Chasing Summer –

October 23-25th

The city of Bitung put on a very warm welcome for our boat. There was dancers and music and plaque exchanges with the captain on the deck after we were cleared from customs. They also put on a little festival specifically for us the residents of the odyssey every day we were there from three to about 10:00 PM. There they had some live music, Local vendors, and some traditional costumes that people could put on. They certainly gave everyone a warm welcome.

the first day we arrived it did take a bit of time in order to clear customs immigration so we decided to hold off on going out until after lunch. Sadly for us as soon as we made it through the port it began to pour rain. The entire sky was grey and it did not look like it was going to let up any time soon.

We took advantage of the situation to talk with some of the drivers that were waiting outside for us to find out about pricing for different tours around the island. Some of the prices started off ridiculously high, like $200 per person versus $35 per person.

With no let-up to the rain in sight, we went back on the boat and decided we would head out about 3:00 when that festival was supposed to start. It was still a little Gray then, and some of the others decided to hold off on that, so just Paul and I went out wandering. The heavy rain over the past two hours resulted in many streets having very large puddles or being flooded entirely. This made getting around a little more challenging.

I wandered over to where the festival was supposed to be, but nothing was set up yet. I guess the rain meant the start was going to be delayed until 5, which we didn’t know about. So often went towards the local market, which was about a 20-minute walk away.

The walk itself was fun, dodging congested water-filled streets. And there were lots of children chasing us, trying to get our signatures or high fives, some even wanted pictures with us. We went past one area where the drainage area was severely flooded, and some of the boys were swimming in and using old Styrofoam packaging as water wings or life jackets. Their smiles were great to see, but I was slightly disgusted with the water.

We made our way to the local market, which was only about half open. The fish/meat section was done for the day, and it seems like several of the ready-made food stands were also not available. There were some deep-fried wraps with banana and different combinations of banana/mango, banana/cheese, banana/cinnamon, and a few more I wasn’t sure of that were available, and it cost about 5000 rupiah, which is about 30 US cents. Most of the vendors’ things, whether it was a piece of chicken or a dessert-type item, were about 5000.

Running From the Popo

On our second day. Paul and I had arranged to go to an extreme meat market, where they sell exotic items such as bat, snake, and even cat. The driver that Paul had made arrangements with was going to pick us up at 9:30 in the morning to make the two to two and a half hour drive.

So he picks us up and his rundown vehicle and says he needs to stop for gas. No problem, except that at the first gas station, he goes in and then he pulls out without getting any gas. He explains to us that there are barcodes that they must use when they are getting gas because the government watches the amount of gas consumed. We were sadly confused by this, and he explained that sometimes people will buy more gas than they use and then resell it.

It didn’t quite make sense to me, but I figured it was some sort of translation gap, and we went to the next gas station, where he was able to get gas. As we continued on our way, there was a what looked like a routine police presence pulling over drivers near a fairly busy intersection. I’ve been in many countries where you see this often. So it didn’t faze me, but the police motioned our driver to pull over, and the driver didn’t; he just kind of kept going. And he looked at us, and he’s like, “This is OK. The police like to pull over cars with tourists hoping to get money.” Seemed like a suspect statement to me, as most places try to avoid hindering the tourists who bring in the money legitimately.

Now, this was a fairly busy road; there were motorcycles and cars and buses and all sorts of people all over the place. The roads were not too terribly wide, and there were potholes, so you can imagine the chaos. As we inched up to the next intersection, the policeman showed up on a motorcycle and again gestured for our driver to pull over, which it looked like he was doing, but it was a kind of decoy. So once the policeman got off his bike, our driver kept driving again. At this point, Paul and I were looking at each other like What’s up?

At the next intersection area, the policeman tried to grab the keys out of the ignition so that our driver could not continue driving, and our driver shot off again, almost running over the policeman and weaving in and out of traffic. By this point, a police car had joined the motorcycle policeman, and we were in a legit police chase. Luckily, with the traffic, we couldn’t go too fast. After about 5 more minutes, our driver pulled over into an empty area.

