NORTH SULAWESI MAGIC
Does the spice magic still exist!
The public overnight ferry departing downtown Manadoa to another realm, Sangihe Island.
What place? What a place! Final approach into Sam Ratulangi International is already breathtaking enough! I had been so enthralled with the coastline of North Sulawesi that my head was hard-pressed against the window. Banking around Manado Tua was awe inspiring as this stratovolcano sticks out of the Celebes Sea as if it was a street cone marking the path into Manado! Then we 'parked' it right at the foot of 1780 metre high, Mount Klabat! Manado is the capital city of North Sulawesi and lies towards the end of the Minahasan Peninsula. It's almost as far northeast as you can go in the entire Indonesian Archipelago. So much so that for many years, the federal government had all but forgotten that it even existed! My head was hard pressed against the window for the entire length of the Minahasan Peninsula, my imagination working overtime just dreaming of what it was like down there in those early years! Then as we approached Manado the aircraft banked to starboard around a great volcanic cone that sticks out of the Celebes Sea. Minutes alter we were on final approach for Sam Ratulangi International.
Just how many airport approaches lead you around one volcano only to land facing such a scene? To my knowledge, just this one!
Sulawesi is the fourth largest of some 16,500 islands in the entire archipelago! It's a really unusual shape sort of like a 'k' but disfigured from the opposing movements of the three tectonic plates that this unique land sits upon. I had just read the book, "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" that for me, made sense of my 40 plus years of life in Southeast Asia! In all that time. I'd heard all the tales of Spanish versus Portuguese versus Dutch versus English, as each one swash-buckled their way through foreign lands in search of untold riches.
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