Thursday, April 10, 2008

So this is Manado, Indonesia




If you are curious about what Mando looks like, it is beautiful! The first picture is sunrise from my hotel room and the second is overlooking the city .

It is a very tropical place, very lush and green. The heat here is quite a nice change, but the humidity is a shock, to my hair mostly. It is a very famous place for scuba divers apparently. It kills me that I forgot my diver certification card. If only... Oh well I was able to go snorkeling which was really beautiful. The people are so friendly and nice. They seem to speak quite a bit of English too, which is surprising. Apparently their language is based of the Dutch language due to their occupation here. Many of the older generations actually are fluent. So interesting fact of the day. Here's some more info in case you are interested...

The Dutch began to colonize Indonesia in the early 17th century; the islands were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. Indonesia declared its independence after Japan's surrender, but it required four years of intermittent negotiations, recurring hostilities, and UN mediation before the Netherlands agreed to relinquish its colony. Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic (a large group or chain of islands) state and home to the world's largest Muslim population. Current issues include: alleviating poverty, preventing terrorism, consolidating democracy after four decades of authoritarianism, implementing financial sector reforms, stemming corruption, holding the military and police accountable for human rights violations, and controlling avian influenza. In 2005, Indonesia reached a historic peace agreement with armed separatists in Aceh, which led to democratic elections in December 2006. Indonesia continues to face a low intensity separatist movement in Papua. - The CIA World Factbook

Little known trivia...
**Indonesia has more than 300 ethnic groups and languages. However, most Indonesians converse in Bahasa Indonesia.

**Indonesia is the native home of the largest lizard in the world, komodo dragon.

**The largest flower in the world, Rafflesia Arnoldi, is native to Indonesia. The flower was named from Sir Stamford Raffles. Even though it is huge, it doesn't smell nice like roses or jasmine flowers, for Rafflesia is an insect-eating flower.

**Indonesia consists of more than 13,000 islands, making it the largest archipelago in the world. However, most of the islands are uninhabited.

**Balinese have four basic names for their children, namely, Putu/Wayan, Made, Nyoman and Ketut. If a Balinese has the fifth child, it will be named Putu/Wayan.

**Indonesia has more volcanoes than any other country in the world - there are 167 of the 850 active volcanoes known in the world.

2 comments:

Sarah said...

You're right. It is pretty. Thanks for the pictures. It's nice to see pictures of places I know I will probably never see in person.

Aaron said...

Let me know when Compassion is looking to hire someone to carry your suitcases!