Happy Gecko Dive Resort is a small dive resort on Bunaken Island, only about 1,5 hours away from Manado Airport. It’s owned by Jerry, born and raised on Bunaken, and his Dutch wife Willeke. They live on the premises with their two kids. The resort has only five bungalows, so each guest gets a lot of personal attention from the owners and staff… if they want to.

Getting there

It’s very easy to reach the resort. From the airport get a taxi to Manado harbour and for an added fee Willeke can arrange a transfer directly to the resort. You can get there by public ferry too, but you get dropped off at the village and have to make your way to the resort yourself by motorbike taxi. There are no cars on Bunaken.

The accommodation

The bungalows are quite basic, with only a ceiling fan and no air conditioning. But they are spacious and comfortable, and each bungalow has a balcony with an unobstructed, breathtaking view of the ocean. We had a bungalow with a double and a single bed, so perfect for the three of us. The bathrooms are large too, with running water, a western toilet and a shower. The only downside is that there is only cold water.

Electricity and WiFi

All electricity on Bunaken island is generated by solar panels during the day and diesel generators at night and electricity cuts happen often. When we were there they never lasted very long though. And of course the resort has a back up generator in case of longer power cuts. Happy Gecko Dive Resort has a very decent internet connection with free wifi in the restaurant area. We stayed in the first bungalow and also had wifi on our balcony (which we were very happy about, because our son was still napping after lunch and one of us stayed at the bungalow when he was sleeping).

Food and drinks

Included in the price at Happy Gecko Dive Resort are three meals a day and unlimited drinking water, tea and coffee. Soft drinks and beers are available at very reasonable prices. Breakfast is ‘western’, with bread and eggs and both lunch and dinner are hot meals. The food is really nice, different Indonesian dishes every day with chicken, fish, veggies, fresh fruit and of course rice. The meals are served in the restaurant area at set times in the afternoon and evening. Every bungalow has their own table, but because you’re all eating at the same time this is a great opportunity to meet the other guests.

World class diving

Bunaken National Marine Park is among the top diving destinations in the world, one of the reasons we really wanted to go there. It offers amazing biodiversity that rivals Komodo and Similan (West Thailand). A big plus is that it’s possible to dive all year round with sea temperatures of 29 – 30 degrees Celsius and great visibility (20 – 30 meters). The dry season is May til October. Most dive sites are wall dives and we saw the most amazing critters there. Happy Gecko offers an on-site dive center, located on the ground floor. So it’s extremely easy to organise some great divg. Jimmy, the local guide at Happy Gecko was a genius at finding lots of exciting macro stuff. Check out some of our underwater pictures of Bunaken.

Liang Beach

There are two major beach areas on Bunaken, Pangalisang Beach and Liang Beach. Happy Gecko Dive Resort is located at Liang Beach. It’s situated on a pretty steep hill, so each bungalow has an unobstructed view of the ocean. It’s a bit of a climb to get to the bungalows, but there are well maintained concrete steps everywhere in the small resort. Liang Beach isn’t a sandy beach suited for sunbathing. When the tide is high the water comes all the way to the front of the resort and there’s a long shallow stretch which is perfect for kids to swim. At low tide you have to walk a fair bit to reach the water, but it’s much easier to get to the snorkel sites. The travel guides mention that Liang Beach has a rubbish problem, but sadly that’s the case with all of Bunaken. Rubbish from the mainland washes to shore on either of the beaches when the winds and the currents are unfavourable.

How family friendly is Happy Gecko Dive Resort?

Of course, our most important requirement was that the resort was suitable for our two-year-old. On beforehand we talked via e-mail with Willeke, the owner, and she assured us it was safe for him. The steep steps obviously aren’t safe for a toddler to wander around on his own, but the restaurant area was big enough to keep him occupied. He also loved swimming with us in the shallow water right in front of the resort. If your kids are a bit older and know how to swim they can easily entertain themselves there at hight tide. The water only comes to mid thigh and you have to walk quite far for it to get deeper.

Our child is not a fussy eater and he loved the food at Happy Gecko. We did bring some crackers to tie him over, as he was still used to eating five times a day instead of three. The kitchen staff were really sweet and gave him some fruit when he was hungry too. I think most if not all resorts are all inclusive on Bunaken and there aren’t too many stores to buy stuff. All supplies come from the mainland. So if your child requires anything special (diapers, formula, any kind of special food) I would bring it with you. There’s a large supermarket close to the harbour in Manado.

