Best of North Sulawesi

I found my Sulawesi gem as my last few days and my last destination in Sulawesi. Tankoko Reserve hit me with a mellow atmosphere and lots of wildlife to see. It's easy to get to and there are several trips available there from most dive resorts and travel agents. However the local transportation there is a bit trickier, but a lot cheaper. Besides a couple of hours of "rough" travel only makes it more genuine. Just ask the microlet drivers how to get there and they will help you catch the connecting microlett, buss or back of a tiny truck. One can easily get there from Manado, Tandano and Bitung.

My favorite part was walking around in the Jungle and seeing all the cool animals. The best part might have been the lack of mosquitoes. I don't think I encountered a single one. Which was a releif since I had no malaria meds. From what I heard the risk was non existent to low locally but looking at the maps from home most of Sulawesi lit up as a malaria zone. It seems as this is no longer the case however.

Some of the awesome animals we encountered where giant tarantulas at night, über cute primates known as Tarsiers, Makaks, exotic birds and Dolphins.
My only regret is that I did not have time to do any muck diving close by but that's ok. I'll soon be diving in some new cool places.

After some checking around we stayed at a home stay for 200.000 IDR per night. This included 2 meals a day for 2 people. In other words quite cheap. Fresh fish was on the menu just about every day. Breakfast could be a bit small for people like me who are used to a proper meal for breakfast but one can always request some Nasi Goreng instead which was much to my pleasing.

In this place I met an Indonesian - German family which was quite interesting. Although their kids where about 10 years younger than me, I kept thinking that it could have been my life would we have not returned from Indonesia after moving there as a child. This could have been a defining moment in my life and I become a tad bit happier every time I think about it. I'm very happy I got to have the background that I finally got. But more about that another day.

If you are ever in North Sulawesi, pop by Tankoko for a few days of relaxing and enjoying nature.

A Paradise Polluted

Outside the coast of northern Sulawesi lies Bunaken, a small island with the potential of some of the greatest diving in the world. It once ranked in the top five dive spots in the world but had lost rankings in recent years.

As a diver I went in search of new wonders and to marvel while doing my flights through alien territory. The underwater world is truly an amazing one, with creatures one would think lived in the world of fiction.  The waters of Bunaken have a diverse marine life and focuses mainly on the smaller life forms. There are a few turtles guaranteed to be seen but sharks and bigger wildlife is not as common.

It all started out with a very promising afternoon wall dive. The reef where I dived was in relative good shape and there was plenty to see. Then the local influence started floating by in the form of plastic and garbage. As the growing city of Manado is quite close by and up current of this “could be island paradise”, a lot of things tend to float by. Not uncommon are, plastic bags, dead animals, diapers or other random junk. It’s worst for the snorkelers on the south and east side who must experience all the floaters but it’s horrible for me as a diver as well.

After a few dives I had enough and could no longer stand the pollution of humanity and left the island after far fewer dives than I had initially hoped.

Without this pollution I’d easily rank Bunaken among the top 10-15 dive sports. It the reef was in perfect condition it would be even better but there is some damage due to earlier dynamite and cyanide fishing.

For those who do not want to dive there are a few other activities on the island. The beaches are not that good and quite polluted both from the wash up of Manado and the locals habit of throwing garbage about. The snorkeling is good if one can disregard the foulness floating around. There is a dolphin tour for about 80.000 IDR which is worthwhile and quite cheap for this type of thing around south East Asia.

It’s good to know that all the places to stay charge per person and not per room. All meals of the day are also included in this price. The cheaper alternative is to stay in a homestay in the little village on the south end of the island. The less cheap alternative is to stay at one of the many resorts with ad hoc dive centers or dive centers with ad hoc resorts. I stayed at Raja Laut (meaning Ocean King) and enjoyed it.

The price was 250.000 IDR per person and both food and accommodation was very nice. The diving part of our resort/dive center as also good but I think they value what you can see higher than what you don’t want to see. I although the corals might be more damaged on the North West part of the island I’d easily trade it for less garbage any time. Most of the prices for the resorts are in Euros and the local exchange rate is quite bad. So it’s much better to bring your own cash that you conveniently exchanged in your home country. There are also no ATMs on the island so bring plenty of cash. Although I felt quite safe ant not too worried about my gear in our bungalow it was still nice to be able to put out valuables in the dive centers safe.

The cheapest alternative for diving and also maybe staying is Daniels. I think the dives where 25€ at Daniels as well. At Raja Laut they were 30 € is you do 3 or more dives. For one dive I think it was 35 €.

