Manado Beach

... is scratched and sweaty) we managed to reach the waterfall. Showering below it has never felt so rewarding.<br><br>Tomorrow we are off to the Togean Islands. A little secluded piece of land rising out of the Gulf of Tomini, a few kilometers south of the equator with white sand beaches, little beach resorts and great snorkelling. Or so we heard. Let's see if we will really find this piece of paradise. The 13 hour boat ride better be worth it...

... from the bottom at that point, not too far from shore, and made for a very cool location. It was there that we saw more mantis shrimp. Still just as creepy! We saw a fingered dragonette, which is a fish that basically walks around on the bottom clawing its way along with what look like little skeletal fingers. We also spotted a clown snake eel, which is a type ...

... rat or fruit bat on a stick! We'll stick with the corn dogs on a stick at the fair, thank you very much. The sad part was seeing dogs penned with about a dozen in a cage, just waiting to be done in for someone's next meal. We'll spare you the gory details, but it wasn't pleasant. Still, we understand that life is different here and that's just a part of the culture. The ...

... comes to a sudden end and drops off with sheer walls to depths way beyond recreational diving. The cool part was that we got to hang out along those walls, checking out all of the incredible sea life that clings to them. Sea life was abundant because of the high amount of current passing through, bringing nutrients along with it, as well as warm water upwellings that also help feed everyhing. And ...

... to describe the taxi ride from Manado to our remote location about an hour and a half away? If anyone has ever been on the ride at Disneyland called Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, they will kind of understand what the car ride was like. Craaaaaaaazy scary! Andy had the honor of riding in the front seat and was certain he was going to witness ...

... is a very international crowd here with people from Spain,Germany and Holland. Terry the Australian part owner says that there are very few Australians that come here as the Island is not well known at home. God only knows why because everybody else seems to agree that this is some of the best diving in the world! Some of the highlights underwater have been, the Black Tipped Reef Sharks ...

... some of these organisms if you unsure of them, they are amazing, and this was probably the best holiday that I have ever had, my week on Bunaken Island! We finished off the week with a large party that the family at Panoama threw, and danced with about 60 locals and drank arak, and ate tons of delicious foods (and dog too!). Overal, amazing stay, now, what to do next?!!?!? Ternate and Halmahera, Lembeh, Kalimantan, Togian? choices choices.... selamat pagi.

... and after a whirlwind affair (a couple of hours in the Raffles Hotel bar in Singapore, if you ask Raf), decided to start a resort on Bunaken. The resort is made up of 10 rooms and a common dining area, and can accommodate up to 20 guests, although the maximum during our 9 night visit was 13 guests. The resort is by itself with no nearby neighbors which makes it a very peaceful place. The clientele was all Japanese, except for the 5 or us ...

... barking noise as it perched in a tree and which sounded like a helicopter as it flew low over our heads. We eventually reached the furthest point of our trek, known as the "sleeping tree" where the tarsiers, being noctural animals, spend the daylight hours hanging out. This particular morning, however, there was very little sleeping going on as Sarah and I rapped the base of the tree and flashed our cameras up the hollow inside to see if we could pick out ...

... off, right? And if Surabaya sounds familiar, it should (if you've been reading, not skimming) because you may recall me *****ing and whining about how horrible a place it was. So why are we going back, you ask? Because, A) we're cheap, and that is the least expensive place to fly that is anywhere near where we want to go, and B) we plan to get the hell out of there within hours of landing. We're conveniently ignoring the fact that our plan was similar last time ...