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Published: April 2nd 2008
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We made it into our 8th country with the 2 month visa we had been trying to get throughout Malaysia and then got in about half an our in Tawau the border town!
We left Tawau (Malaysia) on the 11th march on a 3 hr (actually more like 5) boat trip to Tarakan!(indonesia) We booked into a hostel there and went to find out any info on boats going south, as it turned out we'd missed the 2 weekly boat to flores by a day ddddooooooooohhhhhhhh!!! slightly gutting but there was a boat on the 13th to Makassar so we spent 2 days playing cards as there is nothing to do in Tarakan! It was also a long way from the relative comforts of malaysia, they dont get many foreigners there so we were somewhat a spectacle to the entire town which made us feel somewhat uncomfortable.
Now you might have to bare with us while we explain about the boat journey as it was an unforgetable expereince!
We borded the Pelni "cruise liner" with our economy tickets in hand and descended to the bowels of the ship. OH MY GOD!!!!!!!
It felt like there were 20 times too many
people down there and it was red hot. The sleeping areas were raised wooden platforms which should have slept about 8 max. as we wondered round looking for a spot everone just told us that area was full, eventually a muslim woman ushered us to a small space and fought our corner for us when a group of blokes tried to move us on! We spent a very hot and sweaty long night not getting an aweful lot of sleep as our every move was watched by everyone whether we were asleep or not. you could stir open you eyes briefly see the blokes opposite make some comment or other to eachother but closed your eyes again in the hopes theyd give it up! If that wasnt bad enough there we'r cockroaches everywhere crawling over you as you "slept". As if the general difficulty in sleeping wasn't hard enough the call to prayer at 5am wasn't greatly appreciated as it blared out over the tannoy
By mid morning it was getting rediculously hot and stuffy and the stares were still coming from all directions. Paul went up on to the decks to get some fresh air but not for
long as he didnt feel cpmfortable leaving me on my own. When he came back down he had found a spot up on the decks where we would be able to breath. so we grabbed our stuff and headed up to a nice spot under some stairs where there was a nice sea breeze and natural light, we felt instantly better. We still attracted some stares but it was our space and felt more comfortable to ignore them and get on with what we wanted to do.
Being out here ment we got to see 2 more pods of dolphins playing in the bow waves and a beautiful sun set the second night on the boat! We slept somewhet better that night, the floor might still have been HARD but we were a lot morer comfortable in ourselves. We were woken up around 7.30 to rain and had to head inside where we found a comfy seat where we spent the rest of the journey. We got talking to a lovely woman who could speak some english and helped us learn a few words in indonesian (ie WHAT!! for when people wont stop staring) the language isn't too hard to learn as they have the same alpherbet as us and you say it as you see it!
We finally got off the boat at 4pm on 15th in Makassar where we went on the hunt for boat time again for getting to flores. The next on isn't till the 19th, another overnight affair so we'v treated ourselves to 2nd class cabins hopeflly it will be a better experience! So again we had some time to kill in Makkassar. Luckily the atmospher was much nicer here although the "Hello Mister"s did get a little monotonous especially the ones directed at hele!!!
We spent some lazy days in makassar not really doing a lot, appreciating the sunsets and varying our diet a little. The staple food in indonesia is NASI (rice) they seem to eat it 3 times a day either boiled, fried with meat, without meat, eggs! the different cooks have there own little quirks they add to dishes but you do start to crave other food after a while!!
The boat trip to Labuanbajo on west Flores was a much more agreeable experience. 2nd class was well worth the extra bob or two. We got comfy beds in cabins with en-suite!!!!! Dinner was includedguess what it was..... you got it, Nasi!!!! The announcements coming over the tannoys made it a little difficult toi get to sleep but a farely good nights kip was had!
We arrived at Labuan bajo a little befor 6 am and went in search of an atm the only one that would accept our cards was at the other end of town so after sorting that out we headed back to the port where all the buses where. All the ones going to Ende (east flores) had already gone so we decided to stay there in Labuan bajo. It was a lovely fishing village and where we stayed you could sit out on the balcony/walkway looking out over all the boats iin the water and the other surrounding islands.
We thought we should make the most of the days seen as it was still only 7.30am and after a bit of breakfast (banana pancakes ) we set off on a snorkelling trip! There was just us on the boat which was very tranquill if you ignored the roar of the engine!!
The snorkelling was amazing, the clarety of the water was unbelievable you could see pretty much 30m in places! there were big shoals of fish right under the pier, a lion fish hiding round the posts as well a small ray! then there was the colourful corals and the flourescent blue fish, they'r quite cool!!
So that was just the first site at the second site the water was somewhat cooler and there was a drop off where a lot of fish were. Again the coral and fish were amazing and provided an unforgetale experience. On the way back it had started to rain and the wind had picked up and having got out of the sea with slighlt blue hands we were thankfull for the sunburn that was keeping us a little warm!(keeping the hypothermia at bay!!!)
The following day we were planning on getting the bus east to go and see Mt Kelimutu but when the bus came passed the driver said it wasnt running today and that he was going to church, christian holiday! but it didnt make sence i (hele) was tired as it was another 5.30 rise and i blew it and got rather angry with everyone!! oooops, doesnt happen ofter but when it does it isnt pretty!! Any way after calming down somewhat we discovered it was Good friday, despite family mentioning they had a long weekend off it just hadn't clicked!So plans were altered and we booked on the tour to Rinca to see the Komodo dragons!
We were on the same boat as the previous day and it took about 2 and a half hours to get to Rinca! on the way we saw a small pod of dolphins for a few minutes which was special! Now then the Komodo Dragons, they are pretty impressive creatures, we saw 4 that were hanging around HQ one was 45 year old male that must have been 2.5m! we then went on a guided walk around the island and saw a couple moving around. They are even more impressive in there natural surroundings. we also saw water buffalo wallowing in some rather muddy water!! they looked like they were enjoying it anyway!!
With the plans of travelling further east abandond we booked transport heading west instead!
Our time in indonesia is fairly limited as we spent slightly longer than intended in Malaysia!
Thats all for this one but dont count on them getting shorter!!
love lots
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