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[Data Sheet] Manado, Indonesia
#1

[Data Sheet] Manado, Indonesia

General Information
Manado is located in the very north of Sulawesi and can be reached either by plane from various Indonesian cities or by bus from Gorontalo. There are barely any tourists in this city of 400.000 people. Every tourist in North Sulawesi goes to Bunaken to dive or to the Minahasa Highland (the region around Manado). But no one is staying in the actual city Manado.
About 90% of the population is Christian. There are churches everywhere and the whole Minahasa Highland has a lot of things in common with the Philippines (e.g. the famous Tarsier in Bohol can also be seen in a park not far from Manado), which can even be reached by boat from Manado, though it’s not allowed for tourists to enter the Philippines this way. There is one big university in Manado and some other universities in the surrounding towns. Most of the social life in Manado takes place in the two biggest malls, right next to the oceanfront. MANTOS (Manado Town Square) and Mega Mall are the names of those two malls. The majority of people in Manado speak zero English, but everyone is super friendly and curious about foreigners. Basic Bahasa Indonesia skills are recommended (i.e. ordering food and asking for directions)

Transportation
There are Bluebird taxis in the city, though they are sometimes hard to catch. The locals usually use so called microlets, which are similar to the jeepney’s in the Philippines. A microlet ride in the city is only 2.000 Rupiah. The word “muka” is used to tell the driver to stop. It’s Minahasa Language and means something like “face”. Getting familiar with microlets is very important, since you won’t always find a taxi and walking can be very exhausting with the hot weather in Manado. Microlets stop operating around midnight. So after dates that last until midnight you’ll have to use a taxi.

Logistics
You basically want to stay in “microlet distance” to the two malls, since the only “nightclubs” in Manado are also located in the malls. Hotel Formosa has a good location, though I never stayed there. I recommend to check out all hotels on agoda that are located on Jalan Pierre Tendean or a street that runs parallel to it.

I stayed at two different places. First in Manado Grace Inn, the cheapest hotel on agoda. It was less than 20$ a night (222.000 IDR). The room is small, without a window, but very clean and a comfortable queen size bed. It is 10 minutes to the malls (microlet ride + a short walk). The other one is called Kolongan Beach Indah Hotel and belongs to the same owner. It has much better rooms and an ocean view if you can get a room on the second floor. The price was 350.000 Rupiah (27$), but I think it was a promotion price, since they just reopened it that time. It is located in Malalayang, a little outside the city. But it’s super easy to go with a microlet to the malls, since it is still located on the Pierre Tendean street. Both hotels are guestfriendly.

If you plan on hitting on university girls (which 90% of the girls in Manado are), I would say that a super nice hotel is definitely not needed. Like I said, there are almost no other foreigners in Manado. The people who are staying at the more expensive hotels are probably Asian businessmen. So as long as you don’t live in a shithole, it will be fine.

Girls
That brings me to the next point, the girls. Manado is a university town. Most girls you will find here are 22 or younger. Most of them have never even talked to a foreigner and are very shy, but they are generally open to foreigners and very sweet. However, you probably won’t find your confident, talkative, super hot Indonesian chick here. I think every hot girl with ambitions in life will leave Manado as soon as they can and move to Jakarta, Surabaya, etc. What’s more, the amount of good looking girls is not as high as in – let’s say Surabaya. Girls here have a darker skin tone and most of them know only very basic English skills.

Online Game
I tried DateinAsia, IndonesianCupid, Skout and Tinder. I met one girl from DIA, which was cute and spoke good English, but she came with 12 friends. Tinder, Badoo and IC simply don’t have enough girls who live in Manado. The only thing that really worked was Skout. And that needed some time. I spent 4 days in Manado, messaging all good looking girls on Skout on the first day. Most of them needed 2-3 days to reply, though. Hence, if you go to Manado, you should definitely spoof your GPS and start pipelining a week before your arrival.

Daygame
Mantos and Mega Mall are the best places for Daygame. Just handing out your number should do it, since most girls are very shy. They are eyefucking you, but too shy to talk to you. A good idea (which I didn’t execute though) might be to ride the microlets that are going to the university. They are labeled with “Kampus” and always packed with university girls. You can find those microlets on the main street Jl. Pierre Tendean.

Nightgame
Since I haven’t done any nightgame in Manado, I can only talk about the available venues and not about the sluttiness of the girls or the talent there. There are 2 clubs/bars where young people go to party. The first one is called Corner and is located in Bahu Mall (which is not really a mall). The second one is called Score! and is located inside MANTOS near the cinema. I haven’t really checked out the nightlife in Manado, but I don’t think I missed something. The way to go in Manado is with day game and online game.

