The Beautiful Town of Tomohon

The Road to Tomohon
October 7th, 2009

Our local guide took us for a drive to a resort town about 1.5 hours up towards the hills from Manado. It was dusk, and what a breath taking view !From the top of the hill looking down the valley of treetops covered with layers of fogs, some are thin some are thick forming such a picturesque scene. I wish I were a painter. I don't always remember bringing my camera either. More often than not, I end up running into a "photographing opportunity". The road was so narrow and winding, and down below is deep valley I tried not to think about it. Once in a while, there is a fruit stand along the side of the road. One caught my attention. Mangosteens ! Fresh from the trees! I asked the driver to stop, and naturally we got honked on by the traffic behind us. I pulled some money out, gave it to the vendor, and grabbed a basket of mangosteens and hopped back in the car, all in approximately 2 long minutes. My husband shook his head. It's dinner time. He is hungry. We saw restaurants seemingly hanging right on the edges of the cliffs. I rolled the windows down and smelled the food. We are in a pretty resort town of Tomohon. On a higher elevation the climate changed from hot and humid to cool and breezy.



The Rijstaffel and "That Meat !"

We stopped at a restaurant my husband thought would be interesting to try. It was dark already. The time was almost 7pm. We walked around the restaurant and saw behind a glass compartment dozens of pots full of local dishes. I asked the restaurateur to explain every one of the dishes. All kinds of meat stews and curry dishes, vegetable soups, fish fillets and whole fish (heads 'n tails on) and the one before the last pot........ you don't want to know this one. It took me good 30 minutes to neutralize my mind, emotion, and appetite. Mitch was curious why I was acting strange. I finally told him what the restaurateur told me the meat was. It stirred my stomach once more time. We took a long table just for the two of us, knowing that Mitch would have a lot of dishes to try. It doesn't seem to bother him the fact that this restaurant serve "that" meat. I asked the waiters to bring us every dish they have except for "that" one. The driver was sitting outside away from us. I told the waiter that he is with us. Soon our table is covered with about 30 bowls of different dishes. I watched my husband looking like a King. He is so happy to see so many different dishes in front of him. There is not one dish that he didn't try. If he had two stomachs he would have asked them for some refills.

The delicious fish soup with the fresh garden debris !

I requested a local vegetable dish cooked just for me, not precooked. So, it took longer for my order to arrive. It was worth waiting. The big bowl of soup consists of fish with its bones and some rare vegetables, along with with some fresh root slices were wide leaves that you are not supposed to eat and yet they didn't remove them. The people of Manado and others in several south east asian countries want you to know that they prepare the dish fresh from scratch and that every spice is freshly picked from the garden, thus it is important to show them by leaving them in the serving dish, instead of discarding them prior to serving. In their opinion, the smell and the taste come before the look. The fish and vegetable soup was the most delicious soup I have ever tasted in my life.

The surprising invoice !

After all of the fiesta, my husband was ready to see a big number on the bill. Just as he put the credit card on the table the waiter said "tidak bisa pakai kartu, mister" (can't use credit card, sir). He began to feel nervous. He didn't know I brought plenty of cash usually on a road trip like this, but I asked "what's the total?". When the waiter showed us the total bill, my husband and I were looking at each other in disbelief ! It was Rp60,000 or about USD $6 for 3 people. I covered my opened mouth. This can't be right. I looked at the details. .... All you can eat per person Rp16,000 (USD $1.60), 3 people times $1.60, then plus the soup..... the rest of it I didn't even look and neither did I care. We couldn't help ourselves but laughing like we had just won a lottery. Nowhere in the world would we ever expect such a bargain, ever !