54) Flores - our island of disasters

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The island of Flores stretches over 350 km east to west, but by road it makes easily the double, Labuanbajo is 528 km from Maumere, which is not yet the island's most eastern limit. Flores is crossed by a mountain range from west to east, and by rivers and valleys, which result in extraordinary landscape but also makes the roads more difficult to travel. But once we were lucky concerning transport. Last evening, when Stephan had gone to the Tourist Information enquiring about bus connections, he met a couple of young Danes who had already hired a car for tomorrow morning (there was also a Dutch guy on board) and they were glad to reduce the costs by sharing the price with two more travellers. This car was empty and the driver had to reach Maumere in one day; he was happy that he could earn good money and we were happy to advance much faster than by public transport. A good deal, everybody was satisfied.

Next morning we left the hotel pretty early, we were supposed to leave at 6:30, unfortunately breakfast was not yet served at that hour, so we quickly bought some provisions and left Labuanbajo quite on time. The car had only four passenger seats and as we were five, one of us had to sit beside the luggage on a sideways bench, we quickly agreed we would do so on a rotating basis. Our fellow travellers were the Danes Maria, a future nurse, and her boyfriend Lars, a student of engineering. Maria was very energetic, she will definitely be a good nurse, Lars was calmer, but both of them were endowed with a good and refreshing sense of humour. Furthermore there was Sander, a Dutch landscape architect, who did not appreciate meeting fellow Dutch travellers and made some poignant remarks about his countrymen. We liked his sarcastic vein and what he told us about the concept of public space. Our driver spoke good English, was very funny and had no flaws apart from chain-smoking, which a lot of Indonesians do by the way. Most important of all, he was a careful and conscientious driver. What we saw of Flores on that trip was really beautiful, low mountains abundantly wooded, rivers and valleys, all with impressive vegetation, tropical trees, ferns and many exotic flowers. We thought that Flores duly lived up to its name ('flores' means 'flowers' in Portuguese). The road was in relatively good condition, although very sinuous. Thank God our driver was driving very carefully and not too fast, so nobody got sick, not even in the back of the car. For some time we travelled parallel with another car full of tourists, and they were not so lucky. On board of this jeep was a Dutch couple with their two daughters. The poor children were very sick, once we stopped to give them some pills against travel sickness, about which they were really happy. Apart from the curves our speed was also slowed down by the fact that many bridges had been washed away and we had to cross the dried river beds. We would be reluctant to do the same trip during the rainy season, hopefully the bridges will be repaired then, but we doubt this because the repair work was being executed at incredibly low speed. Another striking characteristics of the landscape were the beautiful rice fields (this holds for whole Indonesia, not only for Flores), and our driver was so kind to stop at particularly picturesque spots so that we could take nice pictures. On the whole we were positively surprised by Flores' landscape, we had not imagined it so green.

Maria and Lars left us in Ende, where they wanted to buy flight tickets to Sulawesi, they would come to our destination later on their own account. We arrived quite late in Moni, around 10:30 p.m. and it seemed that the village was already sleeping. The guesthouses we had chosen were either full or nobody opened, once we came upon a dead drunk man (too much arrak) and the guesthouse he proposed was quite filthy. In the end we landed in one of the better places of the village, although the first appearance was not very inviting. The wing through which you entered the hotel was under construction, we had to walk over planks (not very easy with our heavy backpacks) and passed people sitting around a bonfire. The rooms were situated on two floors around a central courtyard, were quiet, big and clean with hot water (brought on request in a bucket). Our driver dropped us there and continued to Maumere, hopefully he arrived safely.

