North Sulawesi, Manado - Part 1 : A Volcanic Scape of Minahasa Culture
Manado Dive Travel - 11 to 15 November 2006
Partie Un de Six
Paradise on our doorstep - Barracuda Diving Resort
Manado, the capital city of North Sulawesi, Indonesia, is in the epicentre of marine bio-diversity on the planet. The Celebes sea around North Sulawesi holds the richest concentration of marine heterogeneity as compared to anywhere else in the world.
Simply living on the edge. That’s the appeal of diving the walled reefs of Bunaken. It’s the essence of Northern Sulawesi, perched aside the Pacific Ocean’s great volcanic arc, the ‘Ring of Fire’. It is now a popular destination for discerning dive tourists, earmarked to become a World Heritage Site.
Dive destinations in North Sulawesi include: Manado Bay, Bunaken Marine Park, Lembeh Straits, Bangka group of islands, Siau, Sangihe and Talaud islands. I dived Manado Bay, Bunaken Marine Park and Lembeh Straits during this short but enriching trip with Barracuda Diving Resort.
Manado is such a diver and photographer-friendly destination in my opinion. First of all, heaven never has been easier to get to. Just a short 3 hr flight from Singapore and you’re there. The provincial capital of Manado is one of the international gateways into Indonesia. Silkair serves Manado's Sam Ratulangi Airport 4 times weekly from Singapore's Changi Airport(T2) and allows addition baggage check-in for dive gear. Regular flights from all parts of the Indonesian archipelago also service this beautiful town as well as the smaller airports of Gorontalo, Tahuna and Talaud.
Barracuda Diving Resort is situated on Molas Beach in Manado Bay. It is just 45 mins away from Manado's Sam Ratulangi Airport by land transfer and is very near the city area. A very unique resort which offers spectacular sea view from our hillside spacious accomodation. The panorama is an unobstructed spectacle of the calm Celebes sea, distinctly separated from the sky by a fine line horizon facing West! The sea view is sandwiched by 2 of the most famous and beautiful Volcanoes in North Sulawesi; Manado Tua and Mount Lokon. Combine the vista at sunset with the scape of perspective from our private veranda, the resultant is a scenic picturesque at dusk that could melt anyone's heart.
It has got its own private jetty amid its very unique coastal boundaries: A Mangrove Ecosystem! There are patches of seagrasses in the shallows just below the jetty where sightings of Dugong feeding on them are frequent. Juvenile fishes are abundant and sea snakes, moray eels and estuarine crocodiles are not uncommon.
The resort is well furnished and comfortable with air-conditioning. A clean and spacious bathroom toilet with hot shower is attached to our generously large bungalow hut.
The resort staffs are friendly and they can cook really yummy food! (except that the menu was recyled hmm... )
The boat and dive professionals are very experienced people. Your dive equipment is already onboard, managed and daily washed by the resort’s staff from your first day to the last – you just have to dress up before jumping into the water (and undress when you come out of it!). They rig up your gear for you, made sure that the tanks are charged appropriately to 200 bar/3000 psi and that everything is in order. They even assist you when gearing up and help you entry the water properly. Their service is just excellent! Our dedicated dive guide, Noldi is a PADI Dive Master with at least 15 years of experience in local waters. He seeks your opinion in what you wish to see underwater, gives suggestions on dive planing, recommend sites and tries his best to find the marine targets. He is indeed very efficient as he found all the 3 different rare and newly discovered species of Pgymy Seahorses as well as other tiny and weird critters that we weren't able to distinguish even at close encounters... simply superb!
The people of North Sulawesi can be classified into four groups; Minahasa, Bolaang Mongondow, Gorontalo and the Sangir Talaud. The Minahasans are centered around the Provincial capital of Manado, but the entire province has a strong tradition of trade and contact with the outside world. The Sangir-Talaud islands, to the north of the mainland, form a natural bridge to the Philippines providing a convenient route for people and culture to easily move between Indonesia and the Philippines, and many traces of Filipino culture can still be found here. The Dutch, however, have had the most influential effect on the development of the area. Apart from introducing a strong political and religious structure, the Filipinos encouraged the local populations to raise coconuts, for copra, and nutmeg. Today the main industries of the province are copra and cloves. North Sulawesi has a larger concentration of coconut trees than anywhere else in Indonesia.
First contacts with European traders came in the 16th century with the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese and with them they brought Christianity. It wasn't until the arrival of the Dutch, however, that Christianity became the predominant religion of the area with the western parts of the province of Bolaang Mongondow and Gorontalo remaining as small Muslim principalities until the turn of the century.
Besides diving, there are so much to do in Manado. One can go for a forest trail at the nearby Tangkoko Rainforest. Tangkoko National Park offers protected environment for various animal life like the famous Tarsius Spectrum - a small monkey with black long tail and couple of big eyes ( The smallest primate in the world exclusively indigenous to North Sulawesi only ), Kuskus, Anoa( dwarf buffalo), Babi Rusa ( pigs deer ) and Maleo Birds. There's always volcano hikes for the more adventurous to Mt Mahawu or Mt Lokon to experience the breathtaking views of Manado over looking all the volcanoes as well as the island heaven in the region. One can also do white water rafting off Timbukar river where you will see beautiful waterfalls plunging several hundreds of metres off the cliffs as well as geysers sprouting hot steams off the volcanic lands of Tinoor highlands. There's Linow Lake, a colourful body of sulphuric acid bubbling in the spectrum of rainbow......
Unfortunately, we ain't got time and money to experience all these land activities so we just slacked at the resort on the last day... will definitely be back for action!
Manado's main attractions are off-shore, however, with truly amazing coral reefs off nearby Bunaken island which is now a protected Marine Park and offer some of the best diving and snorkeling in the world!
