North Sulawesi, Indonesia 2010

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In late March 2010, we went to Indonesia and spent a few days in North Sulawesi. We stayed at the Hotel Santika near Manado city, and visited some sight seeing spots by car.

The following Google map image shows Jakarta in the Java island (pin on the left), Makassar in South Sulawesi, and Manado in North Sulawesi (top right pin).

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The direct flight from Jakarta to Manado is too early for lazy bumps like me. So we took the later flight that transit via Makassar in South Sulawesi (the middle pin in the above map.)

I got the window site, and the sky was clear enough that I took lots of pictures. On approach to Makassar, I can see lots of villages. Almost all houses are tin roofed (or some kind of iron sheet, as many are rusting.)

This picture is interesting also in the sense that, even at only 10000 meters or so, the earth is beyond any doubt not flat.

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More sky pic.

I am now using Aperture 3 to organize and process my photos. One of the new features of the new Aperture is the incorporation of Google map. It was very easy to find on the satellite image where I took this picture. The 2nd image is from Google map, and my plane was flying South-to-North and I was sitting on the window seat on the right side. So looking from the pins toward right, you can clearly identify the landmarks - the forking river, the roundish clear space near the river, the 4 rows of warehouses.

Anyone can be a spy now.  

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There is no story to this picture. It just shows that I was bored at Makassar...  

I decided to show this, because after close inspection, I found that the plane's outline was distorted either by the rain or something else.

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Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world by population. But northern Sulawesi is an exception. You cannot help to notice the very in your face display of Christianity EVERYWHERE. It's more so because Easter was only a week away.

In most villages, the nicest building in the village would be the church. Every single home has a paper cross for Easter. And many neighborhoods had their designated color or decoration scheme for the crosses, as you shall see in later in this thread.

I speculate that the strong display of religious affiliation may have something to do with Christians being minority in this country, thus a strong label and identity. A label that everyone else has is not exactly an identity.

"Selamat Paskah" means happy Easter. 

[chin]

Finally arrived at Hotel Santika after about 40 min ride. We had the choice of picking a (relatively) luxurious downtown hotel vs this seaside heaven for divers. We chose the seaside resort.

On the first day of checking in, it looked like we were the only party beside a large group of 5 or 6 American families. Later I got the chance talking to one of them on the diving boat, and learned that this group were all expatriates working at a Chevron project in Indonesia. The adults include geophysicists, and teachers working at the school for the Chevron expatriates. Almost all of them, including some young kids, like to dive. And this patch of sea is supposedly one of the best diving spots in the world, with more than 60 diving spots.

The first picture looks like any seaside hotel cafe in SE Asia. If you can see the small path in the middle of the picture, it extend perhaps more than 1km toward the sea leading to the jetty for diving boats. The 3rd image is from Google map with the pin showing where I took the picture.

One of their kids, Max, in black tee, was born on 1 Apr and have a small party with the hotel staff singing and playing music.

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The first day in Northern Sulawesi.

We hired the taxi driver who took us from the airport to the hotel. The hire cost was Rp350,000 per day plus gas. That's about HK$350 or US$45. Gas is very cheap in Indonesia at about Rp4,000 per liter unleaded.

I was told that many people in Manado are sailors and soldiers. There are not too many locals involves in trades or commerce beyond small shops. They can afford to be layback and relax because it's very easy just to earn enough food.

I was happened to be reading Ascent of Money, and one of the early chapters was talking about the resource curse. I wonder if what I was told about the Manado people is a minor example of resource curse.

Anyway, our driver typifies the stereotypical Manado folks. If we wanted to be picked up in the morning, like 9:30 or 10:00, he would always be later by 30 or 40 min. He's otherwise very cheerful and talkative, and very serious about what music to play in the car.

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On the side of the road we saw this huge monument. "Monumen Yesus Memberkati" means Monument of Jesus Blessing. Our driver told us that it's the second largest Jesus statue in the world after the Brazilian one.

The second photo shows the scale compare to the houses & cars on the road. The 3rd image is from Google map showing clearly the statue.

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Upon further investigation, we found the statue to be part of the marketing or attaction of a high end real estate project - Citraland Manado, the City of Blessings.

These are the mansions near where I took the above pictures, marked by the upper left pin on the Google map image above. There are many many many Roman or Greek themed statues and sculptures inside the property.

Can you guess what's Miracle Walk?

It's a small strip of shops attached to the property.

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After leaving the upscale Citraland, we pressed on toward Lake Linow. On the way we stopped at an outlook point, where on clear days you can see the whole Manado city. But not today.

I took this picture at the fruit stall at the outlook. What's she looking at? Can she see her future?