Sulawesi 2004

During my first trip to Indonesia, I visited the island of Sulawesi. I spent 2 weelks of muck-diving in Lembeh Strait and made a trip to the highlands of Minahasa afterwards. Due to a huge farmer’s congress I had to change my plans and ended up in the small village Bahowo, which I learned to love and enjoy a lot.

Lembeh Strait

During my first visit at Divers Lodge Lembeh, I enjoyed the great service of Rob und Linda, who run the resort and dive center. With a maximum of two guests per guide you get a good chance of seeing lots of bizarre animals, the place is famous for.

During some of teh dive we had three guides for two guests which turned out to be quite stressy, as the guides wanted to outrun their colleagues in finding weird animals.

Minahasa

On my short trip to teh highland of Minahasa I met lots of friendly people, was invited to eat at temples and join in to dance and feasts at various places.

If you can’t write or feel insecure doing so, you have to resort to “professional” services.

Gardenia Country Inn is a hidden jewel you can sleep in. The small platform near the fish pond is used for serving breakfast while having a great view on a slowly smoking volcano. That’s the way to start a day!

Bahowo

A lucky chance led me to the small village of Bahowo. Although rather close to Manado, the village was hart to get to. Poor road conditions, unpassable in the wet season, made it nearly impossible for the villagers to take their agricultural products to the market or kids to get to a school in the city. There was no reliable public transport, so the british couple Paula and Phil, who run a small hotel at Bahowo, organized social projects for the village. Their main project in 2004 was a village bus that allowed people to go to the market and kids to go to school. Years later, the bus still is a reliable way of transport. Some of the village kids got a chance to higher education and even studied at Manado University.

Bahowo main street.

A mobile “supermarkt”.

Going to school in the morning.

Generations.