Tomohon

Tomohon is a city in Northern Sulawesi. It is the fourth-largest city in the province of North Sulawesi (Sulawesi Utara), after Manado, Bitung, and Kotamobagu. Tomohon is south of Manado.

Districts

 * North — Tinoor, Kinilow, Kakaskasen, Wailan, and Kayawu. The first area to be discovered in Tomohon from Manado.  There is mat production, fruit and flowers vendors in several parts such as in Tinoor for fruits and Kakaskasen for flowers.
 * Central — Talete, Kamasi, Kolongan, and Matani. Heart of Tomohon, centre of public activities, hospitals, and mayor office and city hall.
 * West — Woloan and Tara-Tara. Traditional house (knockdown type) production, Woloan Ancient Park where Waruga, the ancient tombs are collected in one area, in the same area are nine springs.
 * East — Paslaten, Rurukan, Kumelembuai. Vegetable farms on the slope of Mount Mahawu and Mount Masarang, and the famous Tomohon traditional market.
 * South — Walian, Sarongsong, Pinaras, Lahendong. Hot-spring areas, the outstanding Lake Linow is located in Lahendong.

Understand
Tomohon is an important city in Northern Sulawesi. It is also a tourist hub due to its location amongst natural beauty. It lies between two volcanoes: Mount Mahawu and Mount Lokon. Due to the topography of the land it occupies, Tomohon city is shaped like a starfish, with long tentacles of human habitation and associated infrastructure visible from higher ground. Because of its position on the highland, Tomohon has a very mild climate, for which it is famous. The friendliness of its people is also well known in the region.

Religion
Most people in Tomohon are Christian. Christianity plays an important role in all aspects of life. The Tomohon Christian congregations are diligent church-goers; most are Calvinist Protestants. The locals were converted to Christianity during the long period of Dutch colonial rule. In addition to the Calvinists, there is also a Catholic congregation, which is the second biggest religious denomination in Tomohon. There are also other congregations from other denominations, such as Pentecostal, Adventist, and several minor denominations. Each congregation builds its own churches, which explains why there is a church every few hundred metres.

Christian
During holiday times, the people will decorate their houses, the lanes, the streets, and so on with special themes. For example, during Christmas and New Year, festive ornaments can be easily found anywhere in Tomohon city. They normally say "the months which end in '-ber' are Christmas". All the celebrations end on kuncikan, which means 'closing day'.

Chinese
The Chinese in Tomohon celebrate the Chinese New Year, and the biggest festival is on the 15th day after Chinese New Year, called Cap Go Meh. There is a procession of calling the spirits of the Chinese Gods or Goddesses to possess mortal human bodies, and their idols are carried on sedan chairs from the temple around the city centre to bestow their blessings on believers. In this procession, the possessed mortal performs magical acts, such as piercing his own cheek with some solid and sharp stick from one side to the other, without any bleeding; a sword carrier hits his own back with a very sharp sword without injuring himself; and another cuts his own tongue without injuring himself. This procession usually attracts the attention of the whole city.

Islamic
There is a special community in Southern Tomohon, where Muslims live in a village called Kampung Jawa, meaning 'Javanese Village'. Idul Fitri and Ramadhan are celebrated there.

Culture
Tomohon is one of Minahasa tribe's regions. However, the Minahasa tribe is divided into several sub-tribes. Tomohon belongs to a sub-tribe called Tombulu. Pakasaan Tombulu spreads from Tombuluan in the east of Pineleng and Tombariri in the west, and from Tomohon in the south to Manado in the north. Pakasaan Tombulu speaks Tombulu language, Manado Malay, and Bahasa Indonesia. It is believed that Tomohon is the centre of Pakasaan Tombulu. Pakasaan Tombulu in Tomohon, especially those who live in the region of Kakaskasen have special customs that are still maintained up until today.

By plane
The nearest airport to Tomohon is Sam Ratulungi International in Manado, about 33 km, and can be reached in 1 hour via the Ring road, or 1½ hour via Manado. There are many airlines destination in this airport, from Jakarta, Makassar, Bali, Gorontalo, Tahuna, Ternate, Sorong, Singapore, Balikpapan, and several other minor cities. The airlines with route to Sam Ratulangi airport are Garuda Indonesia (the Indonesian flag carrier), Lion Air, Sriwijawa Air, Wings Air, along with several chartered airlines.

By ship
Tomohon is also reachable (indirectly) by ship, and the nearest harbour is Manado harbour for the provincial area, and Bitung harbour for national and international service. There are several ship route by PELNI berthing at Bitung harbour.

By bus
Tomohon is reachable also by public transport buses, or rental and taxi cars from cities in Sulawesi or Celebes Island, such as Makassar, Pare-Pare, Toraja, Poso, Tentena, Palu, Toli-Toli, Ampana, Gorontalo, Bitung, Kotamobagu, Manado, and other minor towns and cities. Bus terminals to Tomohon is from Tondano, Kawangkoan, and Manado, and destined to Terminal Beriman, Tomohon.

