eat until you drop

more damages we made in bunaken…

honeymoon’s food story

these are some photos of the sins we made in manado, a perfect place to find your seafood menu. everything is bigger than in java. like living in giant land.

kepiting woku di wisata bahari

gurame masak rica & perkedel ikan nike di danau tondano

udang galah di restoran ria rio, pantai malalayang

complimentary cake

i almost forget to post the complimentary cake from swiss belhotel in manado. they sneaked the cake into our room when we were away. and of course we were very surprise to get it! it’s pink and heart shaped

the cake was big, so big that we couldn’t finish it. -f- refused to eat more than 1 piece. i think he’s not a really cake person.

the two

waiting for the sun to set,
cherishing the happiness that rises.

hotel reviews

we spent our honeymoon in 3 different hotels:
1. grand kemang, jakarta
the closest hotel from gudang gambar. a normal bussiness hotel. it looks amazing from the outside but inside only get a little touch from the renovation.

2. swiss-belhotel hotel, manado
the hotel is new compare to other hotels in manado. it’s also a bussiness hotel and located in the middle of the city where you can find other hotels along the road. restaurants and supermarkets are in the neighborhood.

we met a friend who work there and according to her the hotel’s food is delicious. and she was definitely right. i love their tasty breakfast. and we got a cake delivered to our room as compliment for honeymooner.

to get around the city is not a big deal. angkots pass in front of the hotel. for taxi, please use bluebird. the hotel staff will help you order it. don’t try other taxi because they don’t use meter and try to rob you.

3. santika seaside resort, manado

it’s an old hotel but its location is the most strategic one to get to bunaken. We took bluebird taxi to get here from manado, passing a nice village road. when we checked in, they upgraded our room from normal room to villa! thank you, santika

the downside about the hotel, it is isolated so you have no other choice for food but order from the hotel’s restaurant. don’t forget to bring a lot of mineral water and food from manado because after a while, i got bored with the hotel food.

if you’re interested with diving or snorkeling, the hotel has its own diving center, thalassa. we took a snorkeling package and was on the same boat with a group of divers. they use a super fast speed boat so it took only 5-10 min to get to diving/snorkeling spot.

we’ve got a ticket to ride

the tickets to fly, actually.
i bought the tickets to manado last weekend from the travel agent not too far from where i live, tx travel. just simply because i’ve been buying tickets from them a few times.

there are 3 airlines from jakarta: garuda, lion air and batavia air.
we were going to buy garuda but the price is faaar from lion air. so we got lion air instead.

erklärung

1. wedding ring udah dipesan di toko kaliem, melawai. katanya sih 2 minggu jadi. kita udah liat contoh grafirnya dan disini cukup rapih. –> tinggal tunggu jadi

2. voucher hotel untuk di manado udah dibeli! jadinya 2 malam di swiss-belhotel dan 2 malam di santika. –> tinggal beli tiket pesawat

3. biji bunga matahari stok baru udah dicoba ditanam dan tumbuh! –> tinggal tunggu kantong kainnya jadi

4. undangan udah masuk percetakan –> diperkirakan selesai dalam 2 minggu

5. foto & formulir KUA udah dilengkapi & dikembalikan ke KUA

6. fitting kebaya sometimes minggu ini

7. sajadah udah dapet di ITC kuningan. patternnya bagus seperti yg gue mau & bisa dilipat. harganya cuma 1/3 dari harga di pasaraya!

mudah-mudahan semuanya lancar yaaaa….
wish us luck!

kaha tours & travel

kaha tour is a recommended travel agent for hotel voucher. i have compared the prices with other travels and kaha is the cheapest one. you can find their booth in sukarno hatta airport and gambir. but their office is in casablanca area.

if you add the word ‘wedding’ on everything the price will definitely rise up. this is one of the reason i don’t take honeymoon package. and i don’t like people giving me schedule for this kind of vacation. we want to spend lots and lots of lazy time, having an adventour in a new place, getting lost, and try food from restaurant recommended by locals.

belitung

the edge – whuzy

belitung is on my wish list of places to be visited. the island with crystal clear water that get its fame after laskar pelangi. but because it’s not that far from jakarta (compare to manado), i think we can visit it later just for a long weekend.

we’ll save the place for the sequel honeymoon.

manado

beautiful bunaken by kaufik anril

we want to skip bali and lombok as honeymoon destination. it will be more excited to visit the places we have never been like manado. we will spend 2 nights in manado city and another 2 nights around bunaken. i loooove snorkeling. and it has been a long time since my last snorkeling trip.

some alternative hotels:

for manado: swiss belhotel or aston

for bunaken: santika or kima bajo

the prices can be checked here.

we won’t use package tour and since both of us never been there, it will be an adventour.

we will try to find our own way and use tamasya magazine as our bibble. the dec 2005 edition (so old!) is about manado.