North Sulawesi, Indonesia 2010

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After lunch, we went to a private zoo. Compare to the other privately operated parks, like Lake Linow or Bukit Goa, the zoo looks very run down.

The story is that the owner's main business is coconut plantation. (And I forgot to mention, coconut trees are everywhere in Manado, many planted in a neat formation.) The owner likes to collect exotics animals. After awhile, it become a park open to visitors.

One of the cutest animal has to be this little guy - Tarsius Spectrum.

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They are very small - about the size of an adult palm. They are monogamy for live, thus need to be captured and kept in pairs.

People there told us that they release them after about 6 months, because the little guys cannot reproduce in captivity and probably won't live long. It's so easy to capture that getting new ones every 6 months seem not a problem.

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More pictures of the cute little guys.

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They eat grass hoppers.

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What so special about these birds? I think something like the age can be told by the lines on the beak.

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Like I said earlier, the place is fairly run down. Some of the big monkeys are confined to very small cages. And these bats were in the cage with other big birds.

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The locals make it sound like a big deal about the tusks. I put come candies on the wall, and it just stood up.

But oo8 told me this is very common is wild boars in Malaysia.

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Last day in Hotel Santika. I was hoping to catch the sunset. But the sky and cloud formation wasn't very interesting, except the two blue rays.

But it was very enjoyable just standing there in the nice breeze.

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We spent lots of time in the car in Sulawesi. I always sat in the front, camera ready. The followings are some pictures taken behind the windshield. The quality may not be very good, but I hope the ideas are not lost.

This picture was taken on the way to the hotel from the airport. Hilly road, relaxed life.

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Religion plays a huge role here. The first is our driver's cross and his 招財貓 (ornament cats to attract fortunes). The second pic is one of the many many special decorations for Easter.

In the 3rd pic, you can see 3 of the most popular road side sightings in Manado. In order of popularity they are
1. crosses (by a wide margin in terms of frequency of sighting.)
2. political campaign posters, Sulawesi was preparing governor, mayors and other elections in May.
3. stray dogs, aka RW.

Seems lots of politicians run their campaign with abbreviation of their name, like SVR in the second pic. There was a very health proportion of women candidates. And in many posters, religion freely mixed with politics.

Our favorite joke was from a poster promoting a politician. His name went something like this - Rev. XYZ, MBA. So this guy tells you what's right or wrong because he's a priest. He also takes your money because he's also a business man. He is now running for office, so he can tell you what you can or can't do.