Walking and Hiking Tours of Busan

MANADO / BUNAKEN ISLAND, IN NORTH SULAWESI We had high hopes for this place, the tropical island report we had been looking forward to.  Spending the last week of our vacation in a very classy place, drinking cocktails on the beach, blah blah blah.  Well, let me tell you that Bunaken is BLAH!!  For starters, there is no electricity on the island from 5AM to 6PM, so most places do not install AC in the rooms.  If you are not a diver, you need to pay about 20 Euros more per person, and even when we said we were divers, the rates for low end mid-range was U.S.$25 per person.  We stayed for one night at this place run by an Italian diver instructor, whose Indonesia girlfriend was a cheap person.   She found us a massage lady for 12.50$.  We had already found one for $7.50 (who is actually just a walking tee-shirt seller), so she told that lady to never come back onto their property.  We had to go to the beach at a hotel next door for our massag...

MAKASSAR, SULAWESI The airport here rocks man.  It's full on 21st century,.a big deal for anything / anywhere in Indonesia! We spent two nights here after a direct flight from Kupang.  Stayed at a crap hotel near the airport our first night, and then found a back backers to drop our stuff of at and nap until the night bus to Tana-Toraja.  Carol slept, so I checked out Fort Rotterdam, built by the Dutch. There are a lot of Chinese people in Makassar, so you see lots of those Malay / 'Spore style restaurants around town.  One dish that is famous in Makassar is beef inerd soup.  The broth is good, the soup cooked in cauldrons and the place was packing in the people!!  The place was right behind a Chinese temple.  The bus station had a very funny guy working as the toilet collection guy, asking me questions about have to work out.  Little kids kept running over to me to give me a high five and shake my hand.  Carol said: ...

PART 1. My dad's Canadian friend from childhood, Gary Ross, came to visit us from Australia, where he lives, in Jakarta one week before our one month vacation.  We checked him into the Grand Kemang Hotel and went to the bar to watch some World Cup matches and catch up.  The next day, I met him for the buffet breakfast at the hotel, and then we went to the dentist, so he could save major $.  I bowed out early, as I was dealing with food poisoning.  Over the next few days, we visited several malls, so he could buy clothes, billiards equipment, glasses, and electronics, plus, it was a chance to see where Jakartianese hang out, since there are no parks or other recreational places here.  We also visited FEZ bar and a Korean restaurant, where we socialized with Carol's co-workers.  Once day, we visited M.O.N.A.S., Jakarta's Monument, which was boring, and we also went to Jalan Jaksa the same day to sit in a terrace, play pool, and talk about Ottawa.  On the...