Bantimurung Waterfall, Butterfly Kingdom in Makassar

After 2 days meeting in early October 2017 in Makasar, we had a leisure time to visit tourism places. I joined the participants to visit Bantimurung waterfall, it took around 1.5 hours to the place from our hotel, Rinra. There were 3 mini buses went to the place excluding the Event Organizer and Committee. Approaching the place we could enjoy the beautiful scenery of green paddy fields and karst mountains.

Arriving at the place we took group photo at the gate, while waiting for the ticket, so many stalls sold souvenirs along the street right before the gate. Some salesmen approached us to offer the beautiful preserved butterfly. I'm interested in it, anyway I informed them that I prefer to buy after visiting the waterfall. One of the salesman was very active, he followed us to enter the place. He became my guide and photographer, he said that I didn't need to pay him as guide, just buy his souvenirs were enough.

Before visiting the waterfall, we stopped by at the toilet, only 2 rooms available, so we had to wait for our turn. We passed by a swimming pool with the natural water from the cave as their source, unfortunately it was cleaning at that time, so no water in the pool. A butterfly monument was available in the middle for us to take picture, then we could see the natural pool flowing from the waterfall, so many people soaked, played and splashed water to each other in the pool, the water looked green. It's a nice mild weather and we walked under trees shelter, so the sun didn't shine directly on us.

Some benches available at the side of the walk path, people could sit there to enjoy the natural pool and waterfall. My salesman 'guide' suggested us to cross the bridge to get better picture of the waterfall. He was right, we could see clearly the whole waterfall from the other side, even we could go under the waterfall, it's quite slippery so we had to be careful. He helped me to take some pictures including photo with my friends.

Bantimurung waterfall at South Sulawesi was one of national park, which popular as kingdom of butterfly. I didn't see it around the waterfall, no time to play with the water although I had brought my plastic sandal, as others had continue the journey to the lake. My guide accompanied me to go back to the left side to lead us to Batu Cave and the Kassi Kebo Lake. We had to go up through some concrete stairs, then we went along the waterfall stream. The pathway had been built well, it's easier for visitors to go to the lake. We could see the green water river at the right side while the left side was the karst cliff. In the middle of the way there were benches to take a rest, we also met a small hut selling instant noodle. It's much lesser crowded comparing to the waterfall area.

A big tendril of tree was on the pathway which often used by "Tarzan" to fly from one tree to the other tree, I asked my guide to take our picture, even one of my friend was really hanging on the vine's tree. As we were the last group, we had to hurry to follow the previous group. Finally we could reach the lake, it's greenish with small waterfall. Which amazed me was the beautiful butterflies flying and landing on the ground at the edge of the lake, although there was no flower there. With my iPhone capturing them was not too clear, my friend who brought SLR camera could get it much better and clearer.

As we were the last group came to the lake, we didn't have much time to enjoy it. After taking some pictures including group photo, we had to rush going back to the entrance. Near to the entrance my guide reminded me to buy his souvenirs, I took magnetic and keychain with real butterfly covering with resin to preserve. Actually the real preserved butterfly is more beautiful, but I'm afraid it would easily break when I brought back to Surabaya and I could not keep it well enough. I've just known that there was a butterfly museum and park at Bantimurung, unfortunately we didn't visit them as our EO (Event Organizer) said there's few butterflies at that moment. You also could visit a cave which had been used for meditation for few days previously by our ancestor.

After exit from Bantimurung park, some of our friends were still shopping souvenirs at the seller stalls, while my boss was kind enough buying us the grill corn, it's delicious, tasting sweet especially as it's free :-)

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Peaceful Prayer Hill Tomohon (Bukit Doa), Manado

At weekend Sep 2016 I explored Tomohon, North Sulawesi with one of my colleague accompanied by a local friend to drive us around. Tomohon was around 2 hours drive from Manado. Actually you also could find the Tomohon Traditional Market full with many kind of meat to eat such as bat, dog, rat, snake, monkey etc. In Manado people eat all animals, which is uncommon in other area. I don't dare to see the poor living dogs in the cage waiting for his fate next to his dead friends to be sold. I'm a dog lover, so I would never eat them.

