Blogs from Bunaken National Park, Sulawesi, Indonesia, Asia - page 3

The food at Seabreeze is very predictable. Every morning there are pancakes, cereal, eggs and noodles or rice. Lunch and dinner consist of rice, vegetables, chicken, fish and tofu. Luckily however predictable it is, it is still delicious. They are supposed to be served at set times but we have decided it is not worth getting to the restaurant in any hurry as no one here seems to work to the clock. Everything just happens at the speed it happens. Meals are often held up due to the lack of power. It's hard to rely on the electricity being on at any time. We dived 2 dives again today. The first was a terrible experience as the current was so strong. We were banging into each other or the reef the whole time. In the end ... read more

It's funny how a day that is celebrated by another country is still the first thing you think of when you realise it is July 4. However we had no American celebrations - today was purely Indonesian with a Queensland twist. We set off for our first dives straight after breakfast. Seabreeze has built a new dive centre and we headed down there to be kitted out with all we needed. We had brought some of our own equipment but hired BCDs and wetsuits. Then we jumped on the boat and set off to lukuan dua which means corner 2. The boat is small but easily able to accommodate the 7 divers. There were 3 guides so we dived together as a family group with Anda. After an hours rest we moved to timur - east ... read more

Our first day was spent learning to master the art of patience. As expected the flights to Indonesia were delayed. We were expecting this as even though we had booked through Qantas we were on a Jetstar flight. The plane to Perth was delayed and then the plane from Perth was also delayed. Luckily the saving grace was that the lounge was open for us in both Melbourne and Perth. It was especially good to be able to catch the end of the ODI and see England beat Australia. We had no problem finding a place to leave our winter bag at the airport in Jakarta, but since we arrived late we missed our connecting flight to Manado. We managed to book another - at an exorbitant premium and then had 5 hours to wait. We ... read more

24.7. Tänään oli rauhallinen ja pitkä aamu. Oli vaihteeksi tilattu pannukakkuaamupala ja sitä syödessä taas katseltiin miehiä pellolla ja kolibreja puussa. Lähdettiin mopolla keskustaan vasta yhdentoista jälkeen ja suunnattin kahvilaan päivittämään blogi. Sairaan hyvää smoothieta. Ydinkeskustan paikat on kyllä ihan överihintaisia täkäläisellä mittapuulla. On myös överisliipattuja ja annokset ylityylikkäitä. Poikettiin myös kenkäkaupassa, mutta kaupanteosta ei tullut mitään, kun myyjä ei yhtään tyrkyttänyt ja pudotti silmää räpäyttämättä hintaa kolmanneksella. Siis eihän sellaisesta paikasta mitään voi ostaa, missä ei saa myyjän kanssa yhtään tapella, todella epäilyttävää :) Keskustasta lähdettiin mopoilemaan 18 kilsan päähän Gunung Kawin viidakkotemppeliin, jonne on ilmeisesti tuhat vuotta sitten kaiverrettu suoraan kallioseinämään 10 patsasta. Niiden tarkoitusta ei tiedetä varmast... read more

Here I am in Manado, after a long journey from London that started on the 3rd of November 2010 at 6pm from my home and arrived finally at my destination on the 6th of November at 5pm local time. Due to the tube strikes in London, I decided to take a cab to Paddington station to make it faster, but then heard on the TV that traffic was a stand still on that road, so asked the taxi driver how much it’d cost instead to go all the way by cab and the difference would have been about 5pounds, so I went for it. All went well and got there by7,30pm, check in on Singapore airlines was fast and good, I was given a window seat and I felt exited to fly on one of the ... read more