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Published: December 31st 2009
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Lewoleba
Slow boat (not ours) 09 December 2009 - 12 December 2009
TRANSPORT:
Lewoleba to Larantuka by boat--Rp50,000 (1 1/2 hours) (express boat)
Ferry pier to bus terminal by taxi--Rp20,000
Larantuka to Ahuwair by bus--Rp40,000 (3 1/2 hours)
HOTEL:
Sunset Cottages
Double chalet, mandi, squat toilet--Rp75,000 (inc. breakfast)
Tranquil place with rustic yet well maintained chalets with fresh sea breezes flowing through. Restaurant is the only place to eat and as with elsewhere in Flores, not much of the food is actually available!
Sunset Cottages, in a village called Ahuwair, does exactly what it says in Lonely Planet: " "
After our journey over from Lewoleba this place is exactly what we needed.
The journey left us with a bitter taste of Indonesian life (OK, admittedly we weren't in a great mood to start the day with!)
We arrived at the ferry pier in Lewoleba at 8:30, plenty of time before the 9:30 departure of our speed baot. We waited for only 15 minutes before people started boarding. We didn't start to board as we knew we still had 45 mins of sweltering while we waited around until 9:30. Dan overheard one of the passengers asking someone if "those dumb bule's
were coming or not". So we boarded and somehow the 10 or so people that we saw boarding multiplied into about 40!! Were they already sat on the boat??
Surprisingly we set off right away. During the trip we had an annoying bully of a guy (possibly the same guy who was referring to us as dumb) who kept closing (actually, slamming) our window so he could fully open his. Followed by him constantly kicking our seat and leaning forward to intimidate Amy.
Arriving into Larantuka we were by now in no mood to deal with the onslaught of transport touts who seemed to have no concept whatsover to leave a space for anybody to get off the boat.
Who's dumb now??
Once we managed to get off the boat the pulling and pushing started. Again no concept of common sense as we still had to wait for our bags.
Us? Dumb??
After about 10 minutes of ignoring and telling them to be patient (which by the way, Indonesians don't like to be told to be patient, even though they'll constantly tell you to be patient!) we got our bags. Our general rule is
Lewoleba
Lewoleba's port to pick the most patient person and we went with him to his "taxi". When asking how much to the bus terminal he said whatever we want to pay. Our mistake was not agreeing a price before entering the vehicle. After he (and two other randoms that joined us) tried to persuade us to charter the taxi to Maumere for Rp400,000 (Indonesian's have no concept that westerners have limited amounts of cash) we arrived at the bus terminal. Dan paid Rp10,000, the driver wanted another 10. So much for our choice in fare!!
We hopped on our bus, waited a little and set off. We know we're grumbling in this blog a bit too much, but our frustrations need to vented somehow! Another bizarre Indonesian concept: you have a bus, with a few empty seats at the back. You're already slightly crushed. Passengers hop on, you would think they'd go for the empty seats. No. They find the smallest gap between passengers or a nice comfy bag to sit on. We are yet to find out why!
3 1/2 hours later we were dropped off on the main road in the village of Ahuwair and the pathway that
led to Sunset Cottages. We walked the 700m or so and finally found some peace. With 6 small, basic yet suitable wooden chalets right on the beach and a restaurant promising food, this was hopefully the correct antidote for our horrid journey from Lewoleba. Lunch was good, dinner had to be ordered in advance (for most things) and we erased the past 24 hours (or was it 3 weeks?) out of our minds. The next day, with yesterday almost seeped out of our system we ordered some lunch. Yesterday had returned now once again: Cheese & Salad Sandwich (with fresh bread). The fridge was broken so the cheese was replaced by Egg. Not so bad actually. The sandwich looked pretty tasty...until we took a bite. The bread had chocolate in it!! Chocolate and cheese might go together but chocolate, egg and salad was just plain disgusting!! Sometime we wonder how a guesthouse / hotel / hostel that caters for backpackers / tourists / westerners / dumb bule's could get it oh so wrong!! This was a worse combination that the banana pancakes we had back in Penang all those months ago. Sadly, we may not be able to have brilliant
Lewoleba to Larantuka
Will everyone please sit down! memories of Flores (and prehaps Indonesia as we are almost due to leave). We hope desperately that we are wrong.
Time at Sunset Cottages was relaxing, doing nothing but reading, playing cards etc. The sea here isn't great but it would do just fine thank you. It would be hard to find anything like the Gili Islands. However, we made the most of it, or didn't depending on how you look at it. Despite the chocolate flavoured scrambled salad sandwich the food was actually really good. The woman working there could smile once in a while though...
Oh, who are we kidding? We're in Indonesia, the weather is great, the beer is cheap, 99% of the locals are the friendliest you could meet anywhere in the world and we could be stuck at home dealing with bills, miserable weather and the daily grind that one calls work!
So yes, this blog is slightly negative, but don't let it stop you from visiting Flores!!
So from here we ead back to Maumere for the night before catching a flight back to Bali where we'll spend Xmas and New Years. Our journey through Indonesia is pretty much over (apart
Ahuwair
The track leading to paradise from any attractions we see in Bali) and we then have Australia to look forward to.
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Felix
non-member comment
Very good your experience (I am from Indonesia live in Brasil)