I enjoyed a good filling buffet style breakfast of a mix between odd western foods, like hotdogs and eggs, and local fare, like fried noodles with vegetables. The tour driver showed up early, and I was ready with my day bag. We had two locations on the itinerary for that day, a small volcano hike and Tangkoko Nature Reserve. He drove for a bit outside of the city before arriving at the volcano “hike”. On its best day, it’s barely a hike. The path was almost entirely paved with bricks or tiles, and plaster columns lining the side of the railing. We ascended the stairs, only hitting actual dirt for a few hundred meters before reaching the “summit”, where one of the most uninspiring monuments I’ve seen stood tall, made worse by the massive amount of cable wires maintaining it erect. Even the view of the land below was obstructed by the thick black cable wires. We took a break to wipe off the massive amount of sweat accumulated, not due to the hike itself but the oppressive heat, before deciding not to take any photos at all, and finding a different smaller route down. The most interesting part of the hike we would have missed, had we not found the other route, which gently sloped down and opened up to three unexpected religious houses of worship, a Hindu temple, alongside a Buddhist temple, alongside a Christian church. There was no one around, and not much of a surrounding village, so I couldn’t find out much history, but never-the-less, I was quite surprised to see the places of worship of three of the bigger religions in the world, seemingly arm in arm, atop a mountain. Despite being deserted at the time, I could tell the place was cared for and used. After circling in wonder, I found a nicely manicured set of steps, which bordered a sulfuric volcanic crater, and led to the bottom of the hill. I hadn’t noticed initially, but, at the bottom, there was a tall four sided monument with plaques representing each religion.
There was writing in Bahasa,
but no one was around to translate, so I left feeling a bit at a loss, but very
intrigued. Next, the car ride to Tankoko
Nature Reserve was a bit longer of a ride, but I was excited to visit, because
it is a sanctuary and research facility for macaques
and tarsiers, the world’s tiniest monkeys!
When I arrived, I was introduced to the guide, who spoke English. There didn’t seem to be any one else around,
or any sort of self-guided walks, so I would have had no idea where to start
without the guide. In fact, the walk
which she led was mostly off any sort of path, but instead traversed jungle
overgrowth. She treaded easily, but I
found myself occasionally caught in the thorny bushes and having to struggle
through low-lying vines and branches.
While I was preoccupied with my footing, she stopped and pointed out a
family of black macaques, walking right past. Some were lounging in trees, others were
dangling and jumping from branch to branch. Some were great beasts and others
tiny little monkey-lings. I was dumbfounded,
we really were getting to see these macaques in the wild! I tried to take a hundred photos, before they
passed before my eyes. Luckily, we
continued through the jungle and for about two hours stumbled about countless
groups of macaques roaming about.
At one point, we met some young American girls who worked at the
sanctuary, studying the habits of these animals. They weren’t as interactive as the monkey in
Ubud’s Sacred Monkey Sanctuary, but they clearly recognized humans and did not
shy away; they mostly just briefly hesitated when crossing the path in front of
us, and scurried past. As the day wore
on, she guided us to a farther into the jungle, explaining she would search out
the illusive tarsier monkey, which only came out at dusk. It was again lucky I had a guide, because
apparently they slept in the hole of trees, and she could somehow tell which
trees potentially held the tiny monkeys.
We sat next to one tree for about
an hour as the sun set, before she perked up, shining a flash light toward a
hole where she noticed the tiniest movement.
We all got up and tried to clamber over one another in an attempt to
spot what she saw, and only after a few more minutes, did a little bitty monkey
head pop out of the hole. Oh my god…it
was the cutest thing ever! So small, it
could fit into the cup of your hand; with huge beady eyes, big ears pointing up
and suction cup finger tips, it would bounce around the tree from hiding spot
to hiding spot. As we watched, a few
more would make a quick appearance. Sometimes,
we were lucky to find one curious enough to sit still, watching us, while we
madly took photos. They really sort of
looked more like rats or gerbils, but way cuter than a rat…probably because it
was called a monkey…and didn’t scamper across my feet after eating trash off
the street. Anyway, I made circles
around the tree, searching out as many as I could find, until sunlight was
barely reaching through the tree canopies, at which time, the guide handed out
flashlights, and we made our way back to the main road, where the driver
awaited, finally making it back in the pitch black. I loaded up into the car, and arrived back at
Top Hotel in Manado for a quick dinner in town before a shower and bed. The next day was pretty “eventless”. There was nothing actually planned, but I spent the day walking around the city. The most notable moment, however was getting to try Kopi Luwak, one of the world’s most expensive types of coffee. It’s often crudely referred to as “poop coffee”, because it is gathered from the excrement of an Asian Palm Civet, also called a toddy cat. It is believed that the yield from this type of gathering method is superior, because the animal will only select better beans to consume, and the digestive process supposedly improves the flavor. At the coffee shop, I ordered my coffee, and a few minutes later a woman brought a science project to the table. There was a Bunsen burner and two rounded beakers perched on of one another, connected by a hollow glass tube. The bottom beaker, just above the Bunsen burner contained a small amount of water, the hollow glass tube connected the two round beakers with one end submerged in the water. The top beaker contained grounded coffee. The woman lit the burner, and I watched in awe and suspense as the water slower started the develop bubbles until it was fully boiling. As it heated, the water rose up through the center hollow glass tube into the top container with the coffee, until all of the water was in the top beaker mixing with the coffee grind. The fire burnt down and then allowed mixed coffee to slowly drip back down into the bottom beaker once again. When the whole process was finished, the woman came back over and poured the science project’s result into a small mug for me to enjoy.
An early morning started the next day, again enjoying the good hotel breakfast before a shuttle came for my day of snorkeling!
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Manado was great, despite being small and not part of the wild cultural experience I usually revel, I was able to combine both nature, hiking and monkeys (!), with beautiful water and snorkeling. So often when floating around, you kind of have to pick a location for either one or the other. It’s a bit of a hike to get there, and there’s nothing else really around, but it’s a lovely spot with nice people and great food. Off I went in search of more that Indonesia had to offer!
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