On the unfortunate side of things I lost one of my go pro cameras with its new underwater housing and head mount. It will be interesting to see how to handle my insurance. And if I need to make some sort of report. After all I lost it in the ocean, do I still need to make a police report?

All in all, go dive Bunaken and see for yourself, if you are in the area. If not, go somewhere else. There are plenty of great dive sites in South East Asia to the west, north and east of Northern Sulawesi.

Budget Dining Japan

Traveling around Japan is in no means cheap but if you'd run out of cash or if you are low there are a few options of getting away fairly cheap concerning food. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it though. stinging too much on food since it's one of the main cultural experiences one need to explore while journeying into distant cultures and lands. So I've structured it into three different categories.

Cooking

In most cities that are bigger than a village there are your bigger grocery stores. They are in no means as large as the ones in Europe, North America or even other parts of Asia. However one can find a lots of things cheap and especially at the end of the day where a lot of fresh stuff is made available at a discount. Here one can find cheap sushi and other ready made foods like bentos for a couple of hundred yen. If you happen to have a kitchen made available to you picking up some stuff to cook can be a real money saver. Things that are cheap in japan are. Rice, Eggs, Ready made sauces, soups (like miso soup). Things that are a bit more expensive include meat, vegetables and fish.

Markets

Daily markets, fish markets and the likes is an other alternative getting cheap and nice ingredients. It usually requires a bit more out of the way transportation but the rewards are well worth it. At the fish markets one can get prime grade sashimi ready cut for 500yen which will be more than what you get in a restaurant for maybe 4-8 times the price.

Cheap Ready to Eat Food

In various small convenient stores around the country one can find little bentos, onigiris, premade cup noodles and soups. These will be your main stable if you want to live cheap on the go. bentos can go as low at 200yen and the most expensive ones usually reach 450 or so. Cup noodles can be found for 100yen at a lot of places. the 100yen stores sometimes have these. There are also the lawesons or other convenient store 100yen shops which usually carry this at 100yen prices. Here cakes, donuts and similar things can be bought at a discount as well.

Cheap Restaurants

This is maybe a tad more expensive than the convenient store food. It is much more enjoyable though and for only a moderate increase in cost the dining experience increases a lot. The cheap restaurants include gyudon chains, katsu shops, curry chains and ramen. In these restaurants one can eat from 250yen to around 800 yen. What is served is variations on dons. Something over a bowl of rice. Exempting the ramen places ofc. There are usually a range of sides one can order to the main dish as salads, soups, raw eggs and the like. Plain water is always free so one can save another 50-100yen in comparison to the convenient stores here on that. A lot of the chains are also available outside of japan. Usually they are a bit pricier than in Japan and the quality is usually a lot worse. My favorite dishes at these restaurants include.

• gyudon (beef bowl)
• oyakudon (chicken and egg over rice. in Japanese "mother an child bowl" )
• katsucurry (fried meat and curry over rice)
• ramen (ramen noodles in it's many chapes)

I usually go with a side of miso or similar soups and a nama tamago (raw egg).

Being a foodie total budget dining was is impossible for me in Japan. After all I partly go there for the food. Trying a few of these places will prove quite fun if you give then a shot though. Besides you always need to eat. =D

To Hell and Beyond, Beppu

Beppu. Am ideal Japanese getaway. Beppu holds more natural hot springs than any other place in Japan. A Japanese natural hotspiring is called an onsen. One should be aware of the difference between an artificially heated bath establishment an sento and the onsen. Why? well for the sake of knowing. In most cases one cant feel or tell any difference between these two. To find a bath house look for the ゆ sign outside the door.

Getting into hot water and relaxing is definitively a favorite of mine so off to Beppu we go. The onsens are numerous and the pylons of white steams can be seen all over the mountainside. Despite being a top tourist destination prices in japan are generally not too unfair and Beppu is no exception. One can easily grab a very nice lunch or dinner without spending too much of ones hard earned coins. Getting around the area is fairly easy and buses is the more economical option. The other option is cabing it which is very feasible if you can share it on a few people.
Taking the buss can have it\s disadvantages though. Like when the buss driver ignores you per default as he cannot understand English. English is ofc the only language any foreigner can speak so auto ignore is on. This resulted in me walking my way to the hells.

Video is in Swedish

The hells are the onsen that are not for bathing in.They are purely for looking at and have their own little story. A interesting thing about these places are that they all have their little demons or devils to take care of them. Being Japan and all they are adorable and super cute.

On the brighter side of things there are plenty of onsens one can take a bath in. In fact most ryoukan or places to stay are likely to have their very own hot spring installation here. It does puzzle me though. When this abundant source of heat and energy is readily available why not harness is for geopower? Specially now with the upheaval at nuclear power in Japan. Well I do guess that could just do something about the terrible insulation most houses have first. That would certainly help to keep the heat in at least. Anyway make sure you Enjoy one of these onsens if you ever go to Beppu.