We were astonished about the sheer number of tourists we encountered in Moni, obviously all had come to see the famous coloured volcanic lakes on the volcano Kelimutu. Everybody in Moni wants to oblige tourists to get up at 4 a.m. in order to see the sunrise at Kelimutu, this seems to be the romantic thing to do and obviously the lakes' colours are very special in the early morning. But we were not interested in this display of romanticism and planned to go there not before 9 a.m. This morning we slept in, last day's trip had been quite exhausting and as the weather was pretty bad, overcast and raining in intervals, we decided to postpone our visit to the lakes until tomorrow. After breakfast we went for a walk in the vicinity of Moni, came to several small villages, saw a lot of coffee trees and exotic flowers over which colourful butterflies were swaying. In the end we happened to come to a very nice waterfall but could not swim in it as we had no swimming suits with us. We then had lunch with Sander and talked to him for a while, until we set out for another walk. Flores is a catholic island and we intended to visit the church. When Stephan was taking a picture of a statue of the Virgin Mary in a grotto (like in Lourdes), his camera completely broke apart. We've had some problems with the camera's mechanical parts since Stephan was slightly touched by a motorbike in Jaipur (beginning of April), where he was not hurt but dropped the camera. Since then, the zoom has caused us some trouble, at times it would not work, i.e. would not be moved back when out. Now a toothed wheel seemed to be completely broken. Stephan tried to open the camera in order to check but in doing so, he broke one of the tiny screws and gave it up. Well, this means no pictures of Kelimutu and the coloured lakes and we'll have to buy a new camera as soon as possible. Since it had taken Stephan some time fidgeting with the camera, it was almost time for dinner and we went to a restaurant recommended in our guidebook. The place was packed and as we wanted to have chicken and they had no meat at all, we got frustrated and left again. Moni is a rather touristy place and therefore offered a decent range of restaurants. So we chose one because its look appealed to us, and found our Danish friends already sitting there. What a nice surprise! A couple of minutes later Sander joined us and we spent a delightful evening together and skipped the traditional dance show that we had been offered without much regret.

Next morning the weather was decent, it was not raining and the sky was hardly overcast, so we hired two motorbikes to take us uphill. Downhill we wanted to walk. The ride was ok, although we are not used to riding motorbikes and we could only hold on to a handle behind our back. The landscape was beautiful, we passed houses built in traditional style, many rice paddies and there was thick vegetation on both sides of the road, tree ferns, tropical trees and even small white orchids. After paying a ridiculous entrance fee (Rs 1,000), we drove some more metres uphill to a parking with some stalls selling snacks, drinks and batik. The footpath leading to the lakes is easy and we soon approached the first two small lakes. The Kelimutu volcano in former times had three craters, with are now filled with lakes coloured in emerald green, chocolate brown and black. Nobody can say exactly where the colours come from, furthermore the lakes change colours, but the most wide-spread assumption is that the lake are filled with minerals. There is a local legend linked to them saying that when young people die, their souls choose the lake with the cool colour (i.e. the green one), old people's souls choose the warm colour (i.e.the brown lake), the black lake which is set apart is said to be the receptacle of murderers' and thieves' souls. However, these volcanic lakes are beautiful, especially the emerald and the brown one, which are close together. Apart from the unusual colour, it is really impressive to see the extinct craters very clearly. We took our time up there, but did not stay very long nevertheless, we wanted to be at the hotel before 1 p.m. in order to check out and catch a bus to Maumere.

The way was rather long, but there are shortcuts, which we had also seen on a map in our guidebook. But we did not carry the heavy book with us and so we chose the first footpath that we came across. It looked good and it was clearly visible that it was in frequent use. We soon encountered a local walking uphill and he asserted that we were on our way to Moni. Perfect. After maybe one hour of rather steep descent we came to the first fields and soon afterwards the first houses turned up. We crossed several villages and according to their inhabitants we were still on our way to Moni. We started doubting this information when we saw the coast for the first time from a distance. Moni was not that close to the sea! How much further would we have to go? When somebody on a motorbike offered us a ride to Moni, we found the price too high and refused, but when he came back with a friend on a second motorbike, we gave in. We were half convinced that Moni was around the next bend, but we were hot and tired and it was getting late. We did not pay too much, anyhow, the village was not around the corner, it took us 20 more minutes to reach it!

