Probably the best guide in Tangkoko Nature Reserve, North Sulawesi
Replies: 10 - Last Post: May 4, 2013 5:54 AM Last Post By: Burung_Maleo
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Probably the best guide in Tangkoko Nature Reserve, North Sulawesi
Myself and my fiance have just been to Tangkoko Nature Reserve in North Sulawesi. We were very fortunate to have a fantastic guide and wanted to share his contact details.His name is Iwan and he is one of the best guides we've ever encountered. He speaks good English, is friendly, enthusiastic and very knowledgeable about the animals in the Tangkoko reserve. Apparently, unlike most of the other guides, he works with a research project in the reserve, tracking the black macaque monkeys to observe and record their behaviour, and so he has a deep understanding of them and their habits and can easily lead tourists to find large groups of monkeys.
We visited the reserve with Iwan twice and it was one of the highlights of our 6 weeks in Indonesia. First we went in between 4-8pm and saw cuscus and tarsiers, and then we returned in the morning between 5-8am to see hornbill birds and Black Macaques (monkeys). As far as we know, we were the only tourists that evening who saw the cuscus. (Everyone sees tarsiers.) And we got to spend lots of time with 2 different groups of monkeys. There were a few other tourists when we saw the first group, but we were the only tourists visiting the second group.
If you want to contact Iwan, his details are at the website below. We were on a tour, so didn't book him directly, but he told us that he can organise transport from Manado and accommodation around Tangkoko, as well as guiding people in the reserve. Even if you arrange the other stuff yourself, we'd recommend that you book Iwan to be your guide.
http://tangkokowildlife.wordpress.com/contact-as/
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Spnr- How long did it take from Manado to get to Tangkoko?3
Probably or definitely.... what a guide! We booked 2 days in Tangkoko a few weeks ago. With only a few simple and very prompt emails he arranged a pickup from the airport at 6 in the morning where he came along to meet us, even though that meant him getting up at 4 am!He arranged the homestay for us and 1.5 days of guiding. His English was very good and his knowledge of the animals and especially birds was very good.
He has good knowledge of the animal and bird sites and consequently we saw the black macaques, tarsier, 2 x cuscus, Knobbed hornbill. I am very much into birdwatching so what most impressed me was his knowledge of the birds and birding sites. A few highlights were lilac cheeked kingfisher, sulawesi black pigeon, sulawesi hawk eagle (juvenile and adult), white necked mynah and many more. Unfortunately no pittas but apparently they havent been spotted for the past month. Any birds we had trouble identifying he brought his birdbook along the next morning so we could go through them and tick them off!
Also the next morning we got the public transport back to Manado so he came along to make sure we got a taxi for the first part of the trip with no problems!
In summary he went above and beyond really. We were definitely very impressed! A top class guide at a very reasonable price.
Also tangkoko is definitely worth visiting for bird and animal spotting, lots of endemics which are fairly easy to see!
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I'm a bird watcher, I was in tangkoko with my guide Ateng, he lives in Batu Putih just near the National Park, he saw me the small monkey lives in the old tree hole, cuscus and horn bill, looks like they all very friendly for tourist. The next trip I went to Halmahera Island, I met another english speaking guide there name Alex, he took me to the primary forest for a whole they trekking, and there I saw all wild birds live in un- touch forest, group of horn bills, Goliath coucal, standard wing paradise bird and many others, they are mostly in colony, hopping on old fig trees. I also saw Maleo which is laying the egg under ground. it was an adventure trekking. if you want more experience about jungle trekking, this is Alex's contact number 082191235467North Sulawesi to Halmahera is take 45 minutes by plane.
