We got this mail from Polly after the first tour to Sulawesi for two years.
I am back to Manado again.
We went to Tengkoko Nature Reserve the habitat of Tarsius, the smallest mammal in the world. Instead of Tarsius, this nature reserve is also home for some endemic birds of Sulawesi such as Knobbed Hornbill. From Tengkoko we went to Tomohon (800 m above sea level) and stayed at a cottage run by local people locatedd on the slope of Mount Lokon. The last big erruption of Mount Lokon was in '91. In January this year this volcano blew its ash to Tomohon village. At 6 o'clock this morning we climb this volcano and got very close to its smooky crater.
We took public bus to each place which surprised other passenger on the bus because they thought normally tourist use chartered transport to go around. It fun when we have to seat on the back of pick up together with ladies who just came back from the market selling their fishes. This is I think one of the most exciting part of our tour, going by public transport and shocking the local people, though sometimes I was bussied by local peoples questions such as why we took public bus or is it ok for this "BULE" to get stick on a Indonesian size seat? Sometimes people do not believe when I said if we travelled by public transport since we started the trip in Makassar. Nevertheless we got more respect from local people during this trip in Sulawesi.