Getting out and about in Manado and beyond

The once pretty face of Manado has never been the same since reclamation projects altered the shoreline along Manado Bay to make way for big shopping complexes.

Along the city's famous boulevard -- where once upon a time visitors could enjoy an unobstructed view of the sun setting over the sea -- now stand ugly structures, housing department stores, supermarkets and fast food eateries. The distant sea seems to have beaten a retreat from the advancing ""development"".

Worse than the still ongoing construction projects is the city's haphazard urban infrastructure.

Blue public minivans reign supreme in this 157.25-square-kilometer city, and with such an obvious lack of traffic control, I was not surprised when one day I found my vehicle going on the right side of the road instead of the left.

In terms of sightseeing, unless checking out the malls is your idea of fun, there is not much to see or do in Manado, and visitors usually head straight to dive sites in nearby Bunaken.

But those stuck on the mainland should definitely visit the 300-year-old Chinese temple Ban Hing Kiong on Jl. Panjaitan, said to be North Sulawesi's oldest temple.

A visit to the provincial museum on Jl. W.R. Supratman also helps if you want to learn a little more about the culture of the people you are visiting. Although a little run down and dusty, the museum displays about 460 items and stores an impressive 3,000 others in its storehouses. A life-size replica of a traditional Minahasa house is displayed at the back of the museum.

Many travel books recommend a dawn walk to the fish market and nearby Bersehati traditional market for unique sights and smells, but with soaring crime rates, it is hardly wise for newcomers to wander these crowded places alone.

The only way to really enjoy Manado is to get out of it and into the surrounding countryside.

Active volcanoes makes the North Sulawesi landscape lush in vegetation. It's the land of nyiur melambai (waving coconut trees), as the songs say, and you will see why as you travel around.

Getting around: Public minivans are still the best way to travel around Manado. You may need to change vehicles several times to get to a destination, but there are very few places that these blue monsters do not go. Fares are cheap at Rp 1,000 (about 11 U.S. cents) a ride, and you pay when you get off.

You can signal for minivans anywhere on the road, and to get off just shout out ""muka jo!"" (in front, please) to the driver.

A costlier alternative is to take taxis. Many taxi companies have sprung up in recent years but be aware that many still do not use meters. The usual taxi meter starts at Rp 3,000.

For traveling to farther destinations, nothing beats hiring a car for the day. Ask the concierge at major hotels for help. I rented a car at Rp 250,000 per day, including gas and driver. You may have to pay for the driver's meals along the way though.

On the city outskirts you could sample a ride on the bentor, a combination of becak (pedicab) and motorcycle, that takes three to four passengers and costs Rp 1,000 per trip per passenger.

Where to go

* Tasik Ria: Get a glimpse of how Manadonese have fun on the seashore. There are plenty of places where you could stop over, including at the Manado Beach Hotel, which is probably one of the few places with a decent beach. Other locations are usually just rocks, with a sheer plunge into deep water.

* Mausoleum of Tuanku Imam Bonjol: The final resting place of the Muslim cleric who led the Minangkabau resistance against the Dutch in West Sumatra. He died in exile here in 1864.

Visitors can also see the large rock on the river where Imam Bonjol used to pray. It is now covered with a permanent roof and visitors are permitted to pray at the site.

* Tomohon: A delightful little highland town famous for its hibiscus, bougainvillea, lilies, gladioli, carnations and irises. Plots of land in front of traditional wooden Minahasan houses are never empty of flowers. Flowers also often border the asphalt highway.

* Woloan: For those interested in owning their own traditional Minahasan house, this is the place to stop. Villagers sell knock-down wooden houses for between Rp 30 million (about US$3,333) to Rp 95 million.

The houses are constructed here, then dismantled for shipment within the country as well as to Germany, Japan, Australia and Poland, where they are then reassembled by Woloan's master craftsmen.

