Moving on from Manado

I spent 3 nights and 2 days at Bunaken. Diving was excellent. More diverse than Sipadan though the sharks and turtles were not as abundant. Many nudibraches seen during the day and one octopus hiding in a hole but the night dive revealed the most. A sea snake, a long view of a sting ray. Many, many lobsters, crabs, and similar arthorpods. Large moray eel outside its hole.

The dry land experience was rather less delightful. The cottage had no fan and there was no sea breeze, just humid tropical heat. Further, something on the sheets made me moderately itchy though it wasn't anything biting. In short, there was little rest between the dives. When I returned to Manado, I was exhausted.

Yesterday, I met a local photographer who thought he might be able to do something about my camera problem. We set an apointment for today at 10:00am. This left me with a day to kill. I went to Tomohone, hoping to find one of these restaurants claimed by the guide book to serve unusual local food and maybe to see the volcano.

The restaurant was ok. The view was great but the food was nothing all that special. Good, which is a bit unusual unto itself around here, but not the sampling of unusual local cuisine that I had expected.

As for the volcano: it rained most the day and I couldn't find the "Volcano center" that was supposed to give me information.

The local photographer never showed. It looked like it was going to rain again. And I was getting very sick of Manado. Mostly I think it is the lack of decent food and accomomidation that was getting to me. Good, inexpensive, local food is just not available here. From most restaurants waifts a cocktail of gasses and grease that flat out turns my stomach. What is served is heavy on the grease, starch, and chilis but devoid of any vegetable content and significant flavor. I have, reluctantly, settled on a few western restaurants. They're a fair bit cheaper than Western places in Sabah but still not cheap. Budget accomidation is really just missing. There are a couple of moderately priced mid-range places where even a cold shower is considered luxury.

I decided it wasn't worth trying again to see the volcano. I booked a flight to Makassar for tomorrow. I'm skipping the Togeans. They are hard to get around and just don't have the budget for much more diving and that's pretty much all there is there.

I considdered skipping the whole rest of the island and flying right on to Medan in Sumatra (ferry range of Penang) It wouldn't have been much more than the Pelni boat and I would sooner reach some place where I could do something about the camera. But, rather than skipping South Sulawesi without so much as a look, I decided I should at least give the place a day or two. We'll soon see if the time is well spent.