Both the police car and the motorcycle policeman pull in with us, and our driver gets out to chat with them. Paul and I are unsure of what we should be doing at this point. After a few minutes of discussion, our driver actually gets back in the car and says we need to go back down towards the police station. At this point, Paul and I are just like, we can get out and get a different car, our driver just says no, it’s OK, and drives to the station. I can’t believe that the cops let him back into the car to drive and trusted him to go to the police station, even with them leading and following.

This time, he actually did pull over and got out to go across to the mobile police area, where I’m assuming he was getting a ticket. One of the police officers who actually spoke some English came over and told us that he had not paid his taxes and did not have a license. We were like OK, should we get out and find another driver? What’s happening? And this police is resistant, no, our driver will be back in just a couple of minutes, so it is fine to wait for him. Then he asks where we are going, and so we tell him the market. He tells us that it is two hours away from here. Absolutely no concern that this gentleman, who has no license, gets to continue on his day driving us.

Our driver gets back in the car with some papers. I’m assuming a ticket and explains to us that the police are corrupt and keeps driving us on our merry way. It was surreal. I have been in a lot of taxis, ride chairs, and tours, and I have never ever had my driver involved in a police chase.

Extreme Market, Hot Springs & Lake Linow

We finally arrived at the extreme market, and much to our dismay, the only two meat items that they had or boar and snake. Now, if they had had a cat, we didn’t want to see it, but we did want to see the bats because they were supposed to be bigger than the fruit bats that we had eaten at the last place.

I wandered up and down the areas it went and checked out some of the different goods. We tried a dough that had the coconut sugar, peanuts, and cinnamon, which was then deep-fried. It’s quite tasty. Those cost 2000 each, which is a little better than $0.15.

Paul then got some samosa-looking items that apparently had tuna in them. They were also 15 cents each. I decided I needed the pineapple and that was 15,000 or a dollar.

Fortified with our snacks, we headed off to the hot springs. The hot springs are fueled by the five active volcanoes that make up this island. They are used by locals daily for warm water bathing and cost us 20,000 rupiahs ($1.30usd) to enter.

When we entered, there were two separate rooms on either side of the building: one for women, one for men. The women’s area already had a couple of local women in there, and when I peeked in, everyone was naked. The men’s one was empty, and our guide offered to stand guard so that we could go into the same one in our bathing suits and would warn if another man was coming.

We walked slightly down the path and watched the river, the cool river water that flows beside, interact with the hot springs water. So you could do like a sauna, where you sit in the hot water and then go out and dip in the cool water, and then go back into the hot water and vice versa. At this point, it was raining pretty good so we decided to head off towards the lake.

We visited Lake Linow. Here, there is a cafe at the top of a lake which charges an entrance fee of 40,000 rupiah, which includes a free coffee or tea at the top. There is a lookout of a lake, and depending on the amount of sun available, the colour of the water will change as it is also fed by hot pots and springs. The cafe used to be at the base right along the side of the lake, but it was forced to relocate higher up due to government regulations. The old building still stands, and you can go down there to get a better view of the lake, but it is not maintained anymore.

Up here, we also decided to have lunch. Mine was a spicy chicken dish, and I found a local beer that I had not seen before.

For we had not done much walking, it was a long trip to get here and back, so we decided to make our way back to town. We also knew we had another tour set up for our last morning that was going to require us to meet our driver at 5:40 AM, so we did not want to eat up more of the second day.

Tangkoko National Park

Our final morning was the best, 6 of us went and visited the Tangkoko National Park. It takes about an hour to drive from Bitung port to the entrance of the park, and guests require a guide to take them through the jungle and to spot the animals.

After our hour drive to get to the national park, we went to the entrance of the walking path where we would meet our guide. We crawled our way out of the car and did a big stretch before we hopped back in to go 5 minutes back down the road to where there were some monkeys.

Towards the entrance to a different section, there was a troop of crested black macaques. They were grooming and having fun by a sign. Most of the troupe decided to return to the jungle after we arrived, but a pair remained and put on an X-rated show.

After a bit of watching, we headed back toward the original entrance, where we would begin our 4-hour walk through the jungle. Our guide and his wife both carried tripods with binoculars and an attachment that would fit our cell phones, to take better pictures of the animals that were quite a distance away.

The walk began on a stone path and which eventually led to a dirt path, but still level and easy to walk on. As we walked along, the giant green trees sheltered our walkway, and the humid air made me quickly begin perspiring. About 10 minutes into our stroll, the wife spotted our first animal, which was a Kingfisher bird. Even with them pointing out where the bird was, I still couldn’t really see it, and I can’t believe she spotted this from the path. It is absolute proof that the guides are essential for spotting wildlife.

A little further down the pathway, we could hear the cicadas, and our guide stopped to point one out to the group and take a few quick pictures. While we were there, on a tree slightly behind the one with the cicada, a lizard started going up, which I thought was initially a butterfly. Some of the group had already gone ahead, so we took a few quick pictures and videos of the lizard before scrambling to catch up.

The easy walk through the forest was amazing, gorgeous, and serene. The hike was more of a saunter with people stopping to look for animals, watching a nursery of Macaquas go past, and admiring the trees. We hadn’t gone too far very quickly. The goal of course was to spot the tarsier monkey, which is a very small monkey with big eyes and ears. The tarsier monkey is the symbol of this region.

This is another reason why having local guides is helpful, because the small monkeys tend to stick to the same giant trees that become their homes. So down the path we paused to circle a giant tree, and there in one of the little crevices was our first tarsier. It was absolutely adorable, and we spent a good amount of time taking pictures and videos of this little guy.

After enjoying the tarsier sighting, we continued on our way, looking for the cuscus bear. This is a marsupial that is found in the region and can be found high up in the canopy. We came across a couple of these rare creatures, and that completed the finding of the big three mammals.

At this point, our guide asked me how long we wanted to stay. It was only 8:00 AM, so I suggested a little bit longer looking for the knobbed hornbill would be appreciated. He assured me that it was just a little further in where you could find these birds, so off we went.

We were off the main path and kind of foraging through on some secondary trails or no trails at all. I’d like to remind everyone that this is a rainforest/jungle, and there were many spider webs and other creepy crawlies in the bush with us. I know I walked through a few webs and over some ant hills; luckily, nothing was biting or poisonous. You also need to watch out for mosquitoes in this area, as there is malaria, but I had sprayed my clothes, so I felt pretty safe. I still wore closed-toe hiking boots, long pants, and a long-sleeve shirt, even though it was hot out.

Our hike for the elusive toucan continued up and down hills. The sweat was really starting to pour out, and my entire outfit was completely drenched. At one point, our guide left us in one location, and he and his wife went out looking for the toucan. I guess we were too loud before returning to get us to bring us to the Toucans’ location. The birds have a loud clacking call and can be easily heard throughout the forest, but spotting them through the leafy canopy is not an easy task.

Unlike the monkeys and cuscus, these guys were not interested in us, and they did not stay in one spot for very long. Our best shot was just looking at a couple of feathers that we found on the forest floor. On one of the chases we did, I took a couple of not very good pictures, but enough to prove that I actually saw one.

After a couple of hours of tripping through the forest, several of my group were done and wanted to return to the car. We still hadn’t reached that toucan, though, and three other members wanted to keep looking. The other three were staying in the village and were not members of the Odyssey community.

Our guide tried to convince us to go just a little bit longer, but they were done, so we split off and the wife guided us back towards the car while the guide took the other three trekking after that toucan.

Even though she kept up a pretty good pace to get us back to the car, we did spot a few more birds on the way. By the time we arrived at the car and began our journey back to the ship, it was 10:30 AM. We made it back to the Odyssey for lunch.

I highly recommend that anyone who comes to this region take a walk through this park both in the morning and in the afternoon when the nocturnal animals come out. It was definitely worth the $35.