A week in Jakarta and Bunaken island, Indonesia

[KennethT]

Just for reference, this is a partial map of the region showing where we were (Jakarta on the island of Java) and where we were going (North Sulawesi):

 

To the North-West of Jakarta is the island of Sumatra, home of the wonderful padang food we had been enjoying for the past few days.

 

After landing on time around 1:45 in Manado, the main city of North Sulawesi, our hotel picked us up at the airport.  We were told it would be about a 45 minute drive to the "marina" to get the boat to the island, but midway through the drive through the city, it started pouring rain.  Like biblical torrential downpour kind of rain.  Localized flooding kind of rain.  Anyway, by the time we got to the marina, which really isn't much more than a concrete space for a small boat to dock to, the ocean had at least 6 foot swells and we were told that it wouldn't be safe to either board the boat, or be in it on the way to the island.  So, they were sending a larger boat to a different pier - so another 45 or so minute drive and by the time we got there, it had pretty much stopped raining.  The swells weren't nearly as bad in this area so we had no trouble boarding and it wasn't too rough going once we were underway.

 

About midway through the trip from Manado to the island, we encountered a pod of dolphins!!!!!  There were probably 20-30 of them!  Some of them were porpoising in the distance, others were swimming along side the boat having fun swimming in our wake.

 

Dolphin swimming alongside the boat

 

Dolphins, dolphins everywhere!!  If you turn on the sound, you can hear our (and the people we were on the boat with - other guests who were on our flight) excitement.

 

Once we got to the hotel - much later than expected due to the weather delays and the fact that the boat stopped in the middle for us to hang out with the dolphins for a bit so it was probably around 4:30 in the afternoon by the time the boat "docked" at the beach.  The hotel doesn't really have a dock for the boats - the boat pulls up to the beach.  Normally when used for diving, you just walk in knee deep water to get to the boat, but since we were coming from the airport, they put down a maybe 8 inch wide plank of wood for us to walk on to get to the dry part of the beach.

 

Like the other dive hotel we stayed in a couple years ago (scroll down quite a bit to get to the island portion), there's really nothing on this island other than the hotel and a small village that has no restaurants or stores - just a collection of small homes, most of the residents of which work at the hotel, so all meals are included in the hotel rate.  Meals are at set times, and our arrival was in between those times.  But unlike the previous hotel, where we arrived around 3:30 and had to wait until 7 to get something to eat, here, once we got to the main building for check-in and orientation, they provided us with a choice of "snacks" - either some kind of sandwich with french fries, fried rice or fried noodles.  My wife and I got the noodles and it was like a main lunch portion, complete with sambal on the side.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of it since they were also talking to us about the hotel at the same time.

 

After getting settled in our room, we headed to dinner as soon as they opened at 7.  Like the other hotel, this hotel provided both Western food as well as local Indonesian dishes (as well as other Asian things) but unlike the other hotel which varied by meal time (lunch was Western, dinner was local), this hotel provided both options at every meal which I was happy about.  All meals are buffet style.  Since we had a pretty big snack just a few hours before, we weren't that hungry.

 

Fantastic pineapple and dragonfruit.  Dragonfruit is relatively flavorless, but it is really juicy and great for hydration - and tastes great with a small squeeze of lime juice!  Although I found out a few days later what happens when you eat a lot of the purple dragonfruit.  Hint, it doesn't stain just your clothes!

 

Cumin lamb.  This isn't really Indonesian, but it was pretty tasty.

 

Passionfruit mousse

 

 

[KennethT]

The next morning, we were in a bit of a rush to eat breakfast (starts at 7), go back to the room to get our equipment, then get back to the dive center by 7:30 so we didn't take any breakfast photos.  We had more time the next few days since the dive center held all of our equipment, and we didn't have to get there until 7:45.

 

Lunch that day:

 

Chicken curry, kangkong and sambal bakar.  The curry was tasty, but nothing out of the ordinary - a standard turmeric heavy coconut curry.  The sambal bakar is interesting though as I had never heard of it before.  Evidently, it's something only done in North Sulawesi.  It's a typical fried sambal made from chillies, shallots, garlic, etc, but once finished, it's put in a bowl and a piece of charred, smoking coconut husk is dropped on top and the whole thing is covered so that the smoke aroma gets into the sambal.  I'm thinking about how I could do this at home - I have a Cameron's stovetop smoker and I have a lot of coconut coir that I use in my garden that's already ground up (looks like coffee grounds) so I might be able to smoke a dish of sambal.  It would be quite a bit of effort to do, so I'd like to do a big batch, and freeze most of it, but I don't know if the smoke aroma would get lost once frozen.

