Saturday, September 11, 2010

Manokwari City Tour

Traveling around the city of Manokwari can be fun and fascinating if you know some interesting places that you'd like to visit. To give you an idea of how we conduct this tour,  we will give you some explanations about some vocal points of this city. Depending on the hotel or guesthouse where you stay, we will pick you up with a car and bring you around the city.
Sarinah Hill
The first place that we will go is a slope near the residential area of Bupati of Manokwari. It is also called Bukit Sarinah (meaning Sarinah Hill). From this place, we can see the wonderful scenery of Manokwari city that stretches along the coastal areas and hills around Dore bay.
Kampung Ambon and Kwawi Area
Also, we can see the main harbor of Manokwari with cargo and passenger vessels mooring at its jetty, Sanggeng Market and Rendani Hill.
We will go down the slope to pass through Kampung Ambon with a lot of old houses built by Dutch government in 1950s are still used by employees of local government.
We can stop for a while at Gereja Elim Kwawi to see the old church and the cemetery of C.W. Ottow (who was the first European missionary) who landed in New Guinea to preach Good News and built schools for the indigenous people.
Traditional Market
There are two traditional markets in town which you could visit. The first one is Sanggeng Market. It is the place where town dwellers come to buy vegetables, rice, fish and other agricultural produce. The fish market is located approximatly 100 meters from the main market. Visitors can also see the view of the city at the nearby Fishing Harbor located next to the fish market.
Another market in town is Wosi. Here, visitors can see what goods that are bought by local people.
Before continuing your trip to Bumi Marina, Amban and Abasi Beach, you could have lunch for a while at one of the many stores in the city.
Be sure to bring sunglasses if you start at around 2 or 3 p.m. The weather of this coastal city is quite hot particularly during dry season. We will be in the area for around five to seven minutes before continuing our trip to Amban. We will drive through such areas as Susweni, Bakaro beach, Abasi, and Pasir Putih beach and then back to Manokwari city again.
If there is still time for more exploration of the city, we will go to Borarsi where we will be able to see traditional wooden boats parking along the Anggrem harbor.
Visiting Papuan Artists 
We can visit some artists in the region, Mr. Nico Asaribab - a carving artist, Ms. Ester Kereway who likes to create handicrafts from seashells. You can buy some souvernirs here. There is another artist whose wooden carvigs are one of the finest quality in town. His name is Yosep Awom. He lives across from Hotel Ariestom. Try to bargain to get the best price.
Not far from Anggrem is the residences of Ms. Ester Kereway and Mr. Yosep Awom. They live on Merdeka street near Suri bakery a breadstore that is now more focusing on providing photocopy service to its customers. Ms. Kereways makes beautiful earings and other souvenirs made of seashells while Mr. Awom makes beautiful wooden carvings.
According to our personal experience, if we start our city tour at 4 p.m., we will be at these artists' house at around 7 p.m.
We can go up to the slope of Komplex Missi where we can see some Papuan artists living behind the buildings of SMP Katolik Manokwari at the foot of the Table Mountain. We will meet an experienced oil painting artist, Mr. Lucky Kaikatui and a multi talented artist Paul Warere.
Another women artist in the vicinity is Mrs. Marice Fonataba who makes woven clothes and other artworks from pandanus leaves and seashells. Her house is located behind the Catholic Church of Santo Agustinus in Komplex Missi of Manokwari.
When we have accomplished this trip, we can bring you to Cinnamon cafetaria in Orchid supermarket where you will have your dinner there. If you choose to have dinner at one of the many restaurants in town, we can bring you there too. After that, we could bring you back to your hotel.
Well, don't forget to bring your digital camera when you go around this city.
Your tour guide
Photographs about the city and the people as well as the natural scenery that you shoot along the way will be a nice memory for you when you have returned home.

Booking:
If you are interested in taking this city tour, please, contact Arianta by sending text or whatsapp message to her number: +6285373765191.
She works as a Medical Practitioner and can organize your city tour in Manokwari with her own cars.
The above itinerary can be customized according to your duration of stay in Manokwari and budget.