We quickly packed and had lunch in the hotel, then we waited for the bus. A guy from the hotel 'helped' us, he stopped the bus (we would have managed ourselves), which raised the price of our tickets. Sometimes we don't like Indonesia. The bus was quite narrow, which meant that there was no space for the bags inside,and so our luggage was stored on the roof. We did not appreciate this turn of events, especially when some guys went on the roof as the bus filled up. However, he driver's assisitant constantly climbed on the roof and looked after the bags, so we felt reassured. And our bags were still there when we arrived in Maumere, most of the guys had already got off before as well. This city situated in the eastern part of Flores has some of Indonesia's best sea gardens for snorkeling and diving on offer and a German couple we had met on our last evening in Labuanbajo had recommended a place called 'Sunset' to us. The guesthouse belongs to an Australian lady and is situated on Waiara Beach, 12 km east of town. Unfortunately we only knew the name of the place, so we had no other choice than to hire a bemo, whose driver of course pretended to know where the guesthouse was situated. As a matter of fact he had no idea and was obliged to stop at the best-known hotel in Maumere and find somebody who spoke English there. In the end, everything was settled, the driver knew where to go (at least we hoped so, but we had serious doubts) and also the price had been fixed. After driving for a long time we were no longer sure whether we would arrive at all, but we had to trust the driver and his assistant. In Indonesia, literally everybody has an assistant, that's how the whole economy is kept going, by sharing even the most minute task. Finally somebody they asked knew the guesthouse's whereabouts, but we would have missed it nevertheless, had Stephan not kept his eyes wide open. When we arrived at the path leading to the complex, a young man whose brother allegedly worked there, joined us. Apart from him, there was hardly anybody else present, the place looked completely deserted. We were shown into a tiny bamboo cottage (the others were all alike, apart from two or tree bigger ones, where the owner lived and which were reserved for her family or friends). There was one bed protected by a mosquito net and just enough place to lay our backpacks on the floor. We had to descend into the bathroom on a small wooden ladder, where one of the rungs was coming loose. The bathroom was actually not of a sort that we know in Europe, it was an Indonesian mandi, combined with the unavoidable Asian squat toilet. A mandi is a truly peculiar thing, a water tank with a ladle, where the water is ladled from the tub and splashed over the head. When Klaudia saw a mandi for the first time - after leaving Bali - she considered climbing into the tub but the tub's rather high walls deterred her. And the tub is definitely not climbed into, as our guidebook explains (if this fact is mentioned in a guidebook, the idea must have occurred to other foreign travellers before it came into Klaudia's mind). We decided to stay although we were the only guests and would have been glad for some company, because it had gotten dark in the meantime and the guesthouse's few employees were very nice. We had some trouble with our bemo driver, because all of sudden he wanted more money, but Stephan stayed firm, then he had no change, although we had seen his assistant handle bundles of rupiah bills. One of the most important qualities for travellers in Indonesia is patience, and in the end we managed to pay only the agreed price. As it was already dark and there was nothing to do in the relative vicinity of the guesthouse, we gave the cook a try and to our big surprise had an excellent dinner. Apart from being empty, the place was nice, set in a lovely garden right at the beach, one could hear the comforting sound of the waves. We were quite tired from the day and as the lights would be turned off at 10 p.m. at the latest, we decided to go to bed rather early.

When Stephan wanted to take out Klaudia's pyjama, he absolutely could not find its upper part, as much as he turned the bottom compartment of her backpack over and over. A terrible suspicion arose in us, and we quickly went through most of the luggage: it proved true, we had been robbed while our bags were on top of the last bus! Most terrible of all, this had not been an isolated act of petty theft, but happened with the knowledge and approval of the driver's assistant and who knows whom else. The damage was limited, we have no valuables in our big backpacks: Klaudia's walking shoes, some items of jewellery of no value, Stephan's manicure set and - most upsetting of all - three CDs containing our India pictures. We were sitting in this tiny room, frustrated, angry and disappointed. If somebody had offered a reasonably cheap flight to Europe, she would have accepted. Stephan also was very sad, pieces of clothing could be rebought, but how about the precious CDs? They only had a high sentimental value for us, for this crooks they had no material value at all. Thank God, Stephan is very far-sighted and we already sent the first CDs home to his father's, this was our only consolation. As you can imagine, we spent a dreadful night, our natural trust and confidence in people has been substantially shaken. Klaudia was really happy to leave Indonesia in a few days time and she was firm on not coming back to look at the country's cultural highlights with a new visa. Stephan reacted a bit less emotionally, he still wanted to see Java and parts of Bali and did not want these petty thieves spoil the rest of our journey. Well, it was definitely necessary to wait for a couple of days and take the final decision then.

Next day Stephan had to leave Klaudia brooding, he had to contact the airline in order to confirm our flight the following day. He could not get through by phone, so he took a bemo to town, where he was not very lucky either. The clerk was very evasive, he could not give us any guarantee, maybe yes maybe no. When he came back to the guesthouse, he had wasted a big part of the day and was growing more and more frustrated (which is very rare with him, who normally is exceedingly optimistic). So he thought it was time for at least one positive experience, he wanted to go snorkeling and hoped that the sight of unspoilt nature would make him forget man's deficiencies. He soothed Klaudia into joining him, which was a great deal of work, she was very complacent. Furthermore, it was low tide and getting over the numerous slippery or sharp rocks was not an easy task. We managed to get into the water, though, and were diverted from our gloomy thoughts by abundant marvellous corals, especially some large table corals. We found a bemo that took us to Maumere's tiny airport next morning where another shock awaited us: our flight had been cancelled due to technical problems and not a single representative of Merpati Airlines was present. A travel agent came to our rescue and tried to book us on a Merpati flight the following day. But there was of course no guarantee that we would find seats. It had really been smart of Stephan to foresee one additional day in our chain of flights, today was August 3rd and our flight from Bali to Kuala Lumpur was only the day after tomorrow. It now seemed that we would need this additional day... Another possibility finally turned up after hours of waiting, namely to book us onto a flight by Pelita Airways leaving shortly. We would have to pay the difference in price (it was minor anyway), which we were only too willing to do. As patience sometimes pays off in Indonesia, we could board the Pelita flight after spending more than five hours at the airport, not budging when everyone had sent us away. With a sigh of relief we landed in Bali (which now almost seemed like paradise to us), checked in at a hotel opposite our favourite internet cafe and spent the following day with shopping (e.g. replacing most of the stolen articles) and internet. After calling Stephan's father, we were more desperate than before, because the parcel containing the CDs had not yet arrived (after 4 months) and we had serious apprehension that our pictures were lost forever. Thank God, our flight to Kuala Lumpur with Air Asia was not cancelled, and both of us were relieved to leave Indonesia. We don't know yet whether we will come back, the country has left too bad an impression on us.

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Photos

Village hut on Flores
Flores boasts colourful nature but its buildings are rather decrepit

Flores landscape
Beautiful valley with abundant rice paddies and woods

Newly planted rice
Rice paddies filled with plenty of water glittering in he sun

Rice paddies everywhere
Rice paddies waiting to be planted alternate with rice plants of a certain age

Rice planting season
The paddy at the bottom contains crop that awaits replanting

Klaudia's favourite drink
Klaudia is very fond of coffee and she was therefore pleased to see many coffee trees

Coffee beans close-up
Soon they will be ripe and turned into a stimulating brewage that will wake Klaudia up

Weird plant
Only one among many exotic plants and flowers whose names we ignore

Grandfather flower
This name is invented, but this flower reminded us of white hair

Hibiscus
The red is the most common form, but we also saw yellow and white hibiscus

Red fury
After the rain, the flowers looked even more powerful and made a good impression on pictures

Yellow beauty
Fascinating flower growing like corn on an ear

Nice combination of yellow and red
Flowers are essential for the survival of many insect species and represent a constant pleasure for man

Waterfall close to Moni
We really regretted not having our swimming costumes with us

Beaming Stephan
He was happy when he had crossed the slippery stones

Stephan on his way back
As you can see, crossing was not an easy task, but he passed with flying colours

Incredible dragonfly
What a fragile creature!

Orange bell-shaped blossoms
This plant grew all around the statue of the Virgin Mary

Trumpet flower
Pure pink colored brugmansia

The last picture
This was the end of the trip for my Fuji FinePix 602 Zoom - RIP

Comments

[Linda Goldenberg]

Thanks for the travelogue. Were you aware of the recent discoveries at Liang Bua? Did you consider trying to go there? [e-mail]