Love This!ext_1063831November 3 2013, 15:46:57 UTC
Hahaha!! I always love to read foreigners' impression about my country. It's like looking at a door from the other side.
Putting a 10-kg backpack right in the door of the public transport... of course that's fine. Not only in Manado, in Jakarta, too. You can even let half of your backpack stick out if you aren't worried your backpack would tumble off the car. If a motorcycle accidentally runs into your sticking-out backpack, that will be his problem. If your luggage still doesn't fit in the doorway, or maybe you happen to bring with you an extra long pole, it's no problem at all to put that stuff on the car's roof, and then you stand on the door -- as the car runs -- with one hand on top of the roof making sure the stuff won't slip off.
Now I'm surprise to learn that there's no Indomaret or Alfamart in a town like Manado. And you couldn't find ground coffee?? Really?? That's kind like coming to Russia in winter and say you cannot find snow. Indonesia - coffee; coffee - Indonesia. What kind of non-instant coffee were you looking for?
AA battery charger, sure that's not yet a common stuff even in Jakarta. I believe not all my friends know that there's an AA rechargeable battery.
Oh ya, unless it's a smoking room, there's no fan when there's aircon. I can imagine how hot you must have felt inside the room without air-conditioning. I'm sorry to hear that.
Yes, I was not actually very surprised about the backpack, given the size of the mikrolets. But there are no people riding on the roofs of the trucks in Manado, unlike around Medan! Everyone gets inside. And the mikrolets are soooo small! Maybe they were the same in Medan, just I became less flexible.
Of course there was ground coffee somewhere, we got it for breakfast all right, but I could not find it by just plain shopping, and I don't speak enough Bahasa Indonesia to explain what I need. And at my fist steps back in Makassar, there were Indomaret and Alfamart opposite one another, with gas and coffee and everything.
Happily there was no extreme heat in Manado, and I cope well with tropical climate, so I was not actually suffering, just amused how people are indifferent to what kind of service they offer. In Kotamobagu, a much smaller town, there were new small fans in old rooms, at the 15.000Rp price difference per night, on request, and the fans still had their price tag of 175.000Rp. In Manado, such thing is considred unnecessary luxury. Curious difference.
Re: Love This!ext_1063831November 11 2013, 06:25:23 UTC
Hahahaha.... A fan with price tag on!!
Yeah, I'm curious also. What a difference. And... what an experience you have had in my country. I love reading your stories and staring at your photos. Awesome.
Putting a 10-kg backpack right in the door of the public transport... of course that's fine. Not only in Manado, in Jakarta, too. You can even let half of your backpack stick out if you aren't worried your backpack would tumble off the car. If a motorcycle accidentally runs into your sticking-out backpack, that will be his problem. If your luggage still doesn't fit in the doorway, or maybe you happen to bring with you an extra long pole, it's no problem at all to put that stuff on the car's roof, and then you stand on the door -- as the car runs -- with one hand on top of the roof making sure the stuff won't slip off.
Now I'm surprise to learn that there's no Indomaret or Alfamart in a town like Manado. And you couldn't find ground coffee?? Really?? That's kind like coming to Russia in winter and say you cannot find snow. Indonesia - coffee; coffee - Indonesia. What kind of non-instant coffee were you looking for?
AA battery charger, sure that's not yet a common stuff even in Jakarta. I believe not all my friends know that there's an AA rechargeable battery.
Oh ya, unless it's a smoking room, there's no fan when there's aircon. I can imagine how hot you must have felt inside the room without air-conditioning. I'm sorry to hear that.
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Of course there was ground coffee somewhere, we got it for breakfast all right, but I could not find it by just plain shopping, and I don't speak enough Bahasa Indonesia to explain what I need. And at my fist steps back in Makassar, there were Indomaret and Alfamart opposite one another, with gas and coffee and everything.
Happily there was no extreme heat in Manado, and I cope well with tropical climate, so I was not actually suffering, just amused how people are indifferent to what kind of service they offer. In Kotamobagu, a much smaller town, there were new small fans in old rooms, at the 15.000Rp price difference per night, on request, and the fans still had their price tag of 175.000Rp. In Manado, such thing is considred unnecessary luxury. Curious difference.
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Yeah, I'm curious also. What a difference. And... what an experience you have had in my country. I love reading your stories and staring at your photos. Awesome.
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