* Lahendong: Although not quite up to tourism standards, the hutan pinus (pine forest) is worth a stopover, less for its pine trees than its volcanic hot springs.

Feel the earth's restless energy at this park of boiling streams and bubbling mud plains. Four huts for bathing in the sulfurous spring -- believed to cure various skin diseases -- are located at the far end of the park, but inquire for the key at a small cafeteria near the park entrance.

Before you leave, be sure to take some mud for that beautifying mud face masker.

* Sonder: A boomtown when clove prices were at their highest in the 1970s, Sonder had the highest income per capita of any village in the country. Traces of this bygone splendor could still be seen in the large houses in the area.

Stop for some outstanding freshwater fish dishes at the two restaurants floating on manmade lakes here.

* Watu Pinawetengan: Probably the most sacred site in all Minahasa. According to legend, the ancestors of the Minahasan people divided up her people at this stone, and later Minahasan chieftains were said to convene here to discuss political matters. Today, local people still come here to consult with the spirits of the elders.

Pictographic carvings on the stone have never been deciphered, and today the stone is housed in an open walled structure.

* Tondano: The administrative center of the Minahasa region is but a sleepy town with wide, orderly streets. Nationalist leader Dr. Sam Ratulangi was born here.

Follow smaller roads around the shores of Lake Tondano, and don't forget to stopover at the many floating restaurants along the lake serving freshwater fish dishes.

* Pulutan: A small pottery producing village. The current production trend is to make round, colorful, garden tables and accompanying benches. A set consisting of a table and four benches costs from Rp 100,000 (about US$11) to Rp 125,000.

* Kampung Jawa: A village established from the descendants of the 60 Javanese fighters exiled here during the Java War (also known as the Diponegoro War after its leader Pangeran Diponegoro), by the Dutch between 1825 and 1830.

The legacy of that time is the mixture of Javanese, Tondanese and Minahasan language of the present villagers, as well as the many Javanese rituals still in practice today.

Another is the old Al Falah Kiay Modjo mosque, built in 1866. Although originally built in the image of the famed Demak Mosque, unfortunately the Al Falah has been renovated several times over. Only the four pillars, pulpit, bedug (a large drum suspended horizontally), and wood planking from parts of the ceiling remains.

* Waruga of Airmadidi: Meaning the place of the bubbling water, and even bottled water company PT Aqua Golden Mississippi has taken advantage of Airmadidi's numerous natural springs.

The area also has the largest collection of ancient stone sarcophagi, called waruga, dating back between 500 to 600 years ago.

Also near the waruga complex is the Tumatenden spring, where it is believed nine maidens used to come down from the heavens to bathe.

* Tangkoko-Batuangus-Dua Saudara Reserve: A place to spot elusive tarsiers, playful black macaques and hornbills.

Early evening is the best time to catch the tarsiers coming out of their dwellings, while the afternoon is best for birdwatching and macaques.

Stop at Batuputih village for local guides and pay the entrance fee to the reserve.

Getting there:

Manado's Sam Ratulangi International Airport is never idle. The opening of the country's aviation industry two years ago, and the resulting entrance of new airlines, has been a boon for this new airport.

Fierce competition among newly established local airlines has kept prices low, and convenient flight schedules to and from the country's other major cities meant a dramatic increase in airplane passengers in 2003.

""We are proud to say that we no longer have a low season at Sam Ratulangi airport, all flights average 85 percent load factor,"" PT Angkasa Pura I's head of administration and finance division Purwanto told The Jakarta Post and Harian Jakarta during a recent visit.

With between 52 to 54 flights in and out of the airport each day, Manado has become one of the country's most accessible cities.

Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air, Bouraq, Mandala Airlines, Celebes Express Air, and Batavia Air all have daily flights to Manado from various domestic destinations, while Silk Air, Bouraq, Merpati, and Malaysian Airlines flies from Kota Kinibalu in Malaysia, Davao City in the Philippines, and Singapore.

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta