The highs and lows of Labuan Bajo

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Labuan Bajo is a harbour town which the Lonely Planet describes as gorgeous but ramshackled - erm, well, I'm not sure our expectations were very well managed! Walking into the town on our first evening (in the rain!) was definitely a low point of our trip. As we turned onto the main drag we were greeted with traffic speeding by, horns beeping and the lovely smell of diesel. There was no footpath so it was a case of walking single file on the side of the road and hoping the scouters didn't clip you as they whisked past. It was a far cry from meandering down the sandy paths on Gili Air, where there are no motorised vehicles, just push bikes and the odd horse.

We found refuge in the first half decent restaurant we saw and tried not to dwell on the fact that we'd left behind paradise and were now sat in a rainy, smelly, harbour town. We agreed that perhaps we were being a little hasty forming such a strong opinion so quickly. Plus our cloud had a silver lining and that was Golo Hilltop - a small cluster of bungalows perched on a hill, away from the hustle and bustle of the town. Our bungalows was spotlessly clean, semi detached and had the most jaw dropping view.

The reality is that Labuan Bajo is a bit of a hole and our opinion of the place didn't really improve much. There are some good bars and restaurants with nice views of the harbour and the beautiful scenery beyond but during the day it's best avoided. And of course this is what most visitors do, as the real draw to this area are the beautiful islands that are within spitting distance of the town and Komodo National Park, home to the Komodo Dragon and world class snorkelling and diving.

After a disappointing first night (did I mention the rain?!) we woke up to beautiful blue sky. I opened the curtains and was instantly smiling - that view - wow! We grabbed ourselves a great spot by the pool and set about figuring out what trips we wanted to do.

We were keen to see some of the nearby islands, which boasted white sand beaches, crystal clear water and good snorkelling. We were expecting to book on an organised trip with other people but it turned out the only option was to charter your own boat. We asked the owners of our bungalows for recommendations and within 10 minutes we were chatting to a local guy and had booked something for the following day. We were, without a doubt ripped off but we'd been lazy and paid a convenience tax to avoid having to trek to the harbour in the midday sun and barter. We'd also naively assumed our low key, budget hotel would put us on to a good deal. Lesson learnt!

The advantage of having the boat to ourselves was we got to choose the schedule - hence no crazy early start! It wasn't quite what we were expecting, as it turned out that we'd basically hired a driver for the day. The captain spoke very little English and the rest of his crew comprised of a 8 year old boy and an elderly man. We were pretty much dropped of at an island and left to our own devices, which was unexpected but suited us just fine.

We left cloudy Labuan Bajo behind and headed towards the sun drenched islands. After an hour of sailing we arrived at Kanawa Island and jumped off the boat. It wasn't clear what the deal was so we asked how long we had on the island and where the best snorkelling was (4 hours / wavy hand towards the general sea).

We wandered around the island to figure out the best spot to base ourselves and to nosey at the accommodation. The island is absolutely beautiful but the 'resort', which consists of 10 exceptionally basic and run down bungalows, was not. It looked like the place had been neglected which is such a shame because it would be a wonderful, back to basics place to stay for a few days.

We weren't sure how we would fill four hours here, and then we got in the water! The house reef here is really impressive - a field of colourful, hard coral and of course lots of tropical fish. We spent about two hours snorkelling, with a break in between to dry off and reapply sunscreen. Then we went to check out the dubious looking restaurant and instantly wished we'd brought a picnic. It didn't look great so we ordered safe and small - we were both getting over Bali Belly so didn't want to take any risks! Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the boat and sail to the next island.

Our second stop was at Biladari, another beautiful island with sand as soft as talcum powder. We had only 1.5 hours here, and it wasn't clear where the reef started so we jumped in the water and headed out towards the darker patch, assuming it would be coral. It wasn't, it was simply a drop off from very shallow water to very deep water. At that point the less experienced may have given up, but we knew there was some good coral to be had so we turned left and swam away from where our boat had anchored (on the basis the captain would steer well clear of the reef). It was a good call and after about a minute we were surrounded by beautiful, swaying soft coral. We even saw a baby black reef top shark - the first shark of our trip.

