Blogs from Flores, Indonesia, Asia - page 17

Hello! God i never have the time to do this... and i forgot to mention about the beauty of Hinduism, the hilarity of dave's instant sunburn, and probabaly a million more things!! We did do more than go to bars. Honest. Anyway, from bali we fles to Flores, which is a few islands east. We just went to the port town of Luabuan bajo (or something similar), and from there we got ourselves on a 4 day boat trip westwards to Lombok, calling in on Rinca and Komodo to wander the jugle-y land and see the dragons (oooOOOOoooo). They are in fact pretty massive. and pretty dangerous - you're not menat to go too close... which dave neglected to realise when he tried to take a photo, not realising that the camera distance, and the real ... read more

Like the navigator Antonio de Abreu before me I headed East across the arphicalego, towards the Cabo das Flores Instead of searching for Sandalwood I was looking for Komodo Dragons and coloured volcanic lakes. For currency I carried Indonesian Rupiah, whereas the Makassasrese before me would have used Gold, or maybe even elephant tusk. Flores had definitely seen changes. Six-foot Satellite dishes beamed MTV down from space into villages where huts are still made from bamboo. Noisy Bemo wind through roads which follow the ancient igneous landscape. The crucifix looms tall in villages where some do not know who Jesus Christ was, but still practice Animism. Buffalo sacrifices are still common, tiny huts called Ngadhu are the centre of each village, and death is still a punishment used in some villages. Yet in Labanbajo there ... read more

FLORES Arriviamo all’aeroporto di Bali e, dopo aver atteso tre ore buone per un ritardo in partenza, scopriamo con gioia che l’aereo e’ meno peggio di quanto non ci aspettassimo. Il volo e’ breve e bellissimo, infatti per arrivare a Flores si sorvola prima Bali, su cui svetta poderoso il vulcano, quindi Lombok e poi Sumbawa per non contare le centinaia di isolette che fanno da corollario alle isole maggiori e rendono la vista dall’alto un autentico piacere. Atterriamo quindi sulla parte piu’ occidentale dell’isola di Flores e per la precisione a Labuan (o Labuhan) Bajo, minuscolo villaggio di pescatori affacciato sul mare; ci accoglie una vegetazione lussureggiante, una popolazione povera, non particolarmente numerosa e a maggioranza musulmana nonostante il resto dell’isola sia prevalentamente cristiano a seguito della lunghissima domina... read more

So Andy, Jur and myself awoke too early from our beds in Bajawa to wait for our bus to Moni. When the bus pulled up in front of our hotel we saw something that we didn't expect. What could it be? Pigs? Chickens? No, saw that before on the bus. Nope it was two white girls. They looked just as shocked to see us boarding the bus. We soon talked to each other. It turns out that they (Kat and Rachael) were from Australia and were studying Indonesian in Malang, Java. They were on a short vacation. We decided to team up from there. We could offer them protection from boys (they had boyfriends back home and were sick of being whistled at) and they, being able to speak fluent Indonesian, could protect us from being ... read more

After a grueling 28 hour bus and ferry combo from Mataram, Lombok I arrived to Labuhanbajo, Flores. The city (or better called town) is the main port on the western end of Flores. It is not much to speak of because is mainly just a road with some hotels, little local restaurants, and several diving/tour guide offices. It does serve as an excellent port to explore the komodo islands national park just west of the town. That's what made me stay. After checking out the dive companies there, I chose to go with reef seekers. In my opinion they are the most professional dive company there and did a great job. I spent three days diving there. There are so many world class sites there. The park consists of several smaller islands and two bigger (komodo ... read more