Date Venues
There is one chill bar in Mantos. It is located behind the mall, close to the ocean. I don’t remember the name though. When you exit the mall through the back entrance (where all the cars are parking), just walk right and you will see the bar. If you walk left you will find an Excelso and a Blackcanyon Coffeeshop, which also are good venues for coffee dates. Another Excelso Coffeeshop is inside Mega Mall. Multiple nice restaurants can be found when you walk north along the oceanfront starting from Mega Mall and inside the malls of course.

Things to do in and around Manado
There is nothing to do in Manado. Period. But there are plenty of things you can do in the Minahasa Highland. Tomohon is a charming small town 1-2 hours with bus from Manado. In Tomohon you can eat snakes, rats, monkeys, bats, dogs – basically everything that is walking on the street and is not human. Close to Tomohon is a lake called Linow which is said to be changing colours with time. Another, bigger lake can be found in Tondano, which is a little farther away from Manado. There are also two volcanoes in the area that you can hike. Mount Mawahu and Mount Lokon. If you want to see the Tarsier and other animals, you can do that in the Tangkoko Nature Reserve. A great spot for diving is the Bunaken National Park, which can be reached by boat from Manado. Another good diving spot is the Street of Lembeh. There are also some small islands that can be reached by boat but most of them don’t have any accommodation or civilization there. The girl from DIA told me that she went there twice with some friends. Just bring a tent, drinks and food and spent a night there. The pictures she showed me looked really awesome and I like the idea of camping on a lonely island where probably no other tourist has been before. Unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the island.

Summary
Manado is not a city to go to and bang a lot of girls. Both, quality and quantity, are way better in Jakarta or Surabaya. Furthermore, it is a pretty small city. Everyone is hanging out at the same places, making it difficult to bang multiple chicks at the same time. What makes Manado interesting though, is the huge status of a foreigner here and all the things you can do in the surrounding region. I would see Manado as a good city to stop by for a few days and bang one or two girls, while your main focus is on diving or exploring the Minahasa highland. If you just want to bang many hot girls, don’t come to Manado. It’s not worth the long way.
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#2

[Data Sheet] Manado, Indonesia

Quote: (03-07-2015 01:24 PM)Dipar Wrote:  

The pictures she showed me looked really awesome and I like the idea of camping on a lonely island where probably no other tourist has been before. Unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the island.

[Image: 51764VTP3ML.jpg]
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#3

[Data Sheet] Manado, Indonesia

Ha, it just popped up in my mind. Lihaga Island is the name. Or "Pulau Lihaga" in Bahasa Indonesia.
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#4

[Data Sheet] Manado, Indonesia

Just had a quick visit to Manado. To add onto the above the nightlife was pretty lacking, tried Corner and Score! both were pretty dead around half 11. Haha Cafe has turned into a pool room, but was a bit busy. Ended up going to Djarod on Jl. Pulau Sulawesi. Noisy like it would be busy but was very quite, less than 20 people over the 3 storeys. Bottle of Bali 9 was cheap though, less than $40 including mixers. The staff were really friendly and very keen to practice their English, on the Friday they were sure it would be busy on Saturday and on the Saturday sure it would be busy after 1. It never did get busy but Manado isn't exactly a nightlife destination. Better just to stick to day time activities.

We stayed at the Aryaduta hotel which was around $40, pretty tired façade however the staff were very friendly and attentive. They organised a driver for us for the day. Decided to visit Tunan Waterfall and Tomohon market, unfortunately a few kms away from the waterfall the rain started coming down and then the driver got lost. Eventually we were able to find it, the pathway down was somewhat flooded but it seemed a bit pointless to come all the way and not see it. A lot of the path had been washed away but all the rain had made the waterfall more impressive.

We missed the turn for Tomohon on the way back so unfortunately missed getting to see the meat market but the driver insisted he knew a restaurant that served local delicacies. It was padang style and the dog was really tough and tasted like chewing hide, the bat was somewhat chewy and rubbery, lacked flavour and the were sold out of rat. Wouldn't recommend it on a regular basis but worth a try.

As an aside the one bit of action came from riding an microlet and a girl wanted to come visit the hotel later that evening, was just a shame this was in the early part of Sunday with a flight back Monday otherwise we would have just gone back and forth on the Microlets!

Best just to stick to diving here really.
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