First Volcano, Tomohon

The perfect antidote to Manado's dullness, Tomohon is a pretty and active little village. With beautiful volcanoes towering over the town, it is a pleasure to the eyes. It is not only the scenery that makes it such a highlight however. It comes down again to the people, I keep getting astounded by the difference that people can make to a place. I'm sure people in Cork will argue that's why Cork is so great but it doesn't leave some unnamed Dublin areas with much of a chance!

Moving on....On a Saturday morning, all of the tourists in town were gathered (an easy feat considering the foreign population was under 20) like cattle on a day when cattle are usually gathered (I don't know I'm a towny). The bizarre events that followed were made that bit more humiliating by the matching t-shirts that were produced. With a stylish 'I love Tomohom' motif on the back we resembled some 1980's advertisement. All retroed up we were ready. For what? Who knew. All we knew was that, more than likely, our morning was about to get very strange.

Traditional Minahasan dancers gathered with us, suitably dressed for the enigmatic occasion. Nor sure who was watching who, we took pictures anyway and established our roles. The march through down broke these roles and it became very apparent who was doing the watching and it wasn't us. We walked from the base of one volcano to the next and once we reached our destination and a sufficient number of pictures were taken of us, we were handed a number of trees and told to plant! If you say so, so plant we did! All in a days travel in Northern Sulawesi and the t-shirt now makes quite the comfortable night shirt. It was all odd, in and out of context.

On the same day, we climbed Mt. Lokon, a less public affair. A stunning crater in an active volcano, we were soon surrounded by sulfuric gasses. the view however, more than compensated for the stench. The volcano willingly took over from us as spectacle and we reverted back to our picture taking roles. The 3 hour climb and getting lost in the river bed were worth it. 'I love Tomohon.'