Blogs from Menado, Sulawesi, Indonesia, Asia - page 2

For the most part, modern man relates to nature at a distance, through conduits; be they television, the movies, literature, or myth. All these substitutes for direct experience seek to anthropomorphise the creatures they describe in an attempt to make them more palatable and less alien to the soft skinned, tender hearted city dwellers who seek safe escapism between pages and after adverts. This humanisation of nature has given modern man a vastly different view of nature from the one perhaps held by their grandparents, but definitely by theirs. Unfortunately, the "Mother Nature" of common consciousness is actually a vicious and unforgiving matriarch, and to try and mask this cruelty by investing her charges with human characteristics is like describing a volcanic eruption as the natural release of a mountains anger in response to the scarification ... read more

Päivä on tosiaan ollut erittäin rankka. Torkuttiin kahvilan kulman sohvilla 7.15 asti ja mentiin ostamaan jatkolennot Manado-Surabaya viikon päähän. Heitettiin laukut säilöön ja otettiin pikavisiittiä Singaporeen. Mentiin suoraan brekkarille ulkoilmamarkkinoille. Vanha rakennus, josta sai kaikkea herkkua. Meidän aamupalapöytään päätyi taivaalliset chiliravut ja muutama intialainen roti prata-lätty sekä pari masala dosaa. Kierreltiin vielä Singaporen keskustan nurkkia ja nähtiin muutama uusi paikka. Aivan käsittämättömän kuuma, jopa kuumempi kuin Suomessa(tai no, ehkä samoissa)… 3h jälkeen lähdettiin kentälle ja koneeseen kohti Jakartaa. Lion air on kyllä sellainen kohlausfirma ettei mitään järkeä. Laukut tagitettiin minne sattuu, kukaan ei tiennyt mistä kone lähtee jatkoyhteydellä. Kaikki indonesialaiset pomppii ylös vielä nousukiidon aikana jnejne… Jakartassa syötiin ehkä paskimmat ... read more

So I guess I'll pick up where I left off. After getting sick in Rantepao and traveling for two days on hot buses and staying in filthy rooms, I got on the ferry to the Togean Islands. I was with a Spanish girl named Laia whose bus broke down and so she was on my bus. We shared a room in Poso and Ampana before finally making it to the islands. I should say that those towns were fine, lots of friendly people and everything, but I was sick and just not in the state of mind to look at the bright side of things. We stayed on a small island called Kadidiri. It was really really perfect. Nothing at all on the island except the three little resorts all on the same beach. No road ... read more

We arrived in Bunaken at lunch, just in time to have one dive before the sun sets. So we got our cameras ready; this time my dad bought another strobe for himself, it was much lighter than mine but it's not as powerful. Before we got on the boat, we double checked our equipments and made sure the cameras are fine. Then we went in the boat, and head straight to Lekuan 3 When we went in, the wave drifts me away from the boat and I didn't have enough time to get my camera. So my dad carried it down for me, although he had many things on him already. As soon as we descend, I felt a problem with my regulator mouth piece, water kept coming in. I checked it and found that there ... read more

From Malaysia, I crossed into Indonesia (Tawau Nunukan Tarakan) and caught a plane to Balikpapan Manado, a city in northern Sulawesi, Indonesia. I was going to meet someone I'd been talking with through couchsurfing (for those of you who do not know, it is worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit...and also something I had done several times in Canada and had a good experience with). David, who is my age and also has a marine science background, had already told me that he would be going to Siau to start work with the government there, and I agreed to join him. Siau is one of the sitaro islands, located about 130 km north of Manado. This island has no infrastructure for tourism whatsoever, but has all ... read more