The owners have a four-year-old son and a six-year-old daughter, both are really sweet and polite. They enjoyed playing with Jace. Jace was at ease at Happy Gecko from the moment we arrived and Willeke even offered to babysit him two mornings so that we could go diving together. We wouldn’t normally leave him with a stranger, but we immediately liked Willeke and Jace did too. He was happy to stay with her and we were very happy we got the chance to dive together for the first time in over three years. It was incredibly thoughtful of her to offer this of her own accord, we didn’t even think to inquire if babysitting was an option.

Our judgement of Happy Gecko Dive Resort

Everything you need is at the resort, so you can spend your days relaxing, swimming, diving or snorkelling and enjoying the stunning views. If you’re not into diving, the resort also offers dolphin watching tours and trips to Siladen Island. Compared to many of the other options on Bunaken Island Happy Gecko is very affordable. We paid €24 per person (August 2015) for two adults and we didn’t have to pay for Jace (who was just over 2 years old at the time), even though we had three beds and the food was plenty for the three of us. The resort is small, not because they can’t afford to expand, but because they don’t necessarily want to. Willeke and Jerry are lovely people, who go to great lengths to make sure their guests have a fantastic stay. All in all we would really recommend a stay at Happy Gecko, for families as well as couples or groups of friends.

http://www.happygeckoresort.com

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So far:
We traveled by plane, train, car, bus, boat, motorcycle, scooter, horse carriage and becak, 
visited 5 countries,
went to 16 destinations,
took 11 flights,
and stayed in 20 hotels, apartments and bungalows and 1 night on a boat.

And some more general things we love about this trip:
being able to spend so much time together as a family
discovering new places together
watching Jace try loads of different types of food and loving most of them
meeting lots of new and inspiring people
being outside so much and seeing Jace run around and play with everything he finds
watching our little boy grow and learn and seeing him so at ease wherever we are

Of course it’s not always easy. Like all young parents we struggle with raising a very active and stubborn toddler, but we’ve added an extra hurdle by doing it while traveling. Also we’re still adjusting to this new way of traveling as a family. If you’ve read our post about traveling with a child, you’ve noticed that there’s quite a few things that change when it’s not just the two of you anymore. That being said, we’ve had so many amazing experiences, met so many fantastic new people and seen so many great places, we wouldn’t have missed that for the world!

Jace is generally a very happy child and it’s a lot of fun to watch him discover all these new places, new people, new tastes, new animals… He smiles a lot and is constantly running around checking out his new environment. He loves to go exploring with us We know he won’t actually remember this trip, but we hope this sense of discovery, the idea that anything is possible, all the impressions he gets and the foods he tastes will stay with him when he grows up.

We’re very much looking forward to our next 6 months on the road!

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Apparently, Mama Roos Homestay is very popular, but we decided to inquire for availability at Tangkoko Hill Cottages. Since we didn’t have any phone credit left, we send the manager, Franky, an email. And, lo and behold, he answered within 15 minutes. We were impressed! Overall the communication with him went really smooth, which gave us a good feeling even before we’d seen the accommodation. The price was really good as well, 500k per night for full board for the three of us.

Village and homestays at Tangkoko National Park

The day we arrived we didn’t do much, apart from a short stroll through the village to the sea. We discovered there really isn’t much ‘village’, at least not the way we would have imagined it. And that all the homestays that seemed a fair bit apart on the map were actually really close together and all close to the entrance of the park. Any one of them would have done, but we were glad we chose Tangkoko Hill Cottages. The cottages were really new and while the food wasn’t spectacular it was quite nice. Spending 2 or 3 nights in Tangkoko NP is enough to see the main sights.

Walking around Tankoko NP with a toddler

If you want to visit Tangkoko National Park, you are required to go with a guide. The park fee is 100k and you pay the guide whatever price you agree upon. We decided to go with one of the guides affiliated with the accommodation for a walk in the park the next day. So, after a bit of a fussy night, we got up early, made ourselves some toast and tea for breakfast and put Jace in the Manduca baby carrier. Ready to go. We were a bit worried because we didn’t bring any proper walking shoes, but our Teva sandals, together with loads of insect repellant did the trick. There is an unpaved road through the park all the way to White Sands Beach, which we followed. Cars and motorbikes also use this road, and although there weren’t too many it wasn’t exactly peaceful and we weren’t really immersed in the jungle. But for Jace’s first introduction it was fine. He loved watching the monkeys! If you have older kids that can walk longer distances by themselves Tangkoko is really accessible. Right at the entrance, we spotted a big group of black macaques. Very cool. We could get really close and observe their behavior.