On the way we stopped by at Citra Land Manado, city of blessings, built since 2003 for middle to high class property. With concept "state of the art features" the property build a giant "Tuhan Memberkati" (God blessing) statue which is now popular as one of Manado icon. Manado scenery is beautiful, it's the capital city of North Sulawesi province with airport and harbour where we could find beautiful beaches and mountains. We went to the higher part, there's an open space where we could sit on the bench and enjoy the scenery. It's shading by trees and we could see the house on the slope of the hill with the Manado Tua mountain as the background, at that time the cloud was covering part of the top mountain, it looked like snow so it seems like Fujiyama, the clean blue sky made the scenery more beautiful, peaceful and amazing. At the right side we could see the white flying Christ statue with His open arms as if protecting the houses. It's located on the hill with some big houses beside the monument. We're not allowed to park in front of the area, one of the security officer asked us to move to park further, as I had taken many pictures, we decided to continue our journey to the next destination.

The road to "Bukit Doa" was winding and quite high, the vehicle must be in good condition. Our driver was kind enough to stop for a while on the way as I was interested in the scenery, where I could see both lakes and mountain from the street. Actually we could walk from lower part of the hill to the top following the path of cross prayer with 14 statues of the Way of the Cross depicting the misery of Jesus Christ when he carried the wooden cross while climbing Golgotha hill. We were too lazy to walk a long way, so we asked the driver to go directly to the top place where there was a unique chapel called "Chapel of Mother Mary". It looked like a long tube facing to the mountain. Some couple prefer to have wedding ceremony here, they could provide catering and decoration for party.

The altar background was a big window with beautiful scenery to the trees and mountain, the chapel was not too big, just 2 columns of around 10 rows of long wooden benches next to the wall for praying. There's stairs to go down to the basement, I don't know what it is for, but the wall was decorated with angel sculptures. The path brought us to the open flat space which has already created cement swath. The field below the church where we could see clearer the trees and Lokon mountain as the magnificent background, it's a very magnificent scenery. The weather was nice, it's mild although the sun shone. I took a panorama photo to record the beautiful scenery as God's creation. Unfortunately there was no bench here, you could sit on the cement if you're tired.

We went back to the church area, at the right side there was an amphitheater that could be used for art performance or mass celebration. The half circle seat surrounding the stage made from cement with grass between the levels. Nobody there at that time, I took some pictures and asked my friend to take my picture while sitting there. We had difficulty to find the restroom, no signage for it. We kept walking, finally we found some restrooms near restaurant area. It's clean unfortunately there was no tissue paper.

Our driver told us that there was another area to be explored, Grotto of Mother Mary facing to the fish pool, unfortunately the water was not clear, it seemed it's not maintained well. There was a wooden bridge to cross the pool to the last station of cross prayer where you could find a tomb. A tomb depicted the place where Jesus had risen after died. It's very quiet and quite creepy if you go alone here. The aisle directed us to the previous station where Maria was very sad carrying Jesus on her lap after crucified. The statue made from stone as big as human.

As we still had other destination to visit, we decided to go back to the parking lot. Driving down to the entrance gate, I asked the driver to stop by a small building which was hanging on the cliff, it looked beautiful, although the building was modern style, not a traditional one. It seemed that it was used for restaurant, looking it's facilitated with washing basin to clean our hand, stove and tables to serve foods. It's still functioning well when we tried to turn on the tap water. From the building, we could see a beautiful scenery.

Across the building we could see outbound facility where you could use the rope bridge, flying fox, etc. It seems they were building a complete facility for people entertainment during prayer or any religion activity. We saw many construction still happened in some areas. They had a huge area on the hill, it would be good if it could become one of the tourism place. Don't miss to visit "Bukit Doa" when you go to Tomohon.

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Bunaken, marvelous national marine park

Almost midnight when we arrived in Sam Ratulangi airport - Manado, it took around 20 minutes from the airport to the Quality hotel at Jl. Piere Tendean No. 88 - 89 Boulevard Manado Phone : (0431) 8883888, Fax : (0431) 8881111 email: qltmnd@qualityhotelmanado.com The next morning after breakfast, we planned to visit the Bunaken national marine park which has some of the highest levels of marine biodiversity in the world. Scuba diving attracts many visitors to the island. Bunaken is located at the north of the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. It belongs administratively to the municipality of Manado.


