Ende

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30 November 2009 - 01 December 2009

TRANSPORT:
Bajawa to Bus Terminal by ojek--Rp5,000
Bajawa to Ende by bus--Rp50,000 (4 hours)
Bus Terminal to Ende by ojek--Rp5,000

HOTEL:
Hotel Dwi Putra
Double, A/C, cold water, western toilet--Rp125,000 inc breakfast.
The only place really to stay in Ende, it's not great. The A/C didn't work properly, the breakfast was cold rice and the owner slightly senile! The receptionists were friendly though (according to Dan) and it did OK for a nights kip.

We made the most of a slight lie-in in Bajawa and after another sloppy breakfast we headed to Bajawa's bus terminal to catch the bus to Ende. We were told conflicting stories on when the buses left Bajawa and as one person had said 11 we decided to be there at 10:30. As we arrived at the terminal we were mobbed by loads of bus conductors and there was a scuffle for our bags. We settled on the bus at the front and were told it leaves at 12. The usual then. We waited around until then and finally we set off. Actually, we may have been there longer, but our conductor thought he'd play Mike Tyson and start fighting with another conductor. Once the police arrived (surprisingly fast!) he hopped on and we were off!

Again the scenery was fantastic, winding up the mountains, through tiny villages and back down again to one of the best coast roads you could find! Forget the Pacific Highway, come to Flores. We caught a great view of Ende in the distance, nestled below a couple of volcanoes.

We arrived at the Bus Terminal (actually it was the petrol station) and hopped on some more ojeks that would take us to our hotel. As mentioned above, the hotel isn't much. To be honest, Ende isn't much. The only good thing about it was the surrounding scenery. It looks like a smaller Rio. We had a bite to eat (some more pretty good pork sate) and sat around sweating (it was HOT in Ende) in the only internet cafe in town and then returned to the hotel for a quick nap, before heading to a Padang restaurant nearby for some reasonable rendang and jackfruit curry.

Ende was only a stop over for the night to break up the long bus journey's. Our next stop is to one of Flores's top tourist attractions...

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