The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful, but it was nice being in the forest. We did spot a brightly coloured kingfisher. When we got to White Sands Beach our little world traveler was the biggest attraction. There was a group of locals from Bitung camping on the beach and they were all very interested in our little ginger haired boy. Of course, by now we had learned to be a bit more strict and not let everybody touch him. The nightmares in Makassar were quite enough.

Spotting tarsiers during the afternoon walk in Tangkoko NP

We decided to not take Jace on the afternoon walk, but to split up instead. Mau went the first afternoon while I took care of Jace, and I went the second afternoon. This worked out fine. If you do two tours on one day you only have to pay the 100k park fee once, so it turned out a bit more expensive this way. But it was good for Jace to have two quiet afternoons. The main reason everybody does the afternoon walk is that they have a chance to see the tarsiers. This is what Tangkoko NP is famous for. Of course, they don’t tell you there’s a family of six tarsiers living in a big tree in the park and everyone goes to the same tree. Making sure that seeing one of these tiniest mammals in the world is practically guaranteed. Takes away a bit of the glamour. But it was still really cool seeing them! On Mau’s walk he also saw loads of cuscus. Unfortunately me and my group only spotted a small group of three and they were so high in the trees that we couldn’t take a good picture.

The final part of the walk it was practically dark and I was glad I brought a flash light. I was wearing open sandals, so it was especially nice to see where I was going. All in all, we were happy we came to Tangkoko NP. It was a nice change of scenery and a new experience for all three of us, which is one of the main reasons we’re on this trip!

Budget for visiting Tangkoko National Park

Since the accommodation was full board, we didn’t spend too much money, apart from the guide fees and the entrance fee for the national park.

Breakdown of the costs:
Three nights accommodation and full board @500k per night = 1,5 million
Two times NP entrance fee @100k = 200k
Four times guide fee @85k = 340k
Transfer from and to Manado @400k one way = 800k

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We’re loving Indonesia, but Makassar was a huge disappointment, so we were ready for a good experience again. And Sendowan Baru and its Dutch owners Lut and Frank came through for us. From the first warm welcome to the moment they helped us carry our luggage to the street to find a taxi when we left, we felt really at home there.

Sendowan Baru, North-Sulawewesi, Indonesia

Sendowan Baru is a property near Amurang that was built in 1995 by a Dutch guy. He intended for two families to live there, which shows in the design. At some point, he sold the property and now Frank and his brother Paul from The Netherlands own the place, together with their wives Lut and Lisette. They started renting out rooms in 2012, at very reasonable prices. Overall we found it really good value for money and the included breakfast, while basic, was a big plus. It’s a great alternative for an impersonal hotel. Frank and Paul are both part Indonesian, with ancestors from this area of Sulawesi.

Check out the latest prices for Sendowan Baru >>

Luxury rooms at Sendowan Baru

At first we inquired about the cottage that is set apart from the main house, at the front of the garden. But since that was already booked for the dates we wanted, Lut suggested the luxury rooms to us. These consisted of a huge living room, private bathroom, and a bedroom. Perfect for us. The property is huge, with lots of space for Jace to run around, a nice garden and a big swimming pool. Coming from a nondescript hotel in busy Makassar, this lovely guesthouse in Amurang, North-Sulawesi was the perfect place for us to unwind after the hassles of the big city. We even celebrated Jace’s second birthday there.

Relaxed time at Sendowan Baru

We actually didn’t leave the property very often. The property is huge and you can easily fill your days swimming, sun bathing, reading a book, playing football, feeding the fish or just relaxing. There’s a beach right outside the gate and with the swimming pool, two hammocks and an open air living room with three comfortable rocking chairs there is more than enough space to chill. The pool has a shallow kiddie area, so our little one could play in the water by himself.

Excursions

Amurang is the closest city to this lovely pension. We went there two times, once for dinner on the second night and once during the day. To get to Amurang you take one of the little blue buses, called mikrolets. There’s no official bus stop, they just stop to pick you up when you wait at the side of the road. Very convenient. A one way trip to Amurang is IDR 4.000. At night the village is pretty much deserted and it wasn’t easy to find a place to eat. On our visit during the day we stopped at a local market but left when people started touching Jace again, so it was a very brief visit. The owners of Sendowan Baru provide a great selection of guide books and information about excursions in the area. We just found the place to relaxing, we didn’t go out much.

