Manado

We flew first to Surabaya from Jogja as we could not get a direct flight to Manado.  Our flight was delayed by two hours (ugh) so we arrived in Surabaya late at night.  We checked into our hotel which, unfortunately, was like an hour from the airport with traffic and went straight to bed.  Our flight to Manado left at 7:50am Friday morning so we ate an early breakfast and headed to the airport.  Let me tell you, it is a pain to go through security a million times in two weeks and check your baggage a million times.  Blah.  We arrived in Manado at about noon but didn't really have any plans.  Tom tried to call a family from his mission that he wanted to visit but we couldn't get a hold of them so we picked up some lunch and then caught up on some much-needed rest.  We slept pretty much the whole day...and watched some TV and read a little.  But mostly slept.  Around 9pm, Tom headed out to pick up some Martabak which I've been begging for since we got here!  It's a dessert - a pancake type thing with chocolate and cheese inside!  It sounds weird but it is so delicious!  When Tom first described it to me I thought it sounded so gross but over the years I've become so anxious to try it.  I finally got to for the first time last night and I was not disappointed!  So delicious!!  I wasn't very hungry though so I couldn't eat a lot so we plan to get another tonight.  Yum!

This morning (Saturday) we ate breakfast then walked out to the boat port to go snorkeling!! We hired a boat (and driver) to take us out to the island where there is coral reef.  We rented some snorkeling equipment then went at it!  It was way fun!  There were so many different fish!  Mainly smaller size but we did see a few quite large ones.  There were fish of so many colors! - bright purple, bright blue, stripes, camoflauge, purple/blue/green all in one, etc.  T & I both agree that we hate salt water. Ugh.  Tom had to stop after about an hour because he felt so sick to his stomach from salt water.  I took a little break then hopped back in for 15 more minutes and then we headed back to the little island to return our snorkeling gear and get some lunch.  We took the boat back (about a 40 minute ride - super fun though because the boat was just a tiny little thing and it rocked all over the place when it hit the waves - I thought it was a little bit like a roller coaster ride at times!) and then walked home in the rain.  This is the second time we've been caught in peltering rain and rain storms in Indonesia really stink because their drainage system is horrible so the streets flood in a matter of seconds!  And it is so dirty here that the trash just flows along in the streets with the flooded water.  Yuck!

We took a little break after snorkeling to shower and lather up with Aloe Vera.  We were SO careful with sunscreen and sprayed our SPF 110 all over ourselves and STILL we got so burned!! How does that happen? I guess we didn't spray enough even though we loaded it on!  Both of our backs and shoulders are beet red.  Ugh.  Hopefully the aloe vera will work some magic...hopefully, hopefully.

Tonight we met up with a member of the Manado branch and went to dinner (delicious fried chicken - it's my favorite) and here we are!  But I have to stop typing since I've been using this computer for an hour and thirteen minutes and we're at an internet cafe place where you are charged to use the computer :] Plus Tom and Nita have been waiting for me.

So! I'm caught up!  Until next time!

Love from Indonesia,
Marci