cheaper than jakarta or surabaya but its actually not.Yes,cost here is if not more expensive still on par with jakarta.the price of rental car and food here is more than jakarta.

I stay at gran central hotel just accross the road to Megamall which is the largest mall here.They have other relatively big mall like Bahu Mall and Matahari department store.The hotel really live up to its name its really at the very centre of manado city.But most visitor tend to stay at one of many resort at Bunaken island.U can go to there for a day tour but its take 2 hours boat ride one way.Im not really into diving just a little snorkelling so stay at expensive island in secluded resorts is not my thing.

U can rent a car with driver and gas for 250,00 to300,000 rupiah a day about usd 25.They expect u to bargain the price.the places u should visit such as Bukit Kaseh a place where they built buddhist and hindu temple,a church and a mosqeu at the top of a mountain.the place i will say is so artificial unlike areas in Penang,Malaysia where people use these worship places in their daily life and with hundreds years of history.Bukit Kaseh is newly built place.Maybe the most historic place here is Waruga.Its an ancient cemetary dated around 1,000 years ago.the uniqeu thing about this cemetary is the deceased body not buried underground instead place in the big stone and put on ground.Manado museum also a good place to see a glimpse of manadonese glory in the past.

Manadonese love spicy food.Even spicy food is synonymous with indonesian but i must say manadonese really love spicy thing.Pork is available through out manado obviously because their religion allowed that unlike many other indonesian cities.But the best food here i must say is their seafood.Surrounded with oceon the supply of seafood is abundant and cheap.they have their own special way to grill the fist with coconut and come with very spicy sauce but with alot of tomato in it.taste good.

Now is the nightlife.manado is a gem for off the path nightlife seekers.Amazingly they have discos which i think on par with Zouk in Kl or Bedsupperclub in Bangkok minus the rich and famous crowd.SCORE at Bahu mall this is the place im talking about.They have up scale restaurant,live music,DJs,young and sexy waiteress and any drink u wanted.they also have pool table not just one table but 6 or 7 tables.this place is big.Girls here is known as among the most beautiful girl all over indonesia.they not familiar with tourist so u unlikely meet girls like u going to meet at B.A.T.S ,jakarta or bars in bali who looking for foreign sweetheart.

Go to Manado and i guarantee u will left this amazing city with very heavy heart and many stories to tell.