You don’t have to go out for food

The Indonesian couple Lydia and Alfrett take care of the property. They are incredibly nice people and very competent. Lydia even speaks Dutch, so that was easy for Jace too. It took him a day or so to warm up to her (I think it was weird for him to have someone so obviously Indonesian speak Dutch to him instead of English), but after a while he constantly looked for her in the kitchen. Haha, food really was the way to his little heart Lydia is a great cook and lunch and dinner are offered for 35k and 50k respectively. Since we didn’t have to pay for Jace, it was a pretty good deal for us. We also got take away lunch a few times from the warung next door for 45k for two people, which was both cheap and tasty.

We even stayed longer…

We booked for three nights, but ended up adding another three. All three of us had a cold from the aircon in Makassar and we needed to be fit before going to Bunaken for diving, but also because we felt at home and liked the peace and quiet at Sendowan Baru so much. After a suggestion from Lut and some online research we decided that before going to Bunaken we would make a trip to Tangkoko National Park to stay there for a few days. So that was our next destination after Sendowan Baru.

How to get to Amurang

Sendowan Baru is located in North Sulawesi, about 2 hours from Sam Ratulangi Manado International Airport. Since it was the day before Jace’s birthday and we just wanted some peace and quiet, we chose to take a private car to get from the airport to the guesthouse. The owners arranged the car for us. At 500k it was quite expensive, but also the easiest way to get there. There is also a bus from Manado to Amurang. At 35k per person, it’s a much cheaper option. Then from Amurang you take one of the blue mikrolets to get to Sendowan Baru. The downside is that the bus on the route Manado Airport – Amurang only goes 2 times a day, so the timing has to be right. According to this bus schedule (in Indonesian) the bus from Manado Airport to Amurang leaves at 07:00 and 15:00.

Sendowan Baru: our verdict

I don’t think I need to repeat that we had a really good time at Sendowan Baru. The owners are lovely, and so are the caretakers. The Indonesian couple Lydia and Alfrett take very good care of the guests. Sendowan Baru is a great place to relax and recharge. You can visit places in the area, but you don’t have to. You can easily spend your days relaxing at the pool. We would go to Sendowan Baru again in a heart beat. If you’re going to North-Sulawesi, we can definitely recommend a stay at Sendowan Baru. You won’t regret it!

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Because we decided to go to Manado last minute there were no direct flights anymore. We ended up flying wit Sriwijaya Air and had to fly via Ternate, Maluku province. Finding the tickets to get here wasn’t as easy as it sounds.

Booking a ticket on Sriwijaya Airlines, not as easy as it seems

If you want to pay with an international credit card, you HAVE to book your flight online or via a travel agent because the airline’s own call centers only accept Indonesian cards. Furthermore if you fly with one of the Indonesian domestic airlines (Sriwijaya, Lion Air) you can only take 20kg of checked luggage (with Wings it’s only 15kg). If you, like us, are traveling with more than 20kg of luggage your only option is to just show up at the airport with your excess luggage and hope they don’t charge too much. There’s no way to buy extra kg’s online.

Excess baggage fees for Sriwijaya Airlines

We spend a few hours looking for excess baggage fees for Sriwijaya but we couldn’t find any info, the same goes for other local airlines (Lion Air, Wings etc). Because the flight wasn’t too expensive we considered booking a ticket for Jace so we would have 20kg of check-in baggage for him and we would know how much it would cost us. This to avoid getting a huge bill in the airport. We read other people had to pay excessive amounts to bring extra kilo’s and we knew we had about 15kg too much. Some other airlines have the option to book a seat for your infant, but not Sriwijaya, kids up to 24 months HAVE to sit in your lap. We ended up just booking the two tickets and had not choice but to wait and see how much the excess baggage fee would be when we got to the airport.

Fingers crossed

The next morning we went to the airport wondering how much this part of our journey would cost us. We went to the check-in counter for Sriwijaya Air, put the bags on the scale and crossed our fingers. The scale said 55kg so we were 15kg overweight, exactly as we thought. When I asked how much this would be the guy told me it would be IDR28.000 (€1,82) for one kilo extra. So 15kg x IDR28.000 was IDR420.000 (€27,30). In the end, it was better we did it this way because an extra ticket for Jace would have been more! We didn’t want to wait a day longer and get a cheaper flight, because it was Jace’s birthday the next day. All in all, it was nice to have one more relatively ‘cheap’ flight (only two tickets instead of three).

Flight delayed

Once we were checked in we went through the security check and had no problems bringing 2,5 liters of water, which surprised us, but obviously, we didn’t complain. We went to our gate and waited for our flight. Because all announcements were made in Bahasa Indonesia we couldn’t understand what was happening with our flight. After asking the ground crew a few times we learned that our flight was delayed and we had to wait some more. When we could finally board the plane we were in for quite a shock. This was a really old and bad maintained airplane. We have flown with a few low budget airlines in Asia but this was definitely the worst plane we have been in. But it was our only option to get to Manado, so we went.

