Manado Trip - Tomohon We Are In Love Finale

When we left Bukit Doa, it was quite late in the afternoon. So we quickly rushed to our next destination.

Linow Lake.

What is Linow Lake?

Linow Lake is a changing-color lake due to the the content of sulfur and algae inside the lake. It is said that Linow Lake's best appearance is around noon time. Three colors can be seen if you visit the lake around noon.

Due to our tight schedule, we could not manage to visit the lake at noon. We reached there about 4:00pm and the area looked quite crowded.

We were told that the entrance fee to the spot was IDR 35000 (SGD3.8) per pax included a voucher for snack. So, we straightaway proceeded to the gate.

A few more steps till the gate.

The guard stopped us.

When my Manado friend, Erland, told him that we would like to go inside, the guard told us that the place was closed and would be reopened the next day. There were some works ongoing inside because the area was booked for an event of Mr. Dahlan Iskan's mom.

He suggested us to go to another spot the next door.

So we went. And. Felt. A Bit. Dissapointed.

The spot next door. With an almost-collapse bamboo pier and two duck pedal boat.

The other stronger bamboo pier

We could not see the colors from here. I only saw green. And the place really looked un-maintained. So Erland and I walked back to the previous spot to appeal for access. I even asked Erland whether we could bribe him to let us in. Come to think of it, I did not behave well back then. I should not think about bribing the guard! I should not teach the nice Manado people to be corrupt!

So we talked to him and once he said no it meant no. He said, "Eventhough you leave Manado tomorrow, I can't let you in. If I let you guys in, how about other people?"

He only let me peek through the gate. Only up to the gate. Not more. And I managed to snap a few pictures.

Can you see the difference?

We also asked him whether there was other spots to view the lake and he pointed somewhere above our eyesight level. He said there was an area managed by Germany somewhere uphill. Suddenly I felt more hopeful.

So we went back to call the others.

And this is what they were doing while I was not around.

Admiring the lake. It looks good after the editing, ya?

Pre-wedding photo, anyone?

So we drove uphill. The route was scary because the lane was just sufficient for one car and on the left was a cliff. And it became scarier when our car met another car. Lucky there was a bit of space around the bushes for the car to make way for us. Twice we encountered it before we reach the place.

We walked out of the car and proceed to enter the area. It was a steep slope down before we reach the heart of the spot. We paid IDR 10000 (SGD1.1) per pax. We could see that the area was well maintained with a concrete pavement along the way, flower beds, wooden steps and gazebos, and restaurant.

The sloping pathway

This is really a town of flowers. Flowers everywhere.

And of course, the famous Linow

From here, we could see the lake from bird's eye view. Sulfur smoke could be seen at the other end of lake and we could see a gradation from green to blue.

So, time for some photos!

We had our sweet time here. I love you <3

She also had her sweet time here

This is how her sweet time looked like from another angle

Almost full house

And finally a full house photo. We love you Linow.

Our journey in Tomohon was not ended yet. Erland brought us for an early dinner at Boulevard Tondano. Boulevard Tondano is a stretch of road with fields at one side and row of huts at the other side. This row of huts are restaurants selling traditional foods of Tondano.

The traveling time from Linow Lake to Boulevard Tondano was a bit long. So we had a chance to sleep although I did not utilize it. And this is what I got by not sleeping.

Instead of leaning to his gf, he leaned to bf. Do they look sweet together? :P

And when we arrived, we saw the beauty. I did not have the photo of the road and the restaurants. We were already so tired and nobody cared to actually snap photos.

The view of Boulevard Tondano's field

The other side of the field

When sunset came

We entered Rumah Makan Andre and ordered milu bakar and sate kolombi. Milu bakar is barbecue corn while sate kolombi is snail satay. You can say that it is escargot. And it cost only about IDR 2000 (SGD2.2) per piece. I personally felt that it was marvelous because of the chili.

Sate kolombi, simple yet wonderful

Boulevard Tondano marked the end of our journey in Tomohon. We did not go to Tondano Lake (the biggest lake in North Sulawesi), Puncak Temboan Rurukan (the peak of Tomohon where Tondano Lake can be viewed as a whole), and Bukit Kasih (a hill that serves as a symbol of inter-religion harmony in North Sulawesi).

Erland told me that Tondano Lake was polluted by water hyacinth and it was not maintained properly by the government. When I heard about this, I felt sad that Indonesian government could not really work on the assets that they had. When I searched in the internet, I also found out that Bukit Kasih was not maintained as well. That's why we scrapped these two destinations from our itinerary.

As for Bukit Temboan Rurukan, we did not have enough time to go there and enjoy the view. In North Sulawesi, sunset falls quite early so by 6:00pm it started to turn dark.

Oh well, no mater what, we were still so satisfied with what we experienced in Tomohon. We climbed back to the car and enjoy our trip back to the city by SLEEPING. All of us were so tired and it was pitch dark so the best thing to do was to sleep.

Approximately two hours later, we reached our hotel, which is Aston Manado City Centre. The bellboy who assisted us with our luggage was very polite and friendly, so as the receptionist.

Some of my friends proceeded to the room while a few of us stayed back to get next-day route explanation from Erland.

Fresh Bakery for breakfast and Pasar Bersehati Pier for Bunaken

And that night, I just needed to touch the pillow to sleep.

Next post - Bunaken We Are Coming!

Love is in the air,
Little Feet