Manado Trip - Bunaken We Are Coming!

The next day was also scheduled to be packed. Our itinerary for the day was the beach, the sun, and the water in Bunaken National Park.

Don't force me to explain about Bunaken National Park.

Bunaken National Park was set up in 1991 and consists of five islands, namely Bunaken, Siladen, Manadotua, Montehege, and Nain. There are 390 species of corals living at this area of coral triangle. In 2005, this marine park was declared as one of UNESCO site heritage.

Bunaken National Park can be reached by speed boat from Manado, around 30-45 minutes travelling time. No worry if you don't have any snorkeling equipment because you can rent the mask and the fin for IDR 100000 (SGD11). If you happen to forget to pack your swimsuit, they are more than happy to rent you wetsuit which cost additional IDR 50000 (SGD5.5).

Chartering the speed boat to bring you around throughout your journey should not be a problem. A lot of boats and a lot of people waiting for customers can be spotted around the pier. There are two piers which can direct you to Manado, Marina Plaza and Pelabuhan Pasar Bersehati. Renting the boat from Marina Plaza costs more than doing so at another pier? Why? I guess it is all about target market.

Are you wondering what we choose? Of course the one more value for money. Haha.

So, one of my friend (remember the one being proposed in front of Jesus Statue, let's call her Lovebird) was in charge of the transportation arrangement. She contacted Mr. Daeng beforehand to inquire about the service. 

And he quoted us IDR 1150000 (SGD 124) to use his service covering five snorkeling spots around Bunaken and Siladen. If you want to rent a glass bottom boat, you can request for it with additional IDR 500000 (IDR 55). 

And it's time to explore Bunaken.

We woke up to a very bright day. 

The view from our hotel room. Can you see Manadotua there? 

Bf and I opted not to have our breakfast in the hotel as we liked to experience more of the local foods. And since Erland told us that there was no restaurant in the marine park (there was only some huts selling snacks like banana fritters, coffee, etc), we took up the task to buy lunch.

With the map in hand, we walked about 15 minutes to Kanaka. There were a row of shophouses selling breakfast.

Since our breakfast destination was still closed, we first proceeded to buy our lunch at Rumah Makan Ternate, i.e. nasi mijo. Nasi mijo is a traditional food from Ternate (North Maluku) which consists of rice, skipjack tuna, fried noodle, pickles, bambooshoot, and of course chili sauce. The seller was very nice to us. She even told me that I could always come back and ask her about the food in Manado, she would recommend me the best. I felt so blessed.

And after we finished packing our lunch, we proceeded next door to Fresh Bakery. Please don't start to imagine a bakery that has racks of breads and cakes. This bakery is actually a restaurant. Sorry I did not snap any picture because I was not prepared to write a travel journal afterwards.

This restaurant sell loba, which is sliced pork with a very special sweet and spicy sauce made of starch. When you order, you can choose meat only or meat+liver+heart+belly. Bf ordered meat only for about IDR 20000 (SGD2.2) per plate.

Loba is eaten with rice. And this picture is unedited. Too sparkling to be true?

Since I don't really fancy pork, I planned to eat some other thing. I saw the restaurant also sold some breads and I went over to take a look. The uncle in the cashier told me that the breads were 'yesterday product' and did not recommend me to buy. And I was so surprised, not a lot of sellers would do that kind of thing. I felt like hugging him straightaway.

So in the end, I bought soya milk and lalampa. Lalampa is sticky rice roll with skipjack tuna filling. It cost me IDR 10000 (SGD 1.1.) for the soya milk and IDR 5000 (SGD 0.55) for the lalampa.

My breakfast :)

After we filled our stomach, we walked from Kanaka to Pasar Bersehati. It was about 20 minutes refreshing morning walk. On the other hand, my friends took cab from the hotel for 5 minutes journey that cost IDR 50000 (SGD 5.5). So I would recommend walking 15 minutes from Aston.

The buy-and-sell area of Manado, on our way to the pier

We met at the pier around 7:00am and we jumped to the boat for our main itinerary of this trip: Bunaken!

The journey started. See you Manado!

Our first stop was Bunaken Island. All the huts were still empty except the equipment rental. So we got our equipments here.

Three things I would like to you to take note:

1. There should be an entrance fee of IDR 2500 (SGD0.3) entrance fee to local tourist but Mr. Daeng told us that everything had been so messy that there would be no point paying the entrance fee.
2. The lady at the equipment rental stall imposed us additional fee because we were to use the equipment past mid-day. Mr. Daeng would only return the equipment to her the next day and she would charge us for the loss. Initially she wanted to mark up the rental charge for 50%. Instead of IDR 100000, she wanted us to pay IDR 150000 per set of equipment. In the end, we bargained for 25% instead. So, if you are there, please bargain. I think if we tried hard enough, we could go for lower charge.
3. The lady also tried to hard sell us to use the service of diving guide. I straightaway reject the offer but she kept pushing me. I told her each one of us had experienced snorkeling before and she finally kept quiet. From what I read in other people blog, your money would be sucked by using the service of the guide. Therefore, beware.

And we were so ready for our underwater journey!

Next Post - The Heavenly Underwater World Bunaken

Love is in the air,
Little Feet