Blogs from Rinca, Flores, Indonesia, Asia

Selamat Malam, Leben und Sterben, Verrotten und Gedeihen, man sollte dieser Insel den Schönheispreis verleihen. Drachen, Bäume,Blumen,lachen .......Auf dem Weg durch Flores und Rinca begegne ich guten Menschen, bösen Tieren und den schlechtesten Hauptverkehrsstraßen meines Lebens. Infrastruktur, was ist das? Straßen was ist das? Ist es möglich einen Highway Highway zu nennen wenn es eigentlich ein Downway bzw. ein Slowway ist?Es ist nicht leicht das grausame Strassenbild floretinischer Straßen wiederzugeben. Schlaglöcher, ich meine hier kann man schon gar nicht mehr von Loch sprechen. Eher Mondkrater,Zierteiche oder Opalmienen trifft es am wahrscheinlichsten, man kennt die Löcher ohne Boden im Outback Australiens... Vor einer Kurve, hinter einer Kurve, während einer Kurve und eigentlich mehr Löcher als KURVEN. Kurven die sich ängstlich an den Steilhang schmiegen, wie eine Sch... read more

Our great bus ride ended abruptly when we got to Sape in Sumbawa, this is the port where you catch the ferry across to Labuanbajo in Flores. We'd read that there was a ferry at 8am so when all the people told us it had already gone when we pulled up we thought it was the usual scam of trying to get us on their private boat so brushed them off. Finding anyone from the ferry office was quite difficult and all the time we were being told the ferry had gone, after about an hour of waiting around we found someone in a uniform who confirmed our worst fears that the ferry had indeed gone at 5am and the next wasn't due until 9pm.. or 8pm.. or 3pm... no one really knew for sure! In ... read more

Day 253: Monday 9th March - A party in Labuanbajo harbour Nine of us climb on board to join the five guests and eight crew already on the Perama boat. We are later joined by others who have sailed west to east and who have got off at Labuanbajo for a farewell/arrival party. This is a bigger group than I expected, but it seems a good group and I get acquainted with a number of the group. Joining me are two girls from New York, Liz and Ivy; a French Canadian couple, Alex and Sandrine; a couple from Dorset, Mike and Trudi; an Australian girl, Philippa and an Indonesian guy. We join up with an Australian couple, a Swedish couple and a French guy who have already been on the boat for 3 days sailing to ... read more

You cannot come to this part of Indonesia and not go to see the famous Komodo Dragons. This is the only part of the world that they exist and so they are quite rare. The boat ride to the island of Rinca was two hours long. There were no seats in the boat just the floor or the edge of the boat to sit on, fortunately there were only four of us so we were able to spread out, lie down ect. The sea was as calm as a millpond luckily for us as this part of the world is known for it’s treacherous seas. Once again, just like when we were leaving Kapas a large pod of dolphins came to entertain us on our journey. When we arrived on the island we were met by ... read more