Maintenance issues

We left an hour after our scheduled departure time. After a flight of about one hour and twenty minutes we arrived in Ternate, Maluku province with one of the roughest landings we’ve ever had. But we arrived safely. When we were about to land the crew asked me repeatedly to turn my seat in the upright position, but it turned out it was broken so the back wouldn’t come back up. Lucky for us, because after a check by one of the ground crew after we landed they assigned us other seats and we had a whole row to ourselves. So Jace had his own seat after all! The second part of the flight was only thirty minutes in an half empty plane. We arrived safely in Manado!

Conclusion

We would not recommend Sriwijaya Airlines. We have not yet flown with Lion Air but they have the same routes and we will be looking at them for our flight out of Sulawesi.

——

Update: We have now flown with Lion Air too. Their planes are definitely better maintained and newer. Downside is that with Lion Air you don’t get anything to eat or drink and you can’t buy anything on the plane. Please remember to bring your own, especially when you travel with children! Even on Sriwijaya’s short flights they serve a snack and a drink. On both airlines the seats are very close together and if you’re a bit tall like me, you’ll not be very comfortable. But I guess that goes for all budget airlines. We still wouldn’t recommend Sriwijaya.

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Fortunately we received a really quick reply when we send a message to inquire about availability. We learned later that two of the Dutch owners were actually staying at the property at the moment. Being in the same timezone made communication a lot faster and easier. We booked the flight and they arranged transport for us from the airport. We could have saved some money by finding our own taxi and normally we would have, but this was the easiest way with Jace.

Since we booked only one or two days before the flight, all direct flights we’re sold out and we had a stopover in Ternate, Maluku province. Otherwise the flight would only have been about 1,5 hours. But it took us until 14:00 to get to Manado. Mexi, our driver had been waiting for us a long time, but fortunately was pretty cheerful about it. Of course we were also paying him a hefty IDR 500.000 for the transfer, so maybe he was happy about that too We stopped at a big supermarket on the way to Amurang and then we were really ready for some peace and quiet. And for a nice place to celebrate Jace’s second birthday the next day.

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Maybe it was because we were in a city again after having already been in Kuala Lumpur for 10 days. Maybe it was because we were tired and didn’t venture out much, except to get food. Maybe it was because we couldn’t sit outside while Jace was sleeping and were stuck in our hotel room a lot of the time. I think there are quite a lot of interesting excursions you can do from Makassar, but there was no advertising for it, no travel agencies in the streets. And we weren’t motivated enough to search. So apart from the city we didn’t see much and we didn’t much like what we saw.

Too much touching

This was our first destination where random people just kept sticking their hands in Jace’s stroller, kept touching him at every opportunity and were making selfies with him whenever they could. We were lucky that Jace is still tied up when we’re driving him around in the stroller, because some of the bolder ones even tried to pick him up! Not sure about customs in this part of the world and not wanting to cause a scene, the first day we were a bit hesitant to react, other than looking angry. But this quickly changed!

Nightmares in Makassar

Our little one was doing really well, but started having nightmares in Makassar, waking up in the night crying ‘no mommy, no’. It really broke my heart. Of course there were also some very nice people who just asked us politely if they could maybe take his picture or who, after looking at us first, held out their hand for a high five and gave him the opportunity to respond. If not that was fine too.

Meeting nice people

We did talk to a nice group of young guys one evening on the boulevard and they restored our faith in the Makassar people a little bit. Of course, they weren’t actually from Makassar, just students from all parts of South Sulawesi living and studying in the big city. They were really curious to know about Dutch culture and habits and shared a lot of their stories as well. Very interesting.

Kiddie playground on the boulevard

One other cool thing that Jace liked a lot, was that in the evening the boulevard turned into one big kiddy playground with electric carts and bikes driving around everywhere. For IDR 10.000 Jace could drive around for 15 minutes. At first he was scared, but after a while he didn’t want to get off the bike.

Our conclusion about Makassar

But all in all, Makassar didn’t leave us with a good impression and we were happy to move on. We spent 5 days there, which was actually 4 days too long. All because we couldn’t decide on our next destination. Distance and budget were a big factor, but in the end we decided to go to Manado and Bunaken for diving after all. How could we resist going to one of the best diving destinations in the world, when we were so close…?

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