Bunaken is a beautiful little island off the northern coast of Manado. It remains sparsely populated, and was once a Portuguese holdout, as they competed for colonial influence with the British, Dutch and Spanish in these parts.

I nearly got myself thrown off the island inside of 20 minutes.
I’m just getting tired of feeling like I’m getting taken advantage of. Hotels playing down their room vacancies in the economy range, taxis wanting higher fees from western passengers, boat drivers extracting the equivalent of a month’s salary for a pembantu for an hour’s worth of work… There’s a separate price list for many things based on local or foreign status, so after 20 minutes of walking around Bunaken, and then suddenly bumping into some official in a polo shirt looking for 50,000 Rp to enter the island- I was caught off guard.

The sign over his head read: “Entry fee, 1,000 Rp”. That, of course, meant for locals.
The conversation went something like this:
“So let me get this straight… No signs at the harbor in Manado advertising this entry fee, I’ve got a guide here + a boat driver I just paid $40, and no-body said a word about extra fees for entering the island. I’ve already been here 20 minutes, and if I didn’t happen to bump into you we wouldn’t be having this conversation. And to top it off, the sign over your head says 1,000 Rupiahs to enter. So why am I being asked for 50 times the local rate?”

Maybe I didn’t get enough sleep last night, but I refused to pay.
“You’ll have to leave the island then…” “Ok. I’m ready. Let’s go” came my response.

By now my boat driver was in a near panic. Unhappy customer means I won’t tell any of my western friends about his business, and he’ll suffer.
I sat in the park ranger boss’s office & had the same conversation with a 27 year old who at first looked like he wanted to throw his official capacity weight around.
I was about 2 seconds from walking out,,, and he said “let me think about it”.

We walked around a few more minutes, catching some air,,, and it occurred to me this whole drama is taking place over a $5 entry fee.
Granted, the jump from 10 cents to $5 is a statistical leap.

I just wanted to look around & see what all the talk was about. A few minutes later a deal was breached, and I paid $3 for the right to be here.
This all happened before I discovered that the only thing to do here on Bunaken is snorkel & dive…. Neither of which were on my agenda for the day. =/ aw man.
All that fussing and I would have been better off going home!

There’s my lesson for the day.