Our second trip was to Komodo National Park, and like the Great Wall was so amazing it warrants a separate travel blog. Needless to say, it turned out to be one of those amazingly perfect days; one that will most likely make it into our top five highlights of the trip.

After our two day trips and losing a day to moving hotels we had two days left. Diving had always been on the cards and we'd even had a great dive school recommended by 3W Dive, the guys we dived with on Gili Air. We'd been and checked them out on our second evening and where really happy with the guys in the shop and the boat. Due to Paul coming down with a cold we'd decided to leave the diving until our second to last day to give him chance to recover (diving with a cold is a bit of a no-no and you also have to be careful about diving the day before you fly). Although Paul wasn't 100% we decided to go for it anyway and trekked into town from our new hotel, Puri Sari.

Unfortunately things conspired against us, and the boat was full. Downhearted we went to one of our favourite bars, watched the sunset and nursed a Bintang (Indonesian beer of choice) whilst deciding what to do. On this trip we've found TripAdvisor to be invaluable as it offers a much more up to date view of bars, restaurants, tour companies and dive schools. Plus you have so many people providing their views rather than simply getting the views of one travel guide researcher. We started trawling through TripAdvisor for another well recommended dive school and struggled to come up with anything compelling. Those with good reviews had smaller boats but were more expensive. Then we discovered that we were hitting a dive area which is famous for its ripping currents at full moon, when currents are at their craziest. We've had a couple of bad experiences with currents, mainly in our early diving years, and decided that this clearly wasn't meant to be. It was a tough decision but we had to knock it on the head. The good news was that we could have a night of proper drinking as we wouldn't have to be up at 6am the next day!

So we found ourselves with two days of relaxing at our new hotel, Puri Sari (it's a hard life!). Even though we'd booked Golo Hilltop three months earlier they were fully booked for one night of our stay so we'd booked Puri Sari for that one night - the plan being we'd move back to Golo for our last two nights. Well, it's amazing how lazy you can get. We decided we didn't want the hassle of packing and moving twice so decided to just stay at Puri Sari, even though it was way over budget! As soon as we arrived at the hotel we knew we'd made the right decision. We'd left behind a view to die for, but had gained friendly, smiley staff, a breakfast with the best bacon we've had since the UK (eggs are the stable of an Indonesian breakfast and even if you're an egg lover like me after two weeks it does get a little dull) and not only a pool but a beach, perfect for watching the sunset.

The downside was it was a little further out from town so we had to rely on a shuttle to take us into town, rather than walking, and get a 'taxi' back. I've put taxi in quotes because basically you just jump in someone's pimped out car - there are no official taxis. Everyone charges a set fee of 50,000 (less than £3) regardless of where you're going - a fact we weren't aware of on the first night when we managed to barter down to 30,000 even in the pouring rain! Oops!

We've had some fun evenings in Labuan Bajo with lovely food, great views and amazing sunsets. And of course the day trips were amazing, but after a week it was definitely time to leave. Paul is dragging me (literally kicking and screaming) to Java for a few days of culture and temples.

I miss the beach already 😞



****you know the drill. Scroll down for more pics*****

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Comments

[Mum M]

Hello again
Enjoyed the latest blog and the lovely photos. You certainly have your ups and downs. But always bounce back. Thankfully! Got quite excited about the wedding comment! Only joking!! Hope your next journey goes well. We are loving Santorini. It's very hot. We are getting August temperatures instead of May ones. It's stunningly beautiful. The touristy parts are very busy. Dread to think what they would be like in high season. Had a car for 3days. So have 'done 'the island!!! I fell out of the swimming pool on the second day. Didn't know if I 'd broken leg, back or both! But just very sore and swollen leg !! Anyway have a lovely time in Java. Look forward to the next installment! Mx