[KennethT]

Dinner that night:

Some kind of generic beef curry with western style potatoes

 

In addition to the buffet, they had a live station that changed every meal - this type was some kind of Chinese stir fry with chicken, seafood, etc. or an Italian pasta of some kind.  I didn't want the whole stir fry, but I did get some stir fried vegetables.

 

 

Peanut caramel cake and more amazing pineapple.

[KennethT]

Diving interlude.....   this is the first time I've used any kind of camera while diving.  Since I didn't want it to be too distracting, I decided to use a GoPro in video mode.  Visibility was typically around 45 to 60 feet, although sometimes less if it had rained the night before.  For reference, this is a map of the area:

 

The large land mass to the East is the mainland of North Sulawesi, the Manado area.  Our hotel was located at the white dot on the west side of the island closest to the mainland.  Most of the diving in this area is focused around the island of Bunaken, which is known for being home to tons of turtles (both green sea turtles and hawksbill turtles) and also lots of macro life - which basically means small critters like sea horses, shrimp of various kinds, nudibranches, etc.

 

One of the green sea turtles we saw - this one was probably around 4-5 feet long.

 

I finally got to see a spotted eagle ray!!!!  I've been dying to see these for years.  At the time I was filming, I was actually focused on a turtle, but our guide started shouting (underwater) to get my attention so I wouldn't miss it.  It was pretty far away but it looked to have a wingspan of maybe 8-10 feet. 

 

One thing you may notice is at the beginning of the video - Bunaken is known for having a sheer wall that drops straight down into the abyss.  Cold water from the deep, with tons of nutrients, hits the wall and rises to the surface which attracts tons of marine life.  We were really happy to see that all of the coral reefs that we saw were in really great shape.

 

I still have to go through a ton of footage but I've got to make space on my phone first - hopefully I can do that over the weekend.

Edited Friday at 02:15 PM by KennethT (log)

[KennethT]

Breakfast the next morning.

 

Pancake (with slices of coconut within) with rambutan honey, and cinnamon roll

 

More fantastic pineapple

 

Chocolate chip muffin

[KennethT]

Lunch that day was held on the beach as it didn't look like it was going to rain (for a change - they were saying that the weather was really weird this year.  July is usually the start of the dry season there, but it was starting later this year).

 

This is interesting - while most of Indonesia is Muslim, and therefore doesn't eat pork, North Sulawesi is predominantly Christian so pork is popular.  In fact, on some of the surrounding small islands, there are tiny villages next to a beach but the main building is a huge Christian church that dominates the landscape.

 

The setting...

 

Pork with local herbs along with 3 different sambal.  On the left is a local sambal called dabu-dabu.  Typically, dabu-dabu is blow-your-head-off spicy - like eye-watering, nose-running, hiccup-inducing spicy.  It's made from a lot of chillies, shallots, garlic, unripened tomato and lime juice.  All the ingredients are sliced rather than pounded.  Hot coconut oil is then poured over the top which just slightly wilts the ingredients.  This version was more like a really tasty tomato salad.  Over the time we were there, I ate tons of this stuff.  The staff kept worrying that it would be too spicy for us, but we assured them that it actually was barely spicy at all and we tried our best to clean them out of it!  They also started making separate dishes of it for us so they could make it spicier (they said that most of their guests complained if things got too spicy) but even then it wasn't close to what it would normally be for locals.

 

Anyway, next to the dabu-dabu is more sambal bakar, and next to that is sambal matah, which is typical in Bali.

 

The side station was making sauteed squid to order.  They called it squid with galangal, but I thought it was only reminiscent of galangal - it was more turmeric foreward.  Very tasty, especially with the various sambal.

 

 

The pineapple on this trip ranged from fantastic to amazing.  We couldn't get enough.

[Shelby]

The coconut mousses look so happy

[ElsieD]

17 minutes ago, Shelby said:

The coconut mousses look so happy

That was my first thought too.