By car
Get a rental car direct from the airport on arrival. Cost around Rp 500,000 per day included driver, or self drive approximately Rp 300,000 per day, can be used for around Minahasa. For central information, tel: +62 852 4022 0620 or +62 431 892 979.



By mikrolet
There are several ways to get around the Tomohon area. The first one is by mikrolet. The mikrolet are the light blue Mitsubishi Colt (or similar), and can be found everywhere with various destinations. They operate on set routes with established fares, but also can be chartered when it is empty. The passenger seats in a mikrolet face forward, with maximum nine passengers. Some mikrolets are fully furnished with a small flatscreen TV, CD player, or music player, comfortable seats, and so on. All regular routes begin and end in the main terminal called Terminal Beriman (bus terminal).

By cart
Bendi is a local name for horse-drawn cart, and can be a second option to go around Tomohon. Just like mikrolet, bendi also operates on set limited routes. Only from Tomohon city centre to areas such as Matani, Walian, Kamasi, and Kolongan. This bendi is the old transportation along with cow cart called Roda Sapi. While bendi served for public transportation in the city, roda sapi served the route to the farm or rice fields. The fare for a trip by bendi is Rp 5,000 per person (as of October 2018), and can be chartered up to 4 hours to go around Tomohon area.

By ojek
Ojek is an Indonesian term for public motorbike taxi. The fares vary depending on the distance of a particular destination, but it usually starts from Rp 3,000 up to Rp 20,000. This Ojek can also be chartered daily. The chartered fare is around Rp 50,000 per day without fuel. By ojek, you can reach the places unreachable by mikrolet or bendi, even by rental cars.

By taxi
Daily in front of Bethesda Hospital, in the city centre, you can find many taxi cars queuing. They are called 'black taxi' or 'rental car'. The cars can be hired daily, weekly, monthly, and even annually. The fare rate varies between Rp 250,000 up to Rp 500,000 per day. The service can be include driver and fuel, or also without them.

See
As a cool highland, Tomohon has some very pleasant hiking and walking.

Eat
Tomohon is very famous for Minahasan cuisine. Minahasan food or Manadonese food is usually very spicy. Among Indonesian cuisine, Minahasan cuisine is one of the spiciest cuisines. Traveler must pay attention to what they are asking in the restaurant. If you are not accustomed to spicy food, you will have to communicate with the waiter or waitress.

Check out the Tomohon Culinary Centre (Pusat Kuliner Tomohon) at Jalan Nusantara, about 12 minutes walk away from the Tomohon Market.

Appetiser

 * Sup Ubi / Bete - is a very tasty home-cooking for appetiser. It is made by xanthosoma root with edible hibiscus leaves and or water spinach leaves.
 * Braunebonen - literally 'red bean' soup. Cooked either with cow bones or pig legs, with herbs such as clove, nutmeg, white pepper.  The Minahasan likes to eat this together with rice.
 * Sup Kacang Ijo - literally 'green bean' soup. The preparation is very similar with braunebonen.
 * Kua Asam / Kua trang - sour soup or clear soup. The local people has a riddle about this food.  "Salt from the sea and sour from the mountains meets together in a pan, what is that?" - and the answer is sour soup, because it's made by several herbs such as spring onion, lemon leaves, lemon basil, tomatoes, a little bit chilli, red ginger, and fish with little bit salt and lime.  Very tasty.
 * Sup kentang - 'potato soup' cooked in pasta such as macaroni or rice vermicelli.