A few things to do in Osaka

There are so many fun things to do in Japan and Osaka that it's realy hard to choose a few to do. None the less I've decided to write down a few of the things I really like about the place (almost inexchangele with a few things I like to eat here).

• Getting a cheap bento or onigiri in the morning.

Even such a simple thing like this quite interesting. Coming from a culture where we don't really have premade lunch boxes this style it's a bit exotic and quite well tasting too. The Onigiri is a riceball or rice pack in any small shape really. Having the strong desire to individually wrap everything and eating fresh food, the onigiri wrapping is quite ingenious

• Getting a Japanese Ice Cream

There are many to chose from and maybe one o the most delicious are the mochi ice creams. But don't miss out on the rest of the selection available at all kinds of places like mini marts. A classic for me has always been the "Jumbo"

• Engaging in a cool Kaiten Sushi (conveyor belt sushi)

These places are all over Japan and come in all kinds of sizes and price ranges. Well they tend to be on the cheaper end of the scale. I've visited quite a few places during my time in Osaka. The chepest place serving for about 100yen or maybe even 80yen per plate. Remember that one plate holds two pieces of sushi unless it's a special one of some kind. Specials can reach up to almost 1000 yen for a place depending on what you choose. For me kaiten holds more than just the food. It's packed wioth great memories of great times and meeting cool people.

In fact last time I popped in to a place in the middle of Namba I sat next to this old couple. It's the obachans and ojiichans that have the time to engage in conversations with random strangers more often than not and they are always suprised (happily so) when encountering someone knowing more than a few words of Japanese. In fact my meal ended with me being treated to my entiere meal and forced to try some of the more rare and expensive fish since I just had to try em out. One of the fun this that makes this place in the middle of Namba special is the Jan Ken Poi (rock paper scissors) played against one of the bar staff. You play 3 times and if you win all 3 you're rewarded with a good treat of sushi for free. It's also free to play so when they encourage you to stand up and play. Do it!

• Go splurge in a Hyaku Yen (100 yen) store

These store can be encountered all over japan and sell the strangest things. Sometimes one can find real finds here. More than not it's filled with Chinese made Japanese copies of things but sometimes there's some really interesting stuff.

That's it for now. There are so much more to do in Osaka but then again. I have to have something to show you in my next Osaka post.

Woody got Wood

Wanted to try out hitchhiking from Toyo to Osaka but as I really didn't know where to start I ended up looking at a map to figure out what higway I should head for. Needing to be there the next day to meet up with old friends fom the Handai times I opted for a nightbuss. The nightbuss if a budget alternative in Japan and will cost you somewhere from 7-10K yen depending on when you go and what company you go with. I remember sometimes getting 6k yen ticket at the travel agency on Osaka campus 4 years ago. Considering you will save one night of housing which will cost a minuímum of 4k if you stay somewhere else than a capsule hotel or sleep in a manga kafe. The shinkansen (bullet train) that will take you there in a matter of hours will put a dent in your wallet of circa 20k + 1 night of cousing. The uber cheap and super hippe way I guess would be hitchhiking and couch surfing for a price of 0 + 0 yen if you have the resolve to do it. But let me warn you. Communications are an illusion for those of you who rely on wifi. What you really want is a Japanese phone to get in touch with people or someone to led you a 3G modem. A 3G moden to rest from softbak is avialable at 1.5k+ yen a day and is hardly an economical option. Stupid me thinking that I might not need to bring my old japanese phone.

Well in Osaka there is abunch of cool things to do. Like eat for example. Osaka is by many considered the gastronomical capital of Japan and is definetly the center for both Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki. That would be a Japanese style cabbage omelet and the second fried squid in ball shapes. There is a danger here though that most people having eaten takoyaki have experienced. It's hot! Hot, hot hot. Not in spicy terms but in heat. I and almost everyone I know always burn their tough and gums when not having eaten it in a while.

For a flora of options head down to shinsaibashi or namba station and head for dotonburi and the ebisu area. Along the river one can find as many stands as one could wich for. While there don't forget to grab a shot of the very famous glico man as well. Like mentioned before

Japan is a universe of it's own. Machines rule at times and the pervertedness repressed by the asian culture of face has given Japan it's unique qualities. One example are these wending machines selling little dolls. Check out the progress of topic.

But something that we laught at so many times was the fusion of east and west. One could go on and on about it in a range of areas like fashion, culture and economics. But more fun is just showing you this picture.