Manado - again

Rocked up to Manado yesterday after an epic 20 + hour trip on ferry and car. Not a great way to spend time.

Stayed at hotel that Michael recommeded, I have a new cockroach rating system. The hotel was reasonable (100, 000 Rp) and I saw only 1 cockroach. But, Diane and I had an altercation with the owner about an ojek fee. We were doing what you dont want to do, get into an "ethics" arguement over less than 10 cents. Anyway, we said the wrong fare to the ojek drivers - a bad bahasa indonesia moment. So, we knew the fare as we had done the drive about 3 times already, we had agreement for 5000, and boss wanted us to pay 7000 to the drivers. We had only asked him for change and he steped in and got difficult. We walked out and got change, paid one driver 6000, and found out he had paid the other 10,000. Diane was brillant and told him we were not paying that, and that we were moving out. After blueing with the owner we left in the am. DOnt know if it was a language issue or not, but he was trying to change prices on us.

So I am in Celebes tonight (190,000) and I have seen about 6 cockroaches and only been there for 30 minutes. I asked them to clear the room of cockroaches, then I moved rooms! So will get another sweep done before I go to sleep.

Diane left for Tomohon, and the guys are uncontactable so I made all my bookings and have now caught up on all bloging.

Love the ojeks - will go back out there and get a ride somewhere, maybe have fish and rice for dinner, again.

Had a avocado juice today, was amazing! It was acocado and chocolate sauce, sounds bad but was amazing.