Visited the Dead

Chinese cemetery in Manado.

 

With only two days left in Manado, I decided to visit my relatives who had passed away today.  Many of them passed away while I was in Canada so the last time I saw them was the day I left Manado over twenty years ago.  My aunts, grandmother and many others were buried in several sites around the city so my cousins and I had several sites that we visited that took most of the morning.

Wedding

Suddenly, lens flare!

 

Not mine.  My cousin's wedding.  One of the reason for my returning home was to attend.  I had never attended an Indonesian wedding before so why not give it a try now.  There were many local customs that I did not know but one thing that is common around the world is the feast afterwards.  The wedding ceremony itself was a mixture of traditional Chinese and local custom.  My cousin is Buddhist while his bride is Christian.  It was an interesting observation.

More Manado

Clouds.  Nimbostratos or Stratocumulus, I wonder...

More pictures that I took in and around Manado.  It is surprising at how little there are on the internet.  I hope to change that but enjoy them regardless.  I tried to get a little artistic with some of them but with only my phone's camera, I can only do so much.

Manado

A fisherman preparing his boat to go out to sea.
 

After twenty one years away, I have finally returned to Manado.  My memories are hazy since I left when I was eleven, yet I still remember bits and pieces of this small city of my birth.  Many things that I thought were big as a kid turned out to be quite small now that I am a grown up.  Many things remained the same, yet at the same time, there were so much new that it could have been an entirely different place.  Meeting my relatives after so long was the main reason for my return and I am glad to be back.

Short Stay in Jakarta

The title says Jakarta, though looking at the picture, one would think that I landed in Tokyo.  In reality, my first destination when I landed there was for a bite to eat.  I was taken to a Japanese ramen house where I ate a very delicious meal.  The name of the place I cannot recall but I was told these types of fancy ramen places all import their chefs straight from Japan.  Japanese food is big in Jakarta since they are found everywhere.

Hong Kong Airport

After 14.5 hours from Toronto on a Cathay Pacific flight, I arrived in Hong Kong at 3AM local time.  At that time, I was extremely sore, and extremely hungry.  I was held up for a bit at the security check as they wanted me to clear my pockets of things and my backpack as well.  A really small and cute girl who worked as a security agent told me to step on a mat as she prepared to scan me for any metallic objects.  Not knowing anything, I just assumed the normal position for being patted physically.  She told me to put my arms down and proceeded to wave her wand around until she was satisfied that I was not carrying any weapons or explosives.

Fish Hunting in the Mountain?

With guests expected to arrive for the wedding of my cousin, my uncle decided to add a few more Koi fishes to his fish pond at home.  With that mission, he drafted my cousin, his wife, and I to accompany him to the mountain villages in search of the perfect fishes.  Manado is surrounded in three sides with mountains and the ocean on the last side.  Which mountain we went to, I was not very sure of, but the road was long, winding and congested with traffic.

Fried Chickens

I have finally arrived in Manado after twenty one years of living in Toronto.  The small city had truly changed when I noticed that there was a McDonald's in the newly developed area along the beach.  As an avid eater of food, I had no choice but to try.  To my surprise, I ended up ordering fried chicken with rice there.  Not something that one would get normally at a North American outlet.  In any case, that was my dinner and I was hungry.