Main course

 * Tinorangsak, pork cooked with herbs such as spring onion, lemon leaves, lemon grass, chilli, and other kinds of herbs; it is cooked in bamboo. Several prepare it using frying pan.
 * RW /err weh/, dog meat cooked with chilli, lemon grass, lemon leaves, spring onion, and other kinds of herbs. 'RW' is the common abbreviation for Rintek Wu'uk in the Minahasan dialect, which translates to 'fine hair', a euphemism for dog meat.
 * Paniki, bat cooked in coconut milk with spicy herbs.
 * Paku Popaya Bulu, vegetables of edible fern and papaya leaves (sometimes with flowers too), cooked in bamboo with spices and herbs. Some people like to add salty pork fat.
 * Ayam Bulu, chicken cooked in bamboo.
 * Ayam Bumbu RW, chicken cooked with spices for RW.
 * Bebek Bumbu RW, duck cooked with spices for RW.
 * Ragey, a chunky pork satay marinated with spices.
 * Bebek Bulu, duck cooked in bamboo.
 * Ayam Garo, literally means scratching chicken, because the preparation is a fast mixing of the herbs and spices on the frying pan similar to scratching it. This food is categorised as spicy food because of the amount of chilli.
 * Babi Garo, literally means scratching pork, the process is similar to Ayam Garo.
 * Babi Tore, literally means crisp pork.
 * Kapala Babi, literally means pig head; it is pig head boiled in spiced soup.
 * Acar, made of young bamboo, carrots, cucumber, peanut, herbs, and other spices such as turmeric and onion.
 * Ikan Woku Blanga, any fish cooked in main Minahasan spices: chilli, turmeric, ginger, lemon grass, lemon leaves, lime, candle nut, lemon basil, turmeric leaf. It is called blanga because it's prepared by using frying pan.
 * Ikan Woku Daong, any fish cooked in main Minahasan spices: chilli, turmeric, ginger, lemon grass, lemon leaves, lime, candle nut, lemon basil, turmeric leaf. It is called daong because it's prepared by using palm leaves called woka.
 * Ikan Woku Kring, any fish cooked in main Minahasan spices: chilli, turmeric, ginger, lemon grass, lemon leaves, lime, candle nut, lemon basil, turmeric leaf. It's called kring because it's prepared with less water, and when it's cooked, we can barely see any soup in it.
 * Mie Loba, noodle soup with shredded pork.
 * Rica Rodo, made of corn, aubergine (egg plant), long bean with spicy herbs, chilli, and smoked fish.
 * Sate Kolombi, freshwater snail satay.
 * Sayor Pusu' made of fluorescent or banana heart, cooked with entrails of animals, normally chicken or pork, such as intestine, heart, and liver.

Dessert

 * Buah segar - literally 'fresh fruit', it is prepared from various kind of fruits, but mainly papaya, apple, avocado, pudding or gel, young coconut, rambutan, longan, and soursop in syrupy and milky water.
 * Es braunebon - 'red bean ice', prepared from red bean cooked in traditional made of palm sugar and then later mixed with blended ice and sweetened condensed milk.
 * Es Kacang Susu - 'milk and peanut ice', prepared from peanut and served like 'red bean ice'.
 * Gohu - prepared from chopping papaya with spicy syrup containing red ginger, chilli, vinegar (palm vinegar is better), sugar (brown sugar is better), onion. The locals like to add more chilli.
 * Klapertaart - literally 'coconut tart', prepared from young coconut mixed with milk, eggs, maize flavour, sugar, and raisin, and frozen in the fridge.

Minahasan biscuits

 * Kukis Kalapa, literally means 'coconut cookie', made of unripe coconut, rice flavour, and brown sugar.
 * Binyolos, made of sweet potato and brown sugar.
 * Onde-Onde, made of rice flavour and brown sugar, after cooked it is rolled on grated coconut. It is good to have it while it's still warm. but be careful not to eat it while it's still fresh from the boiling pan.  It can be very tricky that the outside could be cool while the inside is injuriously hot.  The other variant is Onde-Onde Pulo, the difference between this two are the type of the rice.  Onde-onde Pulo is made by sticky rice flavour.
 * Cucur, made of rice flavour and brown sugar, some people put anise or aniseed. Curut, Apang, Apang Coe, Apang Polote, Nasi Jaha, Dodol, Bobengka, Ongol-Ongol, Geto', Gabin Fla, Biapong, etc.

Drink
Cap Tikus and Saguer are two kinds of famous drink in Tomohon. Cap Tikus is distilled beverage from sap, while Saguer is the sap harvested from palm tree. Saguer has several tastes that are sweet, sour, bitter, sweet and sour, sweet and bitter, bitter and sour, depending on how it is made.

There is also a certain kind of drink called Sukur, made of red ginger cooked with traditionally-made brown sugar in a clay pot.

Sleep




Go next
There are daily flights from Manado to several cities in Indonesia, and Tomohon is only 33 km from the Sam Ratulangi International Airport.


 * Manado
 * Terminal Malalayang to go to Gorontalo, Palu, Poso, Makassar. Manado harbour to Bunaken, Siladen, Sangihe, Talaud.
 * Sam Ratulangi International Airport to Jakarta, Bali, Makassar, Singapore, Balikpapan, Raja Ampat, Ternate


 * Bitung via Tondano or Manado and to Bitung harbour and Lembeh Island
 * Bitung Harbo for travel by ship to Eastern Indonesia such as Maluku and Papua, also to Central Sulawesi and South East Sulawesi
 * Tangkoko National Park


 * Pulisan

You also can reach other destinations in the main areas of North Sulawesi.
 * Tumbak for snorkelling and diving
 * Tumbak for snorkelling and diving
 * Tumbak for snorkelling and diving
 * Tumbak for snorkelling and diving
 * Tumbak for snorkelling and diving
 * Tumbak for snorkelling and diving
 * Tumbak for snorkelling and diving