Manado

I would have much preferred to stay at the Tangkoko National Park until my departure rather than going to Manado. However, my flight was at 6:25 AM, and it takes at least two hours by car from Tangkoko National Park to Manado. So I wanted to be in Manado the day before.

As a tourist, you usually have two options to get from Tangkoko National Park to Manado:

1. You have already taken down the number of your taxi or Grab driver on your way there and negotiated a price for the return trip with them.
2. You hire a driver from your accommodation at Tangkoko National Park.

Since I was brought to Tangkoko National Park by friends of Jendry from Pulisan, I didn't have a taxi or Grab driver, and I didn't want to take the extremely overpriced driver from the accommodation. Therefore, Stefen kindly organized someone for me who took me to the bus station in Bitung, from where I could take the bus to Manado.

When I arrived at the bus station in Manado, I immediately jumped into one of the many small blue minivans that serve as city buses and went to the Manado Town Square, short 'Mantos'. Mantos is one of the five things recommended in Manado by the travel guide. The others are: the State Museum of North Sulawesi (but museums in Indonesia are usually not very well curated) and three other malls. And if the authors of a travel guide can't think of anything else, that says something. By the way, if you Google 'What to do in Manado,' you'll be suggested trips to Tomohon, Tangkoko, Bunaken, etc. - so I really left no stone unturned!

In the end, I was able to enjoy myself for a good half day in the Mantos mall, as you can go to the cinema, play computer games, watch others play Family Feud, take photos of yourself... I also saw chocolate croissants with cheese at a bakery again, which the Indonesians seem to love. In Sembalun before my hike to Rinjani, I had a really delicious chocolate banana pancake breakfast ruined because when it arrived, the cheese was already partially melted.

If the mentioned activities are not enough for you, you can already buy Christmas decorations by the end of September. I had also seen several houses that were decorated for Christmas. Apparently, this is because people simply have no space to store their plastic Christmas trees and the rest of the decorations. So it’s basically Christmas time for them all year round.

Due to a quite heavy rain and consequently many people who wanted a driver, I arrived quite late at my accommodation, where a plastic Christmas tree was already on display. It's a shame I have other plans for Christmas!