Wednesday 31 October 2012
Friday 5 October 2012
What to say about Flores?
Flores was a gorgeous island, with drives throughout the mountainous and beach-side terrain that make you fall in love instantly. Problems that I had with this lovely island were the people of Flores. They weren't overly rude and I was never scared/worried on the island, but this is the place where I couldn't walk 2 steps without hearing a "hello Mrs." "hello Mr." etc. (yes, they called me mister quite a lot, which of course is funny at first, but after the 500th time, it's just old).
Our main reason for visiting Flores was to see Kelimutu. It is located on the other side of the island from where we got dropped off, so it was a little journey to get there.
The first stop was Luaban Bajo (where our Komodo cruise dropped us off). I only spent a night here, but the cafe's were the nicest on the island with outstanding views of the ocean.
Next was the best 4 hour car ride to Ruteng. If you have the opportunity to visit Ruteng, don't. Or only go for the car ride. It was alright to walk around for an hour or so, but it was somewhat dirty and the calls...again...annoying.
Then it was off to Ende, which was a "big" city also just for the night.
The highlight of the trip was going to Moni. A 30 minute motorbike ride out of Moni is Kelimutu National Park with 3 colored crater lakes. This made the 2 other nights in a big city all worth while.
That day in Moni was spent riding on motorbikes through the rice fields and bathing in a natural hot spring.
We stayed at Bingtang Guesthouse in Moni. This was a small but quaint hotel in the cutest little village town. Our hotel was only $5pp and included breakfast. After enjoying the first night with the locals/singing with the band/playing cards/drinking Arak, the following morning were were off to the park at a good 4:30am to catch the sunrise.
After that, we spent 2 nights in Maumere. One night in the city, and one on the beach.
Overall, Flores is wonderful to drive through and seeing Kelimutu was worth all the cat calls.
Our main reason for visiting Flores was to see Kelimutu. It is located on the other side of the island from where we got dropped off, so it was a little journey to get there.
The first stop was Luaban Bajo (where our Komodo cruise dropped us off). I only spent a night here, but the cafe's were the nicest on the island with outstanding views of the ocean.
Next was the best 4 hour car ride to Ruteng. If you have the opportunity to visit Ruteng, don't. Or only go for the car ride. It was alright to walk around for an hour or so, but it was somewhat dirty and the calls...again...annoying.
Then it was off to Ende, which was a "big" city also just for the night.
The highlight of the trip was going to Moni. A 30 minute motorbike ride out of Moni is Kelimutu National Park with 3 colored crater lakes. This made the 2 other nights in a big city all worth while.
That day in Moni was spent riding on motorbikes through the rice fields and bathing in a natural hot spring.
We stayed at Bingtang Guesthouse in Moni. This was a small but quaint hotel in the cutest little village town. Our hotel was only $5pp and included breakfast. After enjoying the first night with the locals/singing with the band/playing cards/drinking Arak, the following morning were were off to the park at a good 4:30am to catch the sunrise.
Kelimutu was phenomenal, and the walk back down wasn't so horrible either. We found the waterfall and passed another local village alone the way.
Overall, Flores is wonderful to drive through and seeing Kelimutu was worth all the cat calls.
Thursday 4 October 2012
Boat Life
What do you get when you have 28 backpackers and a boat that sleeps only 20? A very good time, surprisingly.
Indonesians are not necessarily dishonest, per se, but we were sold a huge lie. Luckily this lie ended up being a great thing.
We wanted to go from Lombok to Flores and the best and cheapest way seemed to be the Komodo cruise, which was a 4d/4n boat ride to a few islands, including the highlight- Komodo Island to visit Komodo National Park to see none other than---komodo dragons! Our travel agent man told us there were 26 others going, a truth, but on the brochure it said the boat could carry a maximum of 20 passengers. We asked about that before booking but he said we were taking a bigger boat, a lie.
When we arrived at the boat, we saw this:
The travel agent dude also told us there were showers on the boat, yet another lie. For us 28 on board, (oh and another 6 crew) we had one measly bathroom. With no shower. No running water. Just one stinking toilet.
My mouth hung open for about 5 minutes after seeing it for the first time.
The boat was separated into 5 sections- the top which slept 20, the bottom covered part which was our eating/hang out area and also slept 6, the front uncovered 'layout' spot, the kitchen, and MY bedroom, or what we will call my bedroom. We paid and extra $30 each and got this weird separate room attached to the kitchen. Anyways it was well worth the extra moolah.
While we had some lies told to us, and some mishaps (leaving everyone's whiskey on Lombok) we made up for it by seeing stunning islands and making due with beer.
Sengigi- Lombok
This was our over-spending over-relaxing night after our excruciating hike up Mt. Rinjani. Sengigi is a lazy beach town on Lombok and has many restaurants and hotels. We spent the most we have spent thus far- $28 total on a hotel (had AC and a TV with a DVD player and unlimited DVD rentals). Some people may wonder why someone would want to watch DVDs when they are in a foreign land. These people have apparently never climbed Rinjani before.
The night was complete with a pitcher of sangria and M&M's.
The night was complete with a pitcher of sangria and M&M's.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)