North Sulawesi, Indonesia 2010

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A road side store.

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Before going to Manado, we were told that Lake Linow is a must go. So today we try again.

And we were not disappointed. It was a very nice place simply to sit down and sip coffee. For me the added bonus is to take pictures.

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And just happened the owner of this place, Maria, was in the property. She normally lives in Jakarta and comes to Manado once a month. And we learned later that this lake side park is not her only venture in Manado.

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The lake is very rich with sulpher. In fact one side of the lake was gushing hot spring.

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More photos of the lake.

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What were the bamboo sticks for?

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Supposedly the lake change color depending on the time of the day or the lighting. I only saw green.

This is a nicely managed property (relative to other Indonesian parks.)

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My little girl was trying to catch grass hoppers, while people on the other side of the lake were trying to catch fishes.

Our side of the lake has too much sulphur but apparently the other side is good enough for fishes to live.

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Before going back to the hotel, we visited Bukit Doa (Hill of Prayer) - a Christian themed retreat and tourism spot.

Too bad we arrived too late. The doormen were nice enough to allow us in for a quick look. What small part we saw inside was very impressive. It's simply another nice well managed place to relax and appreciate nature and good architecture.

This property is also owned by Maria (the owner of the Lake Linow park). It started as her private garden for friends and family, and a few years ago start open to the public for day visit or short retreat for a few days.

The following pictures showing some facilities on site. The mountain in the back of 2nd picture is Mt Lokon.

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One of the main feature of this garden is a track going up hill, passing 12 or 13 locations of Catholic themed sites of reflection. (Again, we were very late and I did not get too much time to find out exactly what they were.)

The Maria Cave in the 1st picture is the last stop of this track/passage. Right before the end of the track was this underground room, where tens of birds just hung on to the wall. At first I thought they were paniki!