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Published: December 30th 2009
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Ende
Yet another bus and more waiting around! 01 December 2009 - 03 December 2009
TRANSPORT:
Ende to Eastern bus terminal by ojek--Rp10,000
Bus terminal to Moni by bus--Rp 30,000 (2 hours)
Moni to Kelimutu by ojek--Rp35,000 (one-way)
HOTEL:
Bintang Bungalows
Double, mandi, western toilet--Rp85,000 (inc. breakfast)
In the centre of the village, this is a decent place to stay with a very welcoming owner. It's pretty noisy at night when their three dogs start harrassing people, and every now and then there seemed to be a mothers meeting of guys making a fair degree of noise at stupid o' clock!
So our journey to Moni was not the most eventful. We left for the bus station in good time, wanting to arrive early to get a 'good seat.'
We had an hour wait on the bus at the terminal where we were entertained by a young Indonesian girl who was training to be a teacher and wanted to practice her English (although after her and Dan got chatting in Indonesian there wasnt much English being spoken!)
On cue at 11 am the bus left the terminal. 'Great' we thought, we were in for an easy trip! Little did we know the bus
Ende
...and waiting... was going to pull out of the terminal and then park 100 yards down on the side of the road to wait for further passengers! The wait was another hour and the locals were getting just as frustrated! Which says something in this side of the world!
The only mystery we did clear up was where Snoop Dog hangs out these days... he moonlights as a bus driver in Flores! (The resemblance was uncanny!) Although when the guy got in to the drive the bus we soon realised that he was stoned and he stalled the bus. Luckily he was only moving the bus and he want our designated driver! Not only that, the comic moment when he couldn't open the door and when he finally did get it open he fell out into the road!
So after filling up the bus we set off and headed off through the mountains to Moni. We collected a few chickens along the way as usual.
When we arrived in Moni we were dropped off at the bottom end of the village outside a home stay. We were automatically accosted by the owner who told us he had good rates and
Ende
...at least we found out where Snoop Dog has been hiding! clean rooms. We were glad we passed in the end as friends stayed there and were charged Rp250,000 a night! We opted to walk a little further down and after having checked out 2 places we decided Bintang Bungalow's was the cleanest and friendliest and cheaper at only Rp85,000 per night!
We decided that the first day we were there we would make the 4 am trek up to Kelimutu the following day. We hired ojeks and were originally planning to walk back down after seeing the volcano. However, after the ride up to the volcano we soon decided it was too far and opted to grab an ojek back down as well!
We paid the RP23,000 each it was to enter the volcano (not RP3,000 as claimed in Lonely planet!)
We were greeted at the foot of the volcano by the enterprising locals selling tea and coffee (which at the at time of the morning was much needed!) Although you had little option as to whether you wanted a cup, one was pretty much forced into your hand! When it came to paying for our coffees (and our Ojek drivers) the locals had no change for
Ende to Moni
Finally we set off! our Rp50,000 note! (This is becoming an annoying trait of Indonesia) We headed up to the volcano craters and hoped that we could find someone with enough change to help us out.
Although we were lucky to have a clear morning there was a little lingering mist and we only caught sight of the 'black lake' just before we left. The other 2 lakes were unfortunately the same colour (turquoise) which really disappointed us.
After 2 hours we headed back down the volcano to pick up our ojeks back to village in time for some breakfast. We were apprehensive about breakfast as in so many places the food had either been inedible or no existent! We had a tea and a coffee... good start. But then we were given 1 bread roll with some interesting filling. We had a hunch that breakfast may be to share and when our 1 banana pancake arrived we realised that this was the case! This is the first time we had been given 2 drinks but only one meal for us to share. As we were so tired we opted not to argue, shared the food and then headed for a well
earned nap.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing. We got up the following morning at a more sociable hour. This time breakfast came for 2 people which was a nice surprise! We then waited on the balcony until a local flagged down the bus to Maumere for us and as it was mid journey we crammed on the only spare seats left....
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