Stay tune for my trip report on part deux!
Partie Un de Six
Paradise on our doorstep - Barracuda Diving Resort
Manado, the capital city of North Sulawesi, Indonesia, is in the epicentre of marine bio-diversity on the planet. The Celebes sea around North Sulawesi holds the richest concentration of marine heterogeneity as compared to anywhere else in the world.
Simply living on the edge. That’s the appeal of diving the walled reefs of Bunaken. It’s the essence of Northern Sulawesi, perched aside the Pacific Ocean’s great volcanic arc, the ‘Ring of Fire’. It is now a popular destination for discerning dive tourists, earmarked to become a World Heritage Site.
Dive destinations in North Sulawesi include: Manado Bay, Bunaken Marine Park, Lembeh Straits, Bangka group of islands, Siau, Sangihe and Talaud islands. I dived Manado Bay, Bunaken Marine Park and Lembeh Straits during this short but enriching trip with Barracuda Diving Resort.
Manado is such a diver and photographer-friendly destination in my opinion. First of all, heaven never has been easier to get to. Just a short 3 hr flight from Singapore and you’re there. The provincial capital of Manado is one of the international gateways into Indonesia. Silkair serves Manado's Sam Ratulangi Airport 4 times weekly from Singapore's Changi Airport(T2) and allows addition baggage check-in for dive gear. Regular flights from all parts of the Indonesian archipelago also service this beautiful town as well as the smaller airports of Gorontalo, Tahuna and Talaud.
Barracuda Diving Resort is situated on Molas Beach in Manado Bay. It is just 45 mins away from Manado's Sam Ratulangi Airport by land transfer and is very near the city area. A very unique resort which offers spectacular sea view from our hillside spacious accomodation. The panorama is an unobstructed spectacle of the calm Celebes sea, distinctly separated from the sky by a fine line horizon facing West! The sea view is sandwiched by 2 of the most famous and beautiful Volcanoes in North Sulawesi; Manado Tua and Mount Lokon. Combine the vista at sunset with the scape of perspective from our private veranda, the resultant is a scenic picturesque at dusk that could melt anyone's heart.
It has got its own private jetty amid its very unique coastal boundaries: A Mangrove Ecosystem! There are patches of seagrasses in the shallows just below the jetty where sightings of Dugong feeding on them are frequent. Juvenile fishes are abundant and sea snakes, moray eels and estuarine crocodiles are not uncommon.
The resort is well furnished and comfortable with air-conditioning. A clean and spacious bathroom toilet with hot shower is attached to our generously large bungalow hut.The resort staffs are friendly and they can cook really yummy food! (except that the menu was recyled hmm... )
The boat and dive professionals are very experienced people. Your dive equipment is already onboard, managed and daily washed by the resort’s staff from your first day to the last – you just have to dress up before jumping into the water (and undress when you come out of it!). They rig up your gear for you, made sure that the tanks are charged appropriately to 200 bar/3000 psi and that everything is in order. They even assist you when gearing up and help you entry the water properly. Their service is just excellent! Our dedicated dive guide, Noldi is a PADI Dive Master with at least 15 years of experience in local waters. He seeks your opinion in what you wish to see underwater, gives suggestions on dive planing, recommend sites and tries his best to find the marine targets. He is indeed very efficient as he found all the 3 different rare and newly discovered species of Pgymy Seahorses as well as other tiny and weird critters that we weren't able to distinguish even at close encounters... simply superb!
The people of North Sulawesi can be classified into four groups; Minahasa, Bolaang Mongondow, Gorontalo and the Sangir Talaud. The Minahasans are centered around the Provincial capital of Manado, but the entire province has a strong tradition of trade and contact with the outside world. The Sangir-Talaud islands, to the north of the mainland, form a natural bridge to the Philippines providing a convenient route for people and culture to easily move between Indonesia and the Philippines, and many traces of Filipino culture can still be found here. The Dutch, however, have had the most influential effect on the development of the area. Apart from introducing a strong political and religious structure, the Filipinos encouraged the local populations to raise coconuts, for copra, and nutmeg. Today the main industries of the province are copra and cloves. North Sulawesi has a larger concentration of coconut trees than anywhere else in Indonesia.
First contacts with European traders came in the 16th century with the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese and with them they brought Christianity. It wasn't until the arrival of the Dutch, however, that Christianity became the predominant religion of the area with the western parts of the province of Bolaang Mongondow and Gorontalo remaining as small Muslim principalities until the turn of the century.
Besides diving, there are so much to do in Manado. One can go for a forest trail at the nearby Tangkoko Rainforest. Tangkoko National Park offers protected environment for various animal life like the famous Tarsius Spectrum - a small monkey with black long tail and couple of big eyes ( The smallest primate in the world exclusively indigenous to North Sulawesi only ), Kuskus, Anoa( dwarf buffalo), Babi Rusa ( pigs deer ) and Maleo Birds. There's always volcano hikes for the more adventurous to Mt Mahawu or Mt Lokon to experience the breathtaking views of Manado over looking all the volcanoes as well as the island heaven in the region. One can also do white water rafting off Timbukar river where you will see beautiful waterfalls plunging several hundreds of metres off the cliffs as well as geysers sprouting hot steams off the volcanic lands of Tinoor highlands. There's Linow Lake, a colourful body of sulphuric acid bubbling in the spectrum of rainbow......Unfortunately, we ain't got time and money to experience all these land activities so we just slacked at the resort on the last day... will definitely be back for action!
Manado's main attractions are off-shore, however, with truly amazing coral reefs off nearby Bunaken island which is now a protected Marine Park and offer some of the best diving and snorkeling in the world!
Stay tune for my trip report on part deux!
Labels: Trip Summary
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