The Bunaken National Marine Park was formally established in 1991 and is among the first of Indonesia's growing system of marine parks. The park covers a total surface area of 890.65 km², 97% of which is overlain by sparkling clear, warm tropical water. The remaining 3% of the park is terrestrial, including the five islands of Bunaken, Manado Tua, Mantehage, Nain and Siladen. Although each of these islands has a special character, it is the aquatic ecosystem that attracts most naturalists.
The waters of Bunaken National Marine Park are extremely deep (1566 m in Manado Bay), clear (up to 35-40 m visibility), refreshing in temperature (27 to 29 °C) Pick any of group of interest - corals, fish, echinoderms or sponges - and the number of families, genera or species is bound to be astonishingly high. For example, 7 of the 8 species of giant clams that occur in the world, occur in Bunaken. The park has around 70 genera of corals; compare this to a mere 10 in Hawaii. Although the exact number of fish species is unknown, it may be slightly higher than in the Philippines, where 2,500 species, or nearly 70% of all fish species known to the Indo-western Pacific, are found.

Escape to the world famous Bunaken National Marine Park, and enjoy the splendor of this underwater paradise was very attractive. We went to Ritzy Hotel Manado, to Blue Banter Marina Tour & Dive Center office to join the tour. They took us by car to the pier to embark to the boat. It took around 45 minutes to reach the park. The semi submersible see viewer brought us to experience the coral walls from its windows.
Oceanic currents may explain, in part, why Bunaken National Marine Park is such a treasure trove of biodiversity. Northeasternly currents generally sweep through the park but abundant counter currents and gyros related to lunar cycles are believed to be a trap for free swimming larvae. This is particularly true on the south side of the crescent-shaped Bunaken Island, lying in the heart of the park. A snorkler or diver in the vicinity of Lekuan or Fukui may spot over 33 species of butterfly fish and numerous types of groupers, damsels, wrasses and gobies. The gobies, smallish fish with bulging eyes and modified fins that allow them to attach to hard surfaces, are the most diverse but least known group of fish in the park.

Biologists believe that the abundance of hard corals is crucial in maintaining the high levels of diversity in the park. Hard corals are the architects of the reefs, without them, numerous marine organisms would be homeless and hungry. Many species of fish are closely associated with particular types of corals (folious, branching, massives, etc.) for shelter and egg-laying. Others, like the enormous Bumphead Parrotfish, Balbometopon muricatum, are "coralivores" and depend on hard corals for their sustenance. Bony mouth parts fused into an impressive "beak" allow these gregarious fish to crunch corals like roasted peanuts.


Back to the hotel we changed clothes and having lunch at Ria Rio seafood restaurant at Kalasey. It’s famous of its golden fish food, unfortunately no golden fish available when we visited them. We ordered some fishes, such as grilled kakap merah, fried bubara fish and its cah pakis. I like the fried bubara, it’s very delicious, crispy and piquant. I also tried the special and unique drink contains of young coconut with sugar palm called “es kelapa muda”. We could see the sea with mountain at the background, it’s very beautiful.
Cella Bakery at Jl. Tikala Ares I No.6 (phone: 0431-867620, 852682) is famous as the best klaapertaart with its cheese or raisin toping. My friend said that the cake’s rum is very delicious. Bagea kenari (made from sago) and kacang goyang were the traditional snacks that I’d bought for my colleagues.
Manado town square called Mantos at Jl. Piere Tendean launched at 2006 are full of food, you could find any restaurant, such as chinese food like Ta wan, fast food like Kentucky fried chicken, etc. Young people are also hanging around with their friends. Traffic jam usually occurs at Piere Tendean Boulevard because of the existence of the shopping malls. We didn’t hang out too long, because we had to catch the morning flight back to Surabaya at 06:45, it meant that we had to wake up early at 04:00, same as at 03:00 o’clock in the morning in Surabaya. The traveling was tiring because we had to go to many places in the tight schedule, but it’s fun.

