20090810 – 20090825 (Bitung and Manado)

The last couple of weeks have been busy I’m not sure how to cope, one day at a time i guess. I will need a break from a holiday if it keeps up and longer, how’s work? Bitung and Manado are cities on the northern side of Sulawesi island and have been a final point to a sailing event called sail Bunaken which culminated with a huge sail past of Manado city with the biggest group of boats including tall ships, local traditional boats, us oh and war ships the George Washington carrier group from the states made the journey down. The sailing vessels where due up last and so we got to see all the whole fleet pass us and with front row seats it was incredible. Found out the George Washington has twin props, three engines and a big gearbox in between non combat times the two outer diesel engines are used with a prop each and they cruise at 18 ~20 knots, in wartime the turn the outer ones off switch on the turbine on and bolt along at 42 knots. On a side note we found out that 600 prostitutes from Jakarta were brought into service the service men.

During the sail past we had three Indonesians on board, one was a navy person and organising the sailing boats, the other two are a pair that are building a 56ft catamaran in Jakarta and have been looking at the cats in the fleet for ideas and advice. I went to pick them up in the dinghy and had lunch with them, when I asked what one of them did “I have some land”. What he failed to mention was that the land was in fact throughout Indonesia and that the majority had 5 star resorts on them. That night we had a 5 course meal and a few bottles of wine all bought and paid for. Cheers Sedona Resort, well worth a visit if ever in Manado.

Along with the sail past we participated in the Guinness book of records dive with 2800 other divers, it was a bit of a event, so far the whole trip through Indonesia has been choice but one consistent theme is that the Indonesians are not big with logistics this was no different. Certificates of achievement are on the way. Diving is world class i this area we have been using the hukah alot also, Daryl and I and Dave and Anne off another catamaran Liason charted a dive boat. We did three dives, my first wreck dive at 40m down to the props and two amazing wall dives off of Bunaken Island. There are so many colours and species of life to see around here, the big one at the moment is the nudi branch, sounds grubby but these tiny things are well sort after on Cool Bananas.

If life below the waterline is brilliant then life on land is not too shabby either, some in cages at the zoo and some in the wild. Favourite are the little monkeys which look like soft toys and are called tarsiers, they are nocturnal their eyes are huge, so much so that instead of moving their eyes they rotate their heads up to 360 deg. We all took a trip around the national park and saw some in the wild, some monkeys put on a peep show making sweet monkey voyeur love, unfortunately being to entranced I wasn’t able to get any good shots just a monkey smuggling raisons.

The Zoo freaked me out a bit i spent 25 minutes feeding a deer who was pining for me like a dog
through the fence, he was sad and just looking for some friendship.

I have found that Bitung is a very clean city, there has not been the same amount of rubbish a debris floating through the water. Fresh produce and fruit has been the name of the game and it’s always good fun going for a wander around the markets trying to work out what you are looking at. We were apologised too while heading to the markets because they have rats and dogs for sale for meat, but it’s OK because the rats are the ones with the white tips.
Independence Day was celebrated in style by the locals marching up and down the street with awesome costumes on. Some of them looked like gangsters and others as cowboys but like they would be dressed as if they were part of a musical. I reckon that the lead flag carrying dancers will be having hip replacements by the time they are 25 from all the hip gyrations which must cause them to wear down to nubs.

Each day a new ship (tall and combat) was open for the public to look around, on the day we all went it was a Indonesian ships put into service in 2008 and motored down from the Netherlands. It all looked state of the art including a karaoke room where the officers can relax with a bit of sing song. It was a escort boat and had all the gadgets for defence against Anti air and submarine attacks.

Local food here has been amazing, the night stalls wip up a bloody good but of squid in a peanut and chilli sauce. I have also now tried lung which was a bit on the chewy side but still not too shabby. Goat and Chicken satays skewers are always a favourite.

Managed to have a couple of benders in Manado and met a local who foundered a beer called Casanova which was fed to us in quantity. After a brief ride on an ojak (motorbike) into town its out to the bar we go I got the feeling of a high school disco where everyone has a partner and faces them in an orderly line and has a good old fashioned dance off. Tried to inject some chaos with nautical dance moves and the can-can but I don’t think anyone saw the funny side except me.