Travel stories: Dive and makan-makan trip to Manado/Bunaken

Yay! Hubs and I managed to go for our first dive trip after getting our open water dive cert. We so badly needed this because it has been 6 months ago since we completed our dive course zilch diving action. ;p To refresh what we have learned, we even reviewed the open water video clip the night our departure to Manado/Bunaken. Thank god that upon arrival at Manado, our dive instructor Wulan who organised this trip, took the group to Manado Bay for a dive check and everything we learned came back to us.

While in Manado, we stayed in La Rascasse Resort that overlooks Manado Tua and Bunaken island on the horizon. La Rascasse is a typical dive resort - basic amenities but clean. The rooms are air-conditioned and fitted with hot showers as well. Food-wise, we were surprised that La Rascasse serves up very good dishes. We certainly have no complaints upon eating our first meal there, after enduring a 3-hour journey on Lion Air that did not serve any food/beverages.

View of La Rascasse very own jetty and dive center

Hospitality at La Rascasse is top notch. The resort manager, Jeffry Massa and his staff are extremely friendly and made efforts to ensure their guests have a comfortable and enjoyable stay at La Rascasse. For example, one of the member in our dive group requested "Nasi Kuning" a local specialty for packed lunch during the one of the dive trips and it was considered done. Similarly, Jeffry also asked us if we like to try another local specialty "Bubur Manado" for breakfast and voila on the next day, there was "Bubur Manado" bought from one of the shops outside the resort, served up at the breakfast buffet.

A local specialty for breakfast - Bubur Manado. I had 2 bowls of this!

The dive sites around Bunaken are simply amazing. Underwater visibility was very good and Hubs and I were really excited by what we saw on both days. I will never forget a few personal "firsts" - a giant clam "contracted" underwater, the opportunity to see up close-up a giant turtle perched on its resting place before slowly swimming away, a giant Napolean wrasse and schools of butterfly fishes swimming gracefully that for a moment, I thought I was in an underwater garden.

Manado Bay

The island of Manado Tua

 Unbelievably crystal clear water

Sunset at Manado

Local peddler on a boat. Our group bought smoke cakalang

(i.e. skipjack tuna) to share as in-between dives snack ;p

Specially ordered packed lunch i.e. Nasi Kuning with smoked cakalang

On our last night in Manado, a few of us together with some of the dive guides went to a nearby restaurant i.e. City Extra for dinner. Apparently coconut crabs are a local specialty so we gotta have that before we leave. And it was very yummy indeed, although personally I prefer the coconut crabs cooked in black pepper sauce because it kinda masked the slight bitter taste of the crab meat.

Top, from left to right: Black pepper coconut crabs, steam coconut crabs, humogous crab claw

Middle: Our dive group members

Bottom, from left to right: Smoked prawns, squids cooked in ink, stir-fry pakis with papaya flowers

On our last day in Manado, we had some time to spare before our flight back which we hired a car to drive us to Manado city for massage and lunch. I certainly think that massage after diving is an excellent idea and the masseuse at Tikala Spa were really good. As usual, we asked for strong masseuse and gotta say I really enjoyed the deep tissue massage to rub those tired muscles. :) And the price was quite reasonable as well I must say. For a two hours session, we paid Rp 265,000 per person which included one hour of foot massage and one hour for full body massage.

For lunch, Wulan recommended us to try this restaurant called Puncak Manado. Situated on a bit of a hill, Puncak Manado offers bird's eye view of the city. And the food, needless to say, is another brilliant meal which showcases the Minahasa cuisine.

Bird's eye view of Manado from the restaurant

Clockwise from left: Ayam isi di bulu (chicken baked in bamboo),

Sogili woku woka (smoked eel), stir-fry pakis and papaya flowers,

and condiments of sambal and dabu-dabu (tomato salsa)

When we first touched down in Manado airport, I was strucked by this triangular stained glass feature in the main departure hall because it's kinda unusual to see this kinda of structures in a Muslim country. As it turned out to be, Christianity is the predominant faith in Manado. And it is very evident along the main road leading to the airport - it is dotted with a lot of churches of various denominations every couple hundred meters.

For our flight back, it turned out that our original Lion Air flight was cancelled and they moved us into a later flight operated by Batik Air, a premier subsidiary airline of Lion Air. I thought this was a rather thoughtful gesture by them - to offer prayer cards in the seat pockets to pray for safe journey. And the prayers are available for most major faiths: Islam, Protestant, Catholic, Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism! How cool is that!

Until we meet again. Manado/Bunaken has been most unforgettable...