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Malino, peaceful and magnificent tea plantation

I was stunned arriving in Hasanudin airport - Makassar when I went for business trip on Sep 08, because the building was very modern and sophisticated, the scenery was good either surrounded by mountains. It’s just operated a month ago, so some facilities are not available at that time, such as lobby lounge for credit card holder. Anyway there were some restaurants and shops opened already, so if you don’t have a chance to eat, or you forget to buy souvenirs, you still can get them there.


Makassar formerly was recognized as Ujung Pandang (1971-1999) is a capital city of South Sulawesi; a big city at the south west of Sulawesi island. It’s a cosmopolitan city which has many tribes e.g. Makassar, Bugis, Toraja and Mandar. Chinese population is quite big too here. The area covers 175.77 km square with 1.25 million people. Most of the houses still keep the traditional architecture with its wood columns supporting the house, they could look after their cattle under the house, currently most of them utilize it for small store selling daily needs. Seafood is famous here, such as grill fish, crabs, shrimps, etc. In Makassar, people love chili, so the restaurant always gives various ingredient for creating your own chili sauce including slices of young mango. Unfortunately I could not spicy food, so I only eat the non hot and spicy one :-)

We had lunch at Apong Seafood restaurant is fairly new seafood restaurant in Makassar, compare to the other seafood restaurant, but the restaurant has good popularity among people in Makassar. The reason is that it always has very fresh fish and you can find a lot of weird and delicious fish here as well. Its salty egg lobster are very delicious, and also the grill gindara fish. People say that gindara fish which lives below 250 meters under the water, is good to clean your stomach. We also tried “tuing-tuing” egg of flying fish, it’s a very rare food, not provided everyday, only seasonal. Pa’torani is the nickname for sailor who searches for egg of the flying fish. The fish will be spawned at evening or night, the sailor will sail in the morning, so they could reach the destination when the flying fish spawned. Tuing-tuing is what Bugis-Makassar people called the flying fish (Dactylopus dactylopus). If they are lucky, only six hours sailing, they could find tuing-tuing, but they also could find it after a day sailing. The closer tuing-tuing colony is in Makassar bay, the furthest up to Kalimantan or even Papua. It’s quite expensive costs Rp. 150.000,- to Rp. 300.000,- per kg. The people from Japan, Korea, Hongkong and Taiwan love it. The other popular traditional food in Makassar are coto Makassar, Roti Maros, Kue Tori, Palabutung Pisang Ijo and Sop Konro.

The scenery from our hotel room’s window was very magnificent facing the view of popular and beautiful Losari waterfront, it’s like a painting. We stayed in Imperial Aryaduta, modern and elegance hotel on Jl Somba Opu 297 Makassar South Sulawesi Indonesia 90111. Visitors wanting to take in some history will appreciate the hotel’s proximity to Fort Rotterdam – 15 minutes away on foot at most – while the Jalan Somba Opu shops are also close for those looking to buy some gold. Of course, at night the popular destination is Losari Beach promenade, always full of people and ambience and located right in front of the hotel. Unfortunately there is no sand for walking and playing the wave along the beach, the coast is very steep, so we only could enjoy the sea breeze.

Our colleague brought us to a beautiful tea plantation on the top of the mountain in Malino area. The tea plantation is on Bulutan village, around 9 kms from Malino city. To go there needed to struggle with winding and bumpy road around 2 hours from Makassar. Reaching the place made all of us relief and we keep admiring the majesty of the God who could create a very beautiful landscape. Of course we didn’t forget to take some pictures, although we felt freezing (it’s very cold and windy), we kept smiling and taking action whenever the camera shot pictures. There was a hut that we could sit while enjoying the gorgeous scenery. The tea is produced for export, it’s a cooperation of Mitsui Norin Co. Ltd and PT. Dharma Incharcop Coy with PT. Nittoh Malino Tea as the share holder. It’s a good alternative for relaxation, especially for escaping from noisy and chaotic city. Alas we could not stay too long there, because we had to catch the night flight to Manado.

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