Manado Trip 2013 - Day Two

Moving on to the second day, first thing in the morning we picked up some relatives and headed straight to Danau Linow (Linow Lake) at Tomohon. It's about two hours drive from Manado, but it was two hours well spent catching up with my grandmother and my cousin in the car.

Danau Linow is famous for it's water could change color, because of the high sulfur content in the water. When we visited that morning, the color is kinda green. Located up in the mountain, the weather was breezy even though the sun was shining brightly.

The entrance ticket fee is IDR 25.000 per person, including first drink (coffee or tea) and a piece of bangket cookie, manadonese traditional cookie which uses walnut as the main ingredient. They also sell some snacks, so we ordered a portion of banana fritters with bakasang.

And that's how we spent our morning, sitting in a peaceful natural place, chatting with family and relatives, accompanied by great snack. Priceless!

Afternoon arrived, and so did hunger. We had lunch at RM Tinoor Jaya, still at Tomohon, which serves traditional Minahasa food, including Paniki (Bat Meats), RW (Dog Meats), and Boar Meats. I've tried all of them on my previous visit, but none of them meet my tastebud (and I feel like crying when I eat the dog meat), so this time I just eat something ordinary like chicken and pork.

The eating system here is similar to Padang Restaurant. The food is all served on the table. You touch the bowl, you pay for the whole bowl. If you're not interested, just stay away from it.

Continuing our journey, we went to Bukit Doa (The Hill of Prayer). The place is beautiful, they've got a Maria Cave, Stations of the Cross, chapel, and outdoor amphitheater. Too bad that time the Stations of the Cross was hit by the landslide earlier (you must have heard of the huge flood and landslides at February on TV), so it's not available.

Beautiful chapel at the Hill of Prayer

After the long hours of sitting in the car, we finally got back to Manado and had our dinner at Rajawali restaurant. Here's my favourite, Crisp Fried Carp Fish. In Jakarta, people usually avoid carp fish because they've got a lot of tiny spines, making it hard to separate the meat and the spines. But in Manado, people love it. I personally prefer the carp fish to be fried until crispy so I can just eat the spines along without separating them.

Having enough adventure for the day, we headed back to the hotel and had rest to face the third and also our last day in Manado.

Danau Linow

Jl. Tomohon - Kawangkoan

Minahasa, North Sulawesi

Indonesia

RM Tinoor Jaya

Jl. Raya Tomohon 

Minahasa, North Sulawesi

Indonesia

Bukit Doa

Jl. Lingkar Timur no. 99

Kakaskasen 2, Tomohon

Minahasa, North Sulawesi

Indonesia

RM Rajawali

Jl. Sudirman No. 18

Manado, North Sulawesi

Indonesia