[KennethT]

A couple dive videos from that day:

 

This video shows a couple of turtles...  The island of Bunaken is well known for lots of turtles but I was shocked at how many we saw over the 3 days.

 

This is an interesting video - it shows the caretaker of the reef - the parrotfish, in action.  In addition to being really colorful, they're interesting because they bite off a chunk of coral reef and then poop out sand...

 

Dinner that night was not buffet, but plated for some reason.

 

Menu

 

Onion bread - like at the other hotel, the bread had a cake-like texture - this one was stuffed with sliced onion.  Really tasty with a ton of the sambal dabu-dabu

 

Amuse - a fish croquette

 

Pork dumplings

 

I neglected to take a photo of the main course - I got the chicken massaman curry which didn't really taste like massaman but it was tasty.

 

Mango parfait.

Edited Monday at 03:59 PM by KennethT (log)

[KennethT]

Breakfast the next morning:

 

 

Beef sausage with sambal bakar.  The sausage was simmered with onion - it kind of tasted like bologna or mortadella.

 

Gotta have my pineapple and dragonfruit fix....

 

Sweet bread filled with chocolate:

 

The chocolate interior was surprisingly not grainy like I typically see it in a chocolate croissant - pain au chocolat.

 

More dive videos:

 

I'd never seen this live before - a turtle at a cleaning station - several remora fish were stuck on the turtle eating whatever was stuck to its shell.

 

Bigmouth mackerel - we saw a couple of schools of these over the few days we were there.

[KennethT]

Lunch that day was held "inside" - the restaurant had a roof but no walls - because was drizzling on and off:

 

Chicken cutlet with garlic and kaffir lime rice, sambal bakar and dabu-dabu.

 

 

From the side station - mackerel with coconut sauce.  I really appreciated the fact that it was cooked to order - it was cooked perfectly, nicely flakey and juicy - not how the fish in the area is typically cooked which is "to death" since the fish at the market isn't refrigerated or on ice.  I have to say that I was a little nervous that it wasn't thoroughly cooked knowing how fish is typically stored/treated in that area but there were no problems.  One evening, the hotel even had a sushi display in the buffet but we were both too nervous to have any raw fish there.  I assume that it would have been safe, but we didn't want to risk anything getting in the way of the diving, which is our whole reason for being there.

 

 

Studded with slices of fresh coconut.

 

 

[KennethT]

Dinner that night:

 

Cake-bread.  Very tasty with:

 

Mild dabu-dabu.  The hotel would usually provide a triple dish with dabu-dabu, sambal bakar and some olive oil but we would clean out the sambals in a couple bites so they always brought us more.

 

That night was the night of the buffet sushi, but they also had a seafood barbeque:

 

Grilled shrimp, tuna and squid, with red rice and dabu-dabu which is always great with fish.

 

 

 

 

I can't remember when I've had as many desserts as on this trip.  I kept telling myself that it was because of all of the exercise.... hehe....

[KennethT]

Last breakfast:

 

Bacon, chocolate pancake (with rambutan honey) and awesome pastry stuffed with spiced apple.  I went back and got seconds of those, to make up for all the diving we had done the last 3 days, of course.

 

Can't get enough of this... my wife and I did our best to clean them out of pineapple at practically every meal.

 

Toast with peanut butter - unsweetened, unsalted plain ground peanuts...  the texture was runny and with the house made preserves and some salt was fantastic.

[ElsieD]

Love, love, love the videos!

[KennethT]

After breakfast, we went back to the room to start getting everything together and pack.  Our flight to Singapore left Manado at 5PM which meant that we had to check out and be on the boat back to Manado by 1:45.  2 other groups of guests were leaving at the same time since they we were all on the same flight - there's a limited way to get to/from Manado.  Lunch started at 1PM, so we all had a fast lunch on the beach:

 

 

Tofu, chicken curry with herbs and sambal bakar (top left), sambal matah (between the tofu and chicken) and the last dabu-dabu.

 

I don't know why they called this black forest cake - no cherries were involved it its creation....

 

Last pineapple for a while....

 

One of the servers was so sweet - the coffee mousse was late being brought out to the buffet, so as we were eating, he came to us to let us know that it arrived and asked if he could bring us some.  Note that all of the mousses (mic(c)e?) had the texture and mouthfeel of whipped cream.

 

Unfortunately, this would be the last time we would eat until the airport in Singapore that night.  The airport in Manado was pretty desolate (I don't think they had many flights that day) and had limited food options - besides, we weren't really that hungry yet.  Then the 3 hour flight to Singapore was on a budget airline so nothing there either.  Once in Singapore, we had to go through immigration (takes 2 seconds using their autogates) and then get our bags, and then check them in for our flight home.  I had planned on getting something fast to eat at a food stall in our terminal at a place called Sarawak Gourmet which claimed to make colo mee, a famous noodle dish from Kucing - the main city of Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo), but unfortunately and surprisingly for the Singapore airport, it took forever to get our bags.  They claimed that there was some kind of technical problem in getting the bags off the plane but it took at least 45 minutes to get our bags.  The airport came around with a cart with snacks, but we weren't in the mood for a pack of Oreo cookies, a bag of Doritos or a Kit Kat bar.  By the time we got our bags and rechecked them in, there was no way we'd be able to get something to eat as our flight was due to start boarding in about 30 minutes.  We passed a French boulangerie called Paul on the way to our gate, so once we were settled, I ran back to them and grabbed their last palmier as I could grab it fast.  No photos - we devoured it in the final minutes before boarding which between that and some cashews I had brought from home (yikes, I wonder what their carbon footprint was!) was enough to tide us over until meal time on the plane which could be found starting here.

 

Getting ready to land in NY around 6AM.

 

So that's it for this trip!  Thanks for reading along and see you after the New Year!

[rotuts]

@KennethT

 

thank you for taking us along , and sharing so many pics.

[ElsieD]

Thanks for taking us along on your trip.  But where are the meals on the return flight?  They don't show up on the link you provided.

[Shelby]

Loved every minute of this thank you  

[KennethT]

2 hours ago, ElsieD said:

Thanks for taking us along on your trip.  But where are the meals on the return flight?  They don't show up on the link you provided.

Weird... when I click the link, it takes me to the first post of the return flight meals.  First up are the photos of the menus, then photos of the first meal.  Next post is the 2nd meal, followed by a post with the snack, followed by the pizza...

 

Let me know if you don't see it and I can link it again....

[ElsieD]

18 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Weird... when I click the link, it takes me to the first post of the return flight meals.  First up are the photos of the menus, then photos of the first meal.  Next post is the 2nd meal, followed by a post with the snack, followed by the pizza...

 

Let me know if you don't see it and I can link it again....

When I read about that meal, I failed to notice that it was indeed, the return trip.  Thanks for making me take a second look.

[TicTac]

Amazing shots as usual, looks like you guys had a fantastic time.  Thanks for sharing.

 

Curious, if you do not mind my asking - the N95's....did you wear those everywhere, or just certain places that were more crowded?  Increased local COVID outbreaks or just being cautious as you were closer to the 'source'?

 

Also you should have told them....their 'mille feuille' looks more like 'trois feuille' 😛 

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, TicTac said:

Curious, if you do not mind my asking - the N95's....did you wear those everywhere, or just certain places that were more crowded?  Increased local COVID outbreaks or just being cautious as you were closer to the 'source'?

We wore the N95s practically everywhere indoors except while eating before we got to Sulawesi.  The only exception that comes to mind is on the flight to Singapore - since we had upgraded to biz class (using miles) and we saw how much space there was between seats and how the seat kind of wraps around you, we figured it would be really hard for someone's expectorate to reach us without going through the plane's hepa filter first.

 

Fortunately, when eating indoors in Jakarta, there was a decent amount of space between tables everywhere we went - unlike when we're in NYC and you're literally rubbing elbows with the tables next to you, and restaurants are so loud that everyone has to shout to be heard (forcefully expelling the contents of their lungs).

 

The last time we wore masks in Sulawesi was in the long car rides to get to the marina after the airport.  We stopped wearing them once we were on the open boat (what's the point?) and the hotel was almost completely open air with lots of space between tables, etc.  Also, we didn't worry about getting a respiratory virus once we started diving as it would take a couple days to incubate - and by that time, we'd be finished diving so the worry is over.  We didn't bother wearing masks on the trip home since we weren't concerned if we got sick or not and we'd rather be comfortable on the 18 hour flight while in our seats - although we did put one on when going back to and in the restroom on the plane.