Last day at Yama Resort Tondano, when we check-out it’s already time for lunch. We finally having lunch at Resto Pemandangan Tondano, because last night their fish already sold out. Not so different with Astomi, just slightly better. Maybe because we’re not in hurry anymore, so in good mood also. After ate our lunch, we start our journey to Jiko/Patokan Beach.
On our way, we past around Tondano Lake. The lake looks so calm, countryside lives really are relaxing. Oh by the way, Tondano Lake was famous with their Nike (Ni-ke) fish. It’s a small fish like anchovy, but lives in freshwater. Some says it’s endemic, but some says it’s not. They still debate until this very moment, anyway the fish are delicious to eat as a topping in Tinutuan (Manado Porridge).
Approximately half way (red circle), we drove around a cliff and can see the ocean view. Very beautiful, yet scary. The road is winding and uphill, make it easier for us to became carsick. Some area raining, next area sunny. We continue to take a nap, wake up, snacking snake fruit, nap again. Really tiring journey, and finally we reached there.
Apparently, we must take a boat to get there. Now, that’s unexpected. We didn’t wear sandals and shorts, we thought the Jiko Beach is accessible by car. So we change our outfit, and ask how much the price for boat rent. He said IDR 30K per adult, kids below 5 years old is half price. The price is for round-trip, and one-way just take approximately 15 minutes.
Luckily the sea was very calm, I didn’t get scared at all. Or maybe because the boat using a ‘balancer’ to balance the boat, my brother said. Anyway we enjoy the journey, and see many natural caves, majestic sky and clouds. When we arrived, beautiful white sand beach welcomed us. It’s already afternoon, many locals are swimming and resting in the shade while enjoying their coconuts.
After climbing stairs (we need to pay extra IDR 10K), we came by to this awesome view. The wooden stairs to go down the cliff is already broken, so we need to be careful. No other people here, maybe because we came late. When we still taking photos, my sandal got carried away by the waves. After panicked a while, the waves give back my sandal though.
There’s nothing left to do here, except for taking photo. The sun starts to set, it’s beautiful yet remind us to go home before dark. So we hurry back to our boat and found out he was gone! The locals say he went to pick up some customers and soon will be back here so don’t worry, okay we don’t have any other options than to wait.
It still takes around 1.5 hours from Jiko to Kotamobagu, also the road was very dark and bumpy. Oh, from today we used another car rental his name is “Aldo Rental”. Price was IDR 5,800,000 for 3 days (25-27 April 2023), with route: Tondano-Jiko-Kotamobagu for first day, full day Kotamobagu for second day, and Kotamobagu-Manado for third day.
Why we use Aldo Rental instead of Mata Kail? Mata Kail already said upfront that if we stay at Kotamobagu, we need to find accommodation for his driver. While Aldo? Well, because he said he’s from Kotamobagu so we assume that we don’t need to find accommodation. Turns out his driver is from Manado, so we still need to find accommodation.
Thumbs up to Mata Kail for honesty and transparency, while for Aldo Rental maybe this is the last time we use his service. Aldo’s driver is pretty good though, maybe more helpful than Mata Kail’s driver. Because this is a holiday and we want to have fun not spoil it, so we breath in and breath out. Let it go, relax. Fortunately we have acquaintance that can over a IDR 75K per night for driver, which is a very good price. Welcome to Kotamobagu, and may we all have a very good and pleasant night! Time to rest, bye-bye!
Endo & Nes 