FOR SOME BEACHES AND CRYSTAL CLEAR WATER

It is a wonder why not many people travel to this part of the world. Manado is on the island of Sulawesi, 3 hours flight from Jakarta and can be accessed directly from Singapore via Silkair. Christians make up for the majority of Manado. There are churches every 20 meters on the same street. It is nothing like I've ever seen before. The moment you get there, you know that you are not in Java.






Manado has the best of both worlds - the mountains and the sea. Travel one hour inland and you can get to Lake Tomohon. Travel 1.5 hours out towards the sea and you get to see world's most beautiful ocean inhabitants. The island of Bunaken is world famous for the protected marine national park.

Stockholm, where I left my heart...
September 2008

Grey skies and showers greeted me coldly as I stepped out of the bus in Stockholm's central station. The hope of no rain and a little bit of sunshine diminished right there and then, but the hostel was nice, comfortable and cozy. It turned out to be one of the best hostel bed I've ever slept on; with face towels, bath towels and... a bath robe! Even if the room was on the small side, Hostel Rienstierna is highly recommended.

Stockholm consists of small islands connected by bridges. The best way to experience it is to get lost exploring the quaint little streets. My tall Swede friend was meeting me for a welcome drink at a nice bar called Gondolen towering high above the corner of Sodermalm, looking into Gamla Stan. We went walking through the old streets of Gamla Stan; he was being a full on tour guide explaining the different sights.

The next day, Inta came from the village of Vasteras to spend a whole day in Stockholm. We walked everywhere, to the Vasa Museum where the Viking ship Vasa lost its glory on its maiden voyage, to Skansen to check out traditional Swedish village houses and finally roaming the shops of Gotgatan in Sodermalm. Dinner @ ENTRE' completed the night.

Stockhom is a city that is inherently cool without even trying. People are friendly, they look trendy without being pretencious, stylish without being over the top. Like a perfect cake, it has all the right ingredients... and once again, I fell in love. It was unexplainable. There wasn't any particular thing that drove me crazy, or an event that made my heart melt. It was chemistry where everything fit.

Even if it was 10 degrees weather, grey skies and constant drizzle.

I fell in love.

ITALY - FOOD, MEN AND FABULOSO MATRIMONIO

Milano (Sep 2008)
Milan was still well into its summer; it refuses to give in to the coming autumn by holding on to its last breath of hot weather and sunshine. Milan was our rendez vous point - Amelia, Ann, Hanim and Wendy met in the B&B before we start our trip to Bab's wedding in Varese. They had been on the road, traveling around Tuscany for about a week prior to our meeting. I could understand girls and suitcases full of wine and shopping, but what they arrived in completely blew me away! It was a friggin tank... and in a city like Milan, or any city in Europe for that matter -- definitely not the preferred mean of transport.

Amelia was our social secretary for Milan. Her fantastic connection brought us to drinks in Milan, extremely good food, and more drinks and clubbing only the Milanos know how. It was the first day of the winter clubbing season; all the bars were opened from their long summer holidays, and the club were packed with locals screaming, "It's summer, I don't want to work..." to the music. Partying in Milan also opened our eyes about the super trendy Italian men, with matching coloured belts and pointy shoes, the fascination with white shirts (lost count on the number of white shirts clubbing with us that night), and girls with stilletto heels on the cobbled streets of Milan. It was trendy, it was crazy and the night never stopped...

Varese (Sep 2008)
But we were in Italy for one reason, and that was to be there for Bab's wedding. The beautiful lake Varese was to witness the matrimony of our dear friends Babs and Tim. Being non catholics, we had no idea that we were supposed to be fully covered going into the church. Being ready to party, we had sexy dresses with open shoulders and low cut cleavage. That was a serious no! no! Oh, no! Luckily, Amelia and Wendy brought shawls with them-- but Ann had none! Well, we just had to share. The Padre laughed at our desperate attempts to respect local tradition that he even took a photo of the girls sharing the shawl and moving like siamese twins, adjoined by a grey shawl.

Hanim delivered a moving song that nearly sent people into tears. Apparently Babs had numerous inquires from older men about our darling Hanim. No can do baby! She's well taken and unavailable! The wedding was beautiful, even if we couldn't understand it because the mass was held in Italian but there were lotsa rice, water pistol fight (... yeah, must be the Italian way) and a wedding car that refused to start... not only that, the best traffic police in Italy! Our own Padre made sure the bride and groom gets to the reception venue safely.
The 11 tables were named after Juventus' first 11 players. Amelia and I sat on Buffon table; who's also Italian football national team's goal keeper. The rest of the girls sat on Del Piero table, who's one of Italy's infamous striker. Tim is a big Juventus tifosi! And how clearly that shows! Food was plentiful, wine was drank like water and the food, oh... the food! I can't remember how many times I've died and gone to heaven on Italian food!! Yummy!! The music was good, the new company was excellent and everybody had one helluva night.

I made several new friends in Italy